Several bills related to brewers, restaurants and bars were recently passed by the Legislature. While all are pushing the rules in the right direction, there is no reason the state should not allow for more freedom on these legal products.
The most significant proposed laws are as follows (all have passed the Legislature nearly unanimously and are headed to the governor):
Michigan Capitol Confidential reports today that a list including the names of employees who have exercised their worker freedom rights at Hurley Medical Center in Flint and opted out of the union has been reposted by the union on a bulletin board in a public area near the hospital’s cafeteria. The list, seen by those whose names are on it as a union intimidation tactic, was first posted three weeks ago. Hospital administration appears to be ignoring the contract it signed with the union in question and refuses to intervene in the bullying.
Michigan Capitol Confidential reports that the Service Employees International Union, which took $34 million in forced dues from home-based caregivers as part of its dues skim, has received the second biggest campaign finance violation fine in state history.
A Coopersville kindergarten teacher who resigned from the Michigan Education Association under the state's worker freedom law says she is glad her ordeal is over, but is concerned for her colleagues, according to a story in The Grand Rapids Press.
"I am very thankful that the MEA has finally recognized my right to opt out, but my settlement doesn't bring justice to the thousands of other teachers in my position in West Michigan and across the state of Michigan," Miriam Chanski, who along with Petoskey teacher Ray Arthur is now free from the MEA, told The Press.
Manny Lopez, managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential, was a guest on “Money With Melissa Francis” on Fox Business this afternoon, explaining why corporate welfare for film makers is unfair to the taxpayers from whom the money is taken.
You can read more about Michigan’s film subsidies here.
As auto manufacturing has shifted to the South, the UAW has made a push to begin unionizing workers in right-to-work states.
The words and actions of union officials are interesting compared to states where workers are still forced to pay money to the union.
The minimum wage has been in the news a lot lately due to proposals at the state and federal levels to increase it and because of a February Congressional Budget Office report on the subject.
Among all the policy subjects up for debate, there is perhaps no easier conclusion to draw than that minimum wage mandates are jobs killers.
A Boston Herald editorial on a $1 per pack tax hike on cigarettes in Massachusetts cites Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, who warned that an increase would lead to more tobacco smuggling and less state revenue.
The editorial references an interview LaFaive did with WBUR last year, indicating that the tax hike would cause the cigarette smuggling rate in Massachusetts to more than double from 18 percent to 43 percent. The state is now reporting that it is losing up to $246 million a year in cigarette taxes and $49 million a year in sales tax due to cigarette smuggling.
“We’re looking at Ohio. We’re looking at Missouri. We’re looking at Kentucky. The fire of worker freedom is shining brightly, and it is spreading.”
Those were among the comments of Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio at a panel discussion on right-to-work Saturday held at CPAC near Washington, D.C., according to Huffington Post.
State and national media are reporting on the victory of two Mackinac Center Legal Foundation clients over the Michigan Education Association in their fight against the union to exercise their worker freedom rights.
The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, National Review Online, WZZM-TV13 in Grand Rapids, MLive, The National Law Review, the Washington Examiner and the Petoskey News-Review all reported on the union giving up in its battle to force teachers Miriam Chanski of Coopersville and Ray Arthur of Petoskey to pay union dues. Patrick Wright, director of the MCLF, also discussed the matter on “Capital City Recap” with host Michael Cohen on WILS AM1320 in Lansing and on "The Frank Beckmann Show" on WJR AM760, and Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio was interviewed about the matter by National Review in Washington, D.C.
Senate Bill 783, Let landlords ban medical marijuana use: Passed 31 to 7 in the Senate
To prohibit the use of medical marijuana on any portion of private property that is open to the public, or where it is banned by the property owner. The bill would also permit a landlord to refuse to rent a residence to someone who uses medical marijuana on the property. Because the bill amends an initiated law adopted by the people, it requires a three-fourths supermajority vote in the Senate and House.
What could your household do with an extra $240 per year?
