By Jack Belcher
Can you name all 2,967 statutes in the Michigan Penal Code? Have you tried navigating the Michigan Legislature’s website to determine if you’re properly following the rules on activities like hunting and driving? Michigan’s penal code lists 1,170 felony statutes and 1,797 misdemeanor statutes, according to my recent study, which echoes the Mackinac Center's 2014 findings. Michigan has created a legal maze so confusing that reasonable state residents cannot understand and interpret the law in their daily lives.
This article originally appeared in Real Clear Energy February 20, 2026.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has shifted the legal strategy in her fight against fossil fuel companies. Nessel’s office filed an antitrust lawsuit in January that reads less like a traditional competition case and more like an alternate history of how energy markets supposedly would have evolved but for a decades-long conspiracy. The complaint does not merely allege misconduct; it imagines an entirely different Michigan – one where electric vehicles dominate roads, renewable energy is ubiquitous, and consumers enjoy lower costs and broader choices in transportation and home energy.
On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court decided two cases that will have a major impact on independent federal agencies. In a 6-3 decision, Trump v. Slaughter (2026) struck down provisions of the Federal Trade Commission Act that said the president may only remove commissioners “for cause,” such as embezzling public funds. The court’s 5-4 decision in a second case, Trump v. Cook (2026), maintained the Federal Reserve Board of Governors’ shield from presidential reach. Taken together, these decisions suggest that the idea of an independent federal agency will disappear, at least in most cases.
This article originally appeared in the Lansing State Journal May 20, 2026.
We wouldn’t tolerate a system that routinely lost track of prisoners, misplaced evidence, or failed to account for public funds. Yet children in foster care - the most vulnerable in our society - still disappear into bureaucratic blind spots, drift without stable placements, or move through court proceedings without a meaningful voice of their own.
This article originally appeared in The Washington Examiner March 21 2026.
Federal debt takes the United States into the unknown, pushing the boundaries of how far financial markets are willing to lend to our government. And when lawmakers spend a trillion dollars more than they collect in revenue, it sounds like they are enthusiastic to find the limits of federal debt.
By Molly Macek
This article originally appeared in The Washington Post March 23, 2026.
In her February State of the State address, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) called literacy an “essential, lifelong skill” that enables students to become “more confident speakers, better problem solvers, and great entrepreneurs,” adding, “illiteracy is a challenge that compounds over time.”
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News July 6, 2026.
Michigan was promised more than 20,000 new jobs. It got 602. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer offered $2.7 billion in subsidies for eight major projects. The state has already spent $1.8 billion in taxpayer money, all for 3% of the promised jobs.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News May 26, 2026.
If I were emperor for a day (or merely the FCC chairman), I would be tempted to ban the word “unbelievable” from live sports broadcasts. The word shows up in nearly every game. A clutch home run or a tough putt, and the announcer tells us the play is beyond belief.
Students in Detroit have spent decades grappling with educational challenges, leaving many without access to the opportunities they deserve. Jaquetta Lee joins the Overton Window Podcast to describe the city’s complex education picture, explain the importance of personalized learning, and recommend policy reforms that would better serve Detroit’s children and families.
This article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Daily News May 3 2026.
Gavin Newsom is clearly auditioning for a bigger stage. But if the California governor is really going to run for president, he’d better hope voters don’t see his blooper reel. There are many bad policy takes, but one of the worst is Newsom’s expansion of Hollywood subsidies. The whole episode is guaranteed to fall flat with a national audience.
Usually the state budget has a precise number for how much spending it authorizes from federal funds. The budget for the fiscal year that starts in October does not. And this has raised some controversy about the topline number for how much spending the budget authorizes. But this wouldn’t even be a controversy in most states. That’s because lawmakers and journalists in other states don’t bother to include federal funding when presenting state budgets.
Gongwer News Service reports that there will be 286 property tax increases on the August 4 election. There shouldn’t be any. Lawmakers ought to ask for all tax elections to be part of the election when most people vote, the November election.
