The Detroit News and other media outlets have reported on the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation’s appeal Wednesday of the day care unionization case to the Michigan Supreme Court. After two rejections from the Court of Appeals (one prompted by a unanimous Michigan Supreme Court order for the lower court to explain itself), the Legal Foundation hopes the Supreme Court will hear the case to end the forced unionization of day care providers.
The Spring 2004 issue of the Mackinac Center's Michigan Privatization Report cited the City of Auburn Hills' Fieldstone Golf Club as an example of what's wrong with municipal governments diverting taxpayer resources into running golf courses. Unfortunately, the city ignored our recommendations to get out of the golf business; this month it was asked by the state Treasury to submit a deficit reduction plan for the course.
A brief article in this week's Forbes explores the mounting debt crisis facing state, local and national governments worldwide; the title suggests one possible cause, "The Economic Incompetence of The Political Class." One startling factoid: The city of Chicago's unfunded pension liabilities are $25 billion, or $40,000 for every city household.
Governors, state legislators, and budget officials across the country are reaching the same conclusion about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA): it creates massive problems for state budgets almost immediately. Medicaid expansion in 2014 may well bankrupt states, but the loss of federal stimulus dollars combined with federal limits on how states can cut Medicaid spending is a clear and present danger to budgets and taxpayers. States can either play chicken with the federal government or give up and look for other places to cut.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who as a former governor should have more understanding of the dilemma facing states, has raised objections instead of supporting innovation. The frustration led Washington Medicaid Director Doug Porter to tell Health Care News, "I cannot see how [the state of] Washington can afford to support both the Medicaid program and our state-only programs."
States can save money on Medicaid by tightening eligibility, limiting services, or cutting payments to providers. But the health reform law, which Democratic governors supported before they read it, requires maintenance of effort for eligibility. The law also severely restricts the ability of states to reduce what they pay doctors if the payment reductions could reduce access to care. That leaves cuts in services, but the most expensive optional service is prescription drug coverage, which can prevent more expensive procedures and save more money than is spent.
States are at the mercy of Sebelius to approve whatever steps they try to take to address the problem. The review process could easily extend past the July 1 start of the next fiscal year even if approved. If this is not an example of the federal government commandeering states, it will be impossible to find one.
So we have a game of chicken.
Will states blink and find other places to cut? Will they stand firm in their plans to drop Medicaid, possibly before 2014, with no federal safety net? Or will the administration admit that the law is fundamentally flawed and waive requirements for states as it has for a growing list of large companies?
Just in time to brighten the holidays, GlobalWatt, a Saginaw-based solar panel manufacturer, is selling five solar panels on the popular auction website, eBay. But GlobalWatt did not make the panels. A company in India did - a strange strategy for GloblaWatt, a company that was approved for special state tax breaks in order to create manufacturing jobs in Michigan.
Jarrett Skorup, research associate for online engagement, was a guest today on “The Ron Jolly Show” on WTCM-AM1270 in Traverse City, where he discussed an article he recently wrote for Michigan Capitol Confidential about teacher tenure reform.
Senior Environmental Analyst Russ Harding was interviewed on Michigan Public Radio today about the state’s regulatory regime and its negative impact on business.
Harding, who recently authored “Environmental Regulation in Michigan: A Blueprint for Reform,” said he gets calls weekly from business owners who have “given up” on Michigan.
Every week, MichiganVotes.org sends a report to newspapers and TV stations showing how just the state legislators in each publication's service area voted on the most important and interesting bills and amendments of the past seven days. The version shown here instead contains a link to the complete roll call tally in either the House or Senate. To find out who your state senator is and how to contact him or her go here; for state representatives go here.
State and national parks play an important role in reminding visitors of the unique heritage we share in America as free and independent people by retelling the stories of our ancestors who often endured hardship or even death in securing the freedoms many of us take for granted. On a recent trip to Jamestown and Yorktown national parks, I listened while park rangers interpreted our nation’s history, often focusing on the nation’s faults rather than reminding visitors that the United States is the most free and prosperous nation in the history of the world.
