The House and Senate opened the new year with a pro-forma session on Wednesday, as required by the Constitution, but no bills were voted on this week. This report contains several recently introduced bills of interest.
Senate Bill 626 and House Bill 4623: Repeal criminal penalties for marijuana possession
Introduced by Sen. Coleman Young (D) and Rep. Jeff Irwin (D), to repeal criminal sanctions on possession of one ounce or less of marijuana, and instead authorize a civil penalty of $25, and $50 to $100 for subsequent violations. The House version is cosponsored by four Democrats and two Republicans. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.
The Lansing City Pulse reported on a federal audit that shows the mismanagement of asset forfeiture funds by the Lansing Police Department.
Asset forfeiture is used by police to seize property from citizens. In Michigan, this can be done even if someone is not charged with, much less convicted of, a crime. Government agencies have seized at least $250 million worth of money and property from state residents since 2000.
In a recent blog post and longer essay I discussed the possibility and implications of a higher Michigan minimum wage (some politicians and unions are talking more than $9.00 per hour), noting that increasing mandated minimums hurt more people than they help.
Detroit’s bankruptcy has meant that the city’s pensioners may receive less than what they expected. This has angered a lot of people and blame has been pointed in many directions. There are a lot of reasons why Detroit’s pension systems are in poor shape and there is plenty of blame to go around.
While students in 23 states have access to private school choice, Michigan lags behind.
Not only is educational choice limited to public schools, but the Michigan Constitution actually prohibits any public benefit from being used to help students attend a private school (other than transportation). No other state constitution is more restrictive.
Media statewide reported on the 2013 “missed votes” tally for Michigan legislators compiled by Jack McHugh, editor of MichiganVotes.org.
The Detroit News in an editorial said the numbers make a good case for moving to a part-time Legislature. Michigan Radio, The Cadillac News, The Alpena News, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven Tribune, the Downriver News-Herald and the Petoskey News-Review all wrote about the report.
Michigan Capitol Confidential reports that the state is giving a Hollywood studio that made more than $1 billion in profits last year $35 million to film the "Batman vs. Superman" movie to be filmed in Michigan.
In the past, we've looked at what this means to each individual income taxpayer. The most recent numbers from the state show there are about 4.5 million taxpayers, meaning each one is on the hook for $7.80 for the film. Perhaps taxpayers can request that amount off their ticket price when the movie is released in 2015.
Beginning last April, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and Michigan Capitol Confidential predicted that a minimum wage debate would likely take center stage in Michigan in 2014, and might even become a November ballot issue.
This appears to part of a nationwide political gambit that some speculate is intended to distract voters from Obamacare failures come November, among other issues.
There often is a tendency for those concerned about the size and scope of government to feel like everything is getting perpetually worse. But a full look at the evidence shows this isn't so.
While critics claim that free trade and globalization are merely a "race to the bottom," the world as a whole has been quietly reducing poverty, disease, famines and war by embracing the free market.
For many years the Mackinac Center has pointed out that on balance government employees do better financially than those who pay their bills.
This was driven home for me recently by new statistics reported by the Wall Street Journal. The gist was characterized by one snarky newsletter title, "Sorry About the Recession, America, But Don't Worry About Washington."
In the closing days of 2013, long-time Michigan political pundit Tim Skubick opined that a "disease" was affecting Lansing: "tax-cut fever."
What about tax hike fever, Mr. Skubick?
In the past year, lawmakers here have talked much more about how to reach deeper into the pockets of Michigan citizens. They've done some actual reaching, too — and Michigan politicians aren't the only ones.
Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio was a guest on Fox Business on Dec. 26 discussing how a higher minimum wage leads to fewer jobs. You can read more about the issue here.
United Van Lines gave the Associated Press an early look at its annual inbound versus outbound household move statistics for 2013, and the news for Michigan looks fantastic.
For the first time in 16 years, Michigan is no longer in the “high-outbound” moves category, defined by United Van Lines (UVL) as 55 percent or more of customer traffic leaving a particular state.
Executive Vice President Michael J. Reitz today in The Detroit News responded to an attack against the Center written last week by AFL-CIO President Karla Swift.
National Review Online exposed several instances in Swift’s commentary that directly lifted language from another publication without attribution. Watchdog.org connects Swift’s attacks to a publication put out by the Center for Media and Democracy, a Michigan-specific version of which was found to have instances of plagiarism in it.
Michigan legislators missed 1,093 votes in 2013, according to the new “Missed Votes Report” compiled by Jack McHugh, editor of MichiganVotes.org.
That is in stark comparison to the 21,000 votes lawmakers missed during the 2001-2002 legislative session when MichiganVotes.org first started.
Fiscal Policy Director Michael LaFaive is cited in today’s Detroit News editorial about the need for the city of Detroit to make it easier to open a small business.
“Lots of small businesses have the potential to be the next big thing, but government has to get out of their way,” LaFaive said, noting that city hall should not treat business owners as suspect.
An Associated Press story about the potential for worker freedom laws to be passed in Ohio, Oregon and Missouri that cites Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio has been posted by no fewer than 60 media outlets nationwide, including The Washington Post, St. Louis Dispatch and The Oregonian.
Manny Lopez, managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential, was a guest on “Let it Rip” Sunday morning on FOX2 Detroit, discussing the claim by unions that the exclusive monopoly as bargaining representatives the unions themselves sought now amounts to “slavery” because they have to represent workers who exercise their right-to-work freedoms.
Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio writes in today’s Lansing State Journal about the one-year anniversary of Michigan’s right-to-work law passing, and what the law means — and doesn’t mean — to the state.
Mackinac Center Legal Foundation Director Patrick J. Wright and Coopersville kindergarten teacher Miriam Chanski were guests on “The Sean Hannity Show” that aired Friday on Fox News. They discussed the unfair labor practice complaints the legal foundation filed with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission on behalf of Chanski and seven other public school employees against their local unions and the Michigan Education Association over the refusal by the unions to allow the educators to exercise their worker freedom rights.
Due to late sessions and a crowded year-end agenda, some of this week's votes will be included in a supplemental roll call report next week. Except for pro-forma adjournment and "opening day" sessions on Dec. 13 and Jan. 8, respectively, the Legislature will not return for regular business until mid-January.
National Review Online today highlights two cases in which the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation is protecting teachers from their unions.
The first involves several teachers around the state who are being denied their ability to exercise their worker freedom rights by the Michigan Education Association. The union claims that its bylaws limiting teachers to resigning their membership only during the month of August trumps Michigan’s right-to-work law.
Michigan embraced worker freedom one year ago today with the adoption of a right-to-work law, becoming the 24th state in the nation to do so. Mackinac Center analysts had called for the state to allow workers to be free from financially supporting a union as a condition of employment for two decades.
Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, was cited in both The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press on the $10.5 billion loss incurred by taxpayers after the federal government sold the final stock shares it owned in General Motors.
Research by Fiscal Policy Director Michael LaFaive and Adjunct Scholar Todd Nesbit on cigarette smuggling was recently cited in Pacific Standard. The magazine cites in particular their finding that the state of New York has the highest cigarette smuggling rate in the nation, and has increased some 70 percent since 2006 due to high tobacco excise taxes.
