Proposal 2, a ballot measure that Michigan voters will consider on Nov. 6, would allow collective bargaining agreements reached by teachers and school officials to override existing and future state laws.
If teachers unions hold sway at the bargaining table, the passage of Proposal 2 would likely result in a rollback of state reforms designed to address sprawling pension and health care costs.
Calumet is more than 500 miles away from Lansing. Trust me — I recently drove up to Michigan's nearly most northern point. Had I started in Detroit instead of Midland, the drive to Calumet would have taken more than 10 hours.
During this trip, the notion of drafting statewide policies to govern places as different as Midland, Calumet and Detroit seemed increasingly absurd.
The Detroit News and The Saginaw News both cited Mackinac Center experts in stories about today’s “count day” for tracking enrollment in Michigan’s public schools.
A change in the way school funding is allocated means schools can receive credit for students who enroll or transfer in after county day, which Education Policy Director Michael Van Beek explained in this blog post.
The National Education Association — the largest union in the country and parent to the Michigan Education Association — announced a plan recently to offer $500,000 in grants for new teachers in science, technology, engineering and math.
Calling for more STEM teachers, students and workers is en vogue right now with political leaders from President Barack Obama to Gov. Rick Snyder on down. But if the union and political leaders really want more and better teachers in those areas, they could do something very simple: Stop pushing for single-salary schedules that force public schools to pay high-need teachers the same as everyone else.
A "study" by Michigan Citizen Action, which says that it works to "advance a progressive agenda," claims the repeal of Michigan's item pricing law is a bad deal for workers and consumers.
Though the report is receiving attention from the media with little analysis, it proves nothing that it purports to show and relies on a poor understanding of economic productivity.
A recent commentary in the Detroit Free Press complains about a “Parent Trigger” bill that has passed the state Senate and is pending in the House. This would essentially empower parents to convert a conventional public school into a charter public school managed by an operator of their choice. Surprisingly, the author of the piece, Ben Austin, was among the originators of the Parent Trigger concept in California (where conventional schools and unions have used thuggish tactics to prevent parents from actually implementing it in failing local schools).
National and statewide media are citing a recent Mackinac Center study that shows Proposal 3 would cost Michigan more than 10,000 jobs if it passes. The San Francisco Chronicle, Macomb Daily, Oakland Press, Battle Creek Enquirer, MLive, Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun and Royal Oak Daily Tribune all contained information on the Center’s research.
Mackinac Center research on Proposal 2 received national and state media attention over the weekend.
The Detroit News, calling it the “worst of the bunch,” urged a “no” vote in its Sunday editorial, citing our analysis that it would cost taxpayers $1.6 billion in annual savings.
Proposal 4, which would amend the Michigan Constitution to force home-based caregivers into a union permanently, is receiving more media scrutiny thanks to the Center’s efforts.
The Detroit News today writes about the struggles of family members who care for disabled loved ones and were forced into a union scheme that has skimmed more than $32 million from them.
Union employees from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department went on strike to protest a new plan that looks to right-size the entity through contracting and privatization. The workers are all a part of the local AFSCME union.
The department is one of the most inefficient government-run entities in the state. The DWSD currently takes in $715 million per year, but is nearly $6 billion in debt. At the same time, it has nearly twice as many employees per gallons of water as other major cities. A recent independent audit found that the department has 257 different job descriptions.
Y = Yes, N = No, X = Not Voting
House Bill 5400, Appropriate money for fruit grower loan subsidies: Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate
To appropriate $15 million for low-interest loan subsidies for fruit growers who suffered crop damage in 2012 due to an extended March warm spell followed by a hard freeze. Also, to add some spending for lead abatement programs and prison security measures.
A leading advocate of government transparency is promoting a Detroit News Op-Ed written by Michael LaFaive, director of the Center’s Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, about how Proposal 2 could negatively impact Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act.
Sunshine Review, an independent organization that evaluates government websites for transparency and promotes state sunshine laws (freedom of information and open meetings acts), said that “Keeping the public out of the loop by skirting FOIA laws, though, has been too common of a tactic amongst the powerful looking to advance their own interests through the mechanisms of state and local government.”
