At the “Michigan CPAC” event last weekend, Rep. Tom McMillin (R-Rochester Hills) informed participants that he's seeking co-sponsors for a bill he’ll introduce soon that would enter Michigan into a multistate Health Care Compact. If approved by Congress, the compact would supersede ObamaCare in member states, and block-grant the federal Medicare and Medicaid dollars now spent in each state. Michigan Capitol Confidential will report more details when the measure is introduced.
Labor Policy Director Paul Kersey addresses illegal teacher strikes in an Op-Ed in today’s Detroit News.
Kersey explains that collective bargaining by public-sector unions, including teachers unions, is not a right but rather a privilege. Unions that abuse that privilege should be held accountable. Kersey addresses the issue in more depth in this study on Michigan’s Public Employment Relations Act.
Freedom of Information Act requests tend to be fairly routine and innocuous, in a procedural sense. A recent Mackinac Center FOIA request, however, has drawn some media attention. The Center has a long history of using this important tool for monitoring our government and has no intention of curtailing that use in the future.
Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the Mackinac Center was covered by, the Lansing State Journal, Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, The New York Times, Slate, The Michigan View, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Salon, WNEM-TV5 in Saginaw, AnnArbor.com, The Michigan Daily, The State News, WSJM-AM in St. Joseph and MSNBC talk show personality Rachel Maddow. The requests, sent to Wayne State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan, ask for narrow, specific emails from professors in the labor studies departments.
Gov. Rick Snyder has issued the first in a series of special messages on policy issues to the Michigan Legislature. In his first policy message, he chose to address community development and local government reforms. The local government reform policy recommendations are good, the community development recommendations not so much.
Last week Michigan Capitol Confidential ran a commentary by me describing an unusual Kalamazoo Transit Authority bill just approved by the Michigan House. In the article I insinuated that the legislation suggested the prospect of a future Kalamazoo transit millage increase.
A story today on Politico reports the following:
These victories are in addition to ones in Florida and Louisiana, reported here. Meanwhile in Michigan, the Legislature has taken no actions to block collaboration with ObamaCare, and the Department of Community Health has accepted $1 million from the federal government toward creating a state “exchange,” one of the key elements of the new federal law whose major provisions go into effect in January 2014.
Today is “Pencil Appreciation Day.” To truly appreciate pencils, check out this essay.
The Mackinac Center is co-hosting a debate at 7 p.m. tonight on the campus of Northwood University on the merits of the gold standard, according to the Midland Daily News.
Richard Ebeling, an adjunct scholar with the Center and professor of economics at Northwood, will argue in favor of the gold standard. He has written about that issue here. Robert Barsky, professor of economics at the University of Michigan, will argue against it.
By Jack McHugh
A contributor to the left-leaning Huffington Post argued last week that, despite its current demographic meltdown, Detroit faces a rosy future in the long run because of "the specter of thirst and hunger arising from a shortage of the world's most basic source of survival, H2O." Detroit will save the day, says the writer, because: "It's the Saudi Arabia of fresh water!"
Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, appeared on Detroit television station WDIV’s “FlashPoint” program Sunday morning as part of a panel discussion on Michigan’s film subsidy program. Author Mitch Albom also appeared on the program.
Michal LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, was a guest March 25 on “The Brian Wilson Show” on WSPD AM-1370 in Toledo. He discussed the tax and financial reforms Gov. Rick Snyder is pursuing, as well as what needs to be done to correct the fiscal, regulatory and educational problems facing the city of Detroit. You can listen to the interview here.
Addressing health care costs and privatizing noninstructional services could help public school districts more than make up for minor per-pupil funding cuts, Education Policy Director Michael Van Beek told the Detroit Free Press.
“The fiscal reality for school districts is that the majority of their budgets are tied up in labor costs,” Van Beek said. “They need to get into those contracts and address rising costs.”
Every week, MichiganVotes.org sends a report on interesting votes and bills in the Michigan Legislature, and includes how each legislator voted. To find out who your state senator is and how to contact him or her go here; for state representatives go here.
Yesterday, we reported that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal had joined his colleagues in Florida and Georgia in rejecting the ObamaCare mandate that states create a heavily-regulated health insurance "exchange." Further Bayou State progress was reported in Politico's PULSE this morning:
Michigan State University President Lou Ann Simon has characterized proposed state aid cuts as "brutal," although she gamely acknowledges "We can make this work."
They probably can. Although news stories focus on "headline" numbers, such as "a 21 percent cut" (or smaller if the university restrains tuition hikes), the reality is less dire.
Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm has joined the Pew Charitable Trusts as a senior adviser on energy. Perhaps her job title should read: Advocate for Government Subsidies and Mandates. According to a report in The Detroit News, Granholm says: “I’m not going to talk about cap-and-trade. I’m not going to talk about global warming,” Instead she said she will focus on green jobs.
In response to reports that MEA is preparing to wage a statewide work stoppage as a protest against changes to the Emergency Financial Manager law, Representatives Paul Scott and Bill Rogers have introduced a two-bill package that increases penalties for striking teachers while streamlining the process of determining which teachers are subject to fines. In particular, striking teachers will put their teaching licenses at risk if the proposals are passed. The legislation is a positive step, but if the Legislature really wants to put an end to strike talk, there’s one more step that the state needs to take.
The Michigan Education Association is asking its members to authorize “crisis activities” that could result in a “statewide work stoppage.” Michigan Capitol Confidential broke this story last Wednesday.
Since government employees are forbidden by law to strike and can be fired for doing so, school employees participating in a strike would be risking their livelihoods.
By Jack McHugh
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has made his the third state to unambiguously reject the ObamaCare mandate to create a state insurance “exchange.” Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal have previously said they will not impose these heavily regulated and price-controlled insurance market exchanges on their citizenry.
I've just been to Rome and seen your automotive future, as decreed by our current emperor, senate and praetorian EPA:
The cops aren't going to be very happy about it either:
How much land should the Michigan Department of Natural Resources own or control?
Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba, has introduced legislation that caps the amount of land the DNR can own. Senate Bill 248 stipulates: “The Department shall not acquire surfaces rights to land if the Department owns or controls, or as a result of the acquisition will own or control, the surface rights to more than 4,475,000 acres of land. The Department shall post and maintain on its website the number of acres of land owned by the department, in total, and by program.”
Bruce Walker, former managing editor of MichiganScience and currently the managing editor of the Heartland Institute’s InfoTech and Telecom News, writes in Tuesday’s Washington Times that true fans of National Public Radio would be more than happy to pay for the service in order to replace government subsidies.
From Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute:
