Policymakers are still concerned that closing the Michigan school pension system to new members will cost the state in one of two ways: Either it will require additional cash to meet a new front-loaded payment schedule for “catching up” on the system’s unfunded liabilities (the so-called “transition costs”); or, if this is not done, it will damage the state’s credit rating.
This morning, Gov. Snyder claimed at the Michigan Agriculture Exposition at Michigan State University that agriculture is one of Michigan's "Big 3" industries, along with the automotive industry and tourism. The Detroit Free Press cited Mackinac Center research that these analyses are flawed because they include cereal factories, wholesalers, retailers such as grocery stores, and restaurants in measuring the economic impact.
According to MLive reporter Dave Murray, “Key state Senate Republicans say they’re close to a compromise on teacher pension reforms that would move educators into a 401(k)-style plan while saving school districts about $300 million.”
The House and Senate are negotiating a compromise bill to overhaul the current school employee pension system, which is over $22 billion underfunded. The most significant part of the discussion is whether or not to shift new employees into 401(k) accounts or leave them in the current defined-benefit plan, the likes of which are bankrupting cities and states across the country.
Fox News reported on the large pay increases the heads of the nation’s two largest teachers unions received last year after Michigan Capitol Confidential broke the story last week.
Michael Van Beek, director of education policy, told Fox News that the dollar amounts the union bosses receive isn’t as problematic as the process.
Less than nine weeks after Gov. Rick Snyder appointed Joyce Parker as emergency manager for the Highland Park School District, Parker finds herself a defendant in a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union.
The ACLU lawsuit notes that a paucity of Highland Park students have met the state’s proficiency benchmark in reading, and alleges that the district failed to provide adequate assistance to students who were not reading at grade level. Just 35 percent of fourth-grade students and 25 percent of seventh-graders scored "proficient" on state standardized tests.
The House and Senate are in the midst of a summer break, so rather than votes, this report instead contains several newly introduced bills of interest.
Y = Yes, N = No, X = Not Voting
Senate Bill 1110 and House Bill 5579: Require gross negligence for suits against emergency room physicians
Introduced by Sen. Roger Kahn (R) and Rep. Kenneth Horn (R), respectively, to restrict medical malpractice lawsuits against emergency room physicians to cases of gross negligence. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.
MLive today published a story about a Mackinac Center blog post by Jarrett Skorup, content manager for Michigan Capitol Confidential, explaining why municipalities and school districts with appointed emergency managers are better off than facing bankruptcy proceedings.
A remarkable letter to President Obama from Virginia Governor and Republican Governors Association Chairman Bob McDonnell reveals the extent to which Obamacare’s massive intrusion into 18 percent of the U.S. economy is being executed, on the fly, by bureaucrats in so far over their heads they can’t even see the surface anymore.
New regulations that require pharmaceutical companies to report expected shortages for certain kinds of drugs six months before the shortages occur will not help solve the problem, according to a Mackinac Center expert. John Graham, director of health studies at the Pacific Research Institute and an adjunct scholar with the Center, explains the problem in a Detroit Free Press commentary today. He takes a closer look and offers solutions in this recent study.
Michigan’s recently beefed-up "emergency manager" law gives broad powers to a state appointee if a local government or school district fails its citizens financially in one of 18 explicit ways.
Assuming a referendum passes a legal challenge and makes it to the ballot, citizens will vote in November on whether to keep or overturn this law.
The Washington-based Heritage Foundation has published a brief “Top 5 Reasons to Repeal Obamacare.” Here are its headlines, which are arranged in reverse order:
5. To stop adding to the U.S. deficit and debt.
4. To help stop Taxmageddon.
3. To preserve freedom, including religious freedom, for all Americans.
2. To keep health care decisions where they belong—with patients and their doctors.
1. To make way for real, patient-centered, market-based health care reform.
With boxes of signatures submitted to the Secretary of State over the last few days, it appears there could be as many as seven different proposals on the ballot this fall. Many of them would benefit narrow constituencies at the expense of taxpayers; perhaps the most egregious is a self-serving measure that would embed a one-sided government union scheme into the state constitution.
