(Editor's note: The following is an edited version of a letter to the editor first sent to The Grand Rapids Press by Mike LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative.)
The Grand Rapids Press on July 27 published an editorial defending state business tax incentives ("Michigan needs to keep offering business tax breaks to create jobs," July 27) that fails to recognize one vital argument: They don't work.
The main investor in a Grand Rapids movie studio that applied for state film subsidy money has been charged with attempted felony false pretenses over $20,000, according to The Grand Rapids Press.
Attention was first drawn to this issue after the Mackinac Center broke the story following a months-long investigation by Center analysts, including a call for the Michigan Attorney General to investigate the Hangar42 deal. Fiscal Policy Director Mike LaFaive and Communications Specialist Kathy Hoekstra raised several questions about the matter with an essay and investigative video posted May 20. At issue was the value of the proposed film studio, which those involved said was worth $40 million, even though it had been listed by a real estate agent for $10 million shortly before the deal was announced.
Paul W. Smith, who hosts a talk show from 5:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. weekdays on WJR 760AM, cited a commentary on school funding by Education Policy Director Mike Van Beek in his Detroit News column Saturday.
Van Beek wrote that despite spending some $20 billion in local, state and federal taxes on public education in Michigan each year, the myth that schools are "underfunded" persists. The piece is part of an ongoing series examining school funding myths. As Michigan Capitol Confidential reports, Michigan spent a record amount on public schools in 2008-2009, the last year for which complete data is available.
With Tea Party organizer Jason Gillman breaking the news and Michigan Capitol Confidential reporting on it, the faux-"Michigan Tea Party" political party appears to be a dirty trick created by Democratic Party operatives. It's worth noting who comprises the real Tea Party movement in this state.
Oklahoma's state affiliate of the National Education Association only has 23,451 members, but has nevertheless launched a revenue-grabbing initiative, SQ 744, that will be on the ballot in November. The NEA is giving the local $3 million to promote the measure. Mike Antonucci wrote about it in his Education Intelligence Agency newsletter:
Stories in Michigan Capitol Confidential were the subject of recent radio interviews.
Senior Correspondent Tom Gantert, who wrote about the city of Ann Arbor spending $850,000 on a sculpture while laying off firefighters, was interviewed on The Lucy Ann Lance Show on WLBY AM1290 in Ann Arbor. You can listen to the interview here.
Some economic development officials are complaining of “collateral damage” from candidates and others who publicly discuss reining in Michigan’s generous array of targeted business subsidies and incentives. Last Saturday the Grand Rapids Press covered a roundtable discussion among four of the planners in an article titled "Politicians talk of killing tax incentives is hurting Michigan, economic developers say."
An article in Saturday's Grand Rapids Press contains one of the most troubling quotes from an economic development official we have ever read. It comes from Ron Kitchens of Kalamazoo's Southwest Michigan First and it continues a "stop picking on us" theme first advanced by Michigan Economic Development Corp. officials in a May letter.
A recent Michigan Capitol Confidential story about driver license renewal for people with outstanding parking tickets was cited as the source of information for two different newspaper editorials.
The Macomb Daily and Midland Daily News, which took opposite stances on the issue, both indicated the Michigan Capitol Confidential story was the source for their respective editorial boards.
According to the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom published by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, there are 16 countries that do a better job of protecting private property rights than the United States.
A dismal international ranking of 17 in protecting private property rights should serve as a wake up call to Americans concerned about individual freedom and liberty. It is impossible for a people to remain free without respect for the rule of law and protection of private property rights.
A recent blog post by Michael Jahr, senior director of communications, about Michael Moore accepting a Michigan film subsidy for a movie of his that railed against government subsidies was quickly picked up by other media, including The Michigan View at The Detroit News and The Houghton Lake Resorter.
"Cry me a future/Where the revelations run amok/Ladies and gentlemen/Lions and tigers come running/Just to steal your luck." — From "Especially in Michigan," by Red Hot Chili Peppers.
