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The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is often labeled a “free market think tank,” which is correct but incomplete. The Center describes its purpose in part as, “broadening the debate on issues that has for many years been dominated by the belief that government intervention should be the standard solution.” In light of this, we’ve decided to extend that debate to include the issue of criminal justice reform.

In 2010, First Lady Michelle Obama used a White House press release to announce a massive public-private-nonprofit campaign with “an ambitious national goal of solving the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation so that children born today will reach adulthood at a healthy weight.” It took on childhood nutrition, exercise and much more. The resulting initiative is often known by its “Let’s Move” website name.

The House and Senate held pro-forma sessions this week with no votes. Therefore, this report continues its series of describing some of the interesting bills that have been introduced in the current Legislature.

Senate Bill 642: Allow more municipal debt for home efficiency loans

Michigan drivers pay the highest auto insurance rates in the country on average and will soon be paying more to drive in the state, but lawmakers can bring down the cost by reforming the system.

Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s Director of Research Michael Van Beek spoke with TV 6 and Fox UP about changes that should be made to Michigan’s insurance mandates to lower costs to drivers as drivers brace for higher fuel taxes and registration fees in 2017.

A vet safely saves a dog’s life and the owners are happy, but he is punished with a fine and probation and could have lost his state license. Why? Because a state board — filled with his competitors — and a state department have that authority.

This case involved Dr. Jan Pol, a veterinarian near Mt. Pleasant. As Michigan Capitol Confidential reports, five years ago, Pol performed an operation that was shown on his program on the Nat Geo Channel. The dog, Mr. Pigglesworth, was saved from being euthanized for under $300. But an out-of-state vet complained to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, which punished him, “cit[ing] his failure to wear surgical gear (mask, gown, gloves) and to provide the patient with IV therapy. The bureau also faulted Pol for not placing a warming pad or blanket in the dog’s kennel during his recovery.”

Educational challenges linger in Highland Park, nearly four years after the distressed school district was taken over by the Leona Group, a charter management company. A year after being forced to close the district’s only high school, the newly named Highland Park Public School Academy System struggles to retain students.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation released a study on its 21st Century Jobs Fund, alleging that it helped create jobs in Michigan. Yet the study did not offer substantial proof. The MEDC needs to be more transparent about the shortcomings of Gov. Granholm’s “Blown Away” program.

No one should tell individuals how to run their businesses or their advertising, but that is what is happening to resort and hotel owners in Northern Michigan.

The Indian River Area Tourist Bureau levies a 5 percent tax on each rented room in its region, violating the free speech rights of property owners like George Galbraith, who disagree with the forced speech. Last week, the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit on Galbraith’s behalf, arguing such regional taxes and the Michigan law authorizing the Indian River bureau are unconstitutional.

President Barack Obama’s new overtime rules are likely to have unintended consequences, some of which could actually lead to less take-home pay for workers.

The president recently enacted new overtime rules that will make anyone earning up to $47,476 a year eligible for overtime pay, up from the current threshold of $23,660 a year. While the new rule is being advertised as a way to increase wages, Mackinac Center Director of Labor Policy F. Vincent Vernuccio and adjunct scholar Jeremy Lott write in a Saturday op-ed for The Detroit News that the new rules may reduce workers’ flexibility on the job and could even lead to pay cuts.

The House and Senate are on a summer and primary election season break. Therefore, this report contains several recently introduced bills of interest.

Note: There will be no Roll Roll Report on July 8. The next report will be July 15.

Senate Bill 563: Ban “sky lanterns”

This week the state released the long-awaited Michigan Education Finance Study, better known as an “adequacy study.” Twice delayed from its original March 31 deadline due to errors by different parties, the report authorized by December 2014 state legislation has been greeted with an underwhelming reaction.

The state has released its long-awaited, twice-delayed education funding adequacy study, which claimed the state’s average school district operating expenditure of $12,000 per pupil is not enough.