Teachers in Warren Woods Public Schools agreed to a new two-year contract that retains health insurance coverage costing taxpayers $20,460 for a family plan, and which is provided by the union's MESSA subsidiary. For comparison, the private-sector average cost for employer-provided health benefits in
An editorial in The Detroit News calls for Gov.-elect Rick Snyder to issue an executive order after taking office that would put an end to project labor agreements, which use a tactic that drives up prices for government construction projects due to the “prevailing wage.”
Every week, MichiganVotes.org sends a report to newspapers and TV stations showing how just the state legislators in each publication's service area voted on the most important and interesting bills and amendments of the past seven days. The version shown here instead contains a link to the complete roll call tally in either the House or Senate. To find out who your state senator is and how to contact him or her go here; for state representatives go here.
A column in The Oakland Press talks about the role of the “Overton Window of Political Possibility” as it relates to tax cuts and federal spending.
Read about the Overton Window and its many applications, as well as how it was used as the title for a national bestseller, here.
Property rights ranging from natural gas recovery to urban development are the focus of two recent media citations for Mackinac Center analysts.
Russ Harding, senior environmental analyst, wrote an Op-Ed about hydraulic fracturing that appeared in the Detroit Legal News. That piece was taken from this Viewpoint he authored.
The Michigan Legislature recently debated a modest teacher tenure reform bill that passed in the Senate but then died when the House failed to act. The issue will surely return in the 2011 session, and when it does, lawmakers should consider the following:
A Mackinac Center event featuring Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson was cited in the Birmingham Patch in a story about the economic outlook for downtown Birmingham.
Patterson on Oct. 14 gave a speech in Birmingham titled “What Michigan’s Next Governor Can Learn From Oakland County.”
Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, was cited in two separate stories Saturday about fiscal irresponsibility at the local government level.
The Jackson Citizen Patriot reported on municipal golf courses that operate without paying property taxes and can take customers away from privately run courses.
Senior Economist David Littmann told the Detroit Free Press and Lansing State Journal that an extension of federal unemployment payments will not help the economy.
“It actually increases the duration of the unemployment,” Littmann said. “The incentives are turned upside down.”
The Michigan Senate has been busy this week working on very important legislation, but on Wednesday the 29 outgoing members, plus the nine with a newly renewed four-year tenure, found time for 29 other items of business, listed below. These all passed on voice-votes.
In the waning days of the lame-duck Congress, a bipartisan fight is brewing over federal handouts to encourage production of corn ethanol, with competing letters urging the continuation or end of these subsidies.
The 16 senators calling for the end of ethanol subsidies come from across the political spectrum: From senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on the left to Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Jim Webb (D-Va.) in the middle to Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) on the right.
My recent analysis showing that staffing levels at intermediate school districts grew significantly over the last decade — even as the number of students in Michigan public schools fell — drew some criticism from Dr. David A. Spitzley, an employee of the Washtenaw ISD. Dr. Spitzley points out that the data provided by the Michigan Department of Education's Center for Educational Performance and Information are inconsistent over time in some respects. Nevertheless, no matter how one slices the data, it still shows that ISD payrolls expanded while enrollment contracted.
The Traverse City Area Public School district is raising transparency to a new level by posting on its website the contracts it proposes to unionized employees. At present, only the proposed transportation employee union contract is available, but eventually, all of them will be.
Peter C. Cook, faithful friend of liberty and exemplar of civil society, passed away Sunday evening at 96 years old in his hometown of Grand Rapids. Mr. Cook, as I knew him, served on the Mackinac Center’s board of directors from 1992 to 2003. He was a businessman whose philanthropy benefited thousands. Mr. Cook had supported the Mackinac Center since 1990, especially projects related to education reform including school choice.
The lobbyists and activists working to impose a state insurance mandate for autism coverage in Michigan are extremely active. Less than two hours after I blogged on this topic yesterday, I was contacted by two of them.
One of the observations I made in that post was that proponents for a particular mandate always claim that their mandate will actually save money in the long run, which raises the question: “So if it's cost effective why don’t insurance companies just add the desired coverage in all policies without a mandate?”
Education Policy Director Michael Van Beek authored Op-Eds on school funding myths, including the claim that public school funding is “unstable,” that appeared recently in The Oakland Press.
Van Beek’s research debunking common school funding myths can be found here. Short videos explaining how the foundation allowance works and why school employee concessions have not saved public schools money have recently been released.
