Mackinac Center research on Proposal 2 received national and state media attention over the weekend.
The Detroit News, calling it the “worst of the bunch,” urged a “no” vote in its Sunday editorial, citing our analysis that it would cost taxpayers $1.6 billion in annual savings.
Proposal 4, which would amend the Michigan Constitution to force home-based caregivers into a union permanently, is receiving more media scrutiny thanks to the Center’s efforts.
The Detroit News today writes about the struggles of family members who care for disabled loved ones and were forced into a union scheme that has skimmed more than $32 million from them.
Union employees from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department went on strike to protest a new plan that looks to right-size the entity through contracting and privatization. The workers are all a part of the local AFSCME union.
The department is one of the most inefficient government-run entities in the state. The DWSD currently takes in $715 million per year, but is nearly $6 billion in debt. At the same time, it has nearly twice as many employees per gallons of water as other major cities. A recent independent audit found that the department has 257 different job descriptions.
Y = Yes, N = No, X = Not Voting
House Bill 5400, Appropriate money for fruit grower loan subsidies: Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate
To appropriate $15 million for low-interest loan subsidies for fruit growers who suffered crop damage in 2012 due to an extended March warm spell followed by a hard freeze. Also, to add some spending for lead abatement programs and prison security measures.
A leading advocate of government transparency is promoting a Detroit News Op-Ed written by Michael LaFaive, director of the Center’s Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, about how Proposal 2 could negatively impact Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act.
Sunshine Review, an independent organization that evaluates government websites for transparency and promotes state sunshine laws (freedom of information and open meetings acts), said that “Keeping the public out of the loop by skirting FOIA laws, though, has been too common of a tactic amongst the powerful looking to advance their own interests through the mechanisms of state and local government.”
Perhaps coincidentally, Proposal 3, a ballot measure to impose a mandate on Michigan utilities to obtain 25 percent of the electricity they sell from “renewable” sources — read wind turbines — will come before voters just seven weeks before another taxpayer wind subsidy is set to expire.
In MLive today, Sen. Bert Johnson, D-Detroit, attempts to make the case that voters should repeal the state’s emergency manager law, which is Proposal 1 on the ballot. He argues that the law is undemocratic. However, he fails to note that referendum leaves local control unaddressed.
Proposal 2 on Michigan’s Nov. 6 general election ballot, once called by its union-funders the “Protect Our Jobs Amendment,” would enshrine collective bargaining privileges for government employees into the state constitution, effectively giving provisions of government labor contracts primacy over laws passed by the people’s duly elected representatives in Lansing and signed by the governor.
Michael D. LaFaive, fiscal policy director, writes in today’s paper about how Proposal 2 could jeopardize Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act. Assistant Editor Lindsey Dodge’s Wednesday Op-Ed dealt with the “equal pay for equal work” argument.
Under the conventional public school system, where a student lived dictated to which public school he or she was assigned. Some studies have found that this has helped drive up home prices in perceived high-quality school districts, and depress home prices in lower quality districts.
Senior Economist David Littmann told MLive that more than $84 million could be lost to the metro Detroit economy if the current NHL labor strife continues for the entire season. Littmann based his calculations on the number of home games played, ticket prices and additional spending on things like food, parking and souveniers.
State Sen. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, has introduced a bill declaring that Iosco County — and no other Michigan county — shall henceforth be the official “birding capital” of Michigan.
The bill comes as something of a relief, because if legislators have time for such fluff then all of Michigan’s other problems and challenges must have been successfully met and solved.
Michael Van Beek, director of education policy, was a guest on “The Tony Conley Show” this morning on WILS AM1320 in Lansing, discussing his recent blog post on teacher evaluations.
The house sitting on 5076 Montauk Drive in Alpine Township (pictured at right) doesn't look like a blighted property. The house is not crumbling, nor does it appear to be in an area where vacancy is a concern.
