The definition of progress seems to be moving backward in this state. It used to be that structures erected on property were called "improvements." Yet last week, the Michigan Senate passed a package of bills authorizing property tax breaks for "urban agriculture" in Detroit. One Republican legislator made the following boast on the Senate floor:
A Detroit News editorial today calls for more transparency from the Michigan Film Office in the wake of a months-long investigation by Mackinac Center analysts that raised several questions about a Grand Rapids-area movie studio deal.
Michigan Capitol Confidential has a story today about proposed legislation that would force the film office to be more transparent.
By Jack McHugh
Huron Valley Schools Superintendent Robert O'Brien earned $418,965 in his final year, according to the MIRS News (subscription required) Capitol Capsule.
Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan insisted that information be made part of the court record in O'Brien's lawsuit against the Michigan Public Schools Employee Retirement System.
Chinese officials are considering rules that would make it more difficult for local government to seize property from individuals and turn it over to developers without at least compensating the property owners, according to a report in the May 27, 2010, edition of The New York Times. East Lansing officials may want to pay attention.
A columnist in the Washington Examiner said Michigan Capitol Confidential "is providing a valuable service to news consumers" as "news coverage in the state capital dwindles."
Jason Stverak also wrote that in 44 states there are fewer reporters covering capitol news than six years ago. Stverak also pointed out the dangers of Senate Bill 1323, introduced by Sen. Bruce Patterson, R-Canton. Patterson also introduced Senate Bill 1285, which Russ Harding has referred to as the "Newspaper Death Act."
At a recent town hall meeting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie threw down the gauntlet at the feet of the teachers unions:
The fight is about who is going to run public education in New Jersey — the parents and the people they elect, or the mindless, faceless union leaders who decide that they are going to be the ones who are going to run it because they have the money and the authority to bully around school boards and local councils.
In a speech on diversifying the state economy at the Mackinac Policy Conference today, Gov. Jennifer Granholm stated that diversification efforts through the Michigan Economic Development Corp. have brought 919 "companies or expansions" to Michigan. She also stated that health care is the state's largest industry. One claim is without context and the other is incorrect.
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.
(This commentary appeared May 31, 2010, in the Lansing State Journal.)
On May 25, the executive committee of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. publicly cried foul over "unwarranted criticism" of the agency and warned that "political in-fighting" could hurt the state's business investment climate. But the criticism of the state's chief "jobs" department is not only warranted, it's overdue.
Lou Glazer of Michigan Future is a big fan of higher education. For Glazer, "human capital" as measured by the number of college degrees in a state is the key determinant of economic prosperity. But evidence suggests that a single-minded focus on increasing the proportion of a state's population with college degrees is a dead end for improving the state's economy.
Michigan's brownfield contaminated site cleanup program, once considered by many to be the best in the nation, is today largely dysfunctional. The main problem is that it is nearly impossible to get closure — once you check in you can never check out. Businesses are reluctant to invest money to clean up contaminated sites when they are at the whim of state environmental regulators for a never ending series of additional cleanup requirements.
In the latest development on the secrecy and unanswered questions surrounding a potential $10 million state subsidy for the Hangar42 film studio project, WoodTV in Grand Rapids reports the following response from the Michigan Film Office to their inquiries: "We have been directed by the Attorney General's office and Treasury to not divulge either an approval or denial" of the deal. (For background, see "Government secrecy rules on $10 million film studio subsidy.")
Here’s an interesting and illustrative article in last Sunday’s Washington Post comparing Montgomery County in Maryland with Fairfax County in Virginia. (Hat tip to Mary Katherine Ham at the Weekly Standard.) Montgomery and Fairfax are very similar — both are in the suburbs of Washington DC, both have around a million in population, both have prospered by drawing professionals from the capital, both have atrocious rush-hour traffic — but in terms of how local governments have weathered the recession, the two counties diverge. Montgomery County is required to bargain with many of its government employees under Maryland state law and is having difficulties dealing with declines in tax revenues. Public-sector collective bargaining is barred in Virginia, and Fairfax is in better shape.
The latest news from the excellent Chris Knape series in The Grand Rapids Press is that final approval of a $10 million state subsidy for the Hangar42 film studio project touted by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in her annual State of the State address last January has been delayed due to paperwork problems.
Gov. Granholm's call to raise taxes yet again in order to fix the latest budget overspending crisis she and the Legislature have created will send more Michigan residents packing, according to this Op-Ed in The Oakland Press, Grand Rapids Press, Dearborn Times-Herald and Detroit News by Morey Fiscal Policy Director Michael LaFaive.
The Michigan Economic Development Corp. creates more job announcements than jobs, Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, points out in this Lansing State Journal Op-Ed.
The MEDC said last week that criticism of its performance is unwarranted. LaFaive says it is overdue.
It is encouraging that Gov. Jennifer Granholm has issued an executive order (2009-44) abolishing the Michigan Climate Action Council. It should never have been created to begin with. Committing Michigan to regional greenhouse gas emission requirements to combat the elusive fear of global warming is fraught with peril for Michigan households and businesses. Many of the recommendations coming out of the Council will invariably lead to higher energy costs for heating and cooling homes and running businesses.
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.
"Why hasn't the president fixed it yet!? Clearly he's incompetent."
Blah blah blah. It's pure mindless partisanship, and merely promotes the ideological hubris that Big Government (and the president) is God and and fix any problem. It (and he) are not: As Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said in quote repeated in the Wall Street Journal, "The government doesn't have everything we need to solve this problem."
Patrick Wright, director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, explains in a Detroit Free Press Op-Ed today why the Mackinac Center and the Michigan Press Association jointly filed an amicus brief with the Michigan Supreme Court in a Freedom of Information Act case stemming from e-mails and teachers union business in Howell Public Schools.
At a recent rally where school employees called for an increase in state taxes, a representative of the Warren Education Association claimed that school revenues were in such disrepair that some students had to go without desks. A spokesperson from Warren Consolidated Schools denied this claim, but even if it were true, a few very minor policy changes well short of tax hikes would be all that is necessary to pay for many new desks.
The Michigan Department of Education improperly calculated the average public school teacher salary in the state for the last six years, reporting figures significantly lower than what is correct. Corrected figures for the past two years were recently released.
If you blinked you might've missed it. It could've slipped under readers' radar last week due to news coverage of the tragedy occurring in the Gulf of Mexico, the new immigration law in Arizona, the season finale of "Survivor" or the series conclusion of "Lost." But the Fourth Annual International Conference on Climate Change, held in Chicago May 16-18 and sponsored by The Heartland Institute, provided three days of news-intensive stories that should've taken precedence over nearly every other story of last week's news cycle.
Residents of the Great Lakes State can identify with the frustration of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who said on Monday "Let's be clear: Every day that this oil sits is one more day that more of our marsh dies." The oil spill in the Gulf is an environmental tragedy made worse by federal regulators' inaction. Two recent decisions demonstrate how the environmental regulatory process can do more harm than good in protecting natural resources.
Grand Rapids Press reporter Chris Knape continues to dig into the questions raised by the Mackinac Center about a potential $10 million subsidy for a film studio infrastructure project called Hangar42. At the heart of controversy is the fact that a former Lear Inc. facility in Walker, which had been listed for sale at $9.8 million last fall, is now claimed to be worth $40 million by an investor seeking a 25 percent "film and digital media infrastructure project" subsidy from the state. Gov. Jennifer Granholm touted the project in her annual State of the State address last January.
