You’re a rich girl and you’ve gone too far,
‘Cause you know it don’t matter anyway
You can rely on the old man’s money,
You can rely on the old man’s money …
Reading Iris Salters’ latest article in the Detroit News, one has to understand the position the Michigan Education Association president is in. That position can be summed up in one word: secure.
When I was a pitcher in Little League, my coach often said, "Focus on what you can control." I couldn't control errors by the shortstop or adverse calls by the umpires, but I could control the pitches I threw.
Reading about Adrian Public Schools' budget deficit for 2011 made me think that it and hundreds of other school districts experiencing similar budget-balancing challenges could benefit from my coach's sage advice.
The recent news that the state's Michigan Economic Growth Authority offered a convicted embezzler's company a $9.1 million tax credit has caused quite a stir in Lansing. Last week, legislators held hearings on how the Michigan Economic Development Corp., MEGA's parent agency, could have let someone with the embezzler's background be part of a multi-million-dollar selective tax break deal.
The University of Michigan's student newspaper, the Michigan Review, wrote an extensive piece on the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation's case on behalf of home-based day care providers who have been shanghaied into a union. The article culminates in a discussion of the implications for families:
The Detroit News cited the Mackinac Center in an editorial opposing a $25 billion broadband internet plan put forth by the Federal Communication Commission.
Arguing that "Americans can't afford it and don't need it," the piece draws upon the Mackinac Center's report on Michigan's own failed experiment with governmental broadband efforts:
The last thing Michigan lawmakers should do is encourage local government to take on more debt. However, that is precisely what HB 5663, the "local green energy bond act," does. The local green energy bond act would encourage local units of government to create and operate programs that promote green energy use by local homeowners and businesses — funding the new government programs with green bonds. The local government loans could be used for energy-efficiency purposes, including biomass stoves, insulation, solar water heaters and small wind energy systems. Almost all of the energy-efficiency applications have long paybacks, often stretching over a period of years or decades.
Two releases from government statistical agencies this week show that the state's economy is still pretty bad, but that its long fall may have finally bottomed out. The state unemployment rate is 14.1 percent, down from its peak. Michigan's per capita personal income was down again, but Michigan was not the worst state in the country.
This week, both the Michigan House and Senate are holding hearings on how the state's economic development apparatus managed to offer a $9.1 million tax credit to a convicted embezzler. Sen. Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, is presiding over the Senate event. ("Legislature's Most Persistent Targeted-Incentives Booster to Run Hearings on Embezzler's Tax-Break Deal.")
The trampling of states' rights by the federal government seems to know no bounds. Fueled by the TEA Party movement, which recognizes the importance of the principles of constitutional government and federalism, states are pushing back. One of the latest examples is an effort coming from the Arizona Senate called the "Freedom to Breath Act." The proposed law states that, "Arizona, through its Legislature, has the exclusive authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions produced by humans and other greenhouse gases and substances produced by mechanical or chemical processes, including agricultural operations and waste operations."
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation has appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court its lawsuit defending the rights of small-business owners who were shanghaied into a union, according to WEYI-TV 25 in Saginaw.
The plaintiffs in the case, three home-based day care owners, are independent contractors who receive subsidy checks from the state of Michigan on behalf of low-income parents who need child care while they are working or enrolled in school. A shell corporation created by the Michigan Department of Human Services and Mott Community College led to the forced unionization of some 40,000 day care operators, with some $3.7 million in "union dues" being taken from their state payments.
In her first public statements since it was revealed that the Michigan Economic Growth Authority approved a $9.1 million tax credit deal for a convicted embezzler, Gov. Jennifer Granholm was quoted by the Gongwer Michigan Report as saying, "And obviously, a mistake was made, and it cannot happen again."
If Michigan wants to recover from its economic doldrums, it would help if local governments could get their finances back in balance. And if local governments are going to balance their books, it would help if they could get some relief from labor laws that empower unions at the expense of taxpayers.
