Legislation to prohibit the use of union-only Project Labor Agreements on public construction or renovation work has been introduced in both the state House and Senate. This is a hopeful sign.
These PLAs tend to be used to force bidders to sign agreements with local unions before starting work, and they have the effect of discouraging non-union contractors from bidding, limiting competition and boosting the cost for taxpayers. Just yesterday bids on renovation work at Kalamazoo Community College — a project with a PLA attached — came in 4 percent over budget. Costs for repairs to the roof of one building nearly doubled.
Gov. Rick Snyder’s first budget fell short of the “atomic bomb” promised by Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, in part due to the fact that a megaton of further spending and tax cuts were left on the table. Overall, the budget moves the state in a positive direction with greater tax simplicity, more transparency, less corporate welfare and fewer discriminatory tax policies.
In his executive budget, Gov. Rick Snyder recommends reforms to the compensation offered to employees by Michigan’s state and local governments. Considering that employment costs are a primary reason why government continues to grow, this is a commendable move.
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 Washington Examiner is reporting on a story Michigan Capitol Confidential first broke involving a carpenters union that hires non-union people to picket a company for hiring non-union people.
The tactic, called “bannering,” is explained more fully here. As Capitol Confidential reported, those hired by the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters to protest Ritsema Associates often come from a homeless shelter that Ritsema has supported for several years.
Michael LaFaive, director of the Center’s Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, told The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) that he expects “a great deal of rancorous debate” over Gov. Snyder’s first budget, which is scheduled to be released today.
For your edification, a couple of items from the police blotter, courtesy of the Department of Labor:
On January 27, 2011, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Andrew Blackmon, former President of Steelworkers Local 842 (located in Detroit, Mich.), was sentenced to two years of probation and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $2,055.78 and a $25 special assessment. Blackmon previously made restitution in the amount of $510. On July 20, 2010, Blackmon pled guilty to one count of falsifying union records. The sentencing follows an investigation by the OLMS Detroit District Office.
Fox News reports "Federal Government Charges Up Electric Car Market" and spoke to Mackinac Center senior economist David Littmann for the story. The article quotes Littmann saying "I have never seen an industry that receives subsidies for any period of time like this that didn't fail and then cost taxpayers even more."
The New York Times in an editorial Saturday cited Michigan Capitol Confidential regarding Michigan Congressman Justin Amash, R-3rd District, and his vote against certain provisions of the Patriot Act due to concerns about civil liberties.
Scholars Andrew G. Biggs and Jason Richwine recently authored a discussion for the American Enterprise Institute of the various ways of examining whether government employees get richer compensation than peers in the private sector. Published in the Weekly Standard, the title provides their conclusion: “Yes, They’re Overpaid.”
Across the upper Midwest, in Michigan and neighboring states, lawmakers are beginning to focus on unions — especially government employee unions — and the damaging role they have played.
In Michigan, Rep. Amanda Price, R-Holland, has introduced a bill to repeal the state's prevailing wage law, which prohibits granting government construction project contracts to the lowest bidder unless the company pays union scale wages. Enacted at a time when unions made up a much larger part of the construction work force, this law adds 10 percent to the cost of infrastructure and other projects. Currently less than a quarter of construction workers in Michigan are union members, and unionized or not they all tend to make above-average wages anyway. Rep. Price's bill would allow the state to make use of the same construction market as private companies and individuals.
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.
MLive.com reports on a story that Michigan Capitol Confidential broke regarding right-to-work legislation introduced in the Michigan House and Senate.
MichiganVotes.org provides the details on Senate Bill 120 and House Bill 4054.
Replacing the Michigan Business Tax with a flat corporate income tax would help Michigan improve 26 places in the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation’s rankings, according to The Bay City Times.
Fiscal Policy Director Michael LaFaive testified before the state Senate Finance Committee Wednesday about the benefits of eliminating the MBT. He also said that replacing the tax with nothing could help create more than 120,000 jobs by 2016.
Michael LaFaive, director of the Center's Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, testified today before the state Senate Finance Committee on the elimination of the Michigan Business Tax. You can read his full testimony here.
Education Policy Director Michael Van Beek told The Detroit News he would give Robert Bobb, emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools, an “I” for impossible in grading Bobb’s nearly two-year tenure with the district.
“The reality is things are much worse than they appear, and he doesn’t have the tools to be able to get out of this deficit.”
A recent article in Slate by Robert Bryce describes how Texas has more wind generator capacity than any other state — around 9,700 megawatts. But last August, when state electricity demand set a one-day record of 63,494 megawatts, all those windmills contributed just 500 megawatts, or about 5 percent of their rated capacity.
Lawrence W. Reed, president emeritus of the Mackinac Center and president of the Foundation for Economic Education, is scheduled to be a guest on John Stossel’s show on Fox Business Network at 9 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 10. The show re-airs at midnight. Reed will discuss free-market economics, spontaneous order and Leonard Read’s famous essay, “I, Pencil.”
The Washington Examiner reports that Chrysler paid nearly $9 million for the longest ad in Super Bowl history, despite complaints from the company about the terms of a $15 billion taxpayer loan it received.
The article quotes David Littmann, the Center’s senior economist, from a December interview with The Examiner in which he said of Michigan, “We’re not even on the map. We have bargain basement prices on everything — from water properties, which are a hallmark of growth, to infrastructure. And this is tied together with a large and progressive highway system. We also have the largest underground gas reserves in the nation."
(Editor’s note: Most of this post originally appeared as an e-mail alert from the John Locke Foundation on Feb. 7, 2011.)
As reported in MichCapCon last Saturday, actions by Michigan state agencies to implement various Obamacare provisions now violate the binding judgment of a federal judge, who ruled the entire 2,700-page bill, officially titled the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," "must be declared void," because its key "individual mandate" provision violates the Constitution. The law is not dead yet, but that wasn't the only good news last week for those who think it should be. Here's a summary:
The Macomb Daily is reporting about a story the Mackinac Center first covered involving a carpenters union that is targeting a Grand Rapids-area business whose employees do not belong to the union.
Read more about the issue, and watch a video on the union’s “bannering” using protesters who do not work for the company nor are they union members, here.
The Holland Sentinel reports that a new study by Education Policy Director Michael Van Beek on virtual learning says online education can improve student performance and save money.
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Ronald Reagan.
Reagan was a unique voice in the latter half of the 20th century. He championed freedom in the face of spreading global communism and domestic naysayers. His vision of "morning in America" helped to renew patriotism and revive optimism after a period of national insecurity and economic malaise.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics provided some encouraging news that indicated Michigan’s economy continues to recover. The state’s private sector added 221,292 jobs in the second quarter of 2010 and lost only 184,025.
The net creation of 37,267 jobs was the best quarter the state had since the first quarter of 2001.
The House and Senate only met one day this week due to a blizzard, and only voted on one highly technical hereditary trusts bill, so this report instead contains several newly introduced bills of interest, including ones to ban “bridge cards” for college students, limit government employee health benefits, repeal the state “prevailing wage” law and more.
