(This is the second article in a three part series discussing major changes made by the Michigan Legislature to energy utility regulation in the state. Those changes are now enrolled in statute as Public Acts 341 and 342 of 2016.)
Michigan’s two large utilities — DTE and Consumers Energy — have committed to prematurely close several of the state’s coal generation facilities. They are maintaining those plans in the face of Trump administration promises to ax anticoal regulations and despite the fact that the closures could lead to energy shortfalls across the state. Construction of replacement generation and the fight to protect Michigan’s small electricity program have been at the center of a major statewide debate on energy over the past two years.
The Fraser Institute just released its latest rankings of economic liberty in North America, covering U.S. and Mexican states as well as Canadian provinces. Michigan’s holds the same 27th place ranking among the 50 U.S. states as it did the last time Frasier produced the list — a troubling indication of stagnation after several years of gains.
By Jack McHugh
With the close of the 2015-16 Michigan Legislature, MichiganVotes.org completes its 16th year of describing all the bills and all the votes cast by every state lawmaker. Over this period the site has provided concise, plain-English descriptions of 30,852 bills, 26,517 roll call votes, 20,562 amendments 5,804[*] new laws, and 69,178 votes that individual legislators missed.
We are the authors of a new study of state-funded tourism promotion programs that found them to be largely a waste of taxpayer money. The findings were so stark that we felt compelled to bring them to the attention of our fellow citizens and Michigan taxpayers, who will pay $34 million for this state’s promotion campaign.
By Jason Hayes
(This article is the first in a three-part series discussing major changes made by the Michigan Legislature to energy regulation in the state. Those changes are now enrolled in statute as Public Acts 341 and 342 of 2016.)
After a marathon two-day, lame-duck session, the Michigan Legislature completed and enacted new electric utility legislation that has been the focus of debate for the past two years. Ironically, the original purpose of the proposed legislation — to accommodate sweeping new federal regulations ordered by the Obama administration — appears obsolete after Donald Trump won the presidential election on Nov. 8.
High taxes on cigarettes lead to high rates of smuggling, according to new research by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Tax Foundation.
The update to previous research on cigarette taxes and smuggling was published in December and supported previous research finding that high taxes increase the rates by which people illegally move cigarettes across borders. According to Moody on the Market:
The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation is continuing its support of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy with a $500,000 grant for education policy.
The gift will be used to help provide scientific research and information needed to create policies that improve schooling in Michigan.
Four years after Michigan’s right-to-work law passed, teachers in the Taylor School District are finally free to choose whether or not they wish to be part of a union.
In Mid-December, the State of Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in favor of teachers Angela Steffke, Rebecca Metz and Nancy Rhatigan, who were represented by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation. The trio sued the Taylor Federation of Teachers Local 1085, the Taylor School District Board of Education and the Taylor School District over a 10-year-long union security agreement that would have forced them to remain in the union into 2023.
It looks like 2016 has been a good year for the state economy. The first official reports show that jobs, income and production are all up and tended to grow faster than national averages.
The data on the state’s current economic performance shows substantial growth, though much of it will not come out until after year-end.
As the latest legislative session came to a close, Michigan House Republicans failed to put a stop to two union schemes that are ripping off taxpayers. It is bizarre that, despite having a huge majority, the GOP continues to allow unions to misspend tax dollars for the sole purpose of enriching their officials.
By Kahryn Riley
This month saw the passage of an important criminal justice reform: the repeal of the “successor judge veto power.”
In Michigan, judges have the power to step in and deny parole to prisoners whose trials they adjudicated. Until now, this veto power also extended to a “successor judge” — the one who replaced the judge who handed out a prisoner’s original sentence.
Dan Gilbert, a developer and owner of many private companies in Detroit, has been urging the Michigan House of Representatives to approve Senate-passed bills that would give some developers and business owners more taxpayer-funded subsidies.
Gilbert defended his position in the Detroit Free Press:
By Jack McHugh
This will be the last roll call report for 2016. Next week this email will feature an annual Missed Vote Report on how many and which votes individual lawmakers missed in 2016.
House Bill 4629, Repeal bond requirement to contest asset forfeiture: Passed 29 to 8 in the Senate
People trying to get back property seized by the state will now have an easier time with recently passed legislation. State and local law enforcement agencies will no longer be able to require citizens pay a 10 percent bond to challenge a forfeiture case.
