Program |
Gross Appropriation |
Appropriation Breakdown |
|
|
|
Council for |
$22,840,600[34] |
$1,105,900 from Federal Funds; |
Arts and Cultural Affairs |
|
$21,734,700 from GF/GP |
Program Description:
The Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs awards grants to organizations to fund a variety of projects. During the past fiscal year, art and cultural grants were awarded to:
Young Audiences of Michigan |
Arab Community Center |
Dearborn Community Arts Council |
Broadside Press |
Creative Arts Collective |
United Black Artists |
Milan Theatre Company |
African American Studio Theatre |
The Storytellers |
Pewabic Society |
Arts Foundation of Michigan |
Center for Creative Studies |
Detroit Artists Market |
Detroit Focus |
Detroit Public Schools |
Harmony House Playhouse |
Michigan Veterans Foundation |
Clinton County Arts Council |
Northville Public Schools |
Arts Forum of Western Michigan |
Council of Performing Arts |
Grand Rapids Art Museum |
Grand Rapids Civic Theatre |
Junior League of Grand Rapids |
Kent County Juvenile Court |
Grand Rapids Opera |
St. Cecilia Music Society |
Community Circle Theatre |
Public Museum of Grand Rapids |
Muskegon Civic Theatre |
Muskegon Museum of Art |
Manistee Civic Players |
Michigan Youth Arts Festival |
Beaver Island Community Schools |
Old Town Playhouse |
Traverse City Area Public Schools |
Arts Midwest |
Sault Are Arts Council |
Peninsula Arts Appreciation Council |
Calumet Theatre |
Ironwood Theatre |
Jesse Besser Museum |
Downriver Council for the Arts |
Arts League of Michigan |
Braezeal Dennard Chorale |
Confined Audiences Production |
Detroit Metropolitan Orchestra |
James Tatum Trio |
Mason Elementary School |
Rackham Symphony Choir |
Grosse Pointe Public Schools |
Accounting Aid Society |
Attic Theatre |
Concerned Citizens for the Arts |
Detroit Theatre Association |
Detroit Jazz Orchestra |
Graystone Jazz Museum |
Michigan Opera Theatre |
Clinton County School District |
Lowell Area Arts Council |
Arts Council of Grand Rapids |
Boys Choir of Grand Rapids |
David Wolcott Kendall School |
Grand Rapids Ballet |
Grand Rapids Symphony Society |
Kent County Co-op |
Michigan Assoc. of Community Arts |
Robeson Players |
Chamber Choir of Grand Rapids |
Michigan Alliance for Arts Education |
Holland Community Chorale |
Muskegon County Foundation |
West Shore Symphony |
Art Reach of Mid Michigan |
Midland Center for the Arts |
Northwestern Michigan College |
Traverse Area Arts Council |
Traverse Symphony Orchestra |
Center for New Television |
City of Marquette |
William Bonifas Fine Arts Center |
Ironwood Area Schools |
Crooked Tree Arts Council |
Thunder Bay Arts Council |
Thunder Bay Theatre |
Rebirth Incorporated |
Studio of African Dance |
Casa de Unidad |
Detroit Symphony Orchestra Hall |
Gray and Gray Productions |
New Detroit Incorporated |
Southwest Detroit Business Association |
Utica Public Schools |
Dearborn Public Schools |
Michigan Bach Festival |
Inter-Arts Associates |
John Glenn High School |
Lenawee Symphony Orchestra |
Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra |
Kalamazoo Arts Council |
Irvine Gilmore Keyboard Festival |
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts |
Mad Hatters |
Kalamazoo ISD |
Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra |
Art Center of Battle Creek |
Jackson Symphony Orchestra |
Livingston Educational Service Agency |
Ann Arbor Art Association |
Ann Arbor Summer Festival |
Art-Train |
Dance Gallery Foundation |
Kerrytown Concert House |
Papagena Opera Company |
University Musical Society |
Washtenaw Council for the Arts |
Macomb Arts Council |
St. Clair Arts Council |
Village Bach Festival |
Port Huron Museum of Arts and History |
Flint Institute of Arts |
Flint School District |
Greater Flint Arts Council |
Saginaw Art Museum |
Saginaw Symphony |
Young People's Theatre |
Arts Council of Lansing |
Community Circle Players |
Lansing Lyric Opera |
Michigan Public Broadcasting |
Christo Rey Community Center |
Michigan State University |
Creative Arts Center of Oakland County |
Pontiac Schools District |
Rochester Symphony Orchestra |
Troy School District |
Jazz Development Workshop |
Madrigal Chorale |
