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 410, Newsworthy Committee action — Authorize new Detroit River bridge: Failed in the Senate Economic Development Committee, 2-3
To authorize a controversial Detroit River bridge (the “New International Trade Crossing,” a.k.a. the “Detroit River International Crossing”). According to news reports, Republicans voting “no” objected to details of Democratic Senators' demand for a bundle of patronage-like “community benefits” the proposed bridge authority would have to deliver to nearby residents, businesses and community organizations. Further attempts are likely to advance this project favored by Gov. Rick Snyder.
Michelle Minton, director of insurance studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, expands on a recent commentary she wrote about “present day Prohibition” for the Mackinac Center in this CEI blog post.
The Obama administration is handing out green energy subsidies faster than the Federal Reserve can print new money. A generous government handout in the form of a $529 million loan has been award to a company called Fisker for the purpose of producing high-end electric sports cars — in Finland.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal, a group of American companies that make solar panels has called on the federal government to raise tariffs on their Chinese rivals for “dumping their products on the U.S. market.”
Executives of SolarWorld AG, a German-based company that makes solar panels in Oregon, led the group at a news conference here, flanked by both U.S. senators from Oregon.
(Editor’s note: The following is written testimony submitted to the North Dakota Legislature by Todd M. Nesbit, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics at the College of Charleston and an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center.)
We thank you for the invitation to submit this testimony regarding tax-induced cigarette smuggling. I have studied the cross-border economic phenomena and the secondary and unintended effects of various excise taxes over the course of my career and have specifically examined over the past four years the extent of cigarette smuggling resulting from cigarette taxation. Cigarette smuggling takes on two forms: commercial and casual. Commercial smuggling involves organized criminals who counterfeit and distribute state tax-paid stamps, the physical cigarettes and packaging, or both. Casual smuggling occurs when the ultimate consumer drives across state, international or other legal boundaries in an effort to avoid paying higher taxes (and therefore higher prices).
Research by Mackinac Center scholars on right-to-work laws was cited recently in Bloomberg Businessweek.
The article also cites a University of Oregon professor who has been critical of the Center’s research. His claims are refuted here and here.
Charles S. Owens, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, told the Michigan House Health Policy Committee Thursday, “I wouldn’t be in any rush to create a state exchange.”
Owens cited similar evidence for taking an unhurried approach as the arguments presented by the Mackinac Center here. His testimony outlined the following concerns:
At the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council in New Orleans last week, the organization’s Health and Human Services Task Force voted to adopt the “no Obamacare exchange” resolution posted here as model legislation for state legislatures. The key statement of the resolution says this: “(I)t is not in the best interest of the state for any state official to participate in planning or establishing health insurance exchanges as provided for in the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”
The movement to occupy Detroit has attracted about 50 hardy souls to Grand Circus Park, where they have pitched tents and are awaiting … something. What exactly is supposed to change in Detroit is entirely unclear. The occupiers of Wall Street have this much going for them — things have been done in the banks and stock markets that progressives object to. What exactly has Detroit done except implement the progressive vision as far as it practically could?
Jack McHugh, senior legislative analyst, was a guest on “The Frank Beckmann Show” on WJR 760AM Tuesday, discussing why Michigan legislators should not be in a hurry to pass an Obamacare state exchange. McHugh also wrote about the issue Sunday in the Detroit Free Press.
D. Joseph Olson, co-founder and chairman of the board of the Mackinac Center, is profiled in this recent story from the Livingston Daily Press & Argus that details the beginnings of the Center and its work to promote free-market theories and individual liberty for more than two decades.
The Lansing State Journal reports that federal taxpayers will provide Michigan State University with a $950,000 grant to help produce a new economic development ‘toolbox’ for the 21st century. The spending is questionable, because as the Mackinac Center and others have documented, there is in fact nothing new under the economic development sun. Reviews by economists generally show that development programs typically fail to work as advertised.
