Wins for Freedom

Held government accountable with COVID-19 transparency

The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation represented Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie LeDuff in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. LeDuff was investigating the state's reports on deaths in nursing homes and other long-term-care facilities, but the department refused to provide data that would let him determine whether its reports were accurate. The department settled, and a preliminary investigation showed that the department was inaccurately reporting deaths in these facilities. This prompted the House Oversight Committee to ask the Michigan Auditor General to review the state’s numbers.

Our lawsuit, and a subsequent investigation, revealed that Michigan’s reporting of COVID deaths in long-term-care facilities was significantly inaccurate. Unfortunately, this inaccuracy resulted in COVID-19 being made to appear deadlier to the generally populace than it was — and less dangerous to the residents of long-term-care facilities. During the pandemic, the governor and other public officials asserted that science and data were the foundation for policies affecting nearly every aspect of Michigander’s lives. As the result of our work with LeDuff, we learned that the data was incorrect.

Michigan Supreme Court win ends the governor’s overreach

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s unilateral control of COVID-19 policies during her declared state of emergency was deemed illegal and unconstitutional by the Michigan Supreme Court. The occasion? A lawsuit filed by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, which acted on behalf of three medical providers who could not, under one of Gov. Whitmer’s hundred-plus executive orders, provide care to some patients. Another party to the lawsuit was an individual who was denied care for the same reason. As the court affirmed, state law is clear: Emergencies declared under the 1976 act the governor cited need to be extended by the Legislature, not the executive branch. The court unanimously held that the governor violated this law. Our attorneys also argued that a 1945 emergency powers law, which the governor used as well, was unconstitutional because it violated the Michigan Constitution’s separation-of-powers requirement. The court agreed, and found that law to be unconstitutional. It ended the governor's attempt to maintain unilateral control for an indefinite period.

Pushed health reforms to address the COVID crisis

To fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Mackinac Center scholars quickly rolled out a series of reform proposals. This included suspending “certificate of need” laws that limit how and which hospitals can expand their services, such as adding more beds. We also supported loosening scope-of-practice laws that prevent medical workers from providing care and called for rolling back licensing rules that block people from working. We suggested cutting spending on inefficient government programs to put the funding where it was needed most. Policymakers, on a bipartisan basis, largely adopted these suggestions.

Reformed asset forfeiture laws

Michigan lawmakers passed a law that requires a criminal conviction before law enforcement can seize and keep a person’s property. The Mackinac Center has called for this change to civil asset forfeiture laws since 1996 and worked with a bipartisan coalition to get it enacted.

New choices in auto insurance

A new law finally gives Michigan drivers a choice in auto insurance. Before the law came into effect, the state had the most extensive coverage mandate in the nation, by far. This led to the highest costs and an untold number of uninsured drivers. The Mackinac Center argued, for over several decades, for a system based on consumer choice and individual preferences. Our first report in insurance reform appeared in the 1980s.

Workers freed from union mandates

On June 27, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME that public employees nationwide cannot be forced to pay a union just to keep their jobs. It based this ruling on employees’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association. This ruling gave every government worker a “right-to-work” environment, fulfilling a longtime Mackinac Center policy recommendation. The high court cited our research and legal arguments in its decision.

Michigan finally repealed its 50-year-old “prevailing wage” law, which mandated union wages for all government-funded construction projects, regardless of what fair market rates happened to be. This repeal is estimated to save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year, and it’s something the Mackinac Center recommended decades ago.

Helped Detroit Prep fight public school obstrution

Detroit Prep is a school in a low-income part of the state’s largest city, serving students who are considered "at-risk" of not graduating. Despite those obstacles, the children who attend it do significantly better academically than those in the nearby traditional public school district. Detroit Prep’s success led to increased enrollment, but when it tried to purchase and rehabilitate an old school building, Detroit Public Schools stood in the way. It did everything possible to stop Detroit Prep from operating in the city. That’s when the Mackinac Center stepped in, working with the school and lawmakers to ensure that the school district could not stop other schools from opening nearby.

