Today, a columnist for a Michigan newspaper sarcastically characterized the Mackinac Center's Freedom of Information Act request to the labor policy departments of three government universities as follows:
"The right wing Mackinac Center for Public Policy has embraced the concept of turning to Big Government for assistance."
The American Federation of Teachers filed what WNEM-TV5 is calling a “mock” Freedom of Information Act request against the Mackinac Center today. Only government entities are subject to FOIA requests.
The Mackinac Center filed FOIA requests last week with Wayne State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. Wayne State has since taken down the website of its Labor Studies Center to conduct an investigation.
Wayne State University has taken down the Web pages of its Labor Studies Center in the wake of a Mackinac Center investigation into improper political content on the website, according to MIRS Capitol Capsule.
“We are reviewing the labor studies program to make sure we’re in compliance of state law,” Harvey Hollins III, Wayne State vice president of government and community affairs, told MIRS. Hollins also noted “The question is whether or not there’s a violation of campaign finance law given the content on the website.
Earlier this week, Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Richard Giddings ruled that the Mackinac Center is correct in determining that post-retirement health benefits provided by the state, public schools and local governments are not enforceable obligations, and so politicians therefore have no duty to impose on taxpayers the cost of providing them. The ruling is a victory that could save future Michigan taxpayers literally billions of dollars.
Virtual learning can increase student performance and save taxpayer dollars, according to an Op-Ed by Michael Van Beek, the Center’s director of education policy, which appears in the Detroit Free Press today.
Michigan law, however, limits opportunities for virtual learning, which legislators should address “to unlock the full potential of this approach.”
In recent weeks the Mackinac Center has been accused of being “partisan” because of inquiries it made about the apparently pro-union activities of government university labor studies programs. What the accusers specifically mean by the charge is that the Center’s actions are motivated by a desire to help Republican politicians win elections. Anyone familiar with the Mackinac Center’s work over the past two decades will instantly recognize how off-base this is, and that the “partisan” charge says much more about the accusers’ worldview than the Center.
Michigan State University and the University of Michigan will comply with recent Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the Mackinac Center, according to media reports.
U of M is “gathering relevant e-mails,” according to the Detroit Free Press, while a labor professor at Michigan State told Michigan Messenger “we intend to fully comply with the law.”
Rallies Monday in support of public-sector benefits that are out of balance were held as teachers are considering whether or not to hold illegal strikes, according to WEYI-TV25.
“The realities are such in Michigan that we need to take a hard look at every area in which we can save money,” Michael Jahr, vice president for communications, told WEYI. “We’re becoming a poor state, but we’re paying our public-sector workers as though we are a wealthy state.”
Ken Braun, managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential, was a guest on “The Frank Beckmann Show” on WJR AM760 this morning, discussing Freedom of Information Act requests the Mackinac Center filed last week at Michigan State University, University of Michigan and Wayne State University, as well as the ensuing death threats the Center received.
Four days after Gov. Rick Snyder recommended a 2011-2012 budget that would reduce state aid for schools by $300 per pupil, the Petoskey school board proposed a plan to reduce the district’s teacher and support staff health insurance costs. Its timidity reveals why the public school establishment finds even the prospect of modest state funding reductions so traumatic ($300 is just 3 percent of the $9,742 Petoskey spent per student in 2009).
National and state media are reporting on several death threats made against the Mackinac Center after the Center drew attention for filing Freedom of Information Act requests at three public universities last week.
As first reported in Michigan Capitol Confidential, threatening messages were left on the Center’s voice mail Thursday night and early Friday morning. The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, AnnArbor.com, The Bay City Times, Midland Daily News, Detroit Free Press, and WNEM-TV5 have covered the matter.
The public school establishment has responded to Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed budget trimming by claiming that schools simply can’t endure any more cuts. To avoid the difficult decisions the proposals will undoubtedly force, some districts have even resorted to playing loose with the truth about their past and current financial positions.
As with everyone, politicians and government officials like to get their way, and most of them don't appreciate it when citizens take charge with popular initiative, referendum and recall petition campaigns. Michigan's constitution recognizes the right of the people to exercise these forms of direct democracy, but that doesn't prevent elected and appointed officials here from trying to restrict this right.
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. The House and Senate are taking a two-week spring break, so rather than votes, this report instead contains several new proposals to amend the state constitution.
Jack Shafer at Slate.com, writing about Freedom of Information Act requests, including those recently filed by the Mackinac Center, calls those who object “enemies of open government.”
Shafer writes that FOIAs should be seen as “citizen subpoenas,” that can “help the people keep the government on the straight and narrow,” but only if “they’re broad enough to deny bureaucrats places to hide vital information.”
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.
