By Jack McHugh
Michigan’s public school establishment is nothing if not persistent when it comes to devising new ways to extract more tax dollars. Two hearty perennials in this area are school “sinking fund” taxes and using local “recreational authority” taxes for school amenities. Both have been advanced in previous legislatures, only to be halted by happenstance or when Republican leaders on either side of the Capitol realized they were on the verge of authorizing property tax hikes for more things.
Detroit’s City Council is creating more regulations for the city’s growing medical marijuana industry. On top of recently requiring a city license (in addition to a state license one must procure), banning drive-thru windows and restricting operating hours, potential new regulation would limit where medical marijuana dispensaries can locate.
The costs of defined benefit pension systems are meant to be paid as pension credits are earned by employees. For government workers, paying these costs as they are earned is a state constitutional requirement. But this has not happened, a failure that has generated billions in unfunded taxpayer liabilities. Moreover, a lack of understanding of how pension funding actually works leads to incorrect reform prescriptions from lawmakers and others.
As Michigan lawmakers consider the state’s lack of criminal culpability standards, it may be useful to look at the experience of neighboring Ohio. One year ago this month, Ohio legislators passed what may be the most sweeping reform in the country. It requires a criminal culpability standard for every new criminal offense created. If lawmakers pass an act that creates a new offense but does not spell out a standard, the act is void. For every existing criminal offense, the reform presumes a “reckless” standard, meaning offenders are not considered to have acted with criminal intent unless they acted recklessly. Lawmakers can adjust the criminal intent standard for laws, new or old, as they see fit.
Today the Michigan Senate Judiciary Committee advanced House Bill 4713 out of committee. The bill would adopt a default “mens rea” standard for many of the criminal laws in Michigan, a reform the Mackinac Center recommended in two different studies.
Michigan has more than 3,100 criminal laws on the books. Traditionally, the standard for convicting someone of a crime required the state to show that the accused committed a criminal act and possessed criminal intent. But many of the crimes on the books in Michigan fail to specify the standard of criminal intent the prosecution must show in order to obtain a conviction. (Terms like “recklessly,” “knowingly” and “willfully” are common standards.) With no intent standard, individuals can be charged and convicted of a crime without the state having to demonstrate that they intending to commit an unlawful act.
Dan Crane spoke last week to a full house at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s most recent Issues and Ideas Forum. On Sunday, the Lansing State Journal published an op-ed he authored laying out some of his main ideas.
The op-ed explains how a year-old statute signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder prohibits auto manufacturers like Tesla Motors from selling their vehicles directly to consumers. Crane told the 50-plus attendees at the forum that restricting product distribution in this way increases the cost of vehicles and stifles innovation.
By Jack McHugh
Now with one click you can approve or disapprove of key votes by your legislators using the VoteSpotter smart phone app. Visit votespotter.com and download VoteSpotter today!
Senate Bill 618, Exempt "internet data center" companies from personal property tax: Passed 21 to 15 in the Senate
The Legislature is running through a deal that is aimed at benefiting a Nevada-based data company. The company, Switch, claims it will invest $5 billion and create 1,000 jobs if the state exempts it from sales and use taxes and some property taxes.
This is a move back toward what Michigan did for the first decade of this century under former Gov. Granholm, which was to blow holes in the state tax code for favored industries and effectively let Lansing politicians pick winners and losers in the economy. The fact that the bills may end up benefiting a select industry (data centers) rather than just one company only makes this a slightly less bad idea. This is the same Legislature that ended the film credits program, which also benefited one industry and arrived with similar promises of being the growing industry of the future.
The Michigan Economic Development Corp., Michigan’s economic development agency, has come under criticism for its lack of transparency, which most recently was exhibited in a claim that its Pure Michigan advertising campaign had a return on investment of 587 percent in one year.
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the state agency in charge of corporate welfare programs, is lobbying for its Pure Michigan tourism promotion campaign (and itself in general) with claims of a high return on investment.
These claims have been heard before. But Dave Lorenz, the vice president of the MEDC arm in charge of the subsidies (Travel Michigan) is actively touting an amazing return on investment in the program: 587 percent in a single year. Unfortunately, it appears that he simply wants us to take his word for it.
Michigan and its local governments are facing cuts to shore up massively underfunded pension plans. Who is to blame for the problem? According to two recent essays in statewide media outlets, the blame lies with people who move out of cities and a state government that has cut revenue sharing. Neither explanation is correct and an accurate understanding of pension funding shows exactly why, as well as what to do about pensions.
Mackinac Center for Public Policy Executive Vice President Michael Reitz co-authored an op-ed published in the Detroit News Tuesday. The op-ed – written with U.S. Sen. and member of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) – explains why Michigan lawmakers should begin to address overcriminalization by adding a criminal intent provision to laws that are silent on the matter.