United Van Lines has released mid-year data on where it takes its clients to and from in the 48 contiguous states. Once again, Michigan finds itself in the number one position. That is, 61.6 percent of all Michigan-specific UVL traffic is outbound. Fortunately, this is down from 70 percent during the same the same time frame last year. Unfortunately, that drop may be a function of having nowhere to go.
The New York Times reported yesterday that "the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be dissolving far more rapidly than expected" and that "the immense patches of surface oil that covered thousands of square miles of the gulf are largely gone."
Donald J. Kochan, an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center and an associate professor at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, Calif., wrote Monday in the Los Angeles Times about Ben Franklin's views on "luxury" and how they apply to today's society.
The Traverse City Record-Eagle yesterday reported that filmmaker Michael Moore expects to receive between $650,000 and $1 million in state film subsidies for producing part of "Capitalism: A Love Story" in Michigan.
Actually, the Record-Eagle reported that Moore has "a new project - revitalizing derelict, depressed downtown theaters in communities across Michigan." The fact that he would use taxpayers' money to pay for his philanthropy was barely noted. The irony that Moore might receive state funds for a film that denounced government handouts to the wealthy and politically favored went completely unremarked.
A Dearborn Times-Herald Op-Ed by Mike LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, points out the obvious: tax hikes kill jobs and tax cuts create them.
LaFaive's Viewpoint on the same topic is highlighted at "The Corner" on National Review Online today.
Michigan public schools received and spent more money per pupil in 2008-2009 than in any previous year for which figures are available, according to new data from the Michigan Department of Education.
Combined taxes from local, state and federal sources pumped $19.59 billion in the public school system last year. This gross receipts figure was actually down $200 million from the previous year, but since the number of students dropped by an unprecedented 31,000 from 2007-2008, the amount of money spent per student increased by $200, to just over $13,000.
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 Legislature did not meet this week, so instead of votes this report contains eight newly introduced bills of interest:
It is good news that cap-and-trade legislation passed by the U.S. House will not be taken up by the Senate as announced by Senate leader Harry Reid yesterday. However, it is too early to celebrate the death of this job-killing legislation that would increase the cost of energy for American consumers and businesses. As Mark Twain famously quipped: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." Bad ideas coming out of Washington die only to be resurrected in another form.
The Tuesday, July 22, Michigan Capitol Confidential story "The Art of the Ann Arbor City Budget" reached millions of readers, starting with an appearance on national news aggregator, the Drudge Report. The American Spectator quickly followed with a column expanding on similiar "creative" arts funding in other states. USA Today, Instapundit and Neal Boortz picked up the story as well.
Presented without comment, this excerpt from an item by John Peterson on the "AltEnergyStocks.com" site, which describes itself as a provider of "high-quality, original research into alternative energy, renewable energy, and clean technology companies":
A newly introduced bill in Michigan gives new meaning to the phrase "politically correct economic development." Included in Ed Clemente's introduced House Bill 6242, which would create a new government economic development commission, is a stipulation that members appointed by the governor must "be representative of this state geographically, racially, and with regard to gender."
When it comes to which model of vehicle Americans should buy, the federal government knows best — or believes it does. Not content with merely requiring that vehicles get better fuel economy, Congress is now considering legislation that favors the newest fad in green cars — the plug-in hybrid. According to a report in the Detroit Free Press, a Senate committee yesterday approved two bills aimed at promoting hybrid vehicles, one of which would expand a $25 billion loan program aimed at fuel-efficient vehicles and the other a $3.6 billion bill sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., aimed specifically at plug-in hybrids.
What could have been a 'burning' issue for the incoming director of the state Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth (DELEG) may be all but washed out. That's after a hearing Tuesday in Lansing before the director of Michigan's Bureau of Construction Codes, Irvin J. Poke. He heard comments from about three dozen people, most of whom were opposed to making fire sprinkler installation mandatory for new home construction in Michigan.
Ron Dzwonkowski at the Detroit Free Press wrote an article on the late Joe Overton, the man behind the Overton Window concept of political possibilities. Overton was vice president of the Mackinac Center, and his idea of a moveable window of politically acceptable public policies is now the title of a best-selling novel.
