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One of the ugliest public policies of the last two decades was the dues skim. It allowed the politically connected Service Employees International Union to divert millions from the elderly and disabled and use that money to do nothing more than everyday lobbying. The skim began in 2005 and the Mackinac Center brought it to an end in 2013.
Unfortunately, some members of the Legislature are seeking to bring it back.
The Home Help Program is a Medicaid program that pays for help for those who live at home with a disability. Most of the care providers are relatives who help their disabled adult children or elderly parents.
These providers and their loved ones became the target of a scheme that allowed the union to tap into federal Medicaid funding, taking more than $34 million. The union and its political allies created the Michigan Quality Community Care Council to make home help care look somewhat akin to a traditional employer-union relationship and allow for collective bargaining.
There is, however, nothing to be bargained over. The Legislature has to approve any funding, rendering the so-called bargaining nothing more than political posturing. But the lack of any real practical impact (other than the SEIU cashing in) isn’t standing in the way of lawmakers trying to resurrect the program.
We recently saw firsthand that lawmakers and the SEIU are back to using the same tired talking points. In June, several Mackinac Center staff members and interns took a trip to Lansing after (likely mistakenly) getting invited to an SEIU rally on the steps of the Capitol.
We arrived at the rally before it began and spoke with reporters as the SEIU looked on.
A common theme of attendees and speakers was that the union was needed to ensure greater funding for the home health care program. Yet the reality is that since caregivers stopped being forced to pay union dues and SEIU membership plummeted, funding for the program has grown considerably. During the last year of the dues skim, the Legislature appropriated $292 million for home health services. The 2023-24 budget appropriated $540.9 million.
So why the need for a union? Because that union might collect millions of dollars that could then be donated to the political party of its choice. The legislation requires what it refers to as mandatory training – and it appears that only a friendly union will meet the criteria.
Whatever the reasoning behind the dues skim, it was a sleazy maneuver to steal from the elderly and disabled. It should not be reinstituted.
