Jarrett Skorup, research associate for online engagement, was a guest today on “The Ron Jolly Show” on WTCM-AM1270 in Traverse City, where he discussed an article he recently wrote for Michigan Capitol Confidential about teacher tenure reform.
Senior Environmental Analyst Russ Harding was interviewed on Michigan Public Radio today about the state’s regulatory regime and its negative impact on business.
Harding, who recently authored “Environmental Regulation in Michigan: A Blueprint for Reform,” said he gets calls weekly from business owners who have “given up” on Michigan.
Every week, MichiganVotes.org sends a report to newspapers and TV stations showing how just the state legislators in each publication's service area voted on the most important and interesting bills and amendments of the past seven days. The version shown here instead contains a link to the complete roll call tally in either the House or Senate. To find out who your state senator is and how to contact him or her go here; for state representatives go here.
State and national parks play an important role in reminding visitors of the unique heritage we share in America as free and independent people by retelling the stories of our ancestors who often endured hardship or even death in securing the freedoms many of us take for granted. On a recent trip to Jamestown and Yorktown national parks, I listened while park rangers interpreted our nation’s history, often focusing on the nation’s faults rather than reminding visitors that the United States is the most free and prosperous nation in the history of the world.
Teachers in Warren Woods Public Schools agreed to a new two-year contract that retains health insurance coverage costing taxpayers $20,460 for a family plan, and which is provided by the union's MESSA subsidiary. For comparison, the private-sector average cost for employer-provided health benefits in
An editorial in The Detroit News calls for Gov.-elect Rick Snyder to issue an executive order after taking office that would put an end to project labor agreements, which use a tactic that drives up prices for government construction projects due to the “prevailing wage.”
Every week, MichiganVotes.org sends a report to newspapers and TV stations showing how just the state legislators in each publication's service area voted on the most important and interesting bills and amendments of the past seven days. The version shown here instead contains a link to the complete roll call tally in either the House or Senate. To find out who your state senator is and how to contact him or her go here; for state representatives go here.
A column in The Oakland Press talks about the role of the “Overton Window of Political Possibility” as it relates to tax cuts and federal spending.
Read about the Overton Window and its many applications, as well as how it was used as the title for a national bestseller, here.
Property rights ranging from natural gas recovery to urban development are the focus of two recent media citations for Mackinac Center analysts.
Russ Harding, senior environmental analyst, wrote an Op-Ed about hydraulic fracturing that appeared in the Detroit Legal News. That piece was taken from this Viewpoint he authored.
The Michigan Legislature recently debated a modest teacher tenure reform bill that passed in the Senate but then died when the House failed to act. The issue will surely return in the 2011 session, and when it does, lawmakers should consider the following:
A Mackinac Center event featuring Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson was cited in the Birmingham Patch in a story about the economic outlook for downtown Birmingham.
Patterson on Oct. 14 gave a speech in Birmingham titled “What Michigan’s Next Governor Can Learn From Oakland County.”
Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, was cited in two separate stories Saturday about fiscal irresponsibility at the local government level.
The Jackson Citizen Patriot reported on municipal golf courses that operate without paying property taxes and can take customers away from privately run courses.
Senior Economist David Littmann told the Detroit Free Press and Lansing State Journal that an extension of federal unemployment payments will not help the economy.
“It actually increases the duration of the unemployment,” Littmann said. “The incentives are turned upside down.”
The Michigan Senate has been busy this week working on very important legislation, but on Wednesday the 29 outgoing members, plus the nine with a newly renewed four-year tenure, found time for 29 other items of business, listed below. These all passed on voice-votes.
In the waning days of the lame-duck Congress, a bipartisan fight is brewing over federal handouts to encourage production of corn ethanol, with competing letters urging the continuation or end of these subsidies.
The 16 senators calling for the end of ethanol subsidies come from across the political spectrum: From senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on the left to Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Jim Webb (D-Va.) in the middle to Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) on the right.
My recent analysis showing that staffing levels at intermediate school districts grew significantly over the last decade — even as the number of students in Michigan public schools fell — drew some criticism from Dr. David A. Spitzley, an employee of the Washtenaw ISD. Dr. Spitzley points out that the data provided by the Michigan Department of Education's Center for Educational Performance and Information are inconsistent over time in some respects. Nevertheless, no matter how one slices the data, it still shows that ISD payrolls expanded while enrollment contracted.
The Traverse City Area Public School district is raising transparency to a new level by posting on its website the contracts it proposes to unionized employees. At present, only the proposed transportation employee union contract is available, but eventually, all of them will be.
Peter C. Cook, faithful friend of liberty and exemplar of civil society, passed away Sunday evening at 96 years old in his hometown of Grand Rapids. Mr. Cook, as I knew him, served on the Mackinac Center’s board of directors from 1992 to 2003. He was a businessman whose philanthropy benefited thousands. Mr. Cook had supported the Mackinac Center since 1990, especially projects related to education reform including school choice.
The lobbyists and activists working to impose a state insurance mandate for autism coverage in Michigan are extremely active. Less than two hours after I blogged on this topic yesterday, I was contacted by two of them.
One of the observations I made in that post was that proponents for a particular mandate always claim that their mandate will actually save money in the long run, which raises the question: “So if it's cost effective why don’t insurance companies just add the desired coverage in all policies without a mandate?”
Education Policy Director Michael Van Beek authored Op-Eds on school funding myths, including the claim that public school funding is “unstable,” that appeared recently in The Oakland Press.
Van Beek’s research debunking common school funding myths can be found here. Short videos explaining how the foundation allowance works and why school employee concessions have not saved public schools money have recently been released.
Lieutenant Governor-elect Brian Calley is urging the lame-duck Legislature to pass a new mandate that would force health insurance companies to include coverage for autism treatments in all policies, potentially requiring them to pay for extraordinarily expensive new treatment regimes whose efficacy is still speculative.
Senior Economist David Littmann recently wrote in a Detroit News Op-Ed about the need to hold the Federal Reserve Board accountable for the damage it has done to the American economy.
Littmann said the Fed “purposely chose to inflate the entire price level of the U.S. economy” and that “inflation-recession cycles of 1979-82 and 2005-09 reflect the Fed’s complicity in Washington’s political efforts to shove the price effects of oil and housing, respectively, under the carpet.”
Brighton Area Schools is one of only 32 Michigan districts currently operating with a budget deficit, even though it takes in more than $8,000 per pupil. According the Michigan Department of Education, the district overspent by 17 percent last year. A good place to start looking for ways to get out of the red would be the teachers union contract, since the costs contained therein consume almost 70 percent of the district's general funds.
Every year, state and local governments and school districts hand over tens of millions of dollars to unions with no questions asked. These funds are guaranteed under the guise of union dues, which are extracted from employees’ paychecks regardless of whether or not they support the union. But in reality, it’s government officials who agree to mandatory dues, then collect and turn them over. Those funds are available for a wide range of things, including electioneering, public relations, lobbying and litigation
A Lansing State Journal editorial today calling for term limit reforms cites Senior Legislative Analyst Jack McHugh, who wrote after the Nov. 2 elections that 86 percent of new legislators are already “political careerists.”
