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Leonard’s target after rollback failure

Newly installed Speaker Tom Leonard is taking some political hits for his handling of the failed income tax rollback legislation. To be sure the outward optics of his performance did not look very appealing. First of all he needed 55 votes and got 52. Next he lost 12 members of his own caucus who refused to pop a yes vote. Then he was criticized for swiping away the committee chairmanship of one GOP member who voted no on the bill.

Three strikes and you’re out and the political chattering class went after Mr. Leonard.

“There were plenty of mistakes and I’m not sure all of them land in the speaker’s lap, but the bottom line is the actions that were taken are ultimately his responsibility,” so says Democratic consultant Kelly Rossman. Her GOP consulting partner John Truscott was not nearly as direct but critical none the less. “I think it’s a little bit of a stumble on the first vote out but he’ll get his footing back and do just fine moving forward.”

Senate Democrat Curtis Hertel Jr. joined in the piling on discussion regarding Mr. Leonard’s conduct with “this is what you get with term limits” and then on the issue of bouncing a fellow Republican from a committee, “the idea that one man would think that he can strong arm not only the whole legislature but his own caucus, the guys who just put him in charge … I think that the power has gone to somebody’s head here pretty quick.”

Asked for his take on all this the Senate GOP leader, who didn’t much like the Leonard bill, confided to reporters that regarding the future of any tax cut, “the speaker made it very difficult but I don’t know if it is dead but it’s very difficult … The speaker’s got his work cut out for him.”

Prior to the failed vote, even mild-mannered Gov. Rick Snyder publicly said he was “disappointed” that the House was moving so quickly on this rollback that would have blown a billion dollar hole in the state budget. “I have zero appetite for doing this,” the governor reportedly said in private.

Add all that up and more, Mr. Leonard’s legislative leadership prowess took a huge hit but as with every good story, there are two sides and while Mr. Leonard won’t discuss this in public, you can piece together his side which is 180 degrees opposite of what his critics are saying.

On the night of the ill-fated failed vote, he told reporters he knew he was going to lose.

His critics counter, you never take a vote until you know you have the votes. Normally that is true. But this was not normal.

You see there were over 40 members of Mr. Leonard’s mucho conservative caucus who wanted to put this thing up for a vote even if it went down in flames. At the request, any other speaker would have asked them for more time to cobble together those 55 votes, but this speaker said instead, let’s roll. He made the decision knowing he would take some flak but he was acting on behalf of those members who elected him speaker.

If the truth be known, he knew the original plan of totally eliminating the income tax would never fly, which is why he went to Plan B to slice the tax rate to 3.9 percent over four years.

He was aware that five or six members of his caucus would never vote for anything. He was also aware that there were some members who wanted him to lose because they never wanted him to be speaker in the first place. And there were Democrats observing that the only reason Mr. Leonard was doing this was to gain grassroots support at the state GOP convention next year to secure the nomination for attorney general, which he would like to be.

It was in the midst of all those cross currents that he allowed the vote which resulted in the impression that he didn’t know what he was doing.

Turns out he did.

To understand all this, you must know that some Republicans treat tax cuts like their opium. But a handful in the caucus and the governor argued, you must first show where you’re going to cut state services to make up for the billion dollars in lost revenue. Cutting the tax and then finding the cuts amounted to the cart before the horse.

Mr. Leonard knew eventually the debate would turn to that, but he felt moving the bill without it would merely set the stage for that later discussion,.

Actually if the governor had signed off on that strategy, it might have been a win-win or at least that was the theory inside the Leonard brain trust. Mr. Leonard would have gotten his victory and made those conservatives happy and then when the governor came calling for help on bills he wants, Mr. Leonard could have gone to those conservatives saying they should help the governor since he helped them.

But that scenario was never used.

And now you have this. A tax cut bill that is in limbo for who knows how long. Mr. Leonard’s persona has been whacked by those who did not know his inside strategy and for all of the folks out there anxiously waiting for some money back from the government, take a seat. It may be a while in coming.

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