The Michigan "Legislative Commission on Government Efficiency" has come out with a set of "overarching conclusions" that includes this gem:
Cross-cutting and underlying principles are the foundation of our recommendations
— Look to optimize across all levels and units of government
— Address underlying structural issues
— Be holistic in the approach (look at all aspects of the budget and government operations)
— Create a roadmap to fiscal stability
— Be of sufficient magnitude to make a difference
Another home-based day care owner forced into a union has been highlighted by the media.
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit in mid-September on behalf of two other day care operators who faced the same fate after the Michigan Department of Human Services and Mott Community College formed a "shell corporation" for the purpose of siphoning union dues from state child care subsidy checks meant to help low-income families. Some 40,000 home-based day care providers are affected, with about $3.7 million being redirected to the UAW and AFSCME.
Gov Jennifer Granholm has actually outdone the Mackinac Center with a cost saving measure enacted on Monday. Specifically, she line-item vetoed the so-called "Section 20(j)" appropriation in the Fiscal Year 2009-2010 K-12 School Aid Budget, which would have granted $54 million to 51 particular school districts that tend to be wealthier ones, with some exceptions.
Last friday I received the following email message from the Detroit Tigers:
TIGERS NEWS ALERT
October 16, 2009
VOICE YOUR OPINION ABOUT THE TICKET TAX
Dear Tigers fans,
As you may have heard by now, the Governor and the Michigan Legislature are seriously considering charging sports fans a 6-percent luxury tax on all professional and college sports tickets sold in Michigan.
A new study by the Center's Michael LaFaive, director of fiscal policy, and James Hohman, fiscal research analyst, figured prominently in media coverage across Michigan Sunday and today highlighting Michigan's inability to create jobs, despite various programs, subsidies and other give-aways.
Among the forms of posturing by the political class is for its members to wrap themselves in a mantle of virtue by imposing the tenets of the latest trendy or politically correct social movement on students and others.* Nowhere is the sanctimony more evident than in propagating "green" orthodoxy. Sometimes this carries real economic consequences, such as recent laws imposing new recycling fees on computer makers, permit requirements for groundwater use and higher electricity rates to pay for mandated levels of "renewable" energy generation.
Reporting Michigan and other Lansing-based newsletters reported last week that while scolding the legislature for not raising taxes Gov. Jennifer Granholm took a gratuitous swipe at the state of Mississippi. The comment raised the eyebrows of economists who actually follow and care about statistical reality and truth. Some Mississippi legislators and bloggers also took umbrage at the sneer, and rightfully so.
Hundreds and maybe even thousands of young people in Detroit apparently had to stand in lines and in the rain for up to four hours to receive paychecks for their summer jobs. Others did not know where to find their checks. Still others didn't get their paychecks at all. And on several occasions, police were called in for crowd control.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis released 2nd quarter personal income growth data. The figures include revenue from all wages, dividends, benefits and transfer payments, and shows which states are growing the most.
Michigan grew to a remarkable 7th among the states — positive news considering the state's long economic decline. At .7 percent, it wasn't much growth, but the US average was .2 percent.
A recently released Mackinac Center study about the ineffectiveness of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. is receiving state and national media attention.
The Michigan Senate voted to allow the MEDC to award more special favors and subsidies to hand-picked companies — rather than reforming the state's tax, regulatory and labor climate in a way that would benefit all businesses — despite the fact that Center research shows fewer than one-third of the jobs promised by the MEDC come to fruition. The study also found that every $1 million in manufacturing tax credits given in a particular Michigan county is associated with the loss of 95 manufacturing jobs in that county. The Senate approved the additional money despite the fact the MEDC used up its allotment of tax credits for 2009 several months ago.
By Jack McHugh
Although many of these ideas aren't new, this is the first time public policy leaders from across the country have come together to propose a unified alternative plan to what has been termed "ObamaCare."
The premise of patient-centered health reform is simple: It empowers people to make their own health care decisions.
Revamping or eliminating Michigan's law that covers public-sector union employees could help the city of Detroit avoid bankruptcy, according to an Op-Ed by Paul Kersey in today's Detroit News.
Kersey, director of labor policy, recently released a study detailing the consequences of Michigan's Public Employee Relations Act showing that the incentives created by the law favor tax hikes over spending cuts and places collective bargaining over local ordinances and the power of elected officials.
Yesterday, the Department of Energy, Labor, and Economic Growth announced that its “No Worker Left Behind” program had achieved its goal of enrolling 100,000 participants almost a year early. The program pays community college tuition for displaced workers.
Environmental laws often have unintended consequences. The Michigan Legislature passed a bill that became law in 1995, requiring landfills to compost yard waste. Elected officials decided this was necessary to preserve landfill space - even though Michigan has plenty of landfill capacity for the foreseeable future. Composting produces dirt with high organic content, which is popular for gardens and landscaping (however more dirt is being produced than can be sold, resulting in the material being stockpiled at many landfills). Another problem is producing dirt comes at the expense of producing clean alternative energy.
As America moves closer to a government-controlled health care system, anxious Canadians want to set the record straight about life under their country's "universal" system.
Join the Mackinac Center as it journeys across Canada, documenting harrowing stories from real Canadians of long waits, physician shortages, doctor lotteries, special treatment for insiders and being forced to travel abroad for basic medical care.
The Free Press reports that the Pontiac Silverdome will be auctioned off to the highest bidder by Nov. 16. If you're just dying to own the location where the NFL's most futile franchise claimed its only playoff game win of the last half-century, then ante up your sealed bid (in ANY amount -- no minimum bid requirement) along with a "No, believe it or not, I'm serious about this" deposit check of $250,000 by 4 p.m. on Nov. 12. However, be advised that even if your winning bid amounts to nothing more than a stack of Pizza Hut coupons, you'll still be on the hook for $1.5 million in annual upkeep costs on the building -- thus one reason that the city of Pontiac is looking to unload it.
On Oct. 9, 2009, Michael LaFaive, director of the Mackinac Center's Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, spoke at the invitation of Rep. Justin Amash, R-Kentwood, at an "Economic Town Hall" meeting convened by the representative. Here's what he told the participants:
The Legislature has agreed to request greater transparency from Michigan's public school districts, adopting a cause the Mackinac Center first took up more than 18 months ago, according to The Grand Rapids Press.
The Center since March 2008 has been requesting school districts, municipalities and legislators be more transparent by posting checkbook registers, staff names and salaries and other expenditures online for greater public inspection.
But even then, it is unclear what the figures cover. It is unknown how many of jobs are full or part-time, temporary or long-term, created or retained. But more important is to consider what would have happened in lieu of the stimulus and for all time periods. Sound policy requires that we consider long-run effects and all people, not simply short-run effects and a few people.
Last week, while Michiganders shivered through more subnormal temperatures and watched their crop yields freeze from a summer of too-cool weather, a green echo chamber of media, government bureaucrats and activists gathered for a Midwest Governor's Association (MGA) conference in downtown Detroit to draw a "Midwestern Energy Security and Climate Stewardship Roadmap" to help Michigan navigate around . . . global warming.
The "Center for Michigan" group has released a study showing that not all Michigan school districts are meeting the federally suