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.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm cried poverty yesterday, claiming that her administration already cut 11,000 state employees and that the state cannot make further cuts without lowering "critical services that struggling families count on to survive in this tough economy."
Attorney General Mike Cox's office knew about concerns regarding the Hangar42 film studio as early as February, according to a story in today's Grand Rapids Press. Cox, however, did not officially announce an investigation of the film subsidy deal until a day after being called on to do so by Mackinac Center Legal Foundation Director Patrick J. Wright.
The local teachers union in the Ann Arbor Public Schools just ratified a new contract that saves the district $4.3 million in the 2010-2011 school year. According to AnnArbor.com, the union president said his members wanted to do their part to close a $20 million gap between district revenue and projected costs of $183 million.
It would seem that there is no bad legislative idea that cannot be sold by giving it an idealistic title or a clever acronym. Apparently you get bonus points for both, hence the Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections Act, or DISCLOSE for short (Get it?). Aside from the self-righteous title, DISCLOSE is a one-sided campaign law that casts blazing light on some groups while leaving unions to do their political activism in the shadows.
The Gulf oil spill tragedy has focused the nation's attention on a regulatory system that has failed in preventing an environmental disaster. The typical response from politicians and government officials to regulatory failures is to demand more regulations — a solution likely to fail. New and more complex regulations will not prevent future environmental disasters because they are practically impossible to enforce.
Last week the the Michigan Economic Development Corp. upped the ante on a $100 million "refundable" business tax credit approved by the state House and Senate for a subsidiary of the South Korean battery maker LG Chem. The MEDC in effect converted the credit into an outright cash subsidy from Michigan taxpayers by granting the firm's 120-acre plant site in Holland "renaissance zone" status for 15 years.
The amount of state resources consumed by and the political leverage of public-sector employees were the focus of two Op-Eds by Mackinac Center analysts in The Oakland Press recently.
Paul Kersey, director of labor policy for the Mackinac Center, wrote about how public-sector unions are gaining membership and spending more money on politics while private-sector unions decline, while James Hohman, fiscal policy analyst, wrote about "unsustainable" levels of state government employee compensation.
The (Adrian) Daily Telegram reports that custodians and maintenance workers in the Adrian school district are switching to a high-deductible health plan with a health savings account. The Blissfield, Madison and Onsted districts already provide these types of plans to some employees, as does Northwest Community Schools near Jackson.
A Grand Rapids Press columnist said Sunday that those who support film subsidies in Michigan should embrace scrutiny of the program.
Nancy Crawley pointed to the questions surrounding film studio Hangar42, which came to light after Mackinac Center analysts were the first to publicly raise following a months-long investigation.
A modest school pension reform proposed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm earlier this year was mostly gutted by the Republican Senate, and subjected to more savagery in the Democratic House, but it nevertheless crawled out with a provision requiring employees to contribute an additional 3 percent to the cost of their retirement benefits. The amended statute contains no language requiring that money be used to ease the budget challenges facing school districts, however.
From MichiganVotes.org:
2010 House Bill 6274 and 6275 (Allow Detroit pension funds to loan to city)
Introduced by Rep. Bettie Scott (D) on June 22, 2010, to allow the Detroit police, fire and other employee pension funds to lend up to 20 percent of their assets to the city at a discounted interest rate.
About 3,500 people attended the Michigan Education Association's rally in Lansing yesterday. This amounts to about one-third of what the MEA projected for an event it had been planning and promoting for months.
In one sense the lack of attendance could be viewed as an organizational and communications failure on the part of the MEA. Yesterday's attendees represented less than 1 percent of the total number of public school employees in the state and just 2 percent of MEA's total membership.
Or perhaps it was just a waste of time and money (taxpayer's money, to be exact). The MEA has been saying for at least the last three years that school employees are getting beat up by politicians even though they've supposedly agreed to $1 billion worth of contractual concessions. But the reality is that school employees (and especially teachers) have weathered Michigan's decade-long economic storm quite well when compared to the rest of the state. Perhaps school employees stayed home yesterday because they're not as interested in griping about their pay and benefits as their union leaders think they should be.
The Michigan Education Association protested in Lansing yesterday to demand more taxpayer money for the public school system and to protest recent public school pension reforms. But the pension reforms will allow districts to have more resources to devote to improving education.
Michigan Film Office Director Janet Lockwood said she has received a subpoena as part of the Michigan Attorney General's investigation of movie studio Hangar42, according to WWMT-TV3 in Grand Rapids.
Communications Specialist Kathy Hoekstra told WWMT "We're thrilled to see people starting to pay close attention to the administration of these types of tax subsidies."
The Michigan Education Association, which represents a majority of the teachers in the state (who happen to be the highest paid in the nation when compared to relative state wealth), is holding a demonstration at the state Capitol today to lobby for more money.
From MichiganVotes.org:
2010 House Bill 6234, Clarify scope of deer feeding ban:
Introduced by Rep. Mark Meadows (D) on June 1, 2010, to clarify that the law restricting or banning wild deer or elk feeding does not ban the "incidental" feeding of these animals when feeding wild birds or other wildlife. Reportedly the bill was introduced after a Northern Michigan man who broadcasts the action at his bird feeder on his website was served with an arrest warrant by the Department of Natural Resources because deer sometimes are seen eating the fallen seeds.
Grand Valley State University wants to expand its downtown campus and is turning to eminent domain as a tool to accomplish its plans according to a report in The Grand Rapids Press. The university has been negotiating with DeVries Properties to purchase a former A&P warehouse site adjacent to its downtown campus to expand its Seidman College of Business. The court can decide if GVSU's claim of using eminent domain to achieve a public purpose is valid and if so the court has the authority to negotiate a price.
Two bills are working their way through the House of Representatives in Lansing that would change the process of binding arbitration, which is used to resolve contract disputes between local governments and their employees. One of these bills is, at best, a complete waste of time. The other is just a lousy idea.
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's attack on private property rights in the Kelo vs. New London decision.
Susette Kelo, the homeowner involved in the case, was a guest of the Mackinac Center at an Issues & Ideas forum on the topic in 2009.
The lawsuit filed by the Detroit Public Schools Board of Education against Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb is "unprecedented," according to Education Policy Director Michael Van Beek. The board is suing Bobb in a disagreement over whether he or they control the district's academic requirements.
Lansing political newsletter MIRS News (subscription required) reports that some legislators are steamed about a decision by state Lottery Commissioner Scott Bowen to burn $40,000 in lottery proceeds that otherwise would be available to fund public schools by giving it to the city of Grand Rapids for a fireworks display.
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox's office has heeded a call from Mackinac Center Legal Foundation Director Patrick J. Wright to investigate the Hangar42 movie studio subsidy deal, according to The Grand Rapids Press.
Michigan Capitol Confidential has more information here.
Lansing political newsletters Gongwer and MIRS (subscriptions required) today both cite this Mackinac Center news release that calls for an official investigation of the Hangar42 movie studio deal.
The Grand Rapids Press also includes a mention of the news release in a story about the resignation of the chief of staff to Rep. Robert Dean, D-Grand Rapids.
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.