Music Hall Center |
Southeast Michigan Arts Forum |
Wayne State University |
Detroit Center for Performing Arts |
Grand Circus Park Development |
Michigan Avenue Art Group |
Alternative Creative Education |
Abbott Middle School |
Dearborn Orchestral Society |
Friends of Opera |
Allen Park Symphony |
Plymouth Community Arts Council |
Croswell Fine Arts Association |
Tibbits Opera Foundation |
St. Joseph Art Association |
Fontana Concert Society |
Kalamazoo Civic Playhouse |
Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Society |
Whole Art Theatre Company |
Battle Creek Boys Choir |
Battle Creek Youth Orchestra |
Ella Sharpe Museum |
Brighton Area Schools |
Chinese American Cultural Center |
Ann Arbor Theatre |
Ann Arbor Symphony |
Comic Opera Guild |
Great Lakes Performing Artists Assoc. |
Michigan Theatre Foundation |
Performance Network |
U-M Flint |
Wild Swan Theatre |
New Haven Community Schools |
City of St. Clair |
International Symphony Orchestra |
Buckham Fine Arts Project |
Flint Institute of Music |
City of Flint |
Ballet Cultural Azteca |
Saginaw Choral Society |
Cheboygan Area Arts Council |
Holland Area Arts Council |
Boarshead Theatre |
Lansing Art Gallery |
Lansing Symphony |
Michigan Orchestra Association |
The Michigan Festival |
The Pashami Dancers |
Oakland County Cultural Council |
Meadow Brook Performing Arts |
Troy Chamber of Commerce |
Business Consortium for the Arts |
Lyric Chamber Ensemble |
City of Southfield Parks and Rec. |
Cantata Academy |
Detroit Area Film and TV |
Detroit Dance Collective |
Oakland Community College |
Interlochen |
Grand Rapids Symphony |
Ferndale Public Schools |
Detroit Chamber Winds |
Judson Center |
Royal Oak School District |
Blue Lakes Fine Arts Camp |
|
Recommended Action:
After his inauguration in January, 1991, Governor Engler indicated his intention to eliminate the Arts and Cultural grant program. Although he has not followed through, he should. There are several reasons why this will benefit Michigan citizens and Michigan culture.[35]
First, this $23 million subsidy diminishes the ability of Michigan taxpayers to choose for themselves what types of arts and cultural projects they will support, and places such decisions in the hands of state bureaucrats and their designees. It is elitist to assume that the "unwashed masses" require government oversight on these very personal matters of value and taste.
Government funding of the arts also has the perverse effect of forcing the poor to subsidize the rich. Since art museums, operas, and symphonies are frequented predominantly by people of high socio-economic status and education, the cultural grants provide for a fundamentally unfair transfer of wealth from lower income families to higher. Indeed, Robert J. Samuelson, columnist for Newsweek and The Washington Post, has called funding for the arts "highbrow pork barrel."
Secondly, subsidies are not a necessary precondition to people creating and enjoying artistic works. The arts and humanities in this country flourished prior to governmental funding and there is no reason to believe that support would cease if the government were to return to its neutral position regarding the arts. Indeed, some of the finest art ever produced in our country was created without governmental funding. Great art is a product of individual genius and individual ambition, not governmental involvement.
Some have argued that government subsidies are needed to give the poor access to the arts. It is interesting to note, however, that with stereo equipment that can be purchased with the earning from a day or two of minimum wage work, a person can hear a variety and quality of music unavailable to kings and queens a century ago. Music, photographs, prints, televised recorded performances, and even musical instruments and arts and crafts materials, are more available and less expensive than at any time in history. Public libraries often rent, free-of-charge, compact disks, video classics, and even prints of paintings. And it is difficult to find a local arts or cultural organization that refuses to make some allowance for low income individuals to attend programs and performances.
