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.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News June 23, 2026.
Americans spend a lot of time arguing about what’s wrong with the country. Sometimes international visitors help remind us what’s wonderful about it, and what we take for granted.
The 2026 World Cup is here. The United States is one of the host countries, and preliminary matches are scattered in cities across the country. I am not much of a soccer fan, but it’s hard to escape the ubiquitous event.
Michigan is afflicted with near-stagnant population growth, and many parents who want childcare struggle to find it. The state’s lawmakers can address both problems by revisiting the regulations they place on childcare providers.
The state ranks in the middle of the country in a recent review of childcare regulations. That number comes from the Archbridge Institute, which released a report of childcare regulations across the 50 states. It created an index based on a composite score of four different regulatory requirements: child-to-staff ratios, group size limitations, and mandatory employee education and training rules. Archbridge scholars calculated how strict or flexible a state is in regulating childcare centers. Michigan was 25th, suggesting that the state can reform its policies to protect children while making daycare more available for those who want it.
Tax policy can have unexpected consequences. To take one example, high excise taxes on cigarettes have fueled small- and large-scale smuggling, theft, counterfeit products and violence against both civilians and police. Policymakers should take note: Consumers do not eagerly await to pay more in ever-higher taxes. They change their behavior, often in ways that undermine the goals tax advocates hope to achieve.
The new state budget authorizes 174 pork projects at a cost of $180 million. This sum is down from the last budget’s figure of $360 million and down from 2023 when lawmakers approved $1.8 billion in pork projects. While spending a tenth of what we once spent is an improvement, a look at the projects shows why it’s still a lot of spending on items that shouldn’t be in the budget.
Lawmakers approved a new state budget that spends $50.3 billion in money from the state’s taxes and fees. This is a 3.8% increase from the budget passed last year and this year’s increase is above sustainable levels.
Roads get the biggest increase in the budget. In 2025, lawmakers swapped sales taxes on fuel — which largely go to schools — for a per-gallon tax that largely goes to road repair. They also raised marijuana taxes and earmarked the state’s corporate income tax to transportation purposes. These changes meant more road funding for the upcoming fiscal year, and the transportation budget spends $593 million more.
South Carolina is moving to reduce personal income tax rates and possibly to eliminate its income tax over time. Palmetto Promise, a Columbia-based policy institute, took a leading role in this movement, and Senior Fellow Oran P. Smith joins the Overton Window Podcast to discuss how it all happened.
Jon Erwin’s “Young Washington” exceeded expectations in its opening weekend, taking in $19.7 million against a projected $15 million, drawing a 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and even winning some grudging respect from the mainstream movie industry. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman, as institutional as film critics come, praised aspects of the Angel Studios production and called it “competent enough to create that crisp tug of schoolkid patriotism the books we read as children provided.”
Zoning. Building codes. Permitting. Taxes. Fees.
All of the above and more are imposed by federal, state and local governments whenever someone wants to build a house. These costs add a lot to the cost of a home.
You have direct costs imposed on builders, like permit fees. Then you have indirect costs: A delay in permitting means changes to the interest rates when getting a project financed. And then there are municipal rules that are tough to estimate as a cost. Prohibiting types of building in an area through zoning doesn’t by itself make building more expensive, but it still makes prices higher in the real estate market.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News June 9, 2026.
A quiet, reserved man sat on stage, an acoustic guitar in his hands.
“See if you can spot this one,” he said to the studio audience.
The guitarist started playing a stripped-down, shuffling version of the 1970 hit “Layla.”
The latest academic evidence suggests that economic development subsidies may create more crony capitalism than market capitalism.
A new study published in “Small Business Economics: An Entrepreneurship Journal” adds to the debate over the effects of state economic development subsidies. Like hundreds of studies before it, the paper concludes that these programs may do more harm than good.
The workhorse of the state’s business subsidy programs is not the one that gives out deals for hundreds of millions of dollars. Instead, it’s the program where assistance is limited to $10 million payouts, the Michigan Business Development Program. This program has made 875 deals since it began in 2012. But while it makes a lot of deals, it also falls short. It’s just not an effective use of taxpayer money.
Are Americans less patriotic now than we were 50 years ago? By traditional measures, the answer is probably yes. Many observers unfavorably compare this year’s sporadic A250 celebrations to the pride seen in past events such as the 1976 Bicentennial. It can seem that something about the patriotic spirit of our country is lacking. But one pleasant surprise of 2026 is that a soccer tournament, of all things, boosted Americans’ appreciation of our country.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News May 19 2026.
When you paid your taxes last month, perhaps you grumbled about the amount. Did you know your tax dollars are used to call for higher taxes?
Local governments use public funds to argue for tax hikes. School districts blanket communities with information about the benefits of millages and other tax measures. Taxpayer-funded bureaucracies hold public town halls and plaster social media with demands for more of your money. Superintendents warn about the dire consequences if the measure fails.
The lawyers, lobbyists and advocates for corporate welfare demonstrate a lot of creativity. They’ve developed a variety of gimmicks to hide financial transfers collected by their clients. Let’s dig in on what they’ve come up with because it shows a remarkable effort to conceal taxpayer payments to select companies.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News May 12, 2026.
Driving around Saginaw in 2023, I noticed large yellow “Vote No” signs, urging the community to reject a massive school bond. These signs stood out. While high-quality “Yes” signs are common for local tax hike campaigns, this was the first time I had seen an organized and professional opposition.
At a time of high inflation, many of the policies enacted in Michigan in recent years have made things less affordable. But there are also bills in the state House and Senate, some supported by both Republicans and Democrats, that would tackle an affordability agenda.
Why are towns all over the United States convulsed about development plans for data centers? Dennis Talluto says size matters.
“I think the primary concern that's really driving the paranoia and and the noise level is basically the size and the scope of data centers,” says Talluto, founder and principal of LVL Strategies. “Twenty, 30 years ago, you might have, say, a 50,000- or 100,000-square-foot data center that might draw four megawatts of power. And now you've got half a million square feet for a data center that's drawing five hundred megawatts to a gigawatt just for one site. So I think the the size of the site, the size of the facilities, the acreage involved, that is what's really driving the noise level.”
By Cate Welch
The debate over data centers is often framed as a simple choice: embrace technological progress or stand in the way. That framing is wrong. Data centers are no different than any other business and should be treated likewise.
Artificial intelligence, cloud computing and the digital infrastructure supporting them are no longer optional luxuries. Data centers power everything from banking and logistics to traffic lights to a rapidly expanding AI economy. In other words, they help people get what they want.
Two rural school districts in Gratiot County each needed to hire a new superintendent. They both chose to hire the same person to oversee their separate operations. Ryan Portenga, the current principal of Pewamo-Westphalia Middle/High School in Clinton County, will be the new superintendent of Ashley Community Schools as well as Fulton Schools.
How free is Michigan’s economy? By one widely used measure, not very. Michigan ranks 31st among the 50 states on an objective index of economic liberty. That middling showing carries consequences. States with more economic freedom tend to see stronger growth, more jobs and greater population gains. Michigan’s relative stagnation reflects the poor policy choices its leaders have made.