Augenblick, Palaich & Associates, the Denver-based firm paid $399,000 to produce the report, also suggested increasing education funding in the District of Columbia — which spends over $29,000 a year per student — so its findings about Michigan were not surprising. Ben DeGrow, education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, spoke with the Detroit News this week to offer his perspective on the state-commissioned study:

A big part of my job is answering policy-related questions. Some can be handled quickly, some take longer. Others require an in-depth study. But there are some that I just can’t answer.

Here are a few that came up recently.

How many jobs are actually at wind farms in Michigan? Wind energy was pitched as the next big thing, but wind farms probably don’t require many workers once they are established.

The United States Postal Service puts out many beautiful stamps. One current “forever stamp” isn’t as nice to look at, but you should still consider using it the next time you decide to send some snail mail. It commemorates the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766.

Last year Michigan lawmakers wisely did away with what was once the most generous film incentive program in the nation. Mackinac Center research showed that despite giving film producers half a billion dollars from 2007 to 2013, there were no signs that the film industry in Michigan was actually growing. Essentially, the program amounted to a taxpayer handout to a select few movie production studios. And now there’s new research that suggests these programs aren’t benefiting other states’ economies either.

The other day, I attended a public hearing of the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan in Northwest Detroit. The Mackinac Center’s analysts haven’t dug deeply into the RTA’s plans and assumptions surrounding its $4.6 billion millage request on November’s ballot. But the rhetoric from the RTA leadership in attendance was troubling — even before we look at the numbers.

The House and Senate are on a summer 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 GG: Add “sex” to constitution’s ban on denying equal protection

Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed a bill last week that would have made it illegal to repair vehicles using aftermarket auto parts, and that’s a win for consumers.

Mackinac Center policy analyst Jarrett Skorup spoke with MLive after the veto, explaining that many studies have found aftermarket parts — an auto part made by a different company than the original equipment manufacturer — are just as safe as their often more expensive counterparts.

Michigan State University professor David Arsen recently appeared on public radio to discuss the findings of his new research into the causes of school district financial distress.

Arsen’s research lays most of the blame for growing deficits and shrinking fund balances at the feet of state policymakers. In an accompanying article he co-authored with two other education professors and an economist, he argues that these policies exacerbate the declining enrollment trend experienced widely across Michigan and “reinforce a fierce downward spiral,” particularly in high-minority urban districts.

In a critique of our recently published study on the relationship between school spending and academic achievement, Bruce Baker, a professor at Rutgers University, raises technical concerns that lead him to question our empirical methodology and qualitative conclusions. The nature of his comments suggests that a select group of previous research, which stand in contrast to our research in both empirical approach and qualitative findings, are methodologically superior and show a positive relationship between spending per pupil and student achievement. We address both the general and technical concerns Baker raises and describe why our research improves over the earlier papers by Papke and Roy.

In a recent Detroit News op-ed I wrote about a practice called “release time,” where union officials are kept on government payrolls and allowed to do union work on the taxpayer’s time. This happens in many school districts across the state.

Detroit Public Schools provides release time for union officials, but the union reimburses most of these expenses, an important point that I did not clarify but should have. In a letter to the editor, Judge Stephen Rhodes called out this oversight and he is correct.

The New York Times has a good write-up on occupational licensing laws across the United States. Many of these laws are needless and make it more difficult for individuals to find gainful employment. But there is some bipartisan work being done to reform them. From the story:

When the Michigan Legislature passes a bill by wide margins, it is usually signed into law, regardless of how good the actual policy is. But a bill that would have discriminated against certain auto parts and added red tape for consumers and businesses was recently vetoed by Gov. Snyder.

Unlike Washington D.C., Michigan’s state government is constitutionally prohibited from spending more than it takes in each year and borrowing to make up the difference. Yet state taxpayers are still liable for large amounts of state debt, for purposes both practical and problematic.

House Bill 5641, Authorize PPOs to let protected individual keep phone number: Passed 37 to 0 in the Senate

To allow an individual under a personal protection order to get control of a cell phone number from the person against whom the protection order is required. Courts would be authorized to order the phone company to make it so.