Any government project bigger than building a road should draw your skepticism.
You should understand titles like “The Inflation Reduction Act” to be fictitious, not a comment on what will happen after a law is passed.
When the U.S. president stands at a podium and announces a plan for regime change in foreign lands, or to eradicate climate change, you should know that’s far beyond their paygrade. They’ll spend your tax money, sure. But government is not in the problem-solving business.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have introduced separate legislation expanding Michigan’s earned income tax credit, signaling it as a top priority for both caucuses. The bills are being called tax cuts by various media outlets, including MLive, The Detroit News, and Bridge.
Michigan has operated a negative tax for over a decade now, and it’s worth reminding residents of its continued existence.
A negative tax does not raise money for the government. It instead redistributes money to the tax’s filers. In Michigan’s case, those filers happen to be the state’s largest companies.
There are important questions that must be asked in public debates. How people answer them matters to elected officials. Too often, however, politicians and reporters ask the wrong questions. Here are some common ones that pop up regularly, with examples of better questions that we ought to be asking.
Michigan Capitol Confidential has begun The Michigan Constitution Project.
This year we will educate our readers on our state constitution, with the understanding that it has more depth than just the words on the page. Over time, a citizenry ignorant of the law and unwilling to hold bureaucrats accountable will lose its freedom. Let’s remain free.
By Molly Macek
Could Michigan students be facing an even greater decline in achievement in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic? Proposals by lawmakers to reduce school accountability and transparency are setting the stage for more poor outcomes in the absence of consistent, transparent and straightforward school performance measures.
Michigan has a group of new lawmakers with new priorities. Democratic control of both the Michigan House and Senate has many people wondering whether they’ll pay higher taxes next year.
It’s possible. But there are reasons why the Legislature’s new Democratic majorities should reconsider any plans for a tax hike.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News March 9.
Nearly 40% of adults in Michigan experience symptoms of depression or anxiety, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Sadly, many are unable to receive the care they need, in large part due to a lack of mental health care providers in the state. And the problem of provider shortages is not confined to mental health care. Michigan has 269 primary care health professional shortage areas — a federal designation for regions with too few providers.
Parts of this article were taken from testimony prepared by Michael LaFaive for the House Labor Committee in the Michigan House of Representatives on House Bill 4007. The House passed the bill Thursday. The Senate is expected to vote on it next week.
Prevailing wage mandates artificially lift the cost of government construction projects by forcing bidders to pay the local or, “prevailing,” wage in a particular area. Typically, that means union scale wages.
Two years ago, no state gave all parents money to help educate their children. Few states went from a graduated income tax system — where people pay higher tax rates as they earn more income — to a flat-rate income tax where all income is taxed at the same rates. Iowa did both, and I talk about that with John Hendrickson of the Iowans for Tax Relief Foundation for the Overton Window podcast.
By Derk Wilcox
Should a local government be allowed to foreclose on a property for tax debt, then refuse to compensate the owner for any of the property’s value over the amount of the taxes owed? The Mackinac Center has filed a brief in support of the taxpayer in a United States Supreme Court case that would decide whether a process widely known as “equity theft” should continue.
By Terry Bowman
This article originally appeared in Bridge Michigan February 2, 2023.
Ten years.
I remember December 11, 2012 very clearly. That was the day I and thousands of other union workers in Michigan rejoiced at the passage of Michigan’s workplace fairness law – also called Right-to-Work. The law went into effect in March 2013, and any union contract afterward banned the practice of forcing workers to pay money to a union or be fired.For ten years, we enjoyed our workplace freedom.
Democrats hold majorities in both Michigan legislative chambers for the first time in a generation, and now that they’ve had a few months in office, we’re getting a sense of what their priorities are. Their top priority is to offer big businesses more subsidies.
The United Auto Workers negotiates contracts with the Big 3 auto manufacturers in Michigan as well as many smaller employers. The union has about 134,000 total members in the state.
The UAW in Michigan has lost about 10,000 members in the past decade, despite job increases in manufacturing. Why? Michigan lawmakers passed a right-to-work law in 2012 that freed workers from being forced to contribute to labor unions.
By Molly Macek
The West Michigan Aviation Academy produces results. This happens even though it, like some other charter schools, contracts with a for-profit management organization. Its investment in innovative programming produces impressive student outcomes that counter claims of mediocre performance among charter schools supported by for-profit companies.
Under current policies, Michigan’s taxes are lower than the average state’s, but not quite in the lowest tier among states. Lawmakers can do more to make Michigan a low-tax state.
The Census Bureau publishes a finance report that covers the total collections of taxes at the state and local government level. These can be compared to other states by dividing total revenues by population, employment and GDP. Michigan has lower taxes than the average state but is not quite in the top tier.
This article originally appeared The Hill December 17 2022.
Growing up in the United States was a privilege. I have distinct boyhood memories of the old Soviet menace, but also of the sense that Americans were relatively safe and wealthy and that America was a beacon of hope for the oppressed. I also remember, later, the Soviet Union being dissolved, its flag with hammer and sickle lowered at the Kremlin and a new Russian flag being raised on Christmas Day, 1991. Talk about symbolism!
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News February 20, 2023.
Michigan spending has ratcheted up, and the governor’s spending proposals would keep it up.
Lawmakers increased the state budget from $34.4 billion to $45.8 billion during Gov. Whitmer’s first term, excluding federal transfers as well as small amounts of local and private funding. That is a 22% increase above inflation, including the recent spike. State revenue is up by a lot, even though many budget experts feared the state’s pandemic job losses would take a chunk out of tax income.
Millions of people look to daily TV news commentators to help inform their political opinions. Tucker Carlson, host of Tucker Carlson Tonight, is one of the most successful of those commentators, and he talks about how it works on this week’s Overton Window podcast.
A little more than 50% of Michigan residents aged 25 to 64 had a credential, associate degree, college degree or higher in 2021, according to new data released by the Lumina Foundation.
That’s slightly up from 49.1% in 2019. The organization did not release 2020 data.
Some people believe the only reason tuition at Michigan’s state universities has been going up is that state lawmakers have not given the schools enough money to keep tuition down.
Is that true? Theoretically, lawmakers could write checks so large that colleges would then be able to bring down tuition. But it would take a huge amount of taxpayer dollars to keep up with what the schools want to spend. Such an investment would not pass the test of a simple cost-benefit analysis.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in her State of the State address a couple weeks ago that she aims to “move Michigan forward.” Her policy priorities and those of her political allies, however, would take Michigan back in time. Most of the ideas coming out of the new Democratic-controlled Legislature simply reverse changes Republicans made when they were the majority.
By Molly Macek
Nearly half of eligible children choose not to enroll in Michigan’s Great Start Readiness Program, a taxpayer-provided preschool initiative. The state might make a positive long-term change in student achievement by trying to increase enrollment of the needy students for whom this program exists.
While 25 other states have fully recovered the jobs they lost during the pandemic, Michigan is still down 71,400 jobs, a 1.6% decrease. It doesn’t look like the state is going to get above pre-pandemic levels any time soon, either. The state won’t recover the jobs lost until 2026 at the rate of growth we have experienced over the past five months.
Note: The author will be discussing economic development incentives Monday, February 13 at a special meeting of the Big Rapids Charter Board at 7:00 p.m.
The Michigan Strategic Fund approved a deal in October to grant massive subsidies to a for-profit corporation known as Gotion, Inc. It includes state and local incentives worth up to $733 million. This is a bad deal for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the size and length of state and local incentives.
