WZZM-TV13 in Grand Rapids recently featured a Mackinac Center study on the “overcriminalization” of Michigan and the number of new laws passed each year. Michigan has a far larger penal code than surrounding states.

“Most lawmakers come into office not thinking about the laws they want to delete, but they think about the laws they want to create,” Executive Vice President Michael Reitz, who co-authored the study with the Manhattan Institute, told WZZM.

Also featured in the report was the plight of Alan Taylor, a business owner who spent $500,000 in legal fees over five years after he was accused of violating the state’s wetland law when he expanded the parking lot for his growing company. He ended up being convicted of two misdemeanors and had to pay an $8,500 fine.

The Mackinac Center, in conjunction with the Manhattan Institute and the ACLU of Michigan, is hosting a panel discussion on the findings in the study at noon on Feb. 11 in Lansing.

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