LANSING — Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) admitted Tuesday night that foreclosure powerhouse Trott & Trott was involved in the writing of a lame-duck bill designed to address the foreclosure crisis in Michigan.

“Sure, Trott & Trott and many other interest groups was involved. That’s how we write legislation,” Bishop said in a press gathering after the state of the state speech. ”[nterest groups] help us hone the bills to make sure we are going down the right path.”

Bishop denied that Trott & Trott alone drafted the bill.

“You can’t have one interest group write a specific bill,” he said. “It doesn’t happen.”

But both former and current Democratic legislators say one specific interest group did write a bill in December. As reported Monday by Michigan Messenger, former House Majority Leader Steve Tobocman said Trott & Trott rewrote the Home Foreclosure Prevention Act when the bill was in the Senate.

“I went to the hearing to testify about the bill,” Tobocman said, “only to find there was a new version. The Chair [state Sen. Randy Richardville] said he had rewritten the bill with the assistance of Trott & Trott, whom he referred to as experts in foreclosure.”

Asked about this, Bishop responded, “If you go back and talk to Randy either he misunderstood your question or he said something he didn’t mean to say, because no outside sources write our bills.”

In a phone interview, Richardville denied the foreclosure firm was involved beyond testifying to his committee. “All they did was come and testify at a committee meeting. They were very helpful in helping members understand the process of foreclosure,” Richardville said. “They may have come to more than one committee meeting. We may have spoken before or after. Was there formal work? Nope.”

“I had a different impression,” Tobocman said in phone interview Wednesday evening.

Bishop said all bills are written by the Legislative Service Bureau (LSB). The Bureau is a nonpartisan state agency, which, according to its Web site:

“… is charged with maintaining bill drafting, research, and other services in the Bureau for utilization by all members of the Michigan Legislature. The Bureau provides bill drafting through the Legal Division; research functions through the Research Services Division; a variety of printing services from the Legislative Printing Division; and telephone support for the Legislature as well as computer support for the Bureau and Legislative Council agencies through the Information Technologies Division.”

Tobocman said it was technically correct that LSB wrote the bills, but said it was not uncommon for a legislator to present draft language to them. And that draft language can often be written by special interests.

A new version of the Home Foreclosure Prevention Act was touted by Gov. Jennifer Granholm during the state of the state address Tuesday night. She urged passage of the legislation saying, “I urge both chambers to act immediately, act as if the bank were demanding the keys to your home.”

The legislation would create additional time and mechanisms designed to give homeowners more opportunity to negotiate a settlement on arrears before going into the legal process of foreclosure. A bill with those consumer protections passed the state House in December and arrived in the Republican-dominated Senate, only to be rewritten, stripping the consumer protections from the legislation while shortening the periods for redemption in certain foreclosure situations. The Senate bill was passed and sent to the House, where a decision was made to let the bill die in hopes of resurrecting it this legislative session.

State Rep. Andy Coulouris told Michigan Messenger that he was convening a working group Wednesday to discuss the House bill and find compromise language with interest groups including consumer groups and banking interests.

Bishop said Tuesday night that the Senate is moving on its version of the bill.

“We are prepared to address it again,” Bishop said. “Sen. Randy Richardville is going to be conducting hearings on that. We’re going to move it again. We think we’ve got a good solution, a bipartisan solution, for that very issue.”