New Census Bureau data published today confirm a trend shown in previous releases: While the amount of tax revenue flowing into the Michigan treasury has fallen, the state's tax trends look brighter than the state's economy.
From 2008 to 2009, Michigan's tax revenue fell 4.9 percent. However, its number of payroll jobs fell by 6.9 percent.
The Center's "Show Michigan the Money" project is an "idea that makes sense in this information age," according to an editorial in today's Port Huron Times Herald.
Thanks to the project, an increasing number of public school districts are agreeing to put their checkbook registers online for taxpayers to inspect.
Recently passed federal legislation allowing for a government takeover of health insurance will have negative implications for Michigan.
"It could not happen at a worse time for Michigan," Michael Jahr, senior director of communications, told WEYI TV-25. "Our taxes are already too high. We're having a hard time getting people employed in this state and now we add a whole new federal bureaucracy that's going to require higher taxes ..."
Combining the departments of Environmental Quality and Natural Resources into a single agency will cause confusion and reduce efficiency. The organizational chart for the Department of Natural Resources and Environment embraces matrix management. Rather than clear lines of authority and responsibilities, the new agency instead utilizes an organizational structure that creates regional ecosystem managers (Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Upper Peninsula) who will compete with resource managers (wildlife, fisheries, water, forest, recreation) for control and authority. Matrix management in the DNRE, which has considerable environmental permitting authority, will lead to bureaucratic infighting and power struggles resulting in additional time and cost for businesses to obtain required permits.
The Detroit News' March 22 editorial says the Department of Human Services has more explaining to do about why it continues to operate the Michigan Home Based Child Care Council, even though the Legislature voted to defund the agency.
The Livingston Daily Press and Argus reports that legislation has been introduced to outlaw the forced unionization of small-business owners, such as what has occurred with home-based day care operators.
A Detroit Free Press column written by Rochelle Riley suggests that if Detroit parents took a bus ride out to the suburbs to witness what high-performing schools look like and the positive impacts they make, they would demand the same for their children. Riley is right, but there’s a way this could happen with no trip to the ‘burbs required: Universal tuition tax credits.
Russ Harding, senior environmental policy analyst and director of the Property Rights Network at the Center, will take part in a live chat hosted by The Grand Rapids Press at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 23 (see grey box in Press story titled "Michigan 10.0" for details). The talk will be about how Michigan can best use its natural resources to drive economic recovery.
The award of a $9.1 million Michigan Economic Growth Authority tax credit to a convicted embezzler has raised serious concerns about the lack of transparency in MEGA and its parent agency, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Specifically, how many of the agency's targeted tax break and subsidy deals have been awarded on the basis of fraud?
By Jack McHugh
In the wake of the news that the Michigan Economic Growth Authority awarded a $9 million tax break/subsidy deal to what appears to be a "shell company" created by a convicted embezzler, Sen. Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, has been assigned the task of managing Senate hearings on the vetting procedures used by MEGA and its parent agency, the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
Lou Schimmel, former director of municipal finance and an adjunct scholar with the Center, has been hired for his expertise to solve the city of Warren's $10 million overspending crisis.
The Detroit Free Press reports that Schimmel has been named Warren's executive administrator. He previously was appointed receiver for the city of Ecorse, eliminating that city's $6 million overspending crisis by renegotiating union contracts and privatizing many services. He's also the former emergency financial manager for the city of Hamtramck.
Henry Payne, editorial cartoonist for The Detroit News, writes about the Mackinac Center's climate change panel, in which he participated, at National Review Online.
You can watch the event here.
A Detroit News editorial today calls a plan to cap salaries of public school superintendents and teachers based on what politicians are paid, "gimmicky," and cites this commentary by Mike Van Beek, director of education policy, which states that only 1 percent of school expenses go toward superintendent pay and benefits.
More Michigan public school districts are posting their checkbook registers online as a way for taxpayers to see exactly how their money is spent, but most districts get a failing grade when it comes to transparency.
