The Michigan Public Service Commission is attempting to influence Michigan policy by issuing reports on energy-related issues.
Its most recent report focuses on Michigan's use of competition and consumer choice in electricity services.
Ted Bolema, a member of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's Board of Scholars, just published a policy brief critiquing this most recent report from the MPSC. It will be submitted as a formal comment to the MPSC.
Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio was a guest on Fox Business Wednesday, discussing a decision by Boeing to build a new plant in South Carolina, which is a right-to-work state, rather than expanding operations in Puget Sound, Wash., where it has experienced labor strife.
MIRS News reports (subscription required) that the House Education Committee is considering two bills: one to create an A-F letter grading system for schools and one to require third-graders be proficient in reading before advancing to fourth grade. Both of these ideas are recommendations made in a recent Mackinac Center publication, "Michigan vs. Florida: Student Achievement, Education Policies and Proposals for Reform."
Rather than being based on safety, licensing requirements for people to work are often imposed merely for the protection of existing businesses and to raise the barrier to entry for competitors, thereby driving up prices for consumers.
However, that could change if a bill introduced by State Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester HIlls, were passed and signed into law. House Bill 4641 would prohibit governments from imposing occupational licensure without valid concerns for public health and safety, and allow workers to sue if a regulation excessively burdens their right to earn a living. This proposed state law would go a long way to solve the problem of burdensome and inconsistent requirements.
A Mackinac Center Legal Foundation client who could become a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against the Michigan Education Association is featured in today’s Oakland Press.
Amy Breza, a paraeducator in Clarkston Community Schools, is being forced to continue paying union dues after her union and the school board signed a contract extension before March 28 in order to skirt around Michigan’s new right-to-work law.
State legislators are considering reforming automobile insurance laws to save drivers money while still providing robust coverage.
As it is, ill-conceived state mandates cause Michigan drivers to pay among the highest insurance costs in the nation for the coverage they receive.
Patrick J. Wright, director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, was a guest on “Let It Rip,” a Sunday morning issue-oriented talk show on FOX 2 Detroit (click on segment two), discussing the MCLF clients who have filed unfair labor practice complaints against the Michigan Education Association. The clients feel they are being bullied and intimidated by the MEA for attempting to exercise their worker freedom rights.
House Bill 4234, Vehicle trade-in "sales tax on the difference": Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate
To exempt from sales tax the value of a trade-in when buying a new motor vehicle, titled watercraft or recreational vehicle, but phase this tax break in over 24 years, and halt the phase-in if the federal health care law's Medicaid expansion (authorized by House Bill 4714) is rescinded. Under this bill and Senate Bill 89, when fully phased-in the buyer would only pay sales tax on the difference between the value of the trade-in and the purchase price of the new car. Initially, the tax break would only apply to $2,000 of the price difference, which would increase $500 per year. When fully implemented the tax break's annual value would reach $226 million (in 2013 dollars).
The UAW has put together a flier on right-to-work "facts" that it is handing out to union members. The pamphlet's facts are wrong.
I'll stay away from some of the statements that are more nuanced — for example, the UAW says the law requires them to provide services for all employees in a union shop, but neglects to mention that they fought to make that the law to increase bargaining power. Instead, I'll focus on the figures that are demonstrably untrue.
Patrick Wright, director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, was a guest this morning on “Current State” on WKAR public radio discussing the unfair labor practice complaints the MCLF has filed on behalf of teachers against the Michigan Education Association.
Executive Vice President Mike Reitz told The Detroit News that “Any reform bill on FOIA faces a buzz saw of opposition from local government entities,” for a recent story about the lack of transparency at all levels of government.
Reitz has written previously about transparency and was the architect of a series of town hall meetings the Center hosted over the summer in conjunction with the ACLU and Michigan Press Association discussing Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act.
According to the news reports on the Detroit bankruptcy proceedings, Judge Steven Rhodes is interested in the legality of the state’s emergency financial manager law.
Unfortunately, neither side seems to be making the plain case about why the state reverted to the emergency financial manager law following the rejection by voters of the emergency manager law, nor are they acknowledging the differences between the two.
