This article originally appeared in The Detroit News October 22, 2024.
Is it time to update the oath of office that Michigan lawmakers take?
You know how the swearing-in ceremony goes: A judge administers the oath of office. The lawmaker holds up his or her right hand and often places the other hand on the family Bible. The judge intones: “Repeat after me…”
Half of all Michigan college students get at least part of their coursework online. But federal regulators are considering a policy that would block this innovation by going after the private-sector service providers who offer the programs public universities and non-profits use.
A contentious political season leaves many people exhausted and despairing that any good can come out of the public sphere. But there are still many bright and happy notes to consider. The spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship is still a powerful, creative force, as exemplified recently by a conference held in California. The contest involves the XPRIZE Foundation, which underwrites competitions to “make radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity” and unites big idea people and risk-taking investors and philanthropists.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News August 13, 2024.
Walk into any zoo or museum and you will see a prominent display of generous benefactors.
Americans love to give.
Generosity is not exclusive to Americans, but the extent of our generosity is unique. According to Philanthropy Roundtable, charitable giving in the United States reached a record $557 billion in 2023. The Charities Aid Foundation’s World Giving Index determined that the United States was the most generous country from 2009 to 2018.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News August 21 2024.
Moving to Michigan more than a decade ago, I noticed that people love the shape of this state. Nowhere else have I seen such a profusion of state-themed bumper stickers, decals and clothing. Not only that — Michigan has the "hand thing."
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News August 8 2024.
President Joe Biden’s plan to tamper with the U.S. Supreme Court relies on arguments that former President Franklin D. Roosevelt deployed in 1937 for his infamous court-packing scheme. That turned out to be one of F.D.R.’s rare defeats, and Congress should reject Biden’s new attempt to interfere with the judicial branch.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News June 25, 2024.
When running for governor in 2018, Gretchen Whitmer made a remarkable pledge, promising to open the governor's office to the Freedom of Information Act. “Michiganders should know when and what their governor is working on,” she wrote.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News October 15, 2024.
It just got easier for the government to keep secrets in Michigan.
A court ruling will allow hundreds of thousands of local government employees to withhold records from the public. Earlier this year, the Court of Appeals decided that a Rochester teacher had no obligation to provide curriculum records to parents under the state Freedom of Information Act. The Michigan Supreme Court refused to intervene. As a result, records created by local government employees are no longer subject to FOIA, even if those records relate to official public business.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News July 31, 2024.
Fifty-five years ago Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon.
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” he said. Armstrong’s small step is celebrated in schools, museums and popular culture.
Michigan Rising Action is making waves by holding state agencies accountable and pushing for government transparency. Executive Director Abby Mitch works to ensure that promises made by politicians turn into tangible actions. Mitch details Michigan Rising’s accountability strategy on the Overton Window podcast.
This article originally appeared October 9, 2024.
It’s election season, so public policy ideas ricochet like the ball in a pinball machine. Campaign promises, talking points, proposals and counterproposals — ideas are the stuff of campaigns. And that’s just the beginning. After the election, policymakers will seek to enact their ideas.
Michigan leaders complain about the high cost of housing, but city planners in Muskegon are doing something about it.
Regulations on housing providers lead to higher costs and worse outcomes. Permitting prolongs the time it takes to build more housing, leaving towns stuck with older properties for longer periods of time. Building codes and environmental rules are too strict while also failing, on net, to provide safety and environmental benefits. Parking mandates, along with minimum home and lot sizes, drive up costs for no reason. These and other zoning rules make it illegal or impossible to build units affordably in many parts of Michigan.
Michigan’s government gives special favors to many private companies. Lawmakers believe they can improve the state economy through selective grants, tax abatements and other bits of favoritism. They can’t. But one program stands out as being clearly set up to fail: the state’s site preparation program.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News October 1, 2024.
Family budgets are stressed by inflation, high interest rates and price increases for food, gas, housing and transportation. Which is perhaps why 14 states cut income taxes in 2024. This is not only happening in Republican-controlled states. In Connecticut, where Democrats control the state House, Senate and governor’s office, policymakers cut income tax rates. Colorado, also controlled by Democrats, reduced income taxes, property taxes and the sales tax. The state's governor, Jared Polis, even called for lower taxes in his 2024 state of the state address.
