An online news service in California cited the Mackinac Center’s 2011 school privatization survey in an article titled “Teacher Unions Launch Scare Campaign Against Concept of Privatization.”
The Center’s survey shows that a majority of public school districts in Michigan contract out for at least one of the three main noninstructional services — custodial, food or transportation — and new contracts this year alone will save taxpayers nearly $8 million.
National and state media turned to David Littmann, senior economist for the Mackinac Center, for his expert analysis on the financial crisis the city of Detroit faces. CNNMoney, CNN and The Detroit News all cited Littmann regarding the possibility of Detroit facing bankruptcy.
MichiganVotes.org sends a weekly report to newspapers and TV stations around the state showing how state legislators in their service area voted on the most important or interesting bills of the past week.
The House and Senate are in the midst of a two-week break, so rather than votes this report instead contains several newly introduced bills of interest.
There is an old saw that goes “politicians will do the right thing, but only after they have exhausted every other option.”
For years the Mackinac Center analysts and scholars have tried to persuade pols to do the right thing at the state and local level. We’ve had many successes, but cities like Detroit often acted allergic to sound, free-market policy ideas. That may be changing because Detroit is running out of money and thus, running out of options.
An Op-Ed in The Washington Times Thursday cites Paul Kersey, labor policy director for the Mackinac Center, on the benefits of right-to-work laws for job growth.
The author referred to this commentary by Kersey, which makes the point that right-to-work laws create more jobs.
As reported in MIRS Capitol Capsule, several environmental groups have launched a petition drive to encourage Gov. Rick Snyder to develop a regulatory process that would be the first step toward placing wind turbines in the Great Lakes. The Sierra Club, Michigan League of Conservation Voters, Clean Water Action, Ecology Center and the West Michigan Environmental Action Council are promoting the petition. These groups have abdicated their role of protecting the Great Lakes from pollution by their support of placing wind turbines in those very waters.
On the morning of Nov. 10, the following 13 Republican state senators all voted to implement a key component of the federal “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” by authorizing creation of a Michigan agency to administer the law’s insurance subsidies: Darwin Booher, Bruce Caswell, Judy Emmons, Mike Green, Geoff Hansen, David Hildenbrand, Mark Jansen, Rick Jones, Roger Kahn, Jim Marleau, Arlan Meekhof, John Pappageorge and Randy Richardville.
According to the Detroit Free Press, the city will run out of cash in April 2012, and the largest culprit is the growing cost of employee benefits.
It reports:
"Since 2008, health insurance costs for Detroit employees and retirees have jumped 62% to $186 million a year, city records show. During the same period, the city's contribution to pensions increased from $50 million to $120 million."
For a bold step towards freedom and fairness, legislators should repeal a law that forces government employees to contribute dues or fees to a union. Because these politically powerful unions benefit financially from the coercive extractions, this won’t happen without a fight. The speciousness of some arguments employed by government union defenders demonstrates just how far they’ll go to defend these forcibly extracted dues.
WJBK-TV2 in Detroit Tuesday night covered the story of thousands of home health care workers who are being illegally forced to pay union dues, including one couple who cares for their disabled adult children. Michigan Capitol Confidential broke the story, which has received national attention, Nov. 9.
Gov. Rick Snyder was a guest this morning on “The Frank Beckmann Show” on WJR AM760, where he discussed his role in introducing Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels at “An Evening with the Mackinac Center” held Monday night at the Lansing Center. Gov. Daniels talked about his time in office and the steps he took to reinvigorate Indiana’s business climate, several ideas of which Gov. Snyder said he hopes to adopt in Michigan.
The Detroit Free Press is reporting that the United Auto workers is laying off 58 members of its staff. The Office and Professional Employees International Union, which represents UAW staff, is crying foul.
If collective bargaining really were the great deal for workers that its union propenents claim it to be, then layoffs would be rare and concessions would be mild when they came up at all. But collective bargaining is not magic fairy dust that makes hard economic decisions go away. As the Freep article itself notes, the UAW has lost nearly 75 percent of the membership it had from its peak in 1979, and it was just a couple of years ago that two out of the Big Three were in bankruptcy.
Lou Glazer of Michigan Future remains committed to his trope in Dome Magazine, arguing that Michigan needs to focus more on higher education. But making Michigan a mecca for talent will have little effect on the state economy if the evidence from the rest of the country is any indication.
