Lovers of liberty are today recognizing the birthday of intellectual powerhouse and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, who was born 102 years ago in Brooklyn, New York to immigrant parents. Friedman, who died in 2006, was my intellectual hero.
As I have noted in previous blog posts, Friedman revolutionized the economic science while teaching it to the everyman. He is arguably the most influential economist of the 20th Century, perhaps (unfortunately) next to John Maynard Keynes. Friedman cut so many new paths it is difficult to sum up his contributions to economics and public policy in a book, let alone a blog post.
Today is Dr. Milton Friedman's birthday. The renowned economist who brought economic principles to the masses would have been 102 today.
One of Dr. Friedman's most valuable contributions was his work on education policy. In this regard, Friedman was a visionary. Most people accept the status quo, namely a system of government-run schools, without considering its justification or how it can be improved.
Watchdog.org tells the story of Rob Wiersema, a Michigan teacher who says the Michigan Education Association did not give him the proper information he needed to opt out of the union.
The MEA has admitted it doesn't explain how teachers can leave. The Mackinac Center's Director of Labor Policy F. Vincent Vernuccio says he is helping to provide teachers with information so that they can make an informed choice in August with the website AugustOptOut.org.
Opponents of right-to-work predicted many negative economic results before Michigan became the country's 24th right-to-work state.
But, as a recent Capitol Confidential article points out, incomes have risen in the first full year since the worker freedom law went into effect. The article was picked up by Fox News, the American Thinker, and Hotair.com.
Opponents of freedom-based solutions paid the Mackinac Center several compliments during a work session at Netroots Nation 2014. The gathering is described as a "giant family reunion for the left."
Both Fox News and Watchdog.org wrote about how the Mackinac Center gains the respect of policy-makers and the public with powerful ideas. Read the Watchdog article here and the Fox News article here.
While the Legislature is on a summer break the Roll Call Report is reviewing key votes of the 2013-2014 session.
Senate Bill 542, Permit more generous government employee health benefits: Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate on October 8, 2013.
To increase from $11,000 to $12,250 the “hard cap” on the amount that a local government or school district can spend for an "individual-plus-spouse" employee health care policy under a 2011 law limiting the cost of such benefits.
If you listen to opponents of right-to-work laws, the claims are dire. But if laws allowing workers the choice of whether to pay money to a union lead to such alleged problems, why are so many people moving from forced unionism states to right-to-work states?
James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy, and Scott Drenkard, an economist with the Tax Foundation, write in today’s Detroit News about Proposal 1, which is estimated to save taxpayers about $500 million. You can read Hohman’s full assessment of the ballot measure here.
A 2013 Mackinac Center study found positive economic effects for states with right-to-work laws. RTW states enjoy increased real personal income growth, population growth and employment growth. New evidence supports this finding.
The evidence comes from a Competitive Enterprise Institute study. Authors Richard Vedder (a member of the Center’s Board of Scholars) and Jonathon Robe control for a variety of factors that impact state economic growth. They then compare the performance of RTW states and non-RTW states from 1977 to 2012. A chief finding is “that the overall effect of a RTW law is to increase economic growth rates by 11.5 percentage points.”
By Derk Wilcox
In a significant decision issued Tuesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the IRS’s implementation of a significant portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was illegal. The case is called Halbig v Burwell, No. 14-5018. The DC Court’s opinion was very much in line with the interpretation of the ACA urged by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, who submitted a supporting brief on behalf of the state of Michigan in cooperation with the states of Kansas and Nebraska.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has just ruled that the federal health care law does not authorize insurance subsidies provided through health care “exchanges” that were set up by the federal government. Only exchanges set up by the states can qualify for these taxpayer subsidies.
Using polling to discover not only what percentage of voters believe in man-made climate change but also how much they know about related scientific facts could prove worthwhile. Survey questions might include asking voters if they believe greenhouse gases exist and, if so, whether they think that — if possible — all greenhouse gases should be eliminated.
An Associated Press story about the upcoming Proposal 1 on the Aug. 5 primary ballot cites a recent policy brief written by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy, which shows the measure could be up to a $500 million tax cut.
