MTA honors three legislators

MTA honored three Legislators at the 2010 Annual Education Conference Dinner, held on Jan. 28 at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids. State Reps. Mike Lahti (D-Hancock) and Darwin Booher (R-Osceola Twp.) were honored as MTA's 2009 Legislators of the Year, while State Sen. Patty Birkholz (R-Saugatuck Twp.) was given the MTA Township Champion honor for her past service as a township official, county official and her dedication to townships during her 14 years in the Michigan Legislature. She will be term-limited at the end of the year.

Rep. Mike Lahti represents the 110th House District, the furthest district from the State Capitol. His district is composed of 6 full counties in the western end of the Upper Peninsula and a small part of Marquette County. The full counties in the 110th include: Baraga, Gogebic, Houghton, Iron, Keweenaw and Ontonagon. He and his wife, Sharon, are residents of Hancock.

Rep. Lahti was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2006 and he is now serving in his second term. Prior to coming to the House, he operated an insurance agency and real-estate business, and also served on the Hancock School Board for seven years. Rep. Lahti was also elected to the Houghton County Board of Commissioners, where he served as chairman for six years.

In the Legislature, Rep. Lahti is on the House Appropriations Committee and is the chair of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Appropriations.  He also serves as the vice chair of General Government and is the Democratic chair of Joint Capital Outlay.

Undoubtedly, much of MTA's working relationship with Rep. Lahti has come on appropriations items. He is one of a handful of representatives who understands that revenue sharing is not the state dolling out money to locals but rather a method under which the state returns taxes paid by residents. Specifically, Rep. Lahti has assisted MTA's efforts to hold the state honest on Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILT). He was helpful by including boilerplate language in the general government bill last year but unfortunately, the state ignored it. Further, Rep. Lahti has worked closely with MTA on changes related to the Commercial Forest Act, including early withdrawal (PA 299 of 2008) and related principal residence exemption issues. He is also helping to keep our inland lakes free from new weeds by sponsoring PA 91 of 2009 that fines those who launch boats with aquatic weeds attached.

Rep. Darwin Booher, who represents the 102nd District, is also our 2009 MTA Legislator of the Year. Rep. Booher is serving in his third and final term in the Michigan House. He represents the residents of Osceola, Mecosta and Wexford counties. Rep. Booher and his wife, Jan, have lived in Osceola Township for more than 40 years. He has worked as a sales manager at Citizens Bank and as vice president of Bank One for a combined 40 years, and has been farming his entire life. For 28 years, he owned and operated a small business, and served 28 years as the Osceola Township supervisor and assessor.

In the Michigan House, Rep. Booher serves on the House Appropriations Committee. He is minority vice chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee for Community Colleges; minority vice chair of the Subcommittee for Natural Resources; and minority vice chair of the Subcommittee for Special Governmental Operations. He also serves as vice chair of the House Banking and Financial Services Committee.

Rep. Booher's service as a township official has made him effective as a legislator in Lansing. He understands the challenges at the local level and how they fit in the context of legislation at the state level. Rep. Booher has tackled several of those issues related to assessing and taxation. He has also been a significant force for MTA in efforts related to PILT. In fact, his first bill introduction, which became PA 646 of 2006, created a real property tax classification for state-owned real property. He has also sponsored legislation that would make any new future land purchases by the state to be subject to local government approval. He was also an instrumental part of PILT boilerplate language last year that was approved but has not been followed by the state.

Sen. Patty Birkholz is a legislator who was already honored by MTA as our Legislator of the Year in 2001. And if MTA had a practice of honoring legislators multiple times as our Legislator of the Year, she undoubtedly would have been chosen numerous times. MTA honored Sen. Patty Birkholz in a special way by recognizing her outstanding work on behalf of townships with the "MTA Township Champion Award."

Sen. Birkholz represents the 24th District (Allegan, Barry and Eaton Counties). She chairs the Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee; serves as vice chair of the Local, Urban and State Affairs Committee; is a member of the Agriculture & Bio-economy Committee and the Energy Policy & Public Utilities Committee. Birkholz is also the Michigan representative to the Great Lakes Commission, and the founder and chair of the Great Lakes Legislative Caucus.

We could probably honor her for many items she has accomplished in her career to date, including her service at the local level as the Allegan County treasurer or the Saugatuck Township treasurer, trustee and park and recreation commission member. We could probably honor her for 14 years of serving in the House and Senate (six years in the House and soon to be eight years in the Senate); OR her long list of legislative accomplishments that include her sponsorship of 286 pieces of legislation of which 99 have become public acts. Sen. Birkholz has been viewed as the real force behind annexation reform efforts in the Capitol over the past 10 years. She rewrote the Property Tax Act in 1999 related to tax foreclosures. She was the point person in the Senate when the Planning and Zoning Acts were recently consolidated. We could honor her for all her major accomplishments, but we especially appreciate her efforts related to township government.