By Jack McHugh
Senate Bill 599, Revise, increase register of deeds fees: Passed 31 to 7 in the Senate
To authorize a flat $30 fee for recording a document with a register of deeds regardless of how many pages, instead of the current charge of $8 plus $3 for each additional page. The bill also increases related fees, and would index the fees to inflation.
Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative at the Mackinac Center, was recently quoted in a Detroit Free Press article regarding a possible conflict of interest.
The article explores the possibility of “a ‘revolving door’ between the public and private sectors” in the construction of the new Red Wings arena in Detroit. Recently, the developers of the arena hired the consulting firm started by George Jackson, who was a lead negotiator for the city on the arena deal when he served as a Detroit economic development chief.
An op-ed by the Mackinac Center’s Director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative Michael LaFaive and Board of Scholars member Todd Nesbit was published this weekend by the Lincoln Journal Star in Nebraska.
The piece explained the unintended consequences that would come from raising cigarette taxes by more than 234 percent in The Cornhusker State, a proposal introduced by Sen. Mike Gloor. While Nebraska’s smuggling rate is quite low — 2.8 percent in 2013 — raising per-pack taxes from 64 cents to $2.14 would increase the smuggling rate to 32.3 percent, according to the analysis provided by LaFaive and Nesbit.
By Jack McHugh
Senate Bill 302, Impose ban on nude entertainment in bars: Passed 27 to 10 in the Senate
To ban fully nude performers at topless bars, or bars showing videos that depict this. This relates to a 2007 federal appeals court ruling that struck down Michigan’s previous law banning fully nude performers in bars, holding it was a violation of the First Amendment. The bill would specifically ban a performance that “exposes to public view the pubic region, anus, or genitals.”
The largest proposed change in Gov. Rick Snyder’s executive budget is to use money freed up by a tax hike for roads to pay for the state’s Medicaid expansion.
Normally, roads are paid by vehicle registration and fuel taxes. While waiting to agree on a long-term funding plan for the roads, policymakers devoted more of the state’s general tax revenues to road repair. They found $400 million for the current year’s spending.
Gov. Rick Snyder recommends spending $61 million more than last year on Michigan’s 15 state universities — a 4.3 percent increase. If the Legislature wants to do a favor for taxpayers as well as keep a handle on tuition increases, it should not approve this hike in spending.
Yesterday saw the early death of the Mackinac Center’s former senior fellow in education policy, Andrew Coulson. Andrew was the victim of brain cancer — a malignancy that he fought with all of the energy, intelligence, grace and good humor that characterized his life and work.
Mackinac Center’s Director of Labor Policy F. Vincent Vernuccio joined the Wall Street Journal to discuss his recent work in West Virginia, which is on track to become the nation’s 26th right-to-work state.
Friday, hours after the West Virginia Senate signed off on a bill that would give workers in the state the freedom to decide whether or not to join a union, Vernuccio spoke about the growing trend toward worker freedom and how right-to-work improves lives and can make unions stronger.
By Jack McHugh
Senate Bill 136, Flint water contamination response - rebate water bills: Passed 37 to 0 in the Senate
To appropriate $30 million from state revenue (not federal) to provide water bill refunds to Flint households that were paying for contaminated water.
By Ben DeGrow
Finding solutions to help Detroit students not only requires recognizing the problem. It also requires a clear picture of the facts and understanding how the current system works.
In a recent MLive column, Ann Arbor attorney Eli Savit offers a well-intentioned but misdiagnosed policy proposal to address the genuinely disturbing images of mold and vermin found in some Detroit Public Schools buildings. He calls on Lansing leaders to fix the state’s “regressive school-finance system and earmark state funds for school building projects in poorer districts.”
People expect the impossible from state politicians on economic matters: “Create jobs.” The demand on politicians to create jobs leads them to throw taxpayer money at business projects, though the effort is counterproductive.
To show that they’ve listened to the call to create more jobs, politicians need examples of businesses that have opened or hired more people. But business owners and managers are not required to report every change in employment to their local politicians, let alone tell them whether the politician’s favored policies have anything to do with it.
