One suspects that the vast majority of workers are at least vaguely aware of their right to organize. Nonetheless, the National Labor Relations Board, apparently desperate to drum up business for unions and work for itself, intends to issue new regulations that would force employers to post notices informing workers that they do, indeed, have a right to organize.
It’s probably no coincidence that the first bill (HB 4001) introduced in Michigan’s new Legislature is to repeal the 21.99 percent surcharge slapped onto the Michigan Business Tax in 2007. The surcharge is despised by the business community, and is seen as a job killer by policy analysts and politicians alike.
A story in the Jan. 10 edition of the MIRS Capitol Capsule reports that, according to the National Institute of Corrections, Michigan spends more than $5,200 more to lock up a prisoner for a year than the national average. Also, nearly 29 percent of the state workforce is employed by the Department of Corrections, and it will absorb 23.1 percent of the current year’s general fund budget. This is hardly new information.
Early indications are that our new governor is acting boldly and wisely in his attempt to right size Michigan’s fiscal ship. That’s good news, and he should be applauded, in part due to the fact that he will need the moral support. Why? The budget is in worse shape than even he and members of the media have probably fathomed. I’m not the first budget analyst to notice this, but I may be the first to say it out loud.
The 10 Kent County school districts that broke state law by including illegal language in their union contracts have announced they hired one attorney to represent all them, according to WOOD-TV.
The districts, which are being sued by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation on behalf of five Kent County taxpayers, included “no-privatization” clauses in their contracts. Michigan law states that privatization of non-core functions, such as food, janitorial or transportation services, is not subject to collective bargaining.
Ten years ago this month the Mackinac Center mailed a special, 28-page, full-color, Detroit-specific edition of Michigan Privatization Report to editors across Michigan. We had recently completed a comprehensive review of the city’s budget, and were deeply concerned by what it revealed.
Two Mackinac Center analysts were guests on WFNT-AM1470 in Flint recently.
Patrick Wright, director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, discussed Loar v. DHS, a lawsuit he filed on behalf of three women who are attempting to fight the illegal, forced unionization of 40,000 home-based day care providers. The case is now before the Michigan Supreme Court.
In this Dec. 23, 2010 blog post, Russ Harding predicted the Chevy Volt would win the Car of the Year award at the North American International Auto Show — for a variety of reasons. The announcement was made today.
Last year the Mackinac Center reported that for the first time since April 2006, Michigan did not have the nation's highest unemployment rate (Nevada beat us out).
The still-bad-but-not-worst-possible news continues: For 2010 — the first time since 2005 — another state (New Jersey) has beat out Michigan in the annual United Van Lines ranking of state outbound migration.
As Americans celebrate the 196th anniversary of the most decisive day during the Battle of New Orleans, the causes of war are becoming obscure and bear remembering. By 1812, the British had effectually denied the rights of trade, neutrality and legitimate nationhood to the United States. Great Britain decided to search American trade vessels for goods sold to Napoleonic France and seize American shipmen to fight in the English war against France under the charge that they were really deserted Englishmen. The very survival of the United States rested on the principles of free trade, and upon these grounds it would stand or fall.
Because the War of 1812 is now shrouded in myth, a return to the original source material is necessary to understand America’s perspective in the early 19th century. President James Madison’s address to Congress explains decisively the British atrocities committed against American shipmen, the frontier and the federal government. Madison reminded Congress that the British in seizing American shipmen on neutral American trade vessels without “the exercise of a belligerent right founded on the law of nations against an enemy,” were acting on the “municipal prerogative” of British subjects and putting Americans under British jurisdiction. Britain, in applying their own domestic rules to the open sea, was violating America’s just claim as a legitimate nation to traverse the seas according to the law of nations. In so arguing, Madison assumed that free trade determined the international existence of a nation. Without free trade, a nation is being denied nationhood. Although strange to modern ears, Madison believed this atrocity jeopardized America’s political existence.
Then, Madison transitioned from general to particular evils. American shipmen being seized for British military service were not given a trial before a tribunal to prove that they were Americans according to laws of war, and were instead subjected to the whims of British commanders. These Americans were deprived of their country and all that they held dear, while being forced on board British naval ships to fight the wars of the very people who had abducted them. The repeated petitions of the American government were met with indifference. Madison further related how, under British orders, British ships swarmed the American coasts, ignoring American territorial jurisdiction and hindering American importation and exportation. The British would only repeal these orders if France repealed certain domestic and international decrees not exclusively relevant to the United States. Madison concluded from this that the loss of American commerce was not based upon the war rights of Britain, but upon British attempts at monopoly beneficial to its own commerce. In other words, the conflict was between British monopolization and American free trade of the seas.
Transitioning from the Atlantic to the American Western frontier, Madison added that the frontier atrocities of Native Americans against United States citizens were supported and supplied by British garrisons and tradesmen. Regarding the brutal nature of these attacks, he called the aggression “a warfare which is known to spare neither age nor sex and to be distinguished by features peculiarly shocking to humanity.”
Madison concluded, “We behold ... on the side of Great Britain, a state of war against the United States, and on the side of the United States a state of peace toward Great Britain.” Would America defend its liberty or allow Britain to usurp it?
