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 summer break, so rather than votes this week’s report instead contains several newly introduced bills of interest.
The notion that public-sector wages are lower than private-sector wages is an oft-repeated claim, but one that has trouble standing up to reality. In addition, the comparisons can get complicated.
In an essay in the National Affairs journal, scholar Daniel DiSalvo provides evidence that public-sector workers in lower-wage jobs are paid more than their private-sector counterparts. For example, nationwide data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that government office clerks average $27,000 a year in salary, versus $23,000 in the private sector. Janitors’ wages show similar trends: $23,000 in the public sector compared to $20,000 in the private sector. (Public school and local government janitors earn even more, coming in at more than $28,000 on average nationwide.)
The New Jersey Offshore Wind Economic Development Act turns out to be more like the “perfect storm” for that state’s economy — news that does not bode well for supporters of developing an industrial wind park in Lake Michigan. The Beacon Hill Institute has released a cost-benefit study that concludes that off-shore wind development in New Jersey will cost jobs and hurt the state’s economy.
Government does not ultimately create jobs, as government programs must rely on capital taken from the economy, preventing it from being utilized by more efficient private market forces. However, government policies certainly do impact job creation, sometimes positively, but more often negatively. Examples of job-killing policies abound at all levels of government. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's war on energy through a proliferation of rules aimed at putting coal-fired power plants out of business is driving up energy costs, with the effect of taking money out of consumers' pockets and leading to fewer jobs. The latest assault on coal-fired power plants is an EPA rulemaking so strict in limiting mercury emissions that it will likely result in the shutdown of many coal-fired power plants around the nation.
On April 20, 1995, three firms were selected by state bureaucrats and political appointees to be the first “winners” of a new discriminatory tax break program championed by Gov. John Engler, the “Michigan Economic Growth Authority.” One of those firms, Waldenbooks, better known today as Borders, announced Monday afternoon that it will close its doors forever and liquidate its assets. Borders is hardly the first MEGA “winner” to come out a loser, but perhaps it’s the most noteworthy.
An editorial in today’s Detroit News calls for an end to the forced unionization of private-sector employees who receive money for performing state-subsidized services, a cause the Mackinac Center has championed for nearly two years.
More needs to be done, however, as the editorial points out: Some 40,000 home health aides continue to be trapped in an illegal union scheme, much like tens of thousands of home-based day care providers were until recently.
An Op-Ed by Russ Harding, senior environmental analyst, about the high cost and low job productivity of so-called “green energy” was featured on the editorial page of Sunday’s Detroit Free Press.
In the piece, Harding calls on the Michigan Legislature to rescind the state’s renewable energy portfolio, which he says will drive up costs for consumers and hinder economic growth.
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. Because the legislature did not meet this week, rather than roll call vote results this report presents a sampling of recently proposed state laws.
Yesterday, the Government Accountability Office released a list of contracts worth more than $700 million awarded to consultants to “assist in implementing” the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare.
One Michigan organization, the Physicians Health Plan of Mid Michigan, received two contracts totaling $23.4 million, for which it has already been paid $1.8 million.
This week it was revealed that the Michigan Education Association, the state’s largest government employee union, is actively involved in recall campaigns targeting Gov. Rick Snyder and many Republican legislators. Reportedly, the union is spending money and encouraging its members to participate in the recalls, which are based on bills passed this year that modestly trimmed union power and government employee benefits.
Education Policy Director Mike Van Beek participated in a school choice forum Wednesday night where Grosse Pointe residents expressed concerns about students from neighboring Detroit being able to access their schools under Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposal to expand school choice, according to the Grosse Pointe Patch.
Excerpts from Steve Malanga's article "The Compensation Monster Devouring Cities" in City Journal:
Some cities face crises because, as their populations shrank, their officials failed to downsize the government workforce. Detroit, a city of 1.9 million in the 1950s, registered only 713,777 residents in the 2010 census. But the city and its school system eliminated jobs only slowly over the decades of population implosion, leaving Detroit with crippling legacy expenditures. The city currently has nearly 13,000 employees but is providing pension benefits to 22,000 retirees, a jaw-dropping ratio of retirees to current workers. The annual pension bill for the city’s retired police officers and firefighters alone is $150 million — as much as it costs to pay the salaries of 65 percent of the police and fire departments’ active workers.