A third reason to eliminate political funding is that government subsidies to the arts inevitably lead to the politicization of culture and stifle the creativity and innovation of artists. No matter how large the art and cultural grant program grows, not every aspiring artist can be the beneficiary of a state grant; hence, there must be some selection process for the grants, and, as a result, artists applying for grants will inevitably pursue work that will be palatable to the potential donor: the state. What results is the corruption of the artist and his work. It is unlikely that great works such as Thoreau's Civil Disobedience or Tolstoy's War and Peace, both of which were highly critical of the then-current regime, would have been pursued if the authors had been aspiring for governmental funding. As painter Laura Main has said, "Relying on the government to sponsor art work . . . is to me no more than subjecting yourself to the fate of a governmental lackey."[36]
Sensing the mood of the times, savvy proponents of arts and cultural subsidies have attempted to portray such programs as economic development tools, presenting economic analyses based on dubious "multiplier effects" to show, for example, that $1,000 of art spending generates $11,000 worth of economic benefit. What such one-sided analyses neglect to discuss is the effect on the Michigan economy if Michigan citizens were allowed to keep and spend this money themselves. There is absolutely no evidence that state government spending generates any more economic activity than private spending.
It is time for the Michigan Legislature to depoliticize Michigan cultural affairs and leave private citizens and private organizations to develop the diverse, creative, and inspiring works that have always characterized civil society.
Program |
Gross Appropriation |
Appropriation Breakdown |
|
|
|
Public Service Commission: |
$18,325,700[37] |
$2,130,300 from Federal Funds; |
Administration, Planning, |
|
$16,195,400 from Special |
and Regulation |
|
Revenue Funds |
Program Description:
Regulating Michigan's non-municipal utility companies, gas and oil pipelines, telecommunications, and commercial motor transportation industry is the main responsibility of the Public Service Commission. The Commission is best known for setting the rates that utilities may charge their customers. Other functions performed by the Commission include: setting standards of service that each company must meet; approving and monitoring the construction of all gas and pipeline operations; enforcing rules; and approving the issuance of securities by regulated companies.
Recommended Action:
The Public Service Commission should be eliminated. It currently provides an outdated and unnecessary function: the regulation and effective price-fixing of utilities. Utilities can be provided to customers by the market; they do not need to be provided, effectively, through state government. If the state were to loosen its control on the utilities industry, one would see a more efficient, cost-effective, and consumer friendly system, with a myriad of suppliers willing to provide service to Michigan's homes and businesses. Indeed, the Public Service Commission itself has begun to recognize this fact.
On April 11, 1994, the Public Service Commission announced that Michigan would be the first state to experiment with a program allowing major customers of Detroit Edison and Consumers Power to bypass those utilities and shop for electric power from dozens of independent competitors. Known as "retail wheeling," the five year experiment will allow those customers essentially to rent the two utilities' wires and purchase electricity from other sources. Thus far the program has been successful, with many companies choosing to contract electrical services from providers other than the two major utilities. As Frank Corley, a Ford executive, recently said, "We want to see the same kinds of opportunities in electric utilities that we have seen in the natural gas industry. Companies need more opportunities to save money." Moreover, Ford and other large companies have been able to force competition in other ways, as well. They are cutting special rate deals with the utility providers, helping communities set up their own municipal power companies, and building their own power plants. Although it is preferable to have utilities owned privately rather than by municipal governments, both private and municipal efforts are affecting the dynamics of the market. Indeed, Big Three automakers recently negotiated a $30 million annual rate cut with Detroit Edison, and city officials in Alma are trying to become the first city in Michigan in 50 years to set up a municipal utility. As a result, Mick Hiser, director of the Commission's Competitive Utilities and Energy Resources Division, has said, "This industry is moving swiftly to competition. This is not pie-in-the-sky stuff."
The state legislature should recognize the effectiveness of such market-oriented solutions and act appropriately; they should eliminate the Public Service Commission and allow the market to work as it should, unhampered. What would result is greater consumer choice, lower prices, and more successful small providers entering the market.[38]
Program |
Gross Appropriation |
Appropriation Breakdown |
|
|
|
Grant to Department of |
$555,800[39] |
All from Federal Funds |
Public Health |
|
|
Program Description:
The Grant to the Michigan Department of Public Health (MDPH) will provide $555,800, via the U.S. Department of Energy, to the MDPH for nuclear emergency planning and response.
Recommended Action:
The Department of Commerce should refuse the money provided by the U.S. Department of Energy for this grant, and in so doing eliminate its subsequent grant to the Michigan Department of Public Health. Other industries, such as chemical producers, work in conjunction with community leaders to provide emergency planning and response programs, and the nuclear power industry should be no different. Nuclear emergency planning should be the responsibility of communities and the industry, and not funded by state or federal government.
