Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio was a guest on Fox Business Monday night with host Neil Cavuto discussing a lawsuit filed by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation on behalf of three teachers in Taylor over a 10-year agreement between the Taylor Federation of Teachers and the Taylor School District that circumvents the state’s right-to-work law.
While grass-roots activists here are focused on a so-called Obamacare "partnership" exchange, special-interest lobbyists are mounting a full-court press for something far more critical to the law's survival: Medicaid expansion.
The Medicaid battle is being fought in Lansing every day in committee hearings and legislators' offices, and in the excerpt below, The Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney describes events on this front elsewhere:
The Michigan Senate recently tabled a proposal by Gov. Rick Snyder to raise the state gas tax and vehicle registration fees. Republican lawmakers have reportedly countered with a tax increase proposal of their own.
Both sides are right to propose more road spending. State legislators, however, should ensure that any increase in transportation taxes is offset by cuts in taxes and spending elsewhere.
Not only does March 1, 2013, mark the beginning of the federal budget sequester, but as well the deadline for the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs’ Retention and Engagement Grant Program.
The REGP is but one of five MCACA grants categories for Michigan this year. MCACA’s 2013 budget includes $5 million in state tax dollars and $1.15 million from the National Endowment for the Arts. The $6.15 million represents a $3.5 million bump above 2012’s MCACA budget.
The Detroit Free Press, Gongwer and Detroit News quickly reported on a lawsuit filed by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation today on behalf of three teachers in Taylor over a 10-year agreement between the Taylor Federation of Teachers and Taylor School District that would prevent the plaintiffs from exercising their right-to-work freedom. MLive, the Livingston Daily Press & Argus and Southgate News-Herald also covered the story.
Gov. Rick Snyder could appoint a new emergency manager for Detroit Friday, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Mackinac Center analysts have written extensively about both the city’s financial problems and the emergency manager law. Here is a sampling:
Highland Park High School Leader Flinnoia Hall talks about turnover at the charter public school district.
In December, Michigan Radio reported that one out of four teachers at one of Michigan's charter public school districts had already quit. Reporter Lindsey Smith spoke with former teachers, administrators and students, all who were frustrated with the lack of continuity.
Few things make your writer more elated than unwrapping a new compact disc, transferring old vinyl to digital files or adding tunes to my Mp3 library. Recently, I had the great pleasure of performing all three in one morning — respectively opening Richard Thompson’s latest collection of impeccably performed Celtic-infused bittersweet rockers; preserving a nearly worn-out copy of Brian Protheroe’s eclectic 1976 LP classic “I/You” and downloading “Young Waverer,” the latest release by Canada’s libertarian response to rock’n’roll statism, Lindy Vopnfjord.
A new poll shows that a majority of Americans support raising the minimum wage. Doing so would almost surely help large businesses at the expense of smaller mom-and-pop stores and lower-skilled workers.
A few years ago, the conservative chief executive at Wal-Mart went public advocating for an increase in the minimum wage. A short time later, the “maverick” left-wing Costco CEO Jim Sinegal followed suit. Was it out of the goodness of their hearts? Maybe, but the more likely reason is that this would help their bottom-line.
Mackinac Center experts were recently cited by Reuters in stories about Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Gov. Rick Snyder.
President Joseph G. Lehman and Fiscal Policy director Michael LaFaive were interviewed about Gov. Snyder and Mayor Bing, respectively.
A new federal report shows that the amount spent by taxpayers for union employees to do union work on government time is the highest it has ever been measured. Taxpayers now spend $155 million for this practice.
“Overall, federal employees spent about 3.4 million hours working for unions while receiving federally funded salaries — the highest total since 2004,” reports Government Executive. “That marks nearly a 10 percent increase from 2010, the largest jump from one year to the next since the data became available.”
Y = Yes, N = No, X = Not Voting
Senate Bill 97, Repeal child car seat penalty waiver provision: Passed 35 to 1 in the Senate
To repeal a provision of the law mandating car seats for children under age four that waives penalties for a violation if the driver subsequently obtains a car seat and brings it or the receipts to court.