The story appeared in Crain's Detroit Business, Traverse City Record-Eagle, Battle Creek Enquirer, Port Huron Times-Herald, Lansing State Journal, Grand Haven Tribune, Cadillac News and Midland Daily News. It was also cited in this online "editorial board" discussion at MLive.com.
While the Legislature is on a summer break from voting, the Roll Call Report is reviewing key votes of the 2013-2014 session.
House Bill 4714, Approve Medicaid expansion: Passed 76 to 31 in the House on June 13, 2013
To expand Medicaid eligibility to families and childless adults up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which implements a key component of the federal health care law.
All criminal justice systems face competing tensions of protecting public safety while not overburdening taxpayers, and Michigan’s is no exception. Calls to reduce financial costs often face scrutiny on the grounds of potentially compromised security. In a Lansing hearing on July 1, which I was able to attend, the Council of State Governments brought to Michigan several suggestions related to criminal sentencing, claiming that these policy changes could ease the financial burden on taxpayers while simultaneously maintaining or even improving public safety.
James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy, will participate in a panel discussion from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Friday as part of an event titled “Detroit Rising.” The two-day event, sponsored by the Manhattan Institute and State Budget Solutions, kicks off Thursday at 5 p.m. with a panel discussion titled “How the Motor City is Rebuilding and Returning to Greatness.” Friday’s session is titled “Learning from Detroit: Hope for Cities on the Brink.” Both panels will be streamed live.
A Wall Street Journal editorial bemoans gimmicks used to “pay for” a federal road funding bill without either raising taxes or cutting other spending, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday:
“Under smoothing, employers are given permission to delay contributions to pension plans, thereby increasing corporate taxable income. That pushes immediate money to the Treasury, but at the cost of piling up pension liabilities in the longer-term, hurting employees and potentially the taxpayers who might have to bail them out. Congress used the same imaginary revenue-raiser to fund the 2012 highway bill, and the Members know most of the media won't report the boring pension details.”
A recent Michigan Future report calls into question a common economic theory: increasing taxes tends to lead to less private-sector growth. Comparing Michigan’s economic performance over the last two decades to that of Minnesota’s, the report claims that “rais[ing] taxes on the wealthy and businesses to invest even more in public services” was the Gopher State’s key to success. While this anecdote convinced the Detroit Free Press, a large body of economic research does not support this view.
The newest edition of Michigan Education Digest is available here. Topics include the new National Education Association president calling value-added assessments for teachers the “mark of the devil,” why the University of Michigan has to pay a student group $14,000 to settle a lawsuit, and how privatizing noninstructional services could help Flint schools reduce its overspending crisis.
The staff of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy mourns the loss of Andrew Kaluza, a 2011 summer intern, who passed away after a car accident over the weekend. Kaluza, an engineering major at the University of Texas-San Antonio, founded that school’s Young Americans for Liberty chapter and was a member of the executive board of Students for Liberty.
The economic effects of state right-to-work laws are important, but these laws are significant for other reasons, too, namely the fact that employees cannot be forced to contribute money to a union they disagree with as a condition of their employment.
While the Legislature is adjourned for a primary election campaign break, the Roll Call Report is reviewing key votes of the 2013-2014 session.
Senate Bill 257, Expand “Business Improvement Zone” tax-and-spend entities: Passed 35 to 2 in the Senate on April 11, 2013.
Ron French has a great article in Bridge Magazine looking at "the crazy economics of Michigan's favorite pitted fruit." The piece describes some of the federal cherry regulations that are mostly left over from the New Deal of the 1930s:
Michigan tart cherry growers are shackled by those restrictions more than most. There are no restrictions on sweet cherries – the kind you buy in the fresh fruit section of Meijer. The restrictions don’t even apply to all tart cherries – there are no restrictions on tart cherries grown in Oregon or Pennsylvania, or on imported cherries.
Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio writes today at National Review about the failure of unions to overturn worker freedom reforms in the industrial Midwest — long a labor stronghold — and what reform-minded legislators in other states can learn from that lesson.
Two Mackinac Center experts were on “The Tony Conley Show” on WILS-AM1320 in Lansing recently.
Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio discussed the MEA’s so-called “August window” and how teachers can opt out of the union, particularly those who the MEA has sent to collections agencies.
