Basham: ‘Toxic’ political atmosphere made ‘not fun year’

LANSING — A long-serving state senator is lashing out at what he calls a “toxic” atmosphere pervading the state Capitol.

“The environment here is not healthy,” said Taylor Democratic Sen. Ray Basham during a midnight interview.

“I’ve not had a fun year,” he said. “We could work harder on issues of a nonpartisan nature.”

Basham expressed his frustrations at not only being in the Democratic minority, but what he says is the total refusal of the Republican majority to take up legislation he has introduced. He presented a four page document showing 20 bills he has introduced since session began in January. Only one — the state smoking ban — has been acted on by the legislature.

The bills address issues such as increasing penalties for targeting seniors for crime, preventing the use of electronic tracking devices on motor vehicles, a law to make it a crime to use a realistic toy gun in a menacing way and giving law enforcement tools to prevent underage people from participating in the adult entertainment industry.

Basham blamed the lack of action on a “toxic environment” he says is the natural outgrowth of term limits. The lawmaker has been in the state legislature since 1997 and had the opportunity to watch veteran lawmakers of the pre-term limit era. There, he said, lawmakers took the time to get to know each other and in the process how to work together.

Asked if it was time to reform term limits, Basham responded, “Yes.”

But he is not supportive of an idea longtime Capitol reporter Tim Skubick wrote about Thursday on his blog. Skubick believes lawmakers, in “the next six months” will approve a ballot question to allow voters to change term limits and create a part time legislature.

Basham said he supported the idea of changing the term limits, but opposed a part time legislature.

“It’s easy to tear down the legislature. No one wants to defend it,” he said.

But defend the full time legislature Basham did. He said in his conversations with other state legislators they noted the limits of their part time schedule, including forcing residents to wait as much as a year for legislation to address problems to be introduced. He also said that a part time legislature would mean a reduced staff, meaning constituency work would be reduced and legislation would be written and researched by a nonpartisan centralized authority.

That, he said, would prevent the state from addressing the issues unique to Michigan. He ticked off issues such as the structural reform needed for funding schools and the state budget, the unique crisis in Michigan’s economy as it transitions from the auto industry to a diversified economy and more.

Without term limit reform, Basham warned, the atmosphere is going to get worse at the Capitol.

“It’s probably going to get worse. We have 31 of 38 senators leaving in 2010,” he said.

And Basham said it is time for voters to get more involved in the process. Without them, he noted, the process falls apart.

“The public has a responsibility to know who they are electing, and what they stand for,” Basham said.