Lawmakers have finally taken an important step in moving alcohol reform ideas forward with Senate Bill 216, introduced by Sen. Howard Walker, R-Traverse City.
Mackinac Center analysts have long studied the issue of alcohol control and reform and have published a summary and critique of the Office of Regulatory Reinvention’s list of 74 recommendations for reform. They have also examined statistically the state’s existing regulations and their impact on the price of hard liquor and beer while calling for far bolder recommendations than those laid out by the Office of Regulatory Reinvention’s reform committee.
(Editor’s note: Portions of this essay originally appeared in The Freeman, June 2012.)
This weekend marks the 85th Academy Awards, which for some cinephiles is the highlight of our current journey around the sun. The event also grants an opportunity for public policy pundits to bemoan the overall statist bent of the entertainment churned out each year by Hollywood studios. Even Jonah Goldberg joined the club this week with an essay on why he believes conservatives should leave the talkies to the liberals.
Fiscal Policy Director Michael LaFaive tells The Detroit News today that the city of Detroit’s economic problems and population loss shouldn’t come as a surprise.
"Detroiters aren’t sheep lining up to be sheared,” he said. “When the tax burdens got too high, many fled to safer climes. Detroit has such a crushing property tax burden, it’s no coincidence the land value is so low."
Reuters reports that some charter public schools in Ohio, Illinois, California and Pennsylvania use application processes to screen incoming students.
According to Reuters, an Ohio school used an entrance exam to screen out a third grader. In another case (now under investigation) an Illinois charter public school actually required parents to invest in the company that built the school.
One of the main misunderstandings by those who want the state to subsidize college degrees is the assumption that this will directly lead to more wealth.
But this is an example of “the cart pulling the horse” — that is, people who graduate from college are already capable of great wealth before they actually get a degree.
The recent financial struggles of Michigan “green energy” manufacturers A123 Systems and LG Chem left both state and federal taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars. The failed promises of both companies prompted justifiable outrage against the misuse of federal funds and state tax breaks for such enterprises.
An online database of school superintendent salaries released today by the Mackinac Center is already generating media interest, drawing mentions on WIN FM98.5 in Battle Creek, TV7&4 in Traverse City, WHTC AM1450 in Holland, FOX2 in Detroit and WTVB AM1590 in Coldwater, and in the Holland Sentinel, The Kalamazoo Gazette, The Jackson Citizen Patriot, The Flint Journal, The Oakland Press, The Grand Rapids Press, Detroit Free Press, Royal Oak Daily Tribune, AnnArbor.com, Macomb Daily and MLive.
The Mackinac Center just expanded its Michigan School Databases project by adding superintendent compensation and contracts to the mix. Also contained therein are copies of union contracts, detailed fiscal data and high school achievement information.
In response to my article last week on why state government shouldn’t subsidize higher education, several proponents of more state funding for universities disputed the claims but presented no actual evidence to counter the points.
As I wrote:
Economist Richard Vedder notes: “Nationwide, from 1980 to 2000, the 10 states with the most rapid economic growth expanded their spending on higher education on average at a modest pace, from 1.31 percent to 1.44 percent of personal income. In the 10 slowest growing states, higher education spending grew rapidly on average, from 1.80 percent to 2.21 percent of personal income.”
Two school districts in the area represented by Rep. Woodrow Stanley, D-Flint, have among the worst absentee rates for conventional schools in Michigan, yet Rep. Stanley has chosen to introduce a bill that would require homeschool parents to report attendance of their children to the state.
Jon Telford, the interim superintendent at Detroit Public Schools, claims in The Detroit News that in 1999 DPS’s “[standardized test] scores were then at the state midpoint.” This proves completely false based on data available from the Michigan Department of Education.
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For more detailed information on the events listed above, including links to essays, commentaries, studies and Op-Eds, please see this timeline.
The union representing faculty members at Wayne State University is trying to circumvent Michigan’s new right-to-work law by signing a new contract before the law takes effect in late March, a labor policy expert told The Detroit News. Extending the contract before March 28 would deny members the ability to decide whether or not they want to belong to the union.
