Media Credit:
Casey Shortt
Bob LaBrant, Michigan Chamber of Commerce
senior vice president for political
affairs and general counsel, left,
comments on whether Michigan needs a new
constitution during the Spring 2007
Griffin Policy Forum on Wednesday evening
in the Charles V. Park Library Auditorium.
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Forum considers changes in
Michigan government
A former Michigan state senator thinks the process
for amending the Michigan constitution should be
made more difficult.
"It's too easy to amend the document, which is
supposed to be semi-firm," said Tony Derezinski, the
former state senator from Muskegon and director of
Government Relations for the Michigan Association of
School Boards. "It should not be amended easily. It
should be a document of limited change."
Derezinski was one of the panelists in a full
Charles V. Park Library Auditorium on Wednesday
night at the Griffin Policy Forum, which discussed
the possiblity of forming a new Michigan
Constitution.
The Michigan Constitution is up for review in 2010,
when voters will decide whether to create a
convention to rewrite it. The constitution was
penned in 1963.
Four panelists spoke about the changes needed and
how to achieve those changes at the once-a-semester
forum hosted by the Robert and Marjorie Griffin
Endowed Chair in American Government, the College of
Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences and
the political science department.
If Michigan were to have a constitutional
convention, it would cost about $30 million.
Rochester senior Brent McDermott said that price tag
is too much.
"It seems excessive to me," he said. "It makes me
wonder if they need lunch catered by Domino's
(Pizza)."
Bob LaBrant, a panelist and the senior vice
president for political affairs and general counsel
for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, doesn't think
the common citizen would have much influence on a
new constitution.