Michigan's K-12 public school establishment is (once again) up in arms over "controversial" legislation to remove a minor restriction on private and home-school students who take advantage of existing “dual enrollment” programs to take a course at state colleges and universities. The Detroit Free Press reports: "Many in the K-12 community have raised concerns, primarily about the appropriateness of using public money for nonpublic students."
“If all the economists were laid end to end, they'd never reach a conclusion.”
— George Bernard Shaw
Shaw’s quip is a good summary of how most people look at economists and the economics field in general. But while professional economists often do disagree with one another, on some matters there are surprising levels of agreement. In one of the largest surveys of economists, Harvard professor Dr. N. Gregory Mankiw identified the areas economists agree on most. These are listed below with the percent of those surveyed who agree; links are to relevant Mackinac Center articles.
The federal government must rein in spending in order to help fix the economy, David Littmann, senior economist for the Mackinac Center, told a west Michigan group today, according to The Jackson Citizen Patriot.
“Spending needs to be rolled back,” Littmann said. “In 2012,w e have to separate the rhetoric from the reality.”
The Michigan Legislature is primed to expand the state’s film incentive program, which has only been authorized to spend $25 million this year instead of the more than $100 million it had been spending. The idea of rewriting the law was to allow the film office flexibility to use these funds to get the best bang for the buck. While these programs are ultimately a harmful waste of taxpayer money, the current legislation strips the ability of the state to be flexible. Without this, legislators will be tempted to spend beyond their limits in pursuing their Hollywood dreams.
Digital learning in K-12 schools is growing at an impressive rate as more parents, teachers and schools are understanding the benefits of (in the words of Gov. Rick Snyder) "any time, any place, any way, any pace" learning models. The Mackinac Center released a report earlier this year on the topic and has been hosting public forums all around the state to help educate the public on the powerful potential of individually customized learning.
Paul Kersey, director of labor policy, wrote in a Detroit Free Press Op-Ed Sunday that labor law needs a comprehensive overhaul to remove politics from the mix and provide “clear, permanent standards that empower workers” and make the process “less subject to the whims of whichever party happens to occupy the executive branch.”
The plight of a mother and father from Michigan who receive state aid to take care of their disabled adult daughter and son and are forced to pay dues to the SEIU under an illegal unionization scheme was detailed on Fox Business today. The story was broken by Michigan Capital Confidential Nov. 9.
MichiganVotes.org sends a weekly report to newspapers and TV stations around the state showing how state legislators in their service area voted on the most important or interesting bills of the past week.
Senate Bill 693, Create state "Obamacare exchange:" Passed 25 to 12 in the Senate
To create as a state entity the "exchange" mandated by the federal "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," the primary purpose of which will be to administer the insurance subsidies provided by that law to households up to 400 percent of poverty level (around $80,000 for a family of four in Michigan). Called the "MIHealth Marketplace," this non-profit agency would create a website on which individuals can select an insurance policy that complies with PPACA mandates, and have eligibility determined for the law's subsidies.
The Obama administration decided the federal government should be in the Christmas tree business as reported on The Foundry.org. Every fresh Christmas tree in the nation would be taxed 15 cents in order to fund a Christmas Tree Promotion Board.
Federal officials claim that the charge is not a tax and would not yield revenue to the federal government. Regardless of the validity of the nontax claim, the image of the Christmas tree does not seem to be endangered or require a federal bailout.
The Washington Examiner today is reporting on a story that Michigan Capitol Confidential broke recently that outlines how parents who receive state subsidy checks to stay home and care for their disabled children are considered union members and see a portion of those checks siphoned off as dues money.
In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, legal reformer Philip K. Howard highlighted strident examples of government employees defrauding their pension systems. Thankfully, Michigan’s state retirement benefit systems have been remarkably free of such problems. It’s a testament to appropriate policies and decent administration. Nevertheless, while the state is good at preventing outrageous abuses, it needs to fix a system that still imposes outrageous costs on taxpayers.
The Mackinac Center released today the full results of the 2011 school support services privatization survey. For the first time, more than half of the state’s public school districts contract out for food, custodial or transportation services. This survey contains a more detailed analysis of the results.