While there have been many positive responses to the stories of the teachers from across the state fighting to get out of the Michigan Education Association, there also are naysayers.
And a common complaint about the educators who want out of the union is wrong.
Statewide media are reporting on the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation’s clients who filed unfair labor practice complaints against the Michigan Education Association. The teachers are claiming that the union has kept information from them about how to exercise their rights under Michigan’s worker freedom law.
Senate Bill 307, Let more cities impose additional public safety property tax: Passed 37 to 0 in the Senate
To allow cities with less than 70,000 residents impose "special assessment" property taxes to pay for police and fire services. These taxes would be imposed over and above regular property taxes, and require voter approval. According to the Senate Fiscal Agency, this could allow 278 cities to impose these additional taxes.
In 2009, we released a Viewpoint detailing the average cost of benefits for public sector employees compared to those in the private sector in Michigan. Now that time has passed, we decided to explore whether this has changed. It turns out that it has. The gap increased very slightly to $5.8 billion.
It isn't much, but at least it's something.
Senate Bill 612, sponsored by Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood, D-Taylor, would "reduce from 2,000 hours to the 1,800 hours the number of hours of instruction at a ‘licensed barber college’ that an individual must accumulate before he or she is allowed by the state to earn a living at this trade."
Education Policy Director Audrey Spalding was a guest on “The Tony Conley Show” on WILS AM1320 in Lansing this morning, discussing her newest study that points out flaws in the Michigan Department of Education’s “Top-to-Bottom” school ranking list.
WOOD Radio in Grand Rapids and MLive also covered details about the study.
Former Mackinac Center intern Josiah Kollmeyer is one of just 34 people — out of 112,000 who took the test — to receive a perfect score on the Law School Admissions Test in the past year, according to The Hillsdale Collegian.
Kollmeyer was a fiscal policy intern at the Center during the summers of 2011 and 2012, helping conduct our annual school privatization survey.
Back in 1971, a racehorse named Canonero II surprised the racing world by winning the Kentucky Derby.
Before the race, few were even talking about Canonero II. A few so-called experts suggested he might have an outside chance because he'd been racing in Venezuela. At times racehorses do well in the states shortly after being shipped in from South America because the altitude change can have a positive effect.
Michigan’s current budget increases the amount of money going toward funding higher education. This increase in funding has been pushed for by some of the groups representing those in the business community as well as, of course, the universities themselves.
Senate Bill 542, Allow more generous government employee health benefits: Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate
To increase from $11,000 to $13,455 the “hard cap” on the amount the state, a local government or a public school district can spend for an "individual-plus-spouse" health insurance policy under a 2011 law which either caps these benefits or else requires public employees to share some of the cost. The Senate Fiscal Agency reports this could increase state costs by $19.4 million annually; since there are seven-times more school and local employees than state employees the overall cost to taxpayers could be much higher. (The statutory caps also increase each year with inflation.) The bill would also revise some factors in the formula used to set the caps in ways that generally permit granting more generous benefits.
In 2005, the Michigan Employment Relations Commission inappropriately allowed and administered a union certification election for home-based caregivers, despite them not being public employees.
Unfortunately for those 40,000-some workers, who primarily are family members and friends caring for the state's most vulnerable residents, MERC made the decision in April not to correct its own mistake. For that reason, the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation this month filed an appeal in court, on behalf of people like Patricia Haynes and Steven Glossop, to have even a portion of the dues returned and the union certification declared illegal.
Senior Investigative Analyst Anne Schieber was a guest on “The Tony Conley Show” on WILS AM1320 this morning for a two-part interview on her story and video package in Michigan Capitol Confidential about residents in Genesee County’s Davison Township whose taxes went up after they refused to allow assessor’s into their homes.
Mackinac Center President Joseph G. Lehman was a guest on “The Frank Beckmann Show” on WJR AM760 on Monday morning, discussing the history of the Center and Monday night’s 25th anniversary gala, which was held at the Kellogg Center on the campus of Michigan State University and featured John Mackey, co-founder of Whole Foods.