The state constitution requires popular support for all new local government taxes, and so new local government property tax levies have to be authorized by voters. This is meant to ensure popular support of tax policy.
Voters get a raw deal when legislators take taxpayer money and give it to select businesses. Corporate subsidies are ineffective at creating jobs, unfair to taxpayers and other businesses, and expensive to the state budget. Every state legislator has a record on the subject, and voters should pay close attention.
This article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal February 3, 2026.
Keeping up with your children’s schoolwork can be hard. But they need something even more important from you. Pay attention to your school board. Better yet, run for it. Too many boards fail to serve children. Unless parents commit, nothing will improve.
Buying fruits and vegetables shouldn’t be frightening. Across the United States consumers place their trust in farmers to provide safe, healthy food. This summer, that trust has been shaken by a multistate outbreak of cyclosporiasis linked to fresh produce.
“Building Michigan's economy takes time — and it's paying off.”
That's the headline of a recent Detroit News op-ed by Quentin Messer Jr., chief executive officer of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., the state's economic development agency. But objective evidence suggests that even after decades of subsidies, the agency has little to show for its efforts.
If there is one thing that unites Michiganders, it is our competitive spirit toward our heart-shaped neighbor to the south, Ohio. We have many things to be proud of: more acres of forests and protected wilderness, the most miles of freshwater coastline in the nation, a unique culture and history, and a university that has the most wins of any program in NCAA D1 football history.
Imagine being confined to a nursing home bed, falling out and breaking a femur. When you complain of the pain, you aren’t offered any pain medication, and you have to wait 20 hours before being sent to an emergency room.
This situation isn’t fiction for one Michigan-based patient. While the facility and many like it maintain a respectable online rating, inspections by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Studies paint a different picture. Unfortunately, Michigan’s nursing homes and long-term care facilities are characterized by overloaded staff, bed shortages, and decreased quality of care.
Gov. Whitmer signed a bill July 21 that authorizes $1.6 billion in new subsidies for developers. The bill has been added to the Mackinac Center’s Michigan business subsidy scorecard.
The state operates a program that awards select developers money to construct their buildings. The developer receives money from state taxes that would otherwise be collected by the state. This includes the income taxes paid by employees that construct the site, sales taxes collected from retail operations in the building, income taxes of people working in the building, and income taxes of people living in the building. A deal can deliver this money to a developer for up to 20 years.
Detroit has been the center of a long educational struggle that leaves students poorly served by public schools. Parents and community members have responded by seeking learning opportunities beyond pubic institutions. Jessica Snowden, a Detroit mother, business owner, and education advocate, joins the Overton Window Podcast to discuss the city’s evolving educational landscape and the importance of the Schools of Choice program.
The U.S. Supreme Court's latest term produced several decisions that impact law and policy in Michigan and around the country. The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation has prepared the following review to help explain the nature of select cases, what the Court decided, how these decisions will affect Michigan, and what to look for in future policy developments. Together, these decisions will shape the legal and policy landscape for years to come.
I am grateful for Michigan Economic Development Corporation CEO Quentin Messer’s response to my op-ed in The Detroit News pointing out how few jobs result from major subsidy deals. State spending deals made during Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s term promised 20,595 jobs and have delivered just 602 so far. In his defense of subsidies, Messer suggests that we just haven’t waited long enough for these deals to pay off:
Michigan's affordability challenge is driven by higher prices on goods and services and the inability of some people to find higher-paying jobs. A series of bills in the state Senate would make this challenge a little easier.
Two to three million people in Michigan have some type of criminal record and roughly one out of every five workers needs a government license in order to work legally in his or her chosen profession. But state licensing laws significantly restrict people with criminal backgrounds from working.
By Jack Belcher
Two new Michigan House bills backed by the American Civil Liberties Union seek to ease concerns about license plate readers by limiting how the government can use the data networked camera systems acquire. The bills also impose transparency rules on government agencies.
Do you ever wonder how your tax dollars are being spent? How much money doctors, public school employees and projects receive from the public? Transparency is a core duty of government, and Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act provides the tools you need to get accurate information about how the state functions.
