Every Republican legislator — including ones who voted ‘no’ on the Obamacare Medicaid expansion — shares some blame for its passage. Had they been willing to vocally buck the governor and raise a ruckus in their own caucus, they could have prevented a Speaker and Majority Leader they themselves selected from using the votes of Democrats and a minority of Republicans to ‘roll’ their own caucuses.
The argument that the public education system would improve if every child were forced to attend is so naive and simplistic that it's surprising Slate magazine published a piece arguing exactly that.
In Slate, Allison Benedikt said that every student should attend public school, and that you are a "bad person" if you send your children to a private school. Her argument boils down to the notion that if we are all required to send our children to public schools, we will all be invested in their success. She wrote:
Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, told Bloomberg News that more corporate welfare for a new hockey arena in Detroit won’t solve the city’s ills.
“There’s a long history of politicians promising a renaissance, a comeback, a rebirth, basing their rhetoric … [on] construction of a heavily subsidized building in the city of Detroit,” he said. “And we’ve shown that it hasn’t worked.”
Fiscal Policy Director Michael LaFaive highlighted his newly released study on the economic impact right-to-work laws have on states, explaining to the Detroit Free Press that it takes about a decade for growth to begin.
Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio told both Crain’s Detroit Business and The Detroit News that since right-to-work took effect in Michigan, unions have rejected the chance to reform in order to better represent workers and instead are turning to the same old tactics of intimidation and politicking.
Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio in the Lansing State Journal explains how unions, in order to succeed, have to return to their original mission of serving members and abandon their century-old model that focuses on an adversarial relationship pitting employees against employer and treats members as interchangeable cogs.
The state is giving Hollywood-based Warner Bros. $35 million of Michigan taxpayers’ money to film parts of its new Batman/Superman movie here. It will be a follow-up to “Man of Steel,” which so far has grossed more than $600 million worldwide.
“Lawmakers and others are blinded by the glitz and glam of Hollywood when they consider this public policy,” Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, told The Daily Caller.
In a weekend interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mackinac Center for Public Policy Scholar Richard Vedder is called the "foremost expert on the economics of higher education."
Vedder directs the Center for College Affordability and Productivity at Ohio University and was interviewed to discuss President Barack Obama's recent tour of colleges and his proposal that seeks to tie financial aid to college performance. Vedder said that some of the president's ideas make "decent, even good sense," but that the plan is "not dealing with the fundamental problems."
Adjunct Scholar Michael Hicks was a guest on “The Frank Beckmann Show” on WJR AM760 this morning, discussing a new study on right-to-work that he and co-author Michael LaFaive released.
The study details the positive economic growth experienced by states with right-to-work laws compared to what would have occurred had they not passed such laws.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy released a new right-to-work study titled, "Economic Growth and Right-to-Work Laws" in which these authors find that states with right-to-work laws do better economically — sometimes much better — than they otherwise would have.
By Jack McHugh
Avik Roy reports in Forbes that a new study by the Lewin Group, a health care consulting firm, suggests the Obamacare Medicaid expansion may cost hospitals hundreds of millions of dollars in losses due to greater-than-expected "crowd-out" effects.
This is when individuals drop or lose higher-quality private health insurance because of the availability of "free" taxpayer funded coverage, specifically, lower-quality Medicaid.
In May, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited Detroit Public Schools' Thirkell Elementary to honor the school for its performance. After visiting the school, Duncan said he was "very, very encouraged" by the progress made at Thirkell and other DPS schools.
Readers of the Detroit Free Press opinion pages Sunday received a healthy dose of Mackinac Center analysis.
President Joseph G. Lehman and Board Chairman Clifford W. Taylor, former chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, explained why the Michigan Senate should not vote to expand Medicaid under Obamacare; Michael Van Beek, director of research, wrote about his recent study examining why students in Florida are outperforming their Michigan counterparts; and Carole Chase, a Center supporter, was cited on the negative impact Obamacare will have on small businesses.
A Mackinac Center Legal Foundation lawsuit on behalf of four city of Dearborn workers against Teamsters Local 214 is generating a large amount of state and national media coverage, including The Detroit News, MLive, Lansing State Journal, Macomb Daily, TV9&10 in Cadillac, the Cadillac News, WJRT-TV12 in Flint, WNEM-TV5 in Saginaw, FOX32 in Traverse City, the (Owosso) Argus-Press, Midland Daily News, Port Huron Times-Herald, the Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Houston Chronicle, the Charlotte Observer, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Albany Times Union in New York, WTOL and WTVG in Toledo, the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, the Bradenton (Fla.) Herald, the Enquirer-Herald in York, S.C., The State in Columbia, S.C., FOX28 in South Bend, Ind., the Daily Reporter in Greenfield, Ind., WBNS in Columbus, Ohio, the Times-Post in Pendleton, Ind., the Ventura County Star in Camarillo, Calif., The Tribune in San Louis Obispo, Calif., and the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph.