The Tax Foundation's annual study of state and local tax burdens compares one factor relevant to state economies, and recently ranked Michigan 25th among the states. Interestingly, Michigan also gets mediocre grades on indexes that look at other measures of states' economic competitiveness and performance.
We’ve all seen a bumper sticker that make us shake our head, and it’s hard to know the intentions of the person who put it on their car, and whether they were misinformed or simply uninformed. The one I spotted the other day, however, jumped out at me as particularly ignorant.
Mackinac Center research was recently featured in the national School Transportation News magazine.
In January, the magazine wrote about a new study by Michael LaFaive and James Hohman that compares the rates of privatization of noninstructional services in schools across five states. The survey examined the use of contractors for services including busing in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Georgia and Texas.
By Jack McHugh
Update: On Feb. 3 the House Elections Committee voted to advance the problematic provisions described in this article to the full House for consideration. They pasted nearly identical provisions into House Bill 5219, which modifies but does not repeal the current 60 day pre-election ban on tax-funded electioneering communications. The committee then reported the revised text of HB 5219 to the full House.
Some argue that Michigan needs to become a more attractive place for college graduates in order to grow the state economy. But the past decade suggests that simply targeting people with college degrees is an ineffective strategy. The reason is that people move to places where there are employment opportunities, regardless of whether they have a college degree or not.
The Tax Foundation recently published its latest ranking of state and local tax burdens. The report placed Michigan in 25th place as of 2012.
This is a substantial improvement, but to make this state a growth and opportunity leader the Michigan Legislature needs to go further by rolling back the personal income tax rate, as was promised when it was increased in 2007.
Most people think of trespassing as the crime of going on someone’s property without permission. Yet, government views trespassing differently, particularly when it involves tax assessments. Consider this phone exchange with a city official on what would happen if an assessor came to your house and you weren’t home:
By Jack McHugh
House Bill 5220, Appropriate money for Flint water contamination response: Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate
To appropriate $28 million to pay for response activities related to the contamination of the Flint water supply, of which $2.8 million is federal money. The Senate revised details of the House-passed spending plan after consulting with on-the-ground experts in the city.
Mackinac Center Director of Labor Policy F. Vincent Vernuccio testified today before the West Virginia Legislature about how right-to-work laws can benefits states. West Virginia is expected to pass a right-to-work law soon, giving workers the freedom to hold a job without joining a union.
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill has proposed legislation that would force sports teams who relocate to a new city to pay back public subsidies received from their former state or town. This legislation is likely influenced by the St. Louis Rams’ recent decision to move to Los Angeles (Sen. McCaskill hails from Missouri). This is a solid idea, especially given what the economic research says about stadium subsidies and given the inability of cities to protect taxpayers from being left in the lurch on these stadium deals.
Mackinac Center Director of Research Michael Van Beek was the keynote speaker at an Upper Peninsula business meeting this week, an event covered by multiple news outlets.
During his speech at Operation Action U.P. – a Marquette conference attended by members of the business and academic communities – Van Beek discussed the hidden cost of government, particularly by way of regulations.
By Ben DeGrow
Last fall, Lt. Gov. Brian Calley took the helm of a group to recommend reforms to Michigan’s special education system. For affected Michigan families looking for something better, one particular solution, unfortunately, lies out of immediate reach.
The special education task force, primarily comprised of educators and policymakers, is working to address problems Calley identified after a 2015 town hall listening tour throughout the state.
An op-ed written by the Mackinac Center’s Education Policy Director Ben DeGrow was published by the Detroit News today, bringing awareness to the need for more school choice in Michigan.
In the piece, published for National School Choice Week, DeGrow discusses how school choice brings hope to parents and students and is flourishing in other states.
The Michigan Legislature passed and Gov. Snyder signed Senate Bill 571, which prohibits schools and local governments from using taxpayer dollars to put out information about ballot proposals 60 days before an election. In the past, these entities have used public money to advocate for higher taxes.