A new study estimates that Illinois electricity consumers have saved $37 billion from 1999 to 2013 as a result of increased electricity and natural gas competition. That works out to a total savings of $3,600 per household, or $240 annually. Illinois now boasts the lowest electricity prices in the Midwest.
Detroit's pension woes are in the news, but municipal employees around Michigan should not presume that their pension systems are secure.
Indeed, in most Michigan cities the underfunding problems are worse than those in Detroit.
On paper, the unfunded liabilities for Detroit's police and fire system are $147 million, and its general employee pension system underfunding comes to $838 million. That translates into 96 percent and 77 percent funded, respectively. That is, for every dollar in pension benefits earned by an employee, the city has an average of 87 cents saved.
Senior Legislative Analyst Jack McHugh was part of a roundtable discussion on “The Tony Conley Show” on WILS AM1320 in Lansing Tuesday, discussing wasteful government spending and how Michigan can use the tax dollars it takes from us more wisely and more efficiently.
The best tax systems include low rates, a wide base and limited exemptions that minimize the distortions caused by policy, while easing the burdens of paying the tax.
But many of the provisions that make the tax code so complicated are advocated for, and relied upon, by a variety of special interest groups, meaning changing the system is extremely difficult.
The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press are both reporting on a lawsuit filed by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation on behalf of Susan Bank, a 39-year teaching veteran who is being threatened by the Michigan Education Association because she chose to stop paying union dues under Michigan’s right-to-work law.
House Bill 4168, Repeal mandate for sheriffs to kill unlicensed dogs: Passed 36 to 0 in the Senate
To repeal a 1919 law that requires county sheriffs to locate and kill all unlicensed dogs, and which defines failure to do so as nonfeasance in office.
Bradley A. Smith, a member of the Mackinac Center’s Board of Scholars and former chairman of the Federal Election Commission appointed by President Clinton, writes in a Wall Street Journal commentary that the media’s lack of coverage of the IRS scandal “betrays a remarkable, if not willful, failure to understand abuse of power.”
One could hear several varieties of apocalyptical claims while Michigan was in the process of becoming the 24th right-to-work state in the nation.
Rep. Sander Levin called it "frightful ... for the people of the state of Michigan and for the middle class." The Associated Press said it was a "devastating and once-unthinkable defeat to organized labor." And one union in Michigan claimed it was "a violation of the prohibitions against involuntary servitude." In other words, a form of slavery.
Audrey Spalding, director of education policy, and Jarrett Skorup, research associate, explain in a Detroit News commentary today why proposed legislation that would create what backers are calling a “pay it forward” program for college tuition would end up costing students and taxpayers potentially billions of dollars and drive up college costs.
With a projected $971 million surplus for next fiscal year, Michigan’s Legislature is considering cutting the state’s income tax rate from 4.25 to 3.9 percent.
The cut would be phased in over time and would be contingent upon the budget remaining in surplus. When fully phased in, this would result in a $170 annual tax cut for the typical Michigan family.
According to MIRS News, the backers of the ballot proposal that would increase the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, "said the change would raise wages for about 940,000 people in Michigan, or 24 percent of workers."
That number is reached by looking at the number of workers currently making less than $10.10 per hour, adding in hundreds of thousands of other employees, assuming they will also get a raise and pretending that mandating a 36 percent increase in labor costs would have no effect on employment.
Proponents of the Michigan film subsidy program, which like all corporate welfare programs takes money from taxpayers and gives it to large companies in the name of "job creation," often say the incentives are temporary and needed to diversify the state economy.
The city of Detroit published its plan of adjustment detailing how it intends to solve the city’s financial and other problems. It contains important references to privatization of certain services, though it doesn’t go far enough.
A bolder vision might spare city retirees and creditors from as deep of cuts.
Michael LaFaive, director of the Mackinac Center’s Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, and Mackinac Center board member Rodney Lockwood both spoke at a roundtable discussion Thursday about the future of Detroit, according to The Detroit News. The event was hosted by the Reason Foundation.