Made Michigan a national leader in pension reform

Lawsmakers adopted pension reform. The Mackinac Center had recommended closing the teacher pension system for years, as the system accumulated more and more debt. The old pension system had only 60% of the money it needed to fulfill its promises to Michigan's teachers, and it was nearly $30 billion in debt. The state successfully closed the old plan to new employees and created a new system with generous benefits. Under the law, the state has no option to underfund the retirement system, making Michigan a national leader in pension reform.

Protected rideshare drivers from local government meddling

Michigan passed comprehensive transportation reform. Although people had been using ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft for years, ridesharing was not fully legal in Michigan. Some drivers were ticketed for operating without a special license, even though there was no license for them to obtain. The Mackinac Center launched a campaign to highlight the benefits of ridesharing. After some diligent work on the part of free-market and ridesharing advocates, the state passed legislation that protected ridesharing from local meddling. It also reduced the regulatory burden on taxi and limousine companies, making Michigan a national model for transportation reform.

School choice withstands twists and turns of Detroit debate

The Mackinac Center halted a well-funded effort to create a politically-appointed regulatory commission that would have limited Detroit families’ educational choices.

Failed film subsidy program shuts down

The Michigan Legislature ended the state's film subsidy program. The Mackinac Center was one of very few voices that opposed the unsuccessful program from its inception in 2008.

Forced unionization ends

The Michigan Supreme Court ended the forced unionization of public employees. It did so by using an argument advanced by a Mackinac Center amicus brief: The Civil Service Commission lacks the power to tax and therefore cannot compel public employees to pay agency fees. The ruling agreed with the idea that public employees should have been able to opt out of union membership ever since Michigan’s current constitution went into effect in 1963.

VoteSpotter app empowers voters

MichiganVotes, launched in 2001, became the basis for the VoteSpotter app that notifies users when their representatives at the state and national level vote on important bills. The app provides plain-language descriptions of each bill and allows users to approve or disapprove of the vote and to contact their legislator by phone or email to explain why.

Right-to-work law caps 20 years of effort

Michigan became the nation’s 24th right-to-work state — 20 years after the Mackinac Center first called for such a law.

Reformed union dues deductions

Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation banning the use of public resources to deduct union dues from teacher payroll checks, which the Mackinac Center first called for in 1995. The law was challenged by the MEA but subsequently upheld in court.

Fixed costly pension practices

Teacher pension reform incorporated Mackinac Center recommendations, abolishing retiree health care benefits for future retirees and requiring current retirees to contribute 20% of the cost of their own benefits.

Defeated a slate of union giveaways

Voters rejected ballot proposals that would have enshrined union privileges in the state constitution, prevented right-to-work and locked in the stealth unionization of home-based caregivers. They also rejected a proposal to increase utility bills through requiring more use of renewable energy sources. Mackinac Center analysts published studies examining each proposal and educated voters on the issues at public appearances and through commentaries, op-eds and media interviews.

In the same month, Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law a reform of the personal property tax, which Center analysts had long explained was a burdensome tax on businesses simply for owning tools and equipment.

The end of MEGA

The Michigan Economic Growth Authority is abolished. Mackinac Center analysts had raised concerns when MEGA was proposed, forcing Gov. John Engler to try three times before it was created in 1995. Numerous studies and commentaries over the years pointed out the discriminatory nature of the tax breaks offered by MEGA.

Lifted cap on charter schools

Legislators and the governor signed legislation to eliminate an arbitrary cap on the number of public charter schools. Mackinac Center scholars had, for two decades, questioned the cap and pushed for unfettered school choice.

Helped end Michigan business tax

Gov. Rick Snyder adopted a Mackinac Center recommendation by signing legislation to end the Michigan Business Tax.

Exposed stealth unionization schemes

The stealth unionization scheme forcing home-based day care owners into a public sector union against their knowledge or will came to an end after a 19-month court battle. A key leader in the battle was the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation. The MCLF would later lead the charge against similar forced unionization schemes elsewhere, freeing tens of thousands of people. One case involved graduate student research assistants at public universities and in a second, home-based care givers were converted by law into employees and union members. Michigan Capitol Confidential, the Center’s online news source, closely monitored the plight of home-based care givers who were shanghaied into the SEIU. It wrote more than 80 stories and commentaries about them and kept a real-time count, through an online “skim tracker,” of some $35 million diverted from Medicaid to the union.