"After two years, we know who cares most about telling the taxpayers where their money goes," Ken Braun, director of the Center's "Show Michigan the Money" project, is quoted in today's Grand Rapids Press. "All of the 'A' students in the transparency class have been identified, and the rest are apparently celebrating Sunshine Week 2010 by skipping class," Braun continued.
The Michigan Economic Growth Authority yesterday approved its latest batch of tax credits to lure large business projects to Michigan.
Despite the press release, these big business projects are just not that consequential to Michigan's total economy.
That's because the state's economic development programs are involved in the bulk of business news stories, but an incredible minority of the state's job creation.
The Associated Press is reporting that a convicted embezzler currently on parole has been approved for business tax credits under the state's Michigan Economic Growth Authority program. The article also noted that when the deal was announced, the embezzler, Richard A. Short, "shared the stage" with Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
Nearly every aspect of a teacher's job falls under the rules of a union contract. The following is a synopsis of just one of those agreements in Michigan. It comes from Western School District near Jackson, which employs 180 teachers and enrolls 2,900 students. Of its $22 million operating budget (excluding capital expenditures and debt services), 90 percent goes to pay employee compensation.
For your edification, from the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards come the following updates on union corruption investigations in Michigan:
On March 8, 2010, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, David Miller, former Treasurer of Litchfield Independent Workers Union Local 373 (located in Litchfield, Mich.), pled guilty to one count of embezzling union funds in the amount of $50,501.99. On January 6, 2010, Miller was indicted on one count of embezzling union funds in the same amount. The plea follows an investigation by the OLMS Detroit District Office.
The Michigan Information & Research Service (subscription required) reprinted this blog post by Paul Kersey, labor policy director, explaining why it would not be a violation of labor law for the Legislature to reject a 3 percent raise for state employees as some lawmakers claimed.
Senate Bill 1148, introduced recently by Sen. Bruce Patterson, R-Canton, would limit the total compensation of public school superintendents to 75 percent of what the governor is paid and prohibit districts from paying any teacher more than what a state legislator makes.
Last Wednesday Teamsters President James P. Hoffa offered his unsolicited advice to the Tea Party movement. In an article that is cleverer than usual for union officials, it’s worth taking time to note what Hoffa avoids, because the whole thing is basically an exercise in deflection.
Another lawmaker has put his support behind legislation that would end the stealth unionization of small-business owners.
Livingston County's Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Marion Township, is co-sponsoring the package of bills, according to radio station WHMI. Patrick Wright, director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, testified in support of the legislation earlier this week.
Research by James Hohman, fiscal policy analyst, shows that claims of Michigan experiencing a "brain drain" are not true.
"It's been one of the most over-hyped myths that's been out there," Hohman told the Michigan Information & Research Service (subscription required). "The simple truth is that these young people are already high mobile, even in a good economy, and that even in Michigan's ongoing bad times, we're actually doing pretty well in attracting graduates to the state."
A Michigan congressman wants to repeal legislation that has been one of the few bright spots in the state's slumping economy over the last decade.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, has introduced legislation to overturn the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to The Flint Journal.
The state higher-education establishment and its lobbyists argue that spending more tax dollars on their system will improve Michigan's economy.
Here is the abstract from the very latest research on this issue, performed not by self-serving beneficiaries of government spending, but by disinterested scholars:
Mackinac Center Legal Foundation Director Patrick Wright testified Tuesday on proposed legislation that would end the stealth unionization of home-based day care owners and prevent the same thing from happening to home health care workers.
Lansing political newsletters Gongwer News Service and the Michigan Information & Research Service (subscriptions required for both) covered the hearing. Wright told the Senate Families and Human Services Committee that because "union dues" are taken out of the subsidy checks day care owners receive on behalf of low-income parents, it raises the question if other professions could be organized just because their clients receive government assistance — such as pharmacists. Wright in the past has raised the same concern about doctors, landlords and grocers.