Senior Legislative Analyst Jack McHugh, in a Sunday Op-Ed in the Detroit Free Press, said state legislators should not be in a rush to create an Obamacare-type health exchange for Michigan.
McHugh said creating such an exchange now would undermine the lawsuit filed by Michigan and 25 other states against the federal law, among other reasons.
Paul Kersey, director of labor policy, writes in a blog post today at the website of WJBK-TV2 in Detroit that left-of-center groups planning an “Occupy Detroit” rally today should instead take responsibility of the city’s problems. The piece was picked up today by Drudge Report.
The Macomb Daily reports that a local Tea Party group has used a free voting record “scorecard” tool on the MichiganVotes.org website to rate all state legislators on the basis of their votes on “core Tea Party issues.” The MichiganVotes scorecard feature can be used by any individual or group to create their own ratings. It automatically fills in the “yes” and “no” votes of all 110 state House and 38 state Senate members on bills selected by a user, and calculates a score based on the user’s definition of which vote is “correct.”
Al Gore was in Detroit recently to proclaim that he has acquired profound knowledge that all things related to the Great Lakes are the result of man caused global warming. Speaking to 500 of the faithful at Wayne State University, the former vice president did not limit his remarks to the Great Lakes, but also blamed recent weather-related disasters around the world on global warming. According to a report in the Detroit Free Press, Gore is convinced that weather-related events from downpours in Pakistan and Columbia to wildfires in Australia and drought in Texas are evidence of the looming climate crisis.
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 703, Add restrictions to importing lions, tigers and bears: Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate
To prohibit importing or attempting to import a large carnivore into the state, including lions, tigers and bears, without a permit authorized by the bill, which among other things requires a microchip identification to be implanted under the animal’s skin.
As Michigan legislators debate whether to pass an Obamacare “exchange” that risks entrenching the Patient Protection and Affordability Act, there’s new evidence of how the law will do the very opposite of “bending down the health care cost curve,” as proponents claim. Writing in Forbes, Pacific Research Institute President Sally Pipes reports:
There is an idea being discussed in Lansing that might actually make state government more accountable. The idea of allowing the governor to appoint 1 percent of the top administrators in state government was raised in the Reforms, Restructuring, and Reinvention Committee by Rep. Dave Robertson, R-Grand Blanc Township, according to the MIRS news service. Delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1961 limited the number of unclassified employees in each department.
An Op-Ed in today’s Detroit News cites Russ Harding, senior environmental policy analyst, regarding Gov. Rick Snyder’s approach to regulatory reform.
“As I talk to businesses around the state, which I do frequently, this, to many businesses, is the No. 1 issue,” Harding told The News. “And it’s not getting much attention.”
An organization with close ties to government employee unions is trumpeting pronouncements by a university “labor studies” department (that’s also closely aligned with unions), claiming the unionization of government employees has “no link” with state “deficits.”
Mike LaFaive, director of the Center’s Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, told The Saginaw News today that proposed legislation placing an asset limit on people receiving welfare makes sense.
“It’s difficult to object to asset limits on assistance since the whole idea is to help low-income people,” LaFaive said. “It’s perfectly reasonable to ask people to reach into their own wealth first.”
The Wall Street Journal today details a new report by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Inspector General, which found that $162.8 million spent to "train and prepare individuals for careers in green jobs” enabled just 8,035 Americans to find jobs, of whom "only 1,033 were still in the job after six months."
Mackinac Center President Joseph G. Lehman writes in a recent Grand Rapids Press Op-Ed that the Legislature should resist the temptation to make recall elections more difficult for voters to undertake.
“Recall elections aren’t intended to allow removal of officials for certain reasons only,” Lehman said. “Recall elections are intended to allow the people themselves, not just the Legislature, to directly remove officials between elections.”
A story in Bloomberg today cites a Mackinac Center study that showed a 1997 change in Michigan’s state employee pension plans saved taxpayers as much as $4.3 billion in unfunded liability.
