TRAVERSE CITY -- State legislators have overwhelmingly voted to eliminate generous retiree health insurance benefits for lawmakers.
Not for themselves. Just for "future" lawmakers.
Their personal perks appear safe.
The House on Feb. 2 voted 103 to 1 to eliminate taxpayer-funded lifetime health benefits for politicians first elected to office in November 2010.
Lawmakers qualify for full health insurance at age 55 if they've served six years in the legislature. They can receive full family coverage, with taxpayers on the hook for 90 percent of the cost.
The state in 2008 spent $4.72 million to provide health and dental benefits to 341 retired lawmakers and their dependents.
Area residents weren't surprised to hear that many politicians exempted themselves from financial sacrifice.
"It seems self-serving to me. They basically took care of themselves," said Walt Moore, of Traverse City. "Maybe in November the electorate will convince them to do a little bit more."
A proposed bill under Senate consideration trims, but doesn't eliminate a retirement perk that's all but evaporated from the private sector: It requires taxpayers to pick up 30 percent of retiree health insurance costs after four years -- one Senate term -- then tacks on 6 percent more for each additional year of service up to 90 percent.
But like their peers in the House, current state senators would exempt themselves from any cuts.
"With this economy in Michigan, a lot of people don't have any benefits," said Rebecca Austin, of Traverse City. "I think it's ludicrous they get to have that kind of benefit level."
State Reps. Dan Scripps, D-Leland; Traverse City Republican Wayne Schmidt, and House Republican minority leader Kevin Elsenheimer, of Kewadin, all voted for the House bill.
But Scripps said he was "very disappointed" that current politicians avoided losing the benefit.
"People are not asking for tomorrow's politicians to start sharing in their sacrifice; they're asking us to step up to the plate now," Scripps said. "It shows why Lansing has a credibility gap with a lot of people in Michigan,"
The bill's original version, which Schmidt and Elsenheimer both co-sponsored, also cut the benefit for first-term representatives.
"I would have voted for that, but it was not the bill the Democrats ran," Schmidt said. "There was a last-minute amendment."
State Sen. Jason Allen, a Republican from Traverse City, said he'll support the most "affordable" of the two bills, which he expects will be the House version. But Allen contends the Michigan Constitution prohibits the Legislature from cutting its own benefits.
Scripps voiced skepticism of Allen's statement, and said House legal staff never raised any constitutional issues in their analysis.
"I've never been told that about benefits, which are statutorily set," Scripps said.
Scripps and Schmidt last week signed on as co-sponsors of a new bill to strip the benefit from all sitting lawmakers.
Scripps said newer representatives have a hard time believing that after they leave elected office they'll still benefit from the health perk.
"The idea that 17 years after we are done serving that this benefit would kick in, I don't think it matches reality," he said.
