The Michigan House recently passed House Bills 5211 and 5212 which mandate that local government officials consider public transportation agencies and systems in their local land use planning process. The proposed legislation defines a public transportation agency as a governmental entity that operates or is authorized to operate intercity or local commuter passenger rail service in the state or a public transit authority created under existing state law.
John Miller at National Review Online writes about the "Overton Window of Political Possibility" and how Glenn Beck has adapted the name for his new book.
Mackinac Center President Joseph G. Lehman recently discussed the Overton Window on Beck's radio program. You can watch and or listen here.
It's hard to find a reputable, independent economist willing to argue that transferring millions of tax dollars from households and businesses to filmmakers is a rational, plausible economic development strategy. Most scratch their heads at a program that pays 42 percent of the expense of producers who make a movie here and 25 percent to developers who install a film production facility.
Calls to rearrange Michigan's institutional deck chairs are a sign of frustration with failed policies, a political class seemingly incapable of changing them, and the excessive reform-killing influence of politically powerful public employee unions. Joining proposals for a part-time legislature, unicameral legislature, biannual budgeting, "fair tax" and other reform stalwarts is the latest political fad: a runoff election, or "jungle primary" system.
LIFO stands for "last in, first out" and describes how nearly all Michigan school districts choose which teachers to lay off when downsizing becomes a necessity. The Michigan Education Association union bargains for LIFO in school employee contracts, yet ironically, it profiled a Jackson teacher who fell victim to the practice in the latest edition of its monthly magazine, the "MEA Voice."
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 rather blistering May 16 Livingston Daily editorial asked a few simple questions of three state lawmakers about the Michigan Film Incentive and how well it's working. Two of the legislators responded in a guest column Sunday, arguably dodging the real questions raised in the original editorial and putting up a weak defense of the two-year-old subsidy program.
Mackinac Center President Joseph G. Lehman appeared on Glenn Beck's radio show today to discuss the Overton Window of Political Possibility, according to the Midland Daily News.
The Overton Window, created in the mid-1990s by the Center's late vice president, Joseph Overton, explains how policy changes over time. You can learn more about it here.
Congress has an opportunity to restore accountability to elected officials and put limits on the power wielded by unaccountable bureaucrats when the U.S. Senate considers Joint Resolution 26 tomorrow.
The resolution, sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, would negate a current rule that EPA is finalizing that would regulate greenhouse gas under section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act. EPA's attempt to regulate greenhouse gas as a pollutant has huge negative economic implications especially for manufacturing states like Michigan. The proposed EPA rulemaking would likely for the first time require clean air permits for thousands of commercial sources in Michigan, such as shopping malls and bakeries, thereby driving up their costs.
Grand Rapids Press reporter Chris Knape has done excellent reporting on a potential $10 million taxpayer subsidy for the investors in the "Hangar42" film studio project that Gov. Jennifer Granholm has boasted of, and in a June 6 editorial the paper captured the essence of what concerns people about it. As reported by the Mackinac Center, the 25 percent "capital investment" subsidy is based on a $40 million purchase price for the property claimed by the deal's promoter, yet the same building was listed for sale at just $9.8 million in February.
The definition of progress seems to be moving backward in this state. It used to be that structures erected on property were called "improvements." Yet last week, the Michigan Senate passed a package of bills authorizing property tax breaks for "urban agriculture" in Detroit. One Republican legislator made the following boast on the Senate floor:
A Detroit News editorial today calls for more transparency from the Michigan Film Office in the wake of a months-long investigation by Mackinac Center analysts that raised several questions about a Grand Rapids-area movie studio deal.
Michigan Capitol Confidential has a story today about proposed legislation that would force the film office to be more transparent.
By Jack McHugh
Huron Valley Schools Superintendent Robert O'Brien earned $418,965 in his final year, according to the MIRS News (subscription required) Capitol Capsule.
Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan insisted that information be made part of the court record in O'Brien's lawsuit against the Michigan Public Schools Employee Retirement System.
Chinese officials are considering rules that would make it more difficult for local government to seize property from individuals and turn it over to developers without at least compensating the property owners, according to a report in the May 27, 2010, edition of The New York Times. East Lansing officials may want to pay attention.
A columnist in the Washington Examiner said Michigan Capitol Confidential "is providing a valuable service to news consumers" as "news coverage in the state capital dwindles."
Jason Stverak also wrote that in 44 states there are fewer reporters covering capitol news than six years ago. Stverak also pointed out the dangers of Senate Bill 1323, introduced by Sen. Bruce Patterson, R-Canton. Patterson also introduced Senate Bill 1285, which Russ Harding has referred to as the "Newspaper Death Act."
At a recent town hall meeting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie threw down the gauntlet at the feet of the teachers unions:
The fight is about who is going to run public education in New Jersey — the parents and the people they elect, or the mindless, faceless union leaders who decide that they are going to be the ones who are going to run it because they have the money and the authority to bully around school boards and local councils.
In a speech on diversifying the state economy at the Mackinac Policy Conference today, Gov. Jennifer Granholm stated that diversification efforts through the Michigan Economic Development Corp. have brought 919 "companies or expansions" to Michigan. She also stated that health care is the state's largest industry. One claim is without context and the other is incorrect.
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.
(This commentary appeared May 31, 2010, in the Lansing State Journal.)
On May 25, the executive committee of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. publicly cried foul over "unwarranted criticism" of the agency and warned that "political in-fighting" could hurt the state's business investment climate. But the criticism of the state's chief "jobs" department is not only warranted, it's overdue.
Lou Glazer of Michigan Future is a big fan of higher education. For Glazer, "human capital" as measured by the number of college degrees in a state is the key determinant of economic prosperity. But evidence suggests that a single-minded focus on increasing the proportion of a state's population with college degrees is a dead end for improving the state's economy.
Michigan's brownfield contaminated site cleanup program, once considered by many to be the best in the nation, is today largely dysfunctional. The main problem is that it is nearly impossible to get closure — once you check in you can never check out. Businesses are reluctant to invest money to clean up contaminated sites when they are at the whim of state environmental regulators for a never ending series of additional cleanup requirements.
In the latest development on the secrecy and unanswered questions surrounding a potential $10 million state subsidy for the Hangar42 film studio project, WoodTV in Grand Rapids reports the following response from the Michigan Film Office to their inquiries: "We have been directed by the Attorney General's office and Treasury to not divulge either an approval or denial" of the deal. (For background, see "Government secrecy rules on $10 million film studio subsidy.")
Here’s an interesting and illustrative article in last Sunday’s Washington Post comparing Montgomery County in Maryland with Fairfax County in Virginia. (Hat tip to Mary Katherine Ham at the Weekly Standard.) Montgomery and Fairfax are very similar — both are in the suburbs of Washington DC, both have around a million in population, both have prospered by drawing professionals from the capital, both have atrocious rush-hour traffic — but in terms of how local governments have weathered the recession, the two counties diverge. Montgomery County is required to bargain with many of its government employees under Maryland state law and is having difficulties dealing with declines in tax revenues. Public-sector collective bargaining is barred in Virginia, and Fairfax is in better shape.
The latest news from the excellent Chris Knape series in The Grand Rapids Press is that final approval of a $10 million state subsidy for the Hangar42 film studio project touted by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in her annual State of the State address last January has been delayed due to paperwork problems.
Gov. Granholm's call to raise taxes yet again in order to fix the latest budget overspending crisis she and the Legislature have created will send more Michigan residents packing, according to this Op-Ed in The Oakland Press, Grand Rapids Press, Dearborn Times-Herald and Detroit News by Morey Fiscal Policy Director Michael LaFaive.
