LANSING - Multiply 110 lawmakers by two large boxes of paper a day, and you have a ton of paper.
To reduce the amount of paper used, and the associated costs, the Michigan House of Representatives came up with a solution and implemented it with the opening of the fall session in late September.
Each representative’s desk on the House floor is now complete with a $2,900 WinBook Pentium III laptop computer.
The 110 computers cost nearly $320,000 - and that doesn’t include labor costs and installation fees. But House clerk Gary Randall said the computer upgrades are much cheaper than continuing to make thousands of copies of bills and amendments a week.
“It’s difficult to put an exact cost on how much money was spent on paper, but there will be substantial savings in the long run,” Randall said. “The copy machine in the back of the room, available for use by the representatives, costs $300,000.
“If we never have to replace that machine, that alone will be a huge savings.”
State Rep. Laura Baird, D-Okemos, said the new computers are a welcome addition to the Capitol building.
“When we are in session, and trying to get bills in order, we may have 20 versions of the bill and 100 amendments,” Baird said. “All those versions and amendments then have to be photocopied and distributed - our desks are flooded with papers.”
Each representative has two office assistants in charge of getting the copies together and bringing them across the street in boxes to the chamber floor.
“Then the boxes sit under our desks and get in the way,” Baird said. “There’s actually so much paper, it’s often moved using the kind of bins they move dirty laundry in hotels with.”
Baird said she thinks the computers are a great idea, but she doesn’t have time to get used to them because she is term-limited and cannot seek re-election.
Some of the representatives will take longer to adjust to the new system.
“The representatives are all individuals,” said Cathy Hunter, deputy director of information systems at the House. “Some use computers every day, others don’t.”
Hunter said representatives all received laptops in 1994, and new representatives have gotten them ever since.
Some have already been bringing those with them onto the floor, but with the new computers at their desks, Hunter said the efficiency of House sessions should improve greatly.
“The software on these laptops is the same the representatives have in their offices,” Hunter said.
The Michigan Senate has had laptop computers on their chamber floor since 1996.
Built in 1879, with its historical design well-preserved, the House chamber is the last place laptop computers were installed.
“Desktop computers would be far too obtrusive,” Randall said. “But the laptops can be slipped away easily.
“They don’t subtract from the historical ambiance of the chamber.”