Merit-pay double-dipping ends for teachers

Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed into law a requirement that school districts incorporate merit pay when they make decisions about teacher compensation. The Mackinac Center called for such a change some 19 years earlier.

Ended needless department and stopped state fair subsidies

Gov. Jennifer Granholm championed, and won legislative approval, for two cost-saving measures Mackinac Center experts had promoted. The first was to dismantle the state Department of History, Arts and Libraries. The second was to end tax subsidies for the Michigan State Fair.

Required fiscal transparency from schools

What began as requests to school districts to post their checkbooks online culminated in a state law. The new measure requires them to list spending, salary and contract details under a clearly identifiable “transparency” button on their website.

Ended the single business tax

Spurred by a voter-initiated ballot proposal, the Legislature voted to end the Single Business Tax, a move which the Mackinac Center had called for from its earliest days.

ACT replaces MEAP

Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced that the ACT would replace the MEAP test for high school juniors. Two Mackinac Center studies had urged the state to use privately developed tests such as the ACT.

Defeated union-featherbedding Prop 3

Mackinac Center analysts produced the only legal and economic analysis of Proposal 3, which would have enshrined special privileges for labor unions in the Michigan Constitution. Voters rejected the measure, 54%-46%.

Launched MichiganVotes.org

MichiganVotes.org launched, making it the world’s first web-driven legislative database that describes in plain English every bill and amendment. The service also records every vote of every legislator. To date, MichiganVotes.org has described more than 25,000 bills.

Trained leaders in the U.S. and worldwide

The Mackinac Center launched a biannual leadership conference, which it conducted until 2010. Our experts trained policy institute executives in effective management, communications and fundraising. In 12 years, the Center trained more than 600 people from 47 states and 47 countries. The New York Times profiled the program in 2006.

Conceived the Universal Tuition Tax Credit

In a groundbreaking study, the Mackinac Center conceived the Universal Tuition Tax Credit, which would expand educational choices for parents and students. Eighteen states have now enacted tuition tax credits in some form. The Wall Street Journal calls the Center the nation’s “leading advocate for a universal education tax credit.”

Change to defined-contribution plan saves billions

The Michigan State Employees Retirement System is reformed, with all new hires placed into a defined-contribution system. This reform has spared taxpayers up to $4.3 billion in unfunded liabilities since then. Mackinac Center analysts had called for such a change since 1991.

Families get choice to move out of failing schools

Parental choice took another leap forward when Michigan adopted a Schools of Choice law, allowing students to attend any public school in their own or neighboring districts.

Passed paycheck protection

The Legislature adopted the Mackinac Center’s recommendation that unions should have to seek employees’ permission to deduct union Political Action Committee (PAC) funds from paychecks, bringing “paycheck protection” to some 45,000 unionized state workers.

Privatized the Michigan Accident Fund

When the state sold the Michigan Accident Fund, it marked the largest privatization of any state-owned asset in the country. The move was suggested by the first study ever issued by the Mackinac Center.

Revealed MEA hypocrisy on contracting with private businesses

A Mackinac Center investigation revealed that the Michigan Education Association contracted with private companies for food, janitorial, security and mailing services at its East Lansing headquarters. This was noticeable because the union staunchly opposed privatization in public schools. In 1994 the Legislature passed a new law making privatization of noninstructional services a prohibited bargaining item, opening a door for schools to use contracting. Today, nearly 70% of public schools in Michigan stretch education dollars by contracting out for food, custodial or transportation services.

Enacted a fiscal reform package

The Mackinac Center published a 20-point plan for state fiscal reform. Gov. John Engler fully or partially implemented 16 of those recommendations in his first term. In 1994 he wrote, “When the Mackinac Center speaks, we listen.”

Pioneered charter schools

The Mackinac Center was Michigan’s first institution to recommend charter public schools. The Michigan Legislature subsequently enacted one of the nation’s first charter school laws in 1993, meaning children no longer had to attend the school to which they were assigned based on their ZIP code.