To try and protect the public, states establish licensing laws that require individuals to get certain degrees, perform a set number of training hours, pass tests and pay fees to administer the licensing regime. But there’s a trade-off. Those requirements create burdens that limit the number of people working in the licensed field.
By Molly Macek
Michigan’s students performed worse on recent state tests than they did before the pandemic, and chronic absenteeism continues to impede student achievement. The state needs novel approaches that break free from the status quo.
More than 60% of third graders lack proficiency in reading, according to the 2024 Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress. Reading proficiency rates for third and fourth graders were lower than they were for these same grades in 2023. And all grades performed worse on the state reading and math tests than they did just before the pandemic.
When we consider individuals capable of transforming political landscapes, we often think of elected officials. On the Overton Window podcast, John Tillman, CEO of the American Culture Project (ACP), emphasizes that real policy change begins with everyday American citizens.
Only two states and the District of Columbia require a license to work as an interior designer. Michigan lawmakers are trying to bring the state into that group.
House Bill 5960, sponsored by Rep. Carol Glanville, D-Walker, would require individuals helping design the layout, fixtures and furnishings of a house, school or commercial building (with exceptions) to go through an accredited interior design program, pass a test and regularly complete 12 hours of continuing education.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is pleased to announce the addition of eight new members to its Board of Scholars. This group is made up of 53 college professors, business leaders and other experts who support and contribute to the Center’s mission. They help us improve the quality of life in Michigan with high-quality, public policy research that promotes the benefits of free markets, limited government and the rule of law.
The union representing tech employees at The New York Times is threatening to strike, just as the paper enters crunch time for coverage of the 2024 elections.
The “protracted contract negotiations” with the Times Tech Guild, a branch of 600 unionized workers at the paper, concern several financial and other contract provisions, according to Semafor. “[T]he Guild proposed a ban on scented products in break rooms, unlimited break time, and accommodations for pet bereavement, as well as mandatory trigger warnings in company meetings discussing events in the news.”
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News September 24, 2024.
A Galesburg mother says bills pending in the Michigan Legislature would hurt her family and her disabled son. Senate Bills 790 and 791 would unionize people who provide in-home care to elderly or disabled adults. The bills would enable a union to skim some of the public aid designed to support caregivers and convert it to union dues, despite the lack of benefits unionization would provide.
By Craig Orji
Rumors of even the faintest trace of radiation can spark a panic in the modern world. We assume that any exposure to any type of radioactivity, no matter how small, poses a serious cancer risk.
Our leaders encourage us in this phobia by relying on the Linear No-Threshold model—the scientific framework regulators use to dictate radiation safety standards. Although fears are understandable, especially when promoted by authoritative bodies, the warnings often exaggerate the real risks. Unnecessary alarm about radiation stands in the way of new development of CO2-free nuclear energy generation. We must confront this problem if we are serious about reducing carbon emissions.
“Personally, nuclear power makes me a bit nervous,” Ken Sasaki, a construction ministry official in Japan, told the Los Angeles Times at the height of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe. “But as a nation, I still think we need it.”
Sasaki’s patriotic instinct turned out to have a longer half-life than his personal misgivings. Although the Fukushima plant was hit by a tsunami and underwent partial meltdowns, the emergency caused no cases of radiation sickness, let alone deaths.
Few ideas are more widely derided among economists than rent control. Government caps on rents or rent increases sound appealing. Who doesn’t love lower apartment prices? But the real-world results are that government-imposed limits mean lower rent for a few, higher housing costs for everyone else, and the creation of slums.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News September 17, 2024.
It is no secret that Michigan Democrats, having gained a policymaking trifecta in the 2022 elections, were intent on repaying favors to organized labor.
Elected officials said as much. Speaking at a Michigan Education Association conference in February 2023, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer noted the union’s influence early in her political career. “Twenty-some years ago when I first ran for the state House, the first organized labor endorsement that I got was from the MEA,” the governor said. “And I’ll never forget that.”
