Mackinac Center in the News

The Mackinac Center has been cited in various media outlets in the past few days.

The Detroit News highlights a Mackinac Center budget-reform suggestion as part of its "50 ideas to fix Michigan" series.

In today's "Idea 12," the Mackinac Center suggests that Michigan "[p]rivatize some state prisons -- not just some functions within state-run prisons, but entire facilities."

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Mackinac Center research on the Michigan Business Tax was cited in an opinion piece in the University of Michigan's Michigan Daily student newspaper.

As evidence of Michigan's unfriendly business climate, the article notes:

According the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s Oct. 30, 2008 assessment of the Chamber of Commerce poll, "One-third of those reporting hikes said the increase was in excess of 100 percent over the SBT; eleven percent reported a hike of more than 300 percent and one member reported a tax increase of 1,000 percent." The assessment also found that 15 percent of those hit with the tax increase planned to stop expanding or leave the state.

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On her blog, Michelle Malkin explores the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation's case, Loar v. DHS.

As Malkin notes, "the Mackinac Center blew the whistle on the [unionization] scheme and filed suit against the Michigan Department of Human Services to prevent illegal siphoning of so-called 'union dues' from state child care assistance payments to home-based day care providers."

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The Grand Rapids Press cited Policy Analyst Kenneth Braun, who "noted Michigan public school teachers are $12,000 above the national average."

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In an Op-Ed for the Weekly Standard, Eli Lehrer cites Senior Legislative Analyst Jack McHugh on the responsibility for and failure of central planning in Michigan.

Lehrer writes:

Economic development subsidies, [McHugh] says, are "a cover story the legislature can use while ignoring the real dysfunctions and the sources of those dysfunctions," namely, unions and a dysfunctional political class in both parties.

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A blog post by Fiscal Policy Analyst James Hohman on Michigan's high tax burden was published in the Clare Sentinel.

According to Hohman, "New data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that state and local government tax burden increased from 2006 to 2007," and "Michigan state and local governments rank above average in tax burdens by many measures."

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In a blog post, Detroit News columnist Daniel Howes quotes Senior Legislative Analyst Jack McHugh's blog post on union influence in politics.

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are properly cited.