The Free Press reports that the Pontiac Silverdome will be auctioned off to the highest bidder by Nov. 16. If you're just dying to own the location where the NFL's most futile franchise claimed its only playoff game win of the last half-century, then ante up your sealed bid (in ANY amount -- no minimum bid requirement) along with a "No, believe it or not, I'm serious about this" deposit check of $250,000 by 4 p.m. on Nov. 12. However, be advised that even if your winning bid amounts to nothing more than a stack of Pizza Hut coupons, you'll still be on the hook for $1.5 million in annual upkeep costs on the building -- thus one reason that the city of Pontiac is looking to unload it.
On Oct. 9, 2009, Michael LaFaive, director of the Mackinac Center's Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, spoke at the invitation of Rep. Justin Amash, R-Kentwood, at an "Economic Town Hall" meeting convened by the representative. Here's what he told the participants:
The Legislature has agreed to request greater transparency from Michigan's public school districts, adopting a cause the Mackinac Center first took up more than 18 months ago, according to The Grand Rapids Press.
The Center since March 2008 has been requesting school districts, municipalities and legislators be more transparent by posting checkbook registers, staff names and salaries and other expenditures online for greater public inspection.
But even then, it is unclear what the figures cover. It is unknown how many of jobs are full or part-time, temporary or long-term, created or retained. But more important is to consider what would have happened in lieu of the stimulus and for all time periods. Sound policy requires that we consider long-run effects and all people, not simply short-run effects and a few people.
Last week, while Michiganders shivered through more subnormal temperatures and watched their crop yields freeze from a summer of too-cool weather, a green echo chamber of media, government bureaucrats and activists gathered for a Midwest Governor's Association (MGA) conference in downtown Detroit to draw a "Midwestern Energy Security and Climate Stewardship Roadmap" to help Michigan navigate around . . . global warming.
The "Center for Michigan" group has released a study showing that not all Michigan school districts are meeting the federally suggested 180-day school year. Underlying the length of the school year debate is the assumption that more time in school increases student achievement. Unfortunately, it doesn't.
As a senior in high school in 1976, I had the opportunity to view the 1968 Halloween horror film classic "Night of the Living Dead" at the local university campus. A gentleman seated next to me asked for my opinion about halfway through the film, sparking a lengthy conversation on montage and mise-en-scene. The gentleman excused himself shortly thereafter, and appeared on stage as guest speaker upon the film's conclusion. The speaker was none other than the film's writer/director, George Romero. His last words to me before leaving were something along the lines of, "You seem pretty sharp, kid. You might want to think about making horror movies yourself."
Mackinac Center scholars were cited in four different newspapers - including one from North Carolina - on four different topics Friday, Sunday and today.
Michael D. LaFaive, director of the Center's Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, was cited in the Lansing State Journal regarding school consolidation and other reforms being pushed by House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford. LaFaive said bold moves are necessary to fix Michigan's budget, but pointed to a 2007 Center study that showed savings from school district consolidation are overestimated.
One recipient of government business incentives is angry at the state for publishing an "absurd" value of those incentives, according to the Michigan Information & Research Service. The incident illustrates the need for transparency over the state's economic development efforts.
Maybe Michigan farmers suffering from low crop yields from yet another cold Midwest growing season can recoup their losses by renting out their fields to combat global warming with state-subsidized wind farms?
Reports continue to trickle in about agricultural damage this year (and last, and the one before that) from an unusually cold and rainy growing season. In addition, data showing that Great Lakes levels are up and global temperatures are flat since 1997 contradict the climate alarmism coming from Lansing and Washington, D.C.
Michigan's political class needs to protect the perks and privileges of government and school employees in the face of revenue shortfalls, so they're pushing for tax hikes, a.k.a. "new revenue," that will take more from you, me, and the man behind the tree.
Political rhetoric aside, the Great Recession of 2009 has not provoked unemployment numbers anywhere near the 25 percent rates seen at the height of the Great Depression. Except in Detroit.
This summer, Detroit's official unemployment rate hit a record 28.9 percent. The city's economic pain was on public display Wednesday as a riot scene out of the 1930s erupted here. An estimated 35,000 city residents rushed the doors of Cobo Hall in a desperate attempt to grab 5,000 federal assistance applications made available to Detroit as part of the "Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program," a federal stimulus fund designed to help residents pay rent and utility bills.