The Michigan state Senate recently passed two bills that would preserve the independence of small businesses and their employees’ rights to decide for themselves whether to unionize. The bills — SB 492 and SB 493 — were approved by the senate on the same day union-backed protesters took to the streets to demand a $15 minimum wage and make it easier to unionize workers at franchised fast food restaurants.
Last week, several health-related nonprofits released a poll that asked 600 voters in Michigan about the idea of increasing the cigarette tax by $1 a pack. The sponsors report strong support for an increase if the funds are channeled to health-related government spending.
By Jack McHugh
Now with one click you can approve or disapprove of key votes by your legislators using the VoteSpotter smart phone app. Visit votespotter.com and download VoteSpotter today!
The Legislature is on a two weeks break with no voting. Therefore, this report contains several recently introduced bills of interest. Note: There will be no Roll Call Report next week, Thanksgiving week.
For years, bipartisan majorities of Republicans and Democrats approved massive tax credits to select corporations and industries. The bulk of these coincided with the “lost decade” in Michigan, in which the state lost more jobs than any other. These credits have caused a nearly $9 billion hole in the state budget. This hole is crushing citizens who must now pay higher taxes for an increasing state budget to fund basic government services such as road maintenance.
The state’s 2012 retirement reforms changed the way that pension benefits offered in Michigan school districts are paid. It capped a school district’s contributions to the retirement system, with the state pledging to pay the amounts required above the district cap. But this may not have changed the policy picture as much as legislators hoped.
According to the Detroit Free Press, the city of Detroit must make a $195 million balloon payment to its pension systems in 2024, which is some 71 percent higher than the amount approved in city’s bankruptcy plan. New hiring, delayed pension cuts, and longer life expectancies have left the city responsible for a growing retirement-benefit liability.
Patrick Wright, vice president for legal affairs at the Mackinac Center, gave an interview on The Frank Beckmann Show to discuss the latest win in the August window saga.
In September, the Michigan Employment Relations Commission concurred with an administrative law judge and found the MEA's August window (the policy of requiring all resignations to occur in August) illegal. MERC ordered the MEA to begin taking resignations year round, but the MEA filed with the Court of Appeals, asking it to reconsider the decision and to order a stay in the meantime, which would keep the August window in effect for at least a year.
Monday morning, reporters Zoe Clark and Rick Pluta published a radio story and article about how Lansing Republicans “had adopted the tax break religion” on targeted tax breaks. As evidence, there is apparently a deal in the works that would provide taxpayer funds of some sort to a particular business in exchange for a promise to locate or expand in West Michigan.
In The Detroit News, business columnist Dan Howes cites a real estate developer in arguing for more spending on state economic development:
“It’s not competitive,” says Albert Berriz, CEO of McKinley Inc., an Ann Arbor-based real estate investor with a $4.6 billion portfolio spanning 33 states. “It’s a nuclear arms race, and everyone wants to put you out of business. We need to talk less and win more.”
By Jack McHugh
Now with one click you can approve or disapprove of key votes by your legislators using the VoteSpotter smart phone app. Visit votespotter.com and download VoteSpotter today!
Senate Bill 280, Ban schools and governments paying union officials to do union work: Passed 20 to 17 in the Senate
“We’ve got to do something about Detroit Public Schools!”
This sentiment is frequently expressed in education policy discussions in Lansing.
A review of the crisis confirms the need for action: The district teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, with more than $500 million in operating debt and more than $1.5 billion combined capital and bond debt. DPS is nearly $100 million behind in payments to the state pension system. Enrollment has plummeted — the district is one-third the size it was just ten years ago. Since 1992, district enrollment declined from 161,000 children to 46,500. (But to be clear, declining enrollment isn’t necessarily evidence of a crisis.)
Two important bills that would prevent some special union deals have passed the state Senate.
Senate Bill 279 would “prohibit public school districts and unions from adopting ‘release time’ arrangements in which a school employee who goes to work full time for a teachers union remains an employee of the district for purposes of collecting a government pension.” This came to light as a result of Michigan Capitol Confidential breaking several stories about the past three Michigan Education Association presidents entering special deals where they worked for a private union but continued to be officially “employed” and paid by school districts. This scheme allowed them to count their time and earnings with the MEA as credits toward their taxpayer-funded pension, artificially boosting their eventual payout compared to what it would have been based strictly on their time and pay actually working as public school employees.
By Jack McHugh
Now with one click you can approve or disapprove of key votes by your legislators using the VoteSpotter smart phone app. Visit votespotter.com and download VoteSpotter today!
House Bill 4738, Increase gas and diesel tax: Passed 20 to 18 in the Senate
To increase the state gasoline tax from 19 cents per gallon to 26.3 cents starting in 2017, and after that index the amount to inflation. Also, to increase the state diesel tax from 15 cents to that same 26.3 cents per gallon level, plus inflationary increases.
