House, Senate to look at locker search, deregulation bills LANSING (AP) - The Legislature eases into the 2000 session this week with light activity on the House and Senate floors and more news likely to come out of the committees. Session will be called tomorrow and Wednesday largely to introduce the bills lawmakers drafted during the six-week holiday break. Among the new bills are measures that would prohibit the secretary of state from selling information about license holders, prohibit criminals from suing their victims and allow for school locker searches. ''When I was in middle school and high school 40 years ago, things were different than they are today,'' said Rep. Lauren Hager (R-Port Huron) who sponsored the locker search bill. ''I think we've come to a time where school administrators have to have tools to use when they think they may need to search a locker for whatever reason,'' Hager said. The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan has expressed concern about any legislation that would allow the searches without suspicion of wrongdoing. ''We know schools are doing it, but it really hasn't been an issue that has been taken up by the Michigan courts,'' said Wendy Wagenheim of the ACLU. ''It's something we probably will be watching.'' New utility deregulation bills also will be discussed this week in committee. The House Energy and Technology Committee will take up bills deregulating the natural gas market and the Senate Technology and Energy Committee is slated to begin its long-awaited discussion of electricity deregulation. That legislation, which has been under discussion for weeks as backers sought support, would let consumers pick their electric energy producer by 2002. It would open Michigan's power market by prohibiting any utility from controlling more than 25 percent of the state's capacity. It also would freeze electricity rates for three years, compensate utilities for ''stranded costs,'' or investments made in the past but not yet fully recovered through present rates and require major utilities to upgrade their transmission systems to permit more power to flow into Michigan. Backers contend the legislation would open the electricity market to competition and thus increase the amount of power flowing into Michigan while driving down prices. Critics charge the bill mainly would help big utilities and lead to a big increase in electric rates, while jeopardizing worker's jobs and the environment. A key to the bill's success will be the fate of efforts to win support from Detroit Edison Co., which controls about half of Michigan's energy market. Leery of the 25 percent market limit, Edison has been reluctant to join a coalition supporting the bill. Another key committee meeting comes Thursday, when the House and Senate appropriations committees gather together to receive Gov. John Engler's proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The presentation will kick off a budget process which won't end until final enactment, probably early in the summer. The governor's 2000-01 budget will assign dollar figures to the agenda he spelled out last week in the State of the State address, including $170.4 million in new or accelerated tax cuts. It is also expected to put heavy stress on education programs. Fiscal analysts said the state's general fund budget is expected to total $9.5 billion to $10 billion. That compares to the current year's budget of slightly more than $9.2 billion. The school aid fund, which provides money for school districts across Michigan, is forecast at another $10 billion, up from $9.8 billion in the current fiscal year. And the total state budget - including federal funds and restricted money - is expected to total almost $36 billion, compared to the current $34.6 billion. The measure allowing locker searches is House Bill 5233; the electric deregulation bill is unnumbered yet; the budget bills have not been introduced yet; the vulnerable adult bill is Senate Bill 378; the agriculture assessment bill is Senate Bill 48. Originally on page 3A in the 1-24-2000 issue of the Daily.