The state's economic development department has stopped releasing important information about the state's flagship incentive program, the Michigan Economic Growth Authority. To help make the program more transparent, the Mackinac Center requested documents about each credit awarded through this program and made them available online. You can view the updated database here.
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has recommended outsourcing the management of the Coleman A. Young International Airport to save money, as recommended by the Mackinac Center back in 1998. When we did so the city had recently provided the airport with a $1.9 million subsidy. In 2007 (the latest year for which data is available), the subsidy was down to $900,000, but the city's ability to afford any subsidy has collapsed altogether.
If you want to understand what’s going on in Michigan, you need to know about PERA. Here’s a great example of why.
Yesterday, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing announced that he would be terminating contracts for city employees unless union officials agreed to major concessions, including 10 percent wage cuts. Although some unions have agreed to concessions, AFSCME in particular has refused.
Unemployed Michigan workers are being told by environmental groups and our governor that we should forgo shovel-ready construction jobs in building new, environmentally cleaner coal-fired power plants for the promise of jobs sometime in the future building windmills. Approximately 1500 construction workers gathered at the state capitol on October 6, demanding that Gov. Jennifer Granholm abandon her anti-coal bias and let them go to work. Most of the workers are unemployed and need a job — even if it isn't a politically correct green energy job that the governor and environmental groups seem to think they should have.
Can Michigan, a poorer-than-average state, continue to support teachers that are paid more than average? The debate continues...
Julie Mack of the Kalamazoo Gazette blogged this morning that she was unable to find the underlying data regarding average teacher salaries produced by the American Legislative Exchange Council and cited in my blog post last week. (Mack called it a "quibble," but we take even quibbles seriously.) ALEC reports a difference of $11,889 per teacher between Michigan and the national average for 2006-07. Mack cites several other sources, each showing a smaller difference, but all showing Michigan is well above the average, ranging from a low of $3,788 per teacher above the national average (National Education Association claiming 2007-08 data) to $5,713 above average (U.S. Census report from April claiming 2006 data).
While some in the Michigan Film Office, film industry and state government are quick to boast about the ever-increasing number of movie productions that have come to Michigan as a result of film tax subsidies, there have been some unforeseen and hard-learned lessons for some Michigan businesses, schools and organizations.
WJR's Paul W. Smith mentioned the Mackinac Center and policy analyst Ken Braun's analysis of public school teachers’ salaries during a radio interview of Nolan Finley of the Detroit News. (audio)
As an aside, the alleged "$700 million health insurance savings" claimed by an MEA person who called in on the same show was debunked on this Web site last week in a post by Mike Van Beek.
In a profile that appeared in today's Washington Post, Gov. Jennifer Granholm misused data on her targeted business tax break and subsidy programs, the administration's primary response to a Michigan economy that has lost 632,600 payroll jobs since Gov. Granholm's inauguration back in 2003.
It appears to be a done deal that Michigan’s Departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality will be combined into one agency. Now it appears that the Department of Agriculture may also be rolled into a new tripartite “super agency.” The very mention of this should frighten any Michigan resident involved in agriculture.
The Mackinac Center has been cited in various media outlets in the past few days.
The Detroit News highlights a Mackinac Center budget-reform suggestion as part of its "50 ideas to fix Michigan" series.
In today's "Idea 12," the Mackinac Center suggests that Michigan "[p]rivatize some state prisons -- not just some functions within state-run prisons, but entire facilities."
Cross-posted from State House Call.
A new study shows insurance premiums in Massachusetts climbed 50 percent faster than the national average between 2006 and 2008. Nearly a quarter (24.6 percent) of “workers in firms with <51 employees” pay twice as much to their premium as the state average, up from 16 percent of similar workers in 2006. So much for minimum creditable coverage and consumer protections making insurance more affordable.
Cross-posted from State House Call.
Parents routinely struggle to get their children to eat veggies. Now it looks like government is going on an “eat your veggies” mission as well.
The Arizona Republic reports that the WIC program (free food for women and children) will now make sure that some of the money its recipients spend on food can’t be spent on anything but fruits and vegetables. WIC is also going after whole milk.
Cross-posted from State House Call.
In 1985, public school teachers and retirees in Alabama paid $10 a month for single-coverage health insurance. In 1986, the amount they paid went to … $2 a month, and it’s stayed there ever since.
An outrage? Perhaps. It certainly has sheltered teachers from the realities of health insurance costs, which are by virtue of this arrangement largely obscured from their view. Over the years, state officials have tried to raise the employee payments, only to be overruled by the insurance plan’s governing board.
