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As the Michigan Legislature wrestles with Gov. Rick Snyder's call to create the architecture of a state Obamacare health insurance "exchange," Mackinac Center adjunct scholar John Graham observes in The Health Care Blog: "The likelihood of exchanges being up and running by January 2014 is vanishingly close to zero. Indeed, they may not exist at all except in very few states — whether or not President Obama wins re-election."

In The Washington Examiner Wednesday, Mark Flatten reports that in 2009 “unions representing federal workers used almost 3 million hours of official time, the equivalent of more than 1,400 full-time employees, at a cost of $129.1 million,” to conduct union business at taxpayer expense.

Michigan taxpayers also provide huge sums to pay union stewards to do union work on the public’s time. For example, Michigan Capitol Confidential reported that "39 districts combined to pay at least $2.7 million to cover the costs of teachers who work on union business."

From MichiganVotes.org:

Senate Bill 567: Create another subsidy program for particular developers

 Republican Arlan Meekhof from West Olive was the lone "no" vote.

A Senate Fiscal Agency summary describes the criteria for the handouts:

-- Increased the density of the area.
-- Promoted mixed-use development and walkable communities.
-- Promoted sustainable development.

Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, has placed regulatory reform on the agenda for the fall legislative session. The Senate leader has made a wise decision as Michigan’s oppressive regulatory regime is a significant obstacle to job creation in the state. Excessive environmental bureaucracy is a major problem, but it is not the only barrier to job creation. Employers who wish to expand or locate in Michigan are faced with extensive state and local requirements such as difficulty in obtaining business licenses and complex zoning requirements that they do not face in other states.  

Last week, the pro-union Economic Policy Institute released a report on right-to-work by Gordon Lafer, an associate professor at the University of Oregon's Labor Education and Research Center. Dr. Lafer raised a lot of objections, most of which were trivial, to our claim that right-to-work would benefit Michigan's economy.

A subcommittee of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee recently held a hearing on proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules that will likely reduce the nation’s electricity output from coal-fired power plants by 25 percent. Astonishingly, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had not performed an analysis on the implications of the proposed EPA rules on electric reliability, nor do they intend to perform an analysis in the future. There was, however, division among the five commissioners who testified regarding the need to perform an analysis. The three Democratic commissioners, including the chairman, saw no need to do a reliability study, while the two Republican commissioners dissented.

The Detroit Free Press published a response to my essay, “Rethink state’s liquor distribution system,” on Sunday. It reads more like a beer commercial designed to redirect attention away from unnecessarily high beer prices, rather than a scholarly rejoinder to the facts presented in my original essay. There are four major problems with the letter:

The Flint Journal today is reporting on a story Michigan Capitol Confidential carried over the weekend regarding a recall effort against Rep. Paul Scott, R-Grand Blanc, and the involvement by the Michigan Education Association and the Michigan Chamber of Commerce in the matter.

A study from the Beacon Hill Institute in Massachusetts shows that rapidly increasing health insurance costs caused by that state's "Romneycare" system has "discouraged job and employment growth, especially the creation of jobs that offer health benefits." This led to 18,313 fewer jobs created in 2010, compared to what would have happened without the state's health care "reform" law.

Labor Policy Director Paul Kersey is cited in a Sunday Detroit News editorial about a proposal in the Legislature to extend right-to-work protections public school teachers.

Kersey told The News that while he supports what is being called, “right-to-teach,” he would rather see right-to-work granted to all employees.

The bankruptcy of “green jobs” darling Solyndra is in the news because it could potentially cost U.S. taxpayers $535 million due to a federal “stimulus” program loan guarantee. The Silicon Valley solar-panel maker’s failure comes on the heels of another “green” corporate welfare beneficiary also going under, Evergreen Solar (with a factory located in Midland, Mich.). These deals were big losers for Americans.

MichiganVotes.org sends a weekly report to newspapers and TV stations around the state showing how state legislators in their service area voted on the most important or interesting bills of the past week.

House Bill 4929, Ban using public school resources to deduct union dues: Passed 55 to 53 in the House
To prohibit school districts from using taxpayer resources (including their payroll processing systems) to deduct union dues or fees from employees’ pay, and then sending the money to a union. This practice is the current norm, so the bill would require unions to collect dues or fees from school employees on their own. Under a recent Michigan Supreme Court ruling (MEA vs. Land), districts are already prohibited from deducting employee pay and sending it to a union political action committee.

Paul Kersey, director of labor policy, has a column today in Dome Magazine about how civil society can help reintegrate Detroit into the “local, regional and global economy.”