As part of its Open Government Initiative, the Mackinac Center in July and August hosted four town hall meetings around Michigan to help educate residents about the Freedom of Information and Open Meetings acts. Panelists included representatives from the ACLU of Michigan, the Michigan Press Association, The Center for Michigan/Bridge Magazine and the Michigan Coalition for Open Government.
CMU Public Radio says August is “an important month” for right-to-work in Michigan, reporting that teachers can exercise their worker freedom rights this month and resign from their union.
“Workers in contracts that have been renewed, entered into or expanded after March 28th” don’t have to financially support a union as a condition of their employment.
You have to admire the Upper Peninsula’s get-it-done attitude, even on civic matters. For instance, in 2009 the state stopped funding the state fair in the Upper Peninsula, so they organized their own. The fair just concluded its fourth year last weekend.
Senior Legislative Analyst Jack McHugh will be part of a special program titled “The Health Care Act and You” airing at 6:30 p.m. Sunday on CBS-TV62 in Detroit.
“If you like your current health care system’s dysfunctions and perverse incentives you’ll be able to keep them,” McHugh told host Carol Cain. “Plus you get awesome new levels of bureaucratic complexity, trillions added to the national debt, and for most people, substantially higher insurance costs. The shame is, as a nation we could do so much better.”
Like clockwork, every few months it is front-page news around the country: The identity of the Powerball lottery winner becomes public.
Recently, the third-largest jackpot of all time, $448 million, was split three ways.
At a time when our benevolent bureaucrats at the city, state and federal level are all about "nudging" people to make better decisions, the government teams up with the media to promote one of the most irrational ways for people to spend their money. State-supported lotteries are especially rich when you consider all of the low-level gambling that Michigan makes illegal — like March Madness college basketball pools or small monetary bets between friends.
Capitol Affairs Specialist Jack Spencer in this recent Michigan Capitol Confidential story explains how the GOP-controlled state Senate and several corporate backers want to put PAC donations above the rights of employees via Senate Bill 283.
The House and Senate are in the midst of a summer break, so rather than votes this report contains several recently introduced bills of interest.
Note: The will be no Roll Call Report next week. The next report will go out as usual on Friday, Aug. 30.
Senate Bill 450: Give certain public employees property tax break
Introduced by Sen. Jim Ananich (D), to grant a state income tax credit to teachers and public safety personnel who buy and move into a home in a run-down area that has been repossessed by the federal Housing and Urban Development agency and sold at a steep discount. Under a federal “Good Neighbor Next Door Program,” such purchase discounts are available only to these government employees. The bill would allow these buyers to cut their state income tax liability by the amount they owe each year in property tax. If the property tax amount is higher than their income tax liability the difference could not be “refunded,” however. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.
At a time when some education officials blame school performance on student background and a lack of funding, the success of Berrien Springs Public Schools is a welcome contrast.
More than 60 percent of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The district participates in Schools-of-Choice and doesn't turn away alternative education students. In fact, Superintendent Jim Bermingham says that 75 percent of the district's alternative education students come from outside the district.
When people hear the terms "capitalism" or "free markets," often their first thought is that these are systems mostly benefiting the wealthy.
In fact, the evidence suggests that it is actually the poor who gain the most from economic freedom.
It is abundantly clear that living in countries with lower taxes, fewer regulations, a rule of law and generally limited government makes all citizens better off. One interesting statistic: Those reading this article are likely among the wealthiest — earning $34,000 per year puts people among the top 1 percent in the world, and half of the world's "1 percenters" on Earth live in the United States.
A recent Op-Ed in the Detroit Free Press by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy, and Jack McHugh, senior legislative analyst, explains why Detroit’s pension funds are in crisis and why state legislators should take heed to correct similar problems in the state employee and school employee pension systems.
The House and Senate are in the midst of a summer break, so rather than votes this report contains several recently introduced bills of interest.
Senate Bill 439: Impose licensure on "anesthesiologist assistants"
Introduced by Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker (R), to impose licensure and regulation on anesthesiologist assistants, with $50 annual license fees, continuing education mandates and more. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.
Research Associate Jarrett Skorup was a guest on “The Art Lewis Show” on WSGW AM790 in Saginaw Thursday discussing the minimum wage.