This week, the Michigan House and Senate are both holding hearings on the Michigan Economic Development Corp. after a convicted embezzler on parole duped the Michigan Economic Growth Authority into offering his company a $9.1 million tax credit. The real issue they should examine is not whether the occasional criminal wins an "incentive" deal, but the lack of transparency that characterizes this entire operation.
The parole violation arrest last week of convicted embezzler and Michigan Economic Growth Authority tax credit winner Richard A. Short has caused deep embarrassment for state officials. Faces are even redder given that Short shared the dais with Gov. Jennifer Granholm at a press event announcing his and other MEGA awards; at her invitation he even took the microphone for several minutes to relate all the wonderful things his apparent shell-company was planning to do.
The Michigan House and Senate plan to hold hearings this week on how a convicted embezzler on parole duped the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and Michigan Economic Growth Authority into offering his company — which was being run out of a Flint mobile home park — a $9.1 million tax credit. (This could have become a "refundable" credit, meaning the state would likely be writing checks to the embezzler.)
In the wake of the state granting a targeted tax credit to a convicted embezzler's company, much sound and fury has come from the Michigan Legislature and executive agencies. Unless decision-makers recognize the root problem, however, it will all signify nothing.
New Census Bureau data published today confirm a trend shown in previous releases: While the amount of tax revenue flowing into the Michigan treasury has fallen, the state's tax trends look brighter than the state's economy.
From 2008 to 2009, Michigan's tax revenue fell 4.9 percent. However, its number of payroll jobs fell by 6.9 percent.
The Center's "Show Michigan the Money" project is an "idea that makes sense in this information age," according to an editorial in today's Port Huron Times Herald.
Thanks to the project, an increasing number of public school districts are agreeing to put their checkbook registers online for taxpayers to inspect.
Recently passed federal legislation allowing for a government takeover of health insurance will have negative implications for Michigan.
"It could not happen at a worse time for Michigan," Michael Jahr, senior director of communications, told WEYI TV-25. "Our taxes are already too high. We're having a hard time getting people employed in this state and now we add a whole new federal bureaucracy that's going to require higher taxes ..."
Combining the departments of Environmental Quality and Natural Resources into a single agency will cause confusion and reduce efficiency. The organizational chart for the Department of Natural Resources and Environment embraces matrix management. Rather than clear lines of authority and responsibilities, the new agency instead utilizes an organizational structure that creates regional ecosystem managers (Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Upper Peninsula) who will compete with resource managers (wildlife, fisheries, water, forest, recreation) for control and authority. Matrix management in the DNRE, which has considerable environmental permitting authority, will lead to bureaucratic infighting and power struggles resulting in additional time and cost for businesses to obtain required permits.
The Detroit News' March 22 editorial says the Department of Human Services has more explaining to do about why it continues to operate the Michigan Home Based Child Care Council, even though the Legislature voted to defund the agency.
The Livingston Daily Press and Argus reports that legislation has been introduced to outlaw the forced unionization of small-business owners, such as what has occurred with home-based day care operators.
A Detroit Free Press column written by Rochelle Riley suggests that if Detroit parents took a bus ride out to the suburbs to witness what high-performing schools look like and the positive impacts they make, they would demand the same for their children. Riley is right, but there’s a way this could happen with no trip to the ‘burbs required: Universal tuition tax credits.
Russ Harding, senior environmental policy analyst and director of the Property Rights Network at the Center, will take part in a live chat hosted by The Grand Rapids Press at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 23 (see grey box in Press story titled "Michigan 10.0" for details). The talk will be about how Michigan can best use its natural resources to drive economic recovery.
The award of a $9.1 million Michigan Economic Growth Authority tax credit to a convicted embezzler has raised serious concerns about the lack of transparency in MEGA and its parent agency, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Specifically, how many of the agency's targeted tax break and subsidy deals have been awarded on the basis of fraud?
By Jack McHugh
In the wake of the news that the Michigan Economic Growth Authority awarded a $9 million tax break/subsidy deal to what appears to be a "shell company" created by a convicted embezzler, Sen. Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, has been assigned the task of managing Senate hearings on the vetting procedures used by MEGA and its parent agency, the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
