Ken Droz, former director of communications for the Michigan Film Office, responded to an op-ed I co-authored about Michigan's film incentive program. Unfortunately, he levels criticisms and makes claims without citing any facts.
The block quotes below are the assertions he makes in a MLive article, and are followed by my response:
By Jack McHugh
The Foundation for Government Accountability has just published a report on state enrollments under the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. Here’s what the authors say about Michigan:
When Republican Governor Rick Snyder lobbied the Michigan legislature to adopt his Obamacare Medicaid expansion plan, he too sold it on the promise of low and predictable enrollment. His office predicted no more than 477,000 able-bodied adults would ever sign up, with 323,000 signing up in the first year.
Grand Valley State University scores second-highest on the state’s “performance funding” measurements and Wayne State University scores the lowest. By most objective measures, the former is doing a better job than the latter — but WSU still gets far more money from taxpayers.
By Derk Wilcox
On April 8, 2015, the Michigan Supreme Court handed down an important decision upholding reforms to healthcare benefits for Michigan’s retired public school employees. Although it was specific to just healthcare, it bodes well for any future reforms to public pensions in Michigan.
The total value of property taxes collected in Michigan increased slightly from $12.8 billion in 2013 to $13.0 billion in 2014, a 1.7 percent increase, according to the state’s annual property tax report. This exceeded the 1.0 percent inflation growth for the Detroit metropolitan statistical area over the same period.
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 248, Revise mandated no-fault auto insurance personal injury coverage
Editor’s Note: The author made several attempts to contact Steve Inskeep and to request a follow-up story that might provide a fairer treatment of the Mackinac Center’s right-to-work study. We received no response.
April 6, 2015
Mr. Steve Inskeep
In a March 27 on-air exchange with David Wessel of the Brookings Institution on the impact of right-to-work laws, you focused on a “single phrase that was mentioned in a news story earlier this week” (transcript here). This phrase was sourced in the NPR story to a 2013 study coauthored by Dr. Michael Hicks and myself.
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in Duluth News Tribune on April 15, 2015.
Minnesota raised its excise tax by 130 percent in 2013, the consequences of which may not be fully understood. The large increase in price from that tax hike has created a yawning gap between the cost of cigarettes in Minnesota and elsewhere, spurring rampant smuggling, according to research conducted by my colleague Todd Nesbit and me.
The Detroit News reports on the lack of transparency from Michigan’s corporate welfare program.
“Michigan taxpayers are on the hook for giving 96 percent of nearly $9.4 billion in tax credits to companies in the vaguely named ‘transportation’ sector, but a state agency that doles out the job-retaining incentives refuses to disclose the revised amounts owed to individual companies,” the article notes.
According to the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning, the rates of accidents, injuries, and fatalities on Michigan's roads have been decreasing for decades. Improved pavement conditions will make the roads safer, but drivers should feel at ease that transportation is less risky than it used to be.
LaTanya Dorsey is a mother who sends her daughter to a public charter school in Eastpointe. Her daughter is on the honor roll and doing very well.
Dorsey didn't expect to have a say in where her daughter went to school.
“Usually, it's the district that you're in is the school that you would have to attend,” Dorsey said. “That kind of surprised me — that I did have a choice to send her to another school, so I was real grateful for that.”
Policy Analyst Jarrett Skorup and Assistant Director of Fiscal Policy James Hohman explain in an MLive.com column why the state should get out of the business of subsidizing film production companies.
Skorup and Hohman note:
Despite handing out nearly $500 million over the years, the program has failed to create a sustainable film industry in Michigan. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are fewer film jobs in Michigan today (1,561) then when the program began in 2008 (1,663). In 2013, there were zero full-time jobs created by these subsidies, according to the latest reportfrom the Michigan Film Office.
An Associated Press story about Proposal 1, the May 5 sales and gas tax ballot question, prominently features Mackinac Center research. From the article:
The state sales tax would go up a penny on the dollar. The gasoline tax would rise with inflation, likely more. The annual vehicle registration tax would be higher.
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 House and Senate are on a two-week spring break. Therefore, this report contains several recently introduced bills of interest.
Policy analyst Jarrett Skorup recently spoke on the issue of civil asset forfeiture to the Birmingham Republican Women’s Club. The event also featured Rep. Mike McCready, R-Bloomfield Hills, Regina Brim who is a local activist opposed to forfeiture, and Megan Noland, who represented the Oakland County sheriff’s office.
Most of the focus on Proposal 1 has been directed to its changes in the state’s fiscal policies, rather than a close look at its proposed constitutional changes. One issue demands further attention since its effects are unclear.
The constitutional amendments allow for a higher sales tax, earmark more money to the School Aid Fund and exempt road vehicle fuel from sales taxes. But they also remove “higher education” from the list of acceptable uses of the SAF while adding community colleges and some programs to the acceptable uses of the that fund. Here is this section of the proposed amendment:
The River Rouge School District buses students out of Detroit to attend its schools. This makes financial sense for the district: More than 400 River Rouge students live in Detroit and attend the district through the state's Schools of Choice program. These are families who have chosen to leave their neighborhood school.
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 House and Senate are on a two-week spring break. Therefore, this report contains several recently introduced bills of interest.
Our friends at the Foundation for Economic Education recently published an interview with their current president, Lawrence W. Reed. Friends of the Mackinac Center will know Larry as the first president of this organization. He currently is president emeritus at the Center and a member of our Board of Scholars.
A Detroit coalition has released its long-awaited recommendations on education policy for Detroit. Though the coalition characterizes its recommendations as a way to improve the "education landscape" for all Detroit students, the coalition's main apparent goal is preserving the institution of Detroit Public Schools.
The Detroit News quotes Audrey Spalding, director of education policy, on school choice in Detroit.
According to the article, 25,000 Detroit students have chosen to use school choice to attend schools in the suburban areas, with 17,000 of those students attending charters.
The many friends and admirers of Robert P. (“Bob”) Crowner mourn his passing, which occurred this week at the age of 87, after a long bout with cancer.
Bob was an exemplar of the balanced life. He was successful in business before he taught the subject at the university level. He believed in the education of youth, devoting his attentions to enhancing it in both the public and private sectors. He knew a lot about a lot of things but never felt he knew enough that he could crow about it. He was an engineer who knew there was another engineer who towered over all others, the Creator who made us all. He worked hard at every job he held, but still found time to work a lot more as a volunteer for worthy causes. As a long-time member of the Mackinac Center’s Board of Scholars, his bio spells out some of the details:
Specifically, if voters approve Proposal 1’s $2 billion tax increase (and if as expected legislators pass a necessary “clean up” bill), then most of the revenue from the measure’s $1.2 billion fuel tax will initially go to repay debt on past road repairs. In the first year $815 million will be used to repay debt. In the second year, this falls to $456 million. Only in the third year will the full gas tax amount go to current transportation funding, rather than paying for road repairs that politicians put on the state’s credit card years ago.
According to Grand Rapids ABC affiliate WZZM 13, Michigan taxpayers spend $1.3 million every year on administrative costs and board member transportation to the meetings of 184 state oversight boards.
Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative at the Mackinac Center, was quoted in the article, suggesting other uses for the money spent on these boards.
Gov. Snyder recently sent a letter to Michigan House Speaker Kevin Cotter and Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof explaining some of the problems of occupational licensure.
The governor summarizes some of the good work the Legislature has done, and outlines the principles he'll use in "determining whether to support any legislation providing for additional occupation regulation.” Below are these principles:
