WJSM in Benton Harbor, WCXT in St. Joseph, MIRS and the Lansing State Journal are reporting that the Michigan Supreme Court let stand a lower court’s ruling in a key case involving the Freedom of Information Act.
Voters in the U.S. generally recognize that political gridlock is better than one-party rule — a judgment that seems lost on the ruling class. Since the founding of our country, Americans have been mistrustful of government — especially a distant centralized government that dictates how they should live their lives. Liberty seems to be implanted into the genes of most Americans. We recognize that a too-powerful government is a threat to liberty, and government is most powerful when it is ruled by one party. The damage that can be done to liberty by one-party rule was on national display when democrats in Congress rammed Obmacare through against the will of the American people.
In a series of opinion editorials, outgoing Gov. Jennifer Granholm has painted an extremely rosy picture of the state that led the nation in unemployment for a sizable chunk of her term. Her newest article is no exception to this rule, so a reality check is in order.
Decisions made in Washington that affect every aspect of the lives of Americans, from the kind of cars we can drive to what type of light bulb we can put in our homes, are increasingly being made by individuals that never stand for election. This regulation without representation has concentrated power in the executive branch of the federal government where countless bureaucrats write reams of regulations that not only interpret existing federal law but also add new requirements that were never contemplated by lawmakers in Congress.
The Detroit Free Press, Lansing State Journal, The Port Huron Times-Herald, The Flint Journal. the Battle Creek Enquirer, Mlive.com and The Saginaw News all reported on the “Missed Votes Report” assembled by MichiganVotes.org. There were 23 legislators who did not miss a vote during the 2009-2010 session, and 18 who missed more than 100 votes each.
Putting more information online and requiring fewer written reports would help increase Michigan government’s transparency and accountability, according to one Mackinac Center analyst.
Ken Braun, director of the Center’s “Show Michigan The Money” project, told The Detroit News that the state “should put more raw data online,” and “produce fewer but much more useful and high quality reports.”
While it is always risky making predictions, this one is a slam dunk: The Chevrolet Volt will win the North American Car of the Year award at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit next month. Unfortunately we seem to live in a world where objective analysis has given way to political correctness, which is why I am confident regarding my prediction.
If a person sits through Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s video portrait, they might think that she is interested and aware of her economic development programs. She spends nearly the entire production on her efforts to foster job creation. Unfortunately, a recent MIRS interview (subscription required) shows that she is blind to the failures of the programs she supports.
Outgoing
Saugatuck Township officials are willing to bankrupt the township to stop a development along Lake Michigan, according to an article appearing in The Wall Street Journal. Aubrey McClendon, co-owner of pro basketball’s Oklahoma City Thunder, fell in love with the area near Saugatuck while vacationing there with his wife about 10 years ago and purchased about 400 acres of mostly undeveloped dunes for $39.5 million in 2006. He would like to develop a planned community with a hotel, marina, condos and homes.
The United States spends more per-pupil on K-12 schooling than any other of the 34 wealthiest countries in the world except for Switzerland, but American students consistently score at or below average in reading, math and science, according to a report prepared by the Mercatus Center, a research center associated with George Mason University. In the U.S, inflation-adjusted K-12 spending tripled over the last 40 years. In 1970, it cost this country $50,000 to send a child to school for 13 years. By 2009 this had grown to $149,000.
In his Dec. 14 nationally syndicated column, famed economist Thomas Sowell shared a list of books that would make good Christmas gifts. Two of them (which also happened to be the top two) were authored by Burton Folsom, the Mackinac Center senior fellow in economic education.
The Mackinac Center is pro-free markets, not necessarily “pro-business.” The following excerpt from an article by Luigi Zingales does a good job of describing the difference (although the Center is not a lobbyist, either). Zingales is a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
You do not have to look as far away as Europe to see how irresponsible spending can lead to economic collapse. California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency as state debt has ballooned to more than $20 billion, provides a good example right here at home.
Today’s Detroit News editorial cites research by Mike Van Beek, education policy director, regarding teacher health insurance plans, saying “All teachers will have to contribute to the costs of their health care benefits to help (the) state recover.”
Van Beek also found that Michigan could save $500 million if teachers contributed the same amount toward their own health insurance – 27 percent – as does the average federal employee.
St. Clair County fire departments that want firefighters to accompany ambulances on nonemergency medical calls will end up straining already fragile budgets, Fiscal Policy Director Mike LaFaive told the Port Huron Times Herald.
“This sounds like a classic case of a desperate attempt by government employees to remain … relevant,” LaFaive told the paper. “They of course have every reason to sell it as a customer-service improvement. I think this is more about self-service than public service.”
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.
In a decision handed down last week involving employees of auto supplier Dana in St Johns, Mich., the National Labor Relations Board essentially made it easier to create company unions. That unions would actually go along with such a thing says a lot about where the union movement (or maybe we should call it the union establishment?) is headed.
Three Michigan districts recently signed new contracts with their teachers union. All three include across-the-board pay raises for teachers for this year and the next. Each district also modified the type of health insurance package it offers teachers, all which are still much more generous than than can be found on average in the private sector.
As Michigan’s new governor and Legislature prepare to wrestle budgets increasingly pressured by generous government employee benefits, attention is turning once again to a “grand bargain” on prisons: Lock up fewer people for less time, and also adopt reforms that bring down prison employee costs.
The Grand Rapids Press, WZZM-TV13, WWMT-TV3, Michigan Public Radio, FOX-17, and WOOD-TV are reporting that the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation will file a lawsuit against the Kent County Intermediate School District, nine other school districts and several Michigan Education Association union affiliates over “no-privatization” language included in collective bargaining agreements. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of five Kent County taxpayers.
At some point you have to consider this a trend. As we noted earlier, Governors of northern states are taking a long, hard look at government employee collective bargaining: last week it was Wisconsin Gov.-Elect Scott Walker, two days ago it was outgoing Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
AnnArbor.com is reporting that a budget document that discusses potential ways to cut state spending includes a recommendation to “privatize University of Michigan over 5 years.” Mackinac Center analysts recommended the same thing six years ago.
Lawmakers should reject a proposal from the Michigan Environmental Council for a 3/8-cent increase in the sales tax to fund the state’s dysfunctional contaminated site cleanup program. Throwing more taxpayer money at environmental cleanups will not fix what’s wrong with the state’s contaminated site cleanup program.
Education Policy Director Mike Van Beek was a guest today on “The Frank Beckmann Show” on WJR AM760, where he discussed the expanding payroll of the Michigan Education Association teachers union.
Van Beek said the MEA staff saw a 31 percent increase in payroll over the last five years, and a 22 percent increase in the number of employees making $100,000 or more annually.