Perhaps coincidentally, Proposal 3, a ballot measure to impose a mandate on Michigan utilities to obtain 25 percent of the electricity they sell from “renewable” sources — read wind turbines — will come before voters just seven weeks before another taxpayer wind subsidy is set to expire.
In MLive today, Sen. Bert Johnson, D-Detroit, attempts to make the case that voters should repeal the state’s emergency manager law, which is Proposal 1 on the ballot. He argues that the law is undemocratic. However, he fails to note that referendum leaves local control unaddressed.
Proposal 2 on Michigan’s Nov. 6 general election ballot, once called by its union-funders the “Protect Our Jobs Amendment,” would enshrine collective bargaining privileges for government employees into the state constitution, effectively giving provisions of government labor contracts primacy over laws passed by the people’s duly elected representatives in Lansing and signed by the governor.
Michael D. LaFaive, fiscal policy director, writes in today’s paper about how Proposal 2 could jeopardize Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act. Assistant Editor Lindsey Dodge’s Wednesday Op-Ed dealt with the “equal pay for equal work” argument.
Under the conventional public school system, where a student lived dictated to which public school he or she was assigned. Some studies have found that this has helped drive up home prices in perceived high-quality school districts, and depress home prices in lower quality districts.
Senior Economist David Littmann told MLive that more than $84 million could be lost to the metro Detroit economy if the current NHL labor strife continues for the entire season. Littmann based his calculations on the number of home games played, ticket prices and additional spending on things like food, parking and souveniers.
State Sen. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, has introduced a bill declaring that Iosco County — and no other Michigan county — shall henceforth be the official “birding capital” of Michigan.
The bill comes as something of a relief, because if legislators have time for such fluff then all of Michigan’s other problems and challenges must have been successfully met and solved.
Michael Van Beek, director of education policy, was a guest on “The Tony Conley Show” this morning on WILS AM1320 in Lansing, discussing his recent blog post on teacher evaluations.
The house sitting on 5076 Montauk Drive in Alpine Township (pictured at right) doesn't look like a blighted property. The house is not crumbling, nor does it appear to be in an area where vacancy is a concern.
However, when the Kent County Land Bank Authority acquired 5076 Montauk this summer, the property automatically became "blighted." Any property acquired by any Michigan land bank is considered blighted by law, regardless of the property's condition or location.
He's a Republican state lawmaker from Kent County, and someone MIRS News has just reported may seek to replace current Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, in that position next year.
OK, but who is he in terms of his voting record?
A new tool recently added to MichiganVotes.org offers a potentially very revealing answer for Rep. Yonker or any lawmaker by identifying votes in which he or she bucked the majority of his own House or Senate party caucus. Rep. Yonker did so 30 times since taking office in 2011; MichiganVotes’ concise, objective, plain-English description of each is shown here.
New legislation introduced last week in the Michigan House would ban for three years any new charter public schools from opening in the vicinity of two conventional public school districts that have consolidated. Two districts considering consolidation are located in the district represented by bill sponsor Rep. David Rutledge, D-Ypsilanti, who told AnnArbor.com his bill would “protect a newly merged school district from companies attempting to capitalize on the tenuous transition of consolidating.” Five other lawmakers from both parties have cosponsored the bill.
Two new studies show just how much work needs to be done to improve economic performance in Michigan and across the country.
An analysis from Northwood University commissioned by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce looked at the state's economic competitiveness. While the state has improved in the past few years, particularly in state debt and taxation, Michigan has had a steady, decade-long decline in other economic areas compared to the rest of the country.
Former state Rep. Bill Huizenga, now a U.S. Congressman, is viewed by some as the "godfather" of a state government economic development program known as the “21st Century Jobs Fund.”
Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm conceived the 2005 program, which among other things has seen the state buying ownership interest in private businesses, breaking a 154-year practice of steering clear of state equity investments that are not pension-related.