Program |
Gross Appropriation |
Appropriation Breakdown |
|
|
|
Michigan State Fair |
$4,388,400[40] |
All from Special Revenue Funds |
Program Description:
The Michigan State Fair is a once a year self-financing event held every summer on the state fairgrounds in Detroit.
Recommended Action:
While it is true that the Michigan State Fair is an enjoyable event for many people each summer, sponsoring fairs is not a proper function of government in a civil society. Every year, thousands come from across the country to enjoy Michigan's natural wonders. And millions enjoy such entertainment opportunities as attending professional sporting events and privately run fairs and festivals. The Michigan State Fair is no different; there is no reason to believe that we need the state to run the Michigan State Fair in order for there to be one. If there is sufficient demand for a fair of this type--and clearly there is--then private organizations will respond to that demand and conduct one.[41] This program should be eliminated.
Program |
Gross Appropriation |
Appropriation Breakdown |
|
|
|
Liquor Merchandising |
$25,549,400[42] |
All from Special Revenue Funds |
and Warehousing |
|
|
Program Description:
The Liquor Merchandising and Warehousing Program operates three liquor warehouses and 76 state stores selling spirits to retail licensees. The operation is divided into three geographic districts throughout the state, and each district has its own warehouse and groups of wholesale and retail stores.
Recommended Action:
The Liquor Merchandising and Warehouse office is a program that has been cited for elimination by various organizations, analysts, and legislators for many years. It is time for these recommendations to be heeded; the state legislature should act immediately to eliminate this office. Like other goods--even those like tobacco, which many view with disdain--the distribution of spirits can be handled by the private sector directly. There simply is no need for a middleman--in this case, state government--to handle the distribution between the alcohol manufacturing companies and the licensed distributors of alcohol throughout the state. If the bars, stores, and other distributors of alcohol are licensed, then the state should take action against these licensees at the point of sale, if they believe that they are selling alcohol which violates the regulations of their license. There is no need to take the preventive measure of having the Liquor Control Commission sell the alcohol directly to them.
There is one additional point that needs to be raised regarding the termination of this program. If the legislature acted to end the merchandising and warehousing program, more than the $25 million budgeted for operating this program would be effectively saved. In addition to the initial $25 million, the state would also be able to sell the warehouses currently used by this program, and in so doing, be able to, as the Department of Management and Budget (DMB) has written, "reap a short term cash windfall."[43]
In conclusion, the Liquor Merchandising and Warehousing program of the Liquor Control Commission is a prime example of Lansing overstepping its bounds and delving into an area that can be handled more efficiently by the private sector. The legislature should take this opportunity to streamline government and do as DMB has suggested: terminate the Merchandising and Warehousing program.
Program |
Gross Appropriation |
Appropriation Breakdown |
|
|
|
Liquor Control |
$408,100[44] |
All from Special Revenue Funds |
Commission Grant |
|
|
Program Description:
The Liquor Control Commission will appropriate a $408,100 grant to the Department of Agriculture's Wine Industry Council, for use in advancing and promoting Michigan's wine industry.
Recommended Action:
As suggested in this study's analysis of the Department of Agriculture, the Wine Industry Council should be eliminated, since it performs a service that can and should be handled by the private sector--the promotion of private industry. This form of corporate welfare should be ended immediately by eliminating the Liquor Control Commission Grant.
Program |
Gross Appropriation |
Appropriation Breakdown |
|
|
|
Mobile Home Commission; |
$1,759,000[45] |
All from Special Revenue Funds |
Mobile Home and Land |
|
|
Resources Program; Local Mobile |
|
|
Home Park Inspections |
|
|
Program Description:
These programs license the manufacturers of mobile and manufactured homes, as well the proprietors of mobile home parks. They also conduct inspections of mobile home parks to verify that state regulations are being followed.
Recommended Action:
There is no need for the state to intervene between the consumers and producers of mobile homes, or for it to intervene between the would-be inhabitants of a mobile home park and the proprietor of that mobile home park. In both instances the consumer is capable of determining whether or not he will engage in a transaction with the provider of the good. If, after purchasing the good, he believes he has been defrauded, then he can take legal action against the seller of that good, whether it be the mobile home manufacturer or the mobile home park proprietor. With respect to mobile home parks, local construction and health codes and land use planning measures are adequate to provide guidelines for development. Preventive action by the state in the form of regulation of these activities is unnecessary and harmful. These programs should be eliminated.