However, when the Kent County Land Bank Authority acquired 5076 Montauk this summer, the property automatically became "blighted." Any property acquired by any Michigan land bank is considered blighted by law, regardless of the property's condition or location.
He's a Republican state lawmaker from Kent County, and someone MIRS News has just reported may seek to replace current Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, in that position next year.
OK, but who is he in terms of his voting record?
A new tool recently added to MichiganVotes.org offers a potentially very revealing answer for Rep. Yonker or any lawmaker by identifying votes in which he or she bucked the majority of his own House or Senate party caucus. Rep. Yonker did so 30 times since taking office in 2011; MichiganVotes’ concise, objective, plain-English description of each is shown here.
New legislation introduced last week in the Michigan House would ban for three years any new charter public schools from opening in the vicinity of two conventional public school districts that have consolidated. Two districts considering consolidation are located in the district represented by bill sponsor Rep. David Rutledge, D-Ypsilanti, who told AnnArbor.com his bill would “protect a newly merged school district from companies attempting to capitalize on the tenuous transition of consolidating.” Five other lawmakers from both parties have cosponsored the bill.
Two new studies show just how much work needs to be done to improve economic performance in Michigan and across the country.
An analysis from Northwood University commissioned by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce looked at the state's economic competitiveness. While the state has improved in the past few years, particularly in state debt and taxation, Michigan has had a steady, decade-long decline in other economic areas compared to the rest of the country.
Former state Rep. Bill Huizenga, now a U.S. Congressman, is viewed by some as the "godfather" of a state government economic development program known as the “21st Century Jobs Fund.”
Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm conceived the 2005 program, which among other things has seen the state buying ownership interest in private businesses, breaking a 154-year practice of steering clear of state equity investments that are not pension-related.
Jarrett Skorup, content manager for Michigan Capitol Confidential, was a guest Sunday morning on “The Daily Drift” with host Gary Wellings on WAAM AM1600 in Ann Arbor, discussing Michigan’s ballot proposals.
A new report from The Education Trust-Midwest finds that 99.6 percent of teachers from 10 of Michigan’s largest school districts were rated “effective.” Coincidentally, 98 percent of the principals responsible for these evaluations received the same rating.
Y = Yes, N = No, X = Not Voting
Senate Bill 1259, Increase licensure fees: Passed 33 to 5 in the Senate
To increase fees imposed on a wide range of businesses and occupations in which registration or licensure mandates are imposed as a condition of operating the firm or earning a living in the profession. This is one of a number of such bills passed by the House and Senate this week, which technically repeal the sunsets of previously enacted “temporary” fee increase laws, and are related to the budget for the next fiscal year. According to the House and Senate Fiscal Agencies, the bills would extract $15 to $20 million annually from business owners and tradesmen.
Patrick J. Wright, director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, was an in-studio guest on “The Frank Beckman Show” on WJR AM760 this morning, discussing the forced unionization of home-based caregivers by the SEIU.
Wright earlier today filed paperwork at the Michigan Employment Relations Commission asking the administrative panel to overturn its 2005 decision that forced tens of thousands of people into a union, most of whom care for disabled family members who receive a Medicaid stipend.
Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio is cited in Investor’s Business Daily on the slate of ballot proposals Michigan voters will face Nov. 6.
Vernuccio said Proposal 2 in particular is “an absolutely unprecedented power grab by government unions.”
Michael LaFaive, director of the Center’s Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, was a guest on “The Tony Conley Show” on WILS AM1320 in Lansing today discussing Proposal 5. If Prop 5 passes, the Michigan Legislature would not be able to increase taxes without a two-thirds majority in both chambers. For more information on this and the other ballot measures, see here.
What’s in a name? Plenty if you’re Proposal 2.
The unions behind the proposal to change the state constitution officially changed the initiative's title from "Protect Our Jobs" to "Protect Working Families."
To try and pass the ballot initiative, those behind it must sell it to the public as something beneficial. Perhaps the union-backed “Protect Our Jobs” did not have the same ring as “Protect Working Families.”