For an explanation of what constitutes civil society, please see this essay by Mackinac Center President Joseph G. Lehman.

Federal government green jobs initiatives are long on promises and short on results. The Obama administration promised a federal Department of Energy $38 billion loan guarantee program and claimed it would create or save 65,000 jobs. According to a report in The Washington Post, government records indicate that the federal initiative has created only 3,545 jobs. The relatively small number of jobs created by the program comes at a high cost to taxpayers who have to foot the bill when the high-risk ventures fail.

By eliminating the cap on the number of charter public schools that can operate in Michigan, Senate Bill 618, introduced by Sen. Phil Pavlov, R-St. Clair, would greatly expand the ability of education entrepreneurs to form new schools. Jalen Rose, former professional basketball player and Detroit native, is one such education entrepreneur. He recently opened the doors to a brand new charter school: Jalen Rose Leadership Academy.

Included in the $450 billion spending plan President Obama requested last week was $25 billion for school renovation and upgrades. According a report on Mlive.com, Detroit Public Schools’ slice would be $348 million. In 2008, U.S. schools spent around $59 billion on school construction, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The city of Detroit earns a C- for online transparency from Sunshine Review, a “pedia” site that rates thousands of local governments using a transparency checklist it developed.

SR’s managers seem surprised the grade is not lower, asking on their Facebook page, “Anyone else surprised?”

The economies of the state’s large urban areas like Detroit and Flint are on life support. A bill introduced by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, would effectively pull the plug on those cities, letting them silently die. House Bill 4901 would create an “environmental justice” regulatory regime. The concept behind environmental justice is that minorities are disproportionately affected by pollution in the areas in which they live.

Michigan Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, told public TV’s “Off the Record” program last week that he now supports a right-to-work law for public school employees: “They (unions) could still offer (school employees) their membership; it wouldn’t be a forced membership. They (unions) would have to recruit and do their work off campus.” The full text of the relevant section of the interview is posted below.

Jarrett Skorup, research associate for online engagement at the Mackinac Center, appeared recently on “The Tony Conley Show” on WILS 1320AM in Lansing and on “The Frank Beckmann Show” on WJR 760AM in Detroit to discuss an article he wrote for Michigan Capitol Confidential about how few teachers in Michigan are fired for poor performance.

Last week legislation was introduced by Republicans in the Michigan Senate to create a state Obamacare insurance "exchange" here (Senate Bill 595, sponsored by Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, and cosponsored by Republicans John Pappageorge from Troy and Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville from Monroe).

The incomprehensible attacks of 10 years ago remain fresh in the memories and heart-wrenching in the emotions of all who witnessed them. I worked on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., at the time and vividly recall feeling what I had only experienced in nightmares — helplessness in witnessing brutality that caused the mind to rebel. People responded to what we saw with repeated denial: This can’t be happening. Fear was heightened by continuing reports of hijacked planes headed into the district. Officials did not know whether we would be safer in our building — across the street from the Capitol — or out on the streets. Rumors of a car bomb at the State Department and smoke from the Old Executive Office Building added to the confusion. If our leaders had contingencies for such an attack, no one seemed to know what they were or how to implement them.

During a taping of “Off the Record,” Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville reportedly announced a plan to pass legislation that would ensure that teachers could continue to work in public schools without paying union dues or fees. The Michigan Education Association has already voiced its objections to this “right-to-teach” law, which would put it in a position of needing to ask teachers to support the union voluntarily. Depending on how the state’s 100,000 or so public school teachers respond, this could dramatically reduce the resources available to both the MEA and the Michigan Federation of Teachers, two of the state’s most formidable lobbying groups. Both of these teachers unions have steadfastly resisted education reforms.

Under two proposals just introduced or possibly coming soon in the Michigan Senate, public school teachers would be treated more like highly skilled professionals and less like interchangeable cogs in a factory assembly line.

Senate Bill 618, introduced by Sen. Phil Pavlov, R-St. Clair, would allow school districts to contract out for teaching services provided by a company, nonprofit, union or other entity. The instructors provided under such a contract would not be subject to the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement between the school district and the union representing employees hired directly by the district (most of which are negotiated with little input from those employees).

Lou Schimmel, an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center, has been appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder as emergency manager for the city of Pontiac, according to Mlive.com.

Schimmel was appointed to a similar role by Gov. John Engler in Hamtramck in 2001. He also served as a court-appointed receiver for the city of Ecorse from 1986 to 1989, eliminating a $6 million budget overspending crisis.