Asset forfeiture, illegal language in teacher contracts, union bullying and intimidation and Michigan Education Association finances were the most popular items on our website in 2014. Below are the top 25 articles you, the readers, clicked on during the past 12 months.
Legislators are trying to make a deal for more road funding before they finish their term. Their latest proposal show less sympathy for taxpayers than for spending interests.
The new deal is reported to move the sales tax on gasoline to fund the roads instead of schools, local governments, and other general budget items. Few states levy sales taxes on gasoline. They would also ask voters to approve increasing the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent. The changes reportedly will not go into effect if the proposal loses at the ballot box.
(Editor's note: Jack Spencer is capitol affairs specialist for Michigan Capitol Confidential and a veteran Lansing-based journalist. His columns do not necessarily represent the views of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy or Michigan Capitol Confidential.)
Michael LaFaive, director of the Center’s Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, was a guest on “The Tony Conley Show” on WILS-AM1320 in Lansing today, discussing his ideas to cut $2.1 billion from a state budget of more than $52 billion, allowing for tax cuts and providing money for road and infrastructure improvements.
The Michigan House and Senate continue to discuss competing plans to bolster road funding, with some claiming that the House plan would decrease funding for schools.
The Detroit News cites a blog post by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy, titled “When a School ‘Cut’ Is an Increase,” in which he explains: “Rep. Bolger’s plan devotes more of the state’s resources to the roads without reaching deeper into taxpayer pockets. Continued growth can ensure that you can have both more funding for schools and more funding for roads without a tax hike.”
Fiscal Policy Director Michael LaFaive and Barbara Levine, associate director of the Citizens Alliance for Prisons and Public Spending, write in the Detroit Free Press that prison sentencing and parole reform bills now before the Legislature should be revamped to save money and end the practice of warehousing people beyond their parole dates.
Gov. Rick Snyder is touting his handling of the Detroit bankruptcy to media outlets around the country. While the bankruptcy went smoothly compared to other municipal proceedings, there is a difference between emerging from bankruptcy and fixing the city government’s problems. Whether Detroit will be successful remains to be seen.
The Mackinac Center exists to educate Michigan residents about the importance of sound economic policy, and what it looks like. That often means discussing whether existing or proposed laws contribute to, or detract from, freedom and prosperity.
It’s no coincidence that states with greater economic freedom tend to prosper more over time and attract more inbound migration. We know this thanks to various efforts to measure the level of economic liberty in different places. Among the more interesting of these is a new report from the Canada-based Fraser Institute called “Economic Freedom of North America.”
Over the past four years, there’s been a lot of talk about “reinventing” Michigan. Gov. Rick Snyder and this Legislature have made significant strides toward that goal by improving the state’s tax structure, modernizing education policies and beginning to revamp the state’s regulatory regime. On that last item there is more to be done. House Bill 5951 would embrace innovative ride-sharing technologies used by companies such as Uber and Lyft.
Media statewide are reporting on the salary increases for Michigan Education Association union officials, a story that first appeared in Michigan Capitol Confidential.
The Detroit Free Press, Lansing State Journal and Livingston Daily have covered it, as has WKZO 96.5FM in Kalamazoo and the Observer & Eccentric.
A recent CapCon story and video documented the Michigan State Police using civil asset forfeiture to freeze the bank accounts and take the property of two men for months without even charging them with a crime.
Forfeiture is a complicated process, but essentially allows for an end-run around what most people see as basic constitutional rights. Michigan should join other states, like North Carolina or Minnesota, in requiring a criminal conviction before assets can be seized. That won’t happen anytime soon, but in the meantime there are other reforms that politicians should consider during this lame-duck period.
By Jack McHugh
Senate Bill 1149, Authorize new state Senate office building: Passed 25 to 13 in the Senate
To authorize the sale of the Farnum Senate office building in Lansing and construction of a new building for Senators’ offices.
On this date in 1933 the nation said goodbye to one of the biggest social experiments in its history: Prohibition of alcohol. The experiment was a disaster, but the remnants are still with us today in the form of archaic and unnecessary laws and regulations. (See the Mackinac Center’s work on alcohol control here.)
A Michigan House Committee just approved House Bill 5951 introduced by Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw Township, which would create a statewide regulatory framework for transportation network companies, such as Uber and Lyft. State-based regulations can be worse than locally derived ones, but these proposed rules are reasonable and would make Michigan a leader in innovative transportation services. But how will these services benefit Michiganders?
In the subscription-only MIRS newsletter, Mitch Bean discusses how Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger’s road funding plan would have affected the state budget had it been in place over the previous decade. While his takeaway was to say that schools would have had less money, it also points to the importance of economic growth to delivering both more school revenue and more road funding.
(Editor’s note: Jack Spencer is capitol affairs specialist for Michigan Capitol Confidential and a veteran Lansing-based journalist. His columns do not necessarily represent the views of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy or Michigan Capitol Confidential.)
Editor's Note: On Dec. 4 the state House approved a road reform package similar to the one described below that does not raise taxes. The state Senate earlier took the opposite approach, hiking taxes by $1 billion. Now the two chambers must hammer out a compromise. Any deal should favor the House plan, which is superior.
In the debate over whether or not people should be forced to pay money to unions as a condition of employment, opponents of right-to-work laws often claim that workers who exercise their rights under the law are “freeloaders.” That is, that they are taking advantage of benefits from union bargaining while not paying their “fair share.”
The Mackinac Center has just released its biennial high school Context and Performance report card. Though there are several report cards for Michigan schools, the Center is the only organization in the state to publish a school report card that adjusts for student socioeconomic background, which allows schools serving diverse communities to be compared throughout the state.
Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio was a guest on Fox News recently, discussing worker centers and labor front groups involved in Black Friday protests. He also wrote about the issue in The Hill and explains why unions need to move away from politics and embrace workers’ needs in order to adapt and stem membership losses. You can read more in his recent study: “Unionization for the 21st Century: Solutions for the Ailing Labor Movement.”
Monthly job reports on payroll employment and the unemployment rate hide the massive job creation and job loss that occurs in the economy. This turnover challenges the state’s ability to influence job creation by offering tax money to select businesses to locate their business in Michigan.
Lame duck sessions in the Michigan Legislature provide a no holds barred setting for Lansing lobbyists and special interests. Many lawmakers will be leaving the Legislature at the end of the year or the end of their next term; others who were just elected to new terms know they won’t have to face the voters again until two or four years from now.
The Dearborn Press and Guide is reporting that Star International Academy in Dearborn Heights has again been ranked as the top-performing high school in the state according to the Mackinac Center’s “Michigan Public High School Context and Performance Report Card.”
By Jack McHugh
While the legislature is in a two week recess with no voting, the Roll Call Report examines recent constitutional amendment proposals of interest.
Note: There will be no Roll Call Report during Thanksgiving week. The Report will return on Dec. 5.
House Joint Resolution KK: Replace House and Senate with unicameral legislature
On Dec. 4, the Mackinac Center will host Dr. Morris Kleiner of the University of Minnesota to speak about occupational licensing. On this issue, Dr. Kleiner is one of the leading experts in the nation. (For information about the event, go here. Free lunch!)
