Another Opportunity to Reduce the Cost of State Government. 

 Jack McHugh list of State Government cost reductions was great. I’ve always enjoyed hearing or reading Mr. McHugh’s point of view.  I am a firm believer that Michigan ’s road to recovery is paved with Government cost reductions not new or replacement taxes. One of the many other opportunities to reduce the cost of State Government is to switch to a single house legislature, minus the state senate. This will save about $50 million the first year, over current costs, and $1 billion over 10 years.           

 Have you asked yourself why Michigan has both a Senate and a House of Representatives? We all know that the USA has both because the original states could not agree on one or the other. The small states wanted 2 representatives per state while the more populous states wanted the number of representatives to base on population so they would have more influence. The great compromise of course was to have 2 houses that both needed to approve any changes to the federal government.  Since Michigan ’s Senate is not 1 representative per county but is based on population just like the Michigan House of Representatives what was the reason for having both? If you know the answer I liked to know as well as the only reason I have found is that it was what everyone else was doing.    

 A unicameral legislature will eliminate the duplicity of the present house-senate system in which both chambers represent the same populations. (In contrast, U.S. House Representation is based upon population, the U.S. Senate on geography.) Also, their duties and responsibilities are identical. They are redundant!

A frequently raised concern is that Michigan would no longer have a sufficient number of representatives. Michigan currently has 148 legislators for a population of 9 million while California , by comparison, has 120 legislators for 30 million people.  After eliminating the State Senate Michigan would still have 110 legislators or 1 for every 82,000 people compared to California ’s 1 for every 250,000 people.  In reality many bills are currently decided on by a conference committee of the house and senate which is a much smaller number of legislators than a 110 legislators deciding the final language.   

Would Michigan be the only state with a unicameral legislature?  No, Nebraska has had a single chamber body legislature since1937, three years after being approved by Nebraska voters.  In addition many other states facing huge unfunded liabilities in terms of government pension plans may follow Michigan ’s lead. It’s time Michigan gets serious about making fundamental changes to reverse the downward economy we are currently in.

Mark Byrne

Chair Libertarian Party of St Clair and Sanilac Counties .