A growing need for more educators equipped to teach subjects such as math and science makes the case for paying teachers based on need and merit.
Currently, most teachers in Michigan are paid based on seniority. Changing the compensation formula to reward teachers when their students do well would create an incentive for high performance. Mackinac Center Director of Research Michael Van Beek spoke with WNEM News about the concept known as merit pay.
Publicly funded economic development incentives rarely deliver on promises made to taxpayers, according to Mackinac Center’s Assistant Director of Fiscal Policy James Hohman.
Lawmakers in Lansing considered a number of bills that would have offered select businesses incentives on the promise that those companies would create jobs. As Hohman explained to CMU Public Radio, such promises often fail to materialize.
Michigan’s school pension system has $26.7 billion less than what it needs to fulfill the payments promised to current and future retirees, jeopardizing the futures of children, taxpayers and members of the pension plan.
So was the message of analysts from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy as they spoke with reporters and lawmakers this month. The Legislature has been considering Senate Bills 102, 1177 and 1178 to address the growing unfunded pension liability by moving future hires to a defined contribution – versus a defined benefit – plan like those most people in the private sector enjoy. Current teachers and those who are already retired would not be affected by the change.
The election of Donald Trump has suspended the need to pass legislation that would effectively eliminate the limited electricity choice Michiganders enjoy.
Supporters of Senate Bill 437 cited the need to comply with the Clean Power Plan, but the election of Donald Trump could change existing mandates. As explained in the Grand Haven Tribune by Jason Hayes, director of environmental policy at the Mackinac Center, lawmakers in Lansing may now pause.
Florida is one of just a handful of states that require a state license to become an interior designer. The law requires six years of education and hundreds of dollars being paid to the state.
But the law provides no public benefit and lawmakers are trying to repeal it. However, the people who benefit from teaching those mandated classes and the practitioners who benefit from locking out their competition are not happy. In fact, 90 people showed up to argue the state should keep the regulations.
Michigan may be on its way to joining 16 states with a “uniformity” law that would stop a patchwork of local taxes on plastic and paper bag use. Michigan Senate Bill 853 was sent to Governor Snyder December 8 for his signature. If he signs it then Washtenaw County will be prohibited from enforcing a 10-cent fee it is poised to impose on each bag given at restaurants or store checkout lanes. Other counties, such as Muskegon County, are looking to follow suit.
By Ben DeGrow
A recent Lansing spat suggests that some school bureaucracies are inextricably bound together in a type of forced marriage. Unforeseen tensions bubbled to the surface at the Capitol last week while the Legislature considered a bill that would allow local school districts to stop receiving services from an intermediate school district.
When the state’s big business, media and government establishments all clamor for huge new taxpayer-funded giveaways to well-connected firms and developers, the path of least resistance for state legislators is go along to get along.
Examples are commonplace: A since-repealed state program that gave nearly half a billion dollars to film producers was opposed by exactly one legislator when it was approved in 2008. Scores of similar giveaways have been authorized by the Michigan Legislature in the past decade, many with lopsided and bipartisan support.
Throughout Michigan, local governments are trying to come to terms with a ticking time bomb: the underfunded plans for their employee retirement benefits. Over the years, government employers failed to set money aside to pay for these benefits and now the plans are hundreds of millions of dollars in arrears. The longer local governments fail to address the problem, the bigger the bill gets. And this problem can develop quickly.
By Jack McHugh
House Bill 4423, Increase speed limits: Passed 28 to 8 in the Senate
To increase speed limits on rural freeways to 75 mph where engineering studies and traffic patterns indicate this is safe. General speed limits elsewhere would be 70 mph on other freeways, 65 mph on state trunkline highways with light traffic, 55 mph on county roads, and 55 mph on unpaved roads except in Oakland and Wayne Counties, where they would be 45 mph. The speed limit on subdivision streets would remain at 25 mph.
By Ben DeGrow
In a recent New York Times op-ed, economics professor and Brookings Institution fellow Douglas Harris declared that Secretary of Education-Designate Betsy DeVos “devised Detroit’s [charter] system to run like the Wild West.” He interpreted the best available research on Detroit charters to say they “performed at about the same dismal level as [the city’s] traditional public schools.”