Much of the philosophical underpinnings for environmental regulation in the United States and around the world are found in a predominant view that mistrusts private property rights and free markets. Many environmental groups prefer government ownership of land and water, believing that government will do a better job protecting natural resources and the environment than will private landowners. An example of this in Michigan was the introduction of legislation that would have transfer ownership of water from private property owners and given it to state government. Although the legislation did not pass, it was supported by environmental groups that were enamored with the idea of privately owned water being placed in the “public trust.”
An editorial in today’s Detroit News cites research by Mike LaFaive, director of the Center’s Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative that shows the negative effects of increased cigarette taxes.
The editorial also cites liquor taxes, which LaFaive has addressed here and here.
The governor has recently been presented with a package of four bills that overhaul teacher tenure. One of the bills has not been commented on as much as it probably should have. For once, though, the surprise is a pretty good one.
House Bill 4628 amends the Public Employment Relations Act to prohibit collective bargaining over some key education personnel issues, such as teacher placement, evaluation procedures, layoffs and merit pay. These changes are critical because they should prevent union officials from “vetoing” the Legislature through the collective bargaining process.
Congress and the president are at odds about how to stop the federal government’s spending addiction. The national unemployment rates hovers at 9.2 percent, and it is widely recognized that the $800 billion-plus federal economic stimulus program was a giant failure. However none of these realities has dissuaded Sen. Debbie Stabenow from proposing another $2 billion dollar federal program. According the MIRS news service, the senator from Michigan is touting a new bill aimed at promoting batteries.
A Business Insider article "Michigan's Switch To 401(k)-Style Public Pensions Saved $4.3 Billion" is based on a recent Mackinac Center report. The article cites the Center's findings that the state has cut state employee pension liabilities in half by changing from a defined-benefit to a defined-contribution pension plan. The analysis suggests extending this switch to teachers would save even more taxpayer money, as the their pension system currently has $25 billion in unfunded liability, the Business Insider reports.
Online charter schools are a promising new innovation that’s providing an expanded range of educational opportunities for a growing number K-12 students. Unfortunately, many states, including Michigan, restrict those benefits by capping the number of students who can take advantage of these “virtual” schools.
The Detroit News reports that in the latest round of standardized testing, 11th graders enrolled in most of
The human rights group Amnesty International recently released a report titled "Determined to Live in Dignity: Iranian Trade Unionists’ Struggle for Rights." The report highlights the cruel environment in which Iran’s independent trade unions operate; an environment that provides a distinct contrast to Michigan’s labor climate. This contrast should wake up Michigan unions and give them a better sense of perspective.
Paul Kersey, labor policy director, was a guest on “The Greg Marshall Show” today on WMKT. He discussed several labor-related issues, including a new Freedom to Work movement in Michigan, project labor agreements, the National Labor Relations Board and Michigan’s Public Employment Relations Act.
A recent editorial in the Livingston Daily Press & Argus quotes Patrick Wright, director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, on a controversial court ruling that the paper calls “a serious setback for the Freedom of Information Act.”
The Center issued a press release last week on the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision not to hear an appeal of a lower court’s ruling.
It should be seen as a positive that a Jackson company will lose a year of tax-free status for not meeting a minimum staffing requirement under the terms of a taxpayer subsidy provided by the Michigan Economic Development Corp., a Mackinac Center analyst told The Jackson Citizen Patriot.
Education Policy Director Mike Van Beek will participate in a forum to discuss Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan to increase school choice statewide, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“I think there are a lot of details to work out,” Van Beek told the Free Press, adding that schools should improve if they have to compete for students. “Anything that expands options is a good thing.”
The Flint Journal is reporting on a story that Michigan Capitol Confidential first carried on June 20 about problems with new buses Flint’s Mass Transit Authority is attempting to obtain.
The city wanted to buy two $1.1 million buses using a federal subsidy, but the company that was going to manufacture the buses went out of business and will not be able to repay a $1.6 million subsidy it received from Michigan taxpayers through the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
