If you were wondering whether your government works for you or for politically connected special interests, your elected officials are about to give you a simple answer. That’s because if some politicians and bureaucrats in Lansing have their way, your next income tax check might go to a billionaire real estate developer rather than schools, roads or other public services.
In addition to a bill to give more taxpayer dollars to select developers to build buildings, state lawmakers are considering another package that would give more taxpayer dollars to select businesses. The package contains bills with similar language to that of the state’s old business subsidy program, the Michigan Economic Growth Authority. The state stopped awarding new deals for that program in 2012.
Editor's Note: This op-ed was originally published by The Detroit News on April 13, 2017.
It’s been a bad couple of weeks for those who oversee Michigan’s public employee pension systems. The evidence of mismanagement coming out of Michigan’s Office of Retirement Services is starting to pile up and lawmakers should respond by rolling back the agency’s power.
By Jack McHugh
Senate Bill 275, Ban police sex with prostitutes: Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate
To repeal an exemption that allows police to have sex with a prostitute as part of an investigation.
Who Voted "Yes" and Who Voted "No"
Senate Bill 178, Authorize professional sports teams specialty plates: Passed 33 to 3 in the Senate
In an article in MLive, Michigan Future President Lou Glazer says that Michigan needs to attract more talent. “Michigan won’t be a high-prosperity state unless metro Detroit and metro Grand Rapids are able to compete with national talent magnets like Chicago and Minneapolis for mobile talent,” he told the paper. He should have checked the numbers first since Grand Rapids is the leader of this group and Chicago is shedding people to other places.
In a previous blog post titled “What’s Old Is New Again” I mentioned just three similarities between the state’s disastrous Michigan Economic Growth Authority law of 1995 and the proposed Good Jobs for Michigan legislation (specifically, Senate Bill 242). There are many others — 12 major ones by my count — and most are marked by some identical language or concept.
By Ben DeGrow
Michigan state Superintendent Brian Whiston caused a small stir at a recent State Board of Education meeting when he remarked that Detroit district leaders would be shutting down some schools this year.
The School Reform Office released in January a list of 38 persistently failing schools subject to closure or other drastic interventions. Twenty-five of the schools are in Detroit, all but one operated by the school district or the almost-defunct Education Achievement Authority. But state officials have never closed down a conventional public school for poor performance.
By Jack McHugh
House Bill 4080, Authorize new energy-related purchase/debt scheme for schools: Passed 36 to 0 in the Senate
To include schools in a scheme authorized by a 2016 law for counties, which lets them contract with vendors for energy efficiency projects, and pay for these with money the projects are supposed to save (or from regular tax revenue if savings don’t appear).
(Editor’s Note: The following is legislative testimony given by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center, to the Michigan House Tax Policy Committee on April 19, 2017, concerning a series of bills — Senate Bills 111-115 — intended to give taxpayer-financed subsidies to select real estate developers.)
The Michigan Senate has already passed and the House is considering a major expansion of Michigan’s corporate welfare regime. The House Tax Policy Committee held a hearing on March 8, and two officials from the agencies in charge of current business subsidy programs came to explain and justify the state’s corporate welfare apparatus.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
People move for a lot of reasons: for family, health and retirement among others. Finding economic opportunity is an important driver and one that is encouraged by state and local policy.
Over the past decade, Michigan has started to attract more people. It still is losing people to other states, but those numbers are down.
By Jack McHugh
Christopher DeMuth is the former president of the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think tank. In 2017, DeMuth received a Bradley Prize for his contributions to “preserving and defending the tradition of free representative government and private enterprise.”
April 18 is tax day in America, and in Michigan it’s also the 22nd anniversary of a failed corporate subsidy program known as MEGA, or the Michigan Economic Growth Authority. Although it was repealed in 2011, MEGA continues to raid the state Treasury every year, wasting shockingly high amounts of taxpayer money in the process.
By Jack McHugh
The House and Senate are out for a two-week spring break. Therefore, this report contains no votes but several recently introduced bills of general interest.
Senate Bill 59 and House Bill 4409: Authorize student loan tax breaks
Introduced by Sen. Curtis Hertel, Jr. (D) and Rep. Andy Schor (D), respectively, to authorize an income tax credit equal to 50 percent of the amount of student loan payments made by a resident (subject to some caps) who got a degree from a college or university in Michigan and is employed in the state. The credit would not be “refundable,” but would reduce an individual’s tax liability on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.
A state label served as a wake-up call for one rural Southwest Michigan district. Today, its high school stands out as one of the top academic performers in the state.
In August 2010, the Michigan Department of Education released its first list of underachieving schools under a new law that created a school reform office with the power to take over the worst schools.
For many years, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation has always selected a friendly vendor to calculate the return on investment of its state tourism promotion funding effort (Pure Michigan), rather than seek bids from several possible choices. Last year, it finally requested proposals from other vendors for the right to make these estimates. The winner of the new contract — and the costliest bidder, too — was … wait for it … the very same firm (Longwoods International) the agency had for many years simply selected on a no-bid basis.
Last year, the state’s Office of Retirement Services testified against a plan that would offer new employees in the school retirement system 401(k)-style benefits. The office claimed that shifting employees would require increased costs in order to follow industry best practices. But state officials are already ignoring a large number of best practices when it suits them.
By Derk Wilcox
President Donald Trump has nominated George Mason University law professor Neomi Rao to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and Budget. This is a radical departure for the office, because for years Rao’s scholarship has challenged the legitimacy of the regulatory state and how it takes decision making away from Congress.
By Kahryn Riley
A set of 18 bills recently signed into law will improve public safety and put Michigan on the track to administer criminal justice more efficiently, but there is still more work to do. The bills, championed by Sen. John Proos, R-St. Joseph and signed by Gov. Rick Snyder on March 30, are part of 21 proposals lawmakers have been discussing since last May.
Michigan legislators are considering creating new targeted tax credit programs, a key part of former Gov. Jennifer Granholm's economic strategy. For much of Michigan's “lost decade,” her plan for economic growth was centered on giving tax credits and other favors to politically preferred businesses and industries – combined with higher taxes for everyone else. There’s no evidence that any of this worked to grow the economy, and Michigan’s Legislature should learn from that lesson.
The state government spends a lot of money trying to create jobs in Michigan. There are dozens of programs in place with over $100 million in annual appropriations, and billions of tax dollars have been pledged to the purpose. Despite all of this spending, though, the programs don’t work and are rarely held accountable when they fail.
By Ben DeGrow
As the ink finishes drying on the nation’s widest-reaching educational choice law, Americans can tune in to see what’s behind such programs and why they work.
On April 6, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law an expansion of the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program. At the end of four years, parents of every public school student statewide will be able to use state funds to customize his or her education, subject to enrollment caps. This level of choice nearly had been achieved in neighboring Nevada, but a 2016 state Supreme Court ruling left the program in limbo, frustrating families seeking educational alternatives.
By Jack McHugh
The House and Senate are on a two week spring break, so rather than votes this report contains some recently proposed constitutional amendments of interest. To become law these require a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate and approval by voters.
House Joint Resolution A: Establish part time legislature
Here’s a sign of economic growth that most people overlook: The landfill business in Michigan is booming. The amount of waste sent to landfills continues to grow from a low point in 2012. Though recycling policies may have an effect, industry insiders say the increase in waste disposal signals an improving economy.
By Jason Hayes
At approximately 2 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on March 28, 2017, the earth lost its ability to sustain life.
Or so one might believe after reading the overwrought reactions to President Donald Trump’s “Energy Independence” executive order. Of course, anyone who had taken the time to read its text would likely have a more measured response.