According to a report by Bloomberg News, the former head of structured finance at Standard and Poors says big investors no longer believe the credit judgments issued by S&P, Moody’s and Fitch because of the inflated ratings the agencies gave to sub-prime debt in the run-up to the 2008 financial meltdown:
A scheme by the Service Employees International Union to enshrine its dues skim from home-based caregivers in the Michigan Constitution has caught the attention of statewide media.
Patrick Wright, director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, told WOOD Radio in Grand Rapids that the ballot proposal does nothing to help the state’s most vulnerable residents find home care. MLive pointed out that the Center has explicitly shown that many of the people suffering from the forced unionization are simply family members caring for loved ones. The Detroit Free Press reported that the Center has exposed how the SEIU has skimmed more than $30 million in “dues” from the Medicaid checks meant to help developmentally disabled adults. MLive reported that the Center has "long criticized" the stealth unionization.
Jarrett Skorup, content manager for Michigan Capitol Confidential, was a guest on “The Tony Conley Show” on WILS AM1320 in Lansing this morning, talking about his recent article on reforming school employee pensions in Michigan. For more information on this topic, see here, here and here.
This 2008 study by Paul Kersey, former director of labor policy with the Mackinac Center, is cited in an exhaustive investigation by Fox Business News about the spending habits of powerful unions, often using mandatory dues money for lavish trips and high salaries instead of for collective bargaining.
The Michigan Legislature has entered a summer recess. Many bills were passed in the legislative sessions just before the break.
Y = Yes, N = No, X = Not Voting
Senate Bill 1041: Subject legislator communications to FOIA
Introduced by Sen. Gretchen Whitmer (D), to expand government document disclosure requirements required under the Freedom of Information Act to include legislators and legislative offices. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.
Syndicated columnist and author Jonah Goldberg will be featured at “An Evening with the Mackinac Center” tonight at the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa. Goldberg will be discussing his new book, “The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas.” Registration is closed, but you can watch a simulcast of the event, beginning at 7 p.m., here.
Jack McHugh, senior legislative analyst, was a guest on “The Tony Conley Show” on WILS AM1320 in Lansing today, talking about the Obamacare decision and what can be done to fix the health care system. McHugh appeared on the show again Friday to continue the discussion.
As noted in my previous reviews here and here, Jonah Goldberg’s “Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas” provides a quick, enjoyable, highly readable analysis of the memes employed by progressive argumentation. Repeated often enough, these clichés seemingly have a ring of what faux conservative comic Stephen Colbert would call “truthiness.”
While you may have missed the Michigan Firework Safety Act passed late last year, you may have noticed more fireworks tents than usual popping up this summer. With the Fourth of July upon us, more and more retailers are taking advantage of Michigan’s new law permitting the sale of previously illegal fireworks.
Author and syndicated columnist Jonah Goldberg, who will appear at “An Evening with the Mackinac Center” Friday night in Traverse City, was a guest on “The Frank Beckmann Show” on WJR AM760 this morning. Goldberg discussed Friday’s event, to be held at the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa, and his new book, “The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas.”
After reading Rep. Chuck Moss's rebuttal to a spot-on editorial recently published in The Detroit News, a reader might conclude that the only problem with the school employee pension system is that it's underfunded. The $22.4 billion gap between the system's assets and liabilities is a symptom that exposes the real problem: politicians can't be trusted to properly fund a defined benefit pension system.
Jarrett Skorup, content manager for Michigan Capitol Confidential, writes in a Detroit News Op-Ed today about the costs and paperwork associated with the state’s job licensing procedures. Skorup has written on this issue in the past, which you can read here and here.
Recommendations for changing Michigan’s alcohol control policies would exempt craft brewers from signing exclusive agreements with wholesalers, Fiscal Policy Director Michael LaFaive told the Detroit Free Press.
LaFaive and other Center analysts have written extensively about the monopoly beer and wine distributors enjoy and how the state can revamp its liquor laws to benefit consumers. LaFaive examined the nature of that monopoly in an Op-Ed recently in the Downriver Sunday Times.