President Madison’s war proposition was given over to the Foreign Relations Committee headed by John C. Calhoun. Calhoun, who addressed the House of Representatives on June 3, 1812, with a request for war. Echoing the arguments and sentiments of Madison, Calhoun declared, “from this review of the multiplied wrongs of the British Government since the present war, it must be evident to the impartial world, that the contest which is now forced on the United States, is radically a contest for their sovereignty and independence.” Given the choice between recognizing an already-existing war or giving up independence, Congress declared war on the same day.
Michigan is faced with a financial crisis due to a projected budget overspending crisis approaching $2 billion for this fiscal year. It is understandable that a newly elected governor and Legislature are preoccupied with stopping the fiscal bleeding. Republican leaders are arguing that the state budget can be balanced with spending cuts. Democratic leaders are arguing that spending cuts alone are too drastic and will result in an unacceptable reduction in state services and that cuts must be accompanied by revenue increases – political speak for tax increases.
Michigan’s local governments face fiscal challenges in 2011. The state already has a pretty good policy in dealing with its local units as their finances are stressed, but this policy should be improved in a few ways so that local governments continue to be solvent as taxable property values fall and spending pressures increase.
Saginaw County officials have quietly buried a previously scheduled vote to repeal its “prevailing wage” ordinance for construction projects costing more than $50,000. Prevailing wage laws prohibit granting a government contract to the lowest bidder unless the company pays above-market, “union-scale” wages. In addition to state and federal prevailing wage laws, around 30 local governments across Michigan have their own version.
An editorial in today’s Detroit News that calls on Gov. Rick Snyder to reform Michigan’s regulatory regime cites a recent study by Russ Harding, senior environmental analyst, titled “Environmental Regulation in Michigan: A Blueprint for Reform.”
Among Harding’s proposals that The News cited were creating an agency independent from the DNR and DEQ to handle permit applications and an assurance to businesses that those applications will be treated in a timely manner.
In his first executive order, Gov. Rick Snyder has split the Department of Natural Resources and Environment back into two separate agencies. His action restores the organization of state government dealing with natural resources and the environment into two separate agencies; recreating the Departments of Environmental Quality and Natural Resources.
Today is the deadline for the Michigan Department of Human Services to file a brief in Loar v. DHS, according to WHMI in Livingston County.
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation filed an appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court after a second, terse rejection from the Michigan Court of Appeals, in an attempt to stop the illegal, forced unionization of 40,000 home-based day care providers.
Senior Economist David Littmann will be the keynote speaker for the Howell Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual Economic Forecast breakfast on Jan. 11, according to the Livingston Daily Press & Argus.
Littmann will present his outlook for 2011, including state and national trends, the Press & Argus reported. One area Littmann will discuss is rising gasoline prices, which he told The Detroit News could send the country into a recession in a repeat of the 1974 oil crisis.
The Michigan Supreme Court gave all private property owners in the state a belated Christmas gift with a ruling handed down on Dec. 29, 2010, that reaffirms that landowners in Michigan still have private property rights. Voting 4-3, the Michigan Supreme Court reversed the 2000 Baum Family Trust v. Babel appellate court decision regarding riparian property rights along Lake Charlevoix. Justices Markman, Kelly, Corrigan and Young voted with the majority, while justices Davis, Cavanagh and Hathaway dissented.
Adjunct Scholar John Graham writes in a Free Press Op-Ed today about what steps Michigan can take to help defeat ObamaCare.
Other Mackinac Center analysts have written about this issue here, here and here.
Education Policy Director Mike Van Beek is quoted in today’s Detroit News editorial on how to accelerate school reform in Michigan.
Van Beek points to states that have put an end to “social promotion” as something Michigan should emulate, as well at a law that allows parents to take over failing schools. Van Beek also noted that the way teachers are “evaluated and compensated” is important.
Of all the funds spent on “instruction” in
The data comes from the
(Editor’s note: This item originally appeared as an e-mail alert from the John Locke Foundation on Jan. 3, 2011.)
Incoming Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Yale Professor Jacob Hacker offer two visions of the future of American health care. Scott is focused on the immediate problem that Medicaid is killing state budgets, and says block grants with more individual control of their dollars is the best way to go. The alternative is a program that is unsustainable even before ObamaCare (witness Texas), and ripe for Constitutional review.
Stephen Moore's interview with Gov. Scott is worth reading:
In an article in The Detroit News, Michigan Sen. Vincent Gregory, D-Southfield, states that government workers get generous health and pension benefits in lieu of bonuses, apparently implying that the two offset. Thankfully, there are data on the issue to check his theory.
A new year causes most folks to decide on their resolutions for the coming year. Rather than setting in stone resolutions, which will no doubt be broken by mid-January, I try to use this time to count the blessings I have received during the past year. Reflecting on all the good in my life is a humbling experience each and every time.
The Detroit News reports today that Gov. Rick Snyder will address the disparity in public-sector benefits as a way to help solve Michigan’s overspending crisis.
Mackinac Center analysts have pegged public-sector benefits at about $5.7 billion a year higher than those in the private-sector. More information can be found here and here.
