While stopping short of going “full Krugman,” Michigan Radio suggests a “silver lining” regarding the state of Michigan’s roads:
The spending certainly helps the local repair shop, but at the expense of the overall economy. The idea that simply spending money is good without regard to the value produced is relatively common. The best rejoinder comes from an 1850 essay by 19th century French political theorist Frédéric Bastiat, who wrote “That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Unseen.”
If current polling is a forecast of the election results, establishment Republicans have no grounds for claiming the candidates they prefer are any better at winning general elections than those that might emerge from the conservative base.
In the U.S. Senate race, former GOP Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land continues to trail Democratic Congressman Gary Peters by nearly 10 percentage points in the polls. Unless something changes drastically in the final week leading up to the election, Rep. Peters will win it in a walk.
Host Frank Beckmann on his WJR-AM760 show Friday cited Michigan Capitol Confidential while interviewing Sen. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, about the Senate’s vote to extend corporate welfare for film makers. Sen. Moolenaar was one of four senators to vote against the measure.
By Jack McHugh
While the Legislature is on a campaign season break from voting, the Roll Call Report continues a series reviewing key votes of the 2013-2014 session, starting with one that occurred this week.
Senate Bill 1103, Extend film producer subsidies: Passed 32 to 4 in the Senate on October 22
Michigan Capitol Confidential staff won three awards in the 2014 Michigan Press Association’s “Better Newspaper Contest.”
Former Managing Editor Manny Lopez won a second place and an honorable mention in the headline writing category, while Jarrett Skorup, digital engagement manager, and Tom Gantert, senior capitol correspondent, took third place in enterprise reporting for their work on Michigan’s film subsidy program.
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation announced today that Brighton Area Schools and the local union “have removed illegal language from a contract in response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of a Brighton High School teacher who said the union and district were violating his freedoms under Michigan’s right-to-work law.”
The Michigan Senate passed a bill yesterday that gets rid of the sunset provision for the state’s film incentive program, meaning the subsidies are set to continue beyond 2017. Senate Bill 1103 also removes a clause that previously capped the amount taxpayers would spend on highly paid out-of-state workers (such as actors, directors and producers), which is currently set at $540,000.
“Aunt Karen, your homemade salsa is so good. You should bottle it and sell it!”
You’ve probably said something similar to a relative, friend or neighbor. And this is how many food companies get started – a recipe of homemade hard work, a pinch of encouragement and a healthy dose of risk-taking.
The new issue of Michigan Education Digest is now available. Topics include charter public school success, Flint’s self-created overspending crisis and MEA politics.
Mackinac Center research, particularly this piece by Senior Legislative Analyst Jack McHugh and Assistant Director of Fiscal Policy James Hohman, is featured in a story by The Daily Caller about corporate welfare.
You can read more about the Center’s work on corporate welfare here.
While the Legislature is on a campaign season break from voting, the Roll Call Report continues a series reviewing key votes of the 2013-2014 session.
House Bill 4001, Cap FOIA charges and increase government FOIA scofflaw penalties: Passed 102 to 8 in the House on March 20, 2014
Patrick Wright, vice president for legal affairs, explained in the Livingston Daily Press & Argus why the president of the Brighton Education Association is wrong about a lawsuit filed by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation against the union on behalf of a Brighton High School teacher.
The filing of a lawsuit by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation on behalf of a Brighton High School teacher against his union and school district for violating his right-to-work freedoms is gaining state and national media attention.
Adam Neuman is suing the Brighton Education Association and the Brighton Area Schools Board of Education because after opting out of union membership, he does not believe he should have to pay money via payroll deduction to support the union’s “release time,” allowing union officials to conduct union business during school hours.
Five years and $500 million later, Michigan has fewer film jobs than it did when the state started its subsidy program.
According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, Michigan had 1,561 film jobs in 2013 (the latest year information is available). In 2008, the state had 1,663 film jobs. See chart nearby.
Michigan Capitol Confidential has been reviewing how the state's economy performed during the previous decade, in answer to a question raised by a politician’s recent assertion that “those years weren’t as bad as we think.” Separate articles looked at changes in Michigan’s employment, personal income and loss of people to other states. The data shows the period was quite bad, although causes and culprits will be debated.
While the Legislature is on a campaign season break from voting, the Roll Call Report continues a series reviewing key votes of the 2013-2014 session.
Senate Bill 821, Whitmer amendment to impose "Amazon" internet sales tax: Failed 12 to 26 in the Senate on March 4, 2014
The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press on Thursday both reported on $50,000 bonuses and double-digit raises the top two administrators at the Detroit Institute of Arts received in 2012. That was the same year voters in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties approved a 10-year millage for the DIA worth $23 million. The DIA has also resisted suggestions that it sell just a single painting that would have provided enough cash to ensure the museum did not need $350 million of taxpayer money as part of Detroit’s so-called “grand bargain” bailout.
Economist Casey Mulligan has authored a new working paper for the Mercatus Center examining the impact of Obamacare’s “employer mandate” on various groups of workers. The mandate imposes financial penalties on larger employers who do not provide government-approved health insurance to employees who work more than 29 hours a week.
It is difficult to decide which is the more infuriating – those who persist in advancing a lie or those who stubbornly ignore the possible means of combating it.
The State of Michigan is spending more state tax dollars on K-12 education than the $6,884 per pupil it was spending the final budget year of former Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s administration. At the beginning of this year it was spending $7,545 per pupil. Beginning Oct. 1, that amount was increased again by $50 to $175 per pupil, with the lowest funded school districts receiving the largest boosts.
The latest edition of Michigan Education Digest is now available. Topics include teacher pay, charter public school performance and school funding.
A new survey of communities from the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan shows an uptick in the percent that say they are better able to meet their fiscal needs. This is good as it generally tracks with an improving state economy, but there are some warning signs ahead.
Maybe it’s something in the water. In recent weeks Lansing politicians have proposed laws mandating an official poem for Michigan and forcing taxpayers to buy a state flag for the survivors of current or former legislators when they die. Now comes yet another piece of institutional grandiosity: a bill to create an official state poet laureate.
A 2006 deal to privatize Indiana’s toll road for $3.8 billion that is in jeopardy now that the company has declared bankruptcy was designed to protect the state’s taxpayers, Fiscal Policy Director Michael LaFaive told Fox News.
“The deal was designed to protect the state of Indiana,” LaFaive said. “If they go belly up, the state could get it back if it’s not sold to another group. The worst case scenario would be that creditors would get control.”
The Employee Rights Act, designed to protect workers from unions, could gain traction if Republicans win the U.S. Senate next month, according to Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio.
“(President) Obama will probably veto it,” he told The Washington Examiner. “However, the more the public hears about the common-sense reforms in the ERA, such as criminalizing union threats and violence, the more pressure will be brought on Democrats if the legislation is brought back under a Republic president.”
By Jack McHugh
House Bill 5785, Expand permissible criminal court cost levies: Passed 37 to 0 in the Senate
To expand the costs that can be imposed on an individual convicted in a criminal case. The bill would authorize imposing assessments covering a share of court employee salaries and benefits, of “goods and services” used in operating the court, and of court building “operation and maintenance" costs. In addition, it would establish that a court has no duty to provide a “calculation of the costs involved in a particular case.” The bill reverses a state Supreme Court case that limited charges to those specifically allowed in a particular statute; its provisions would expire in 36 months, presumably to allow the legislature to rationalize these impositions for all courts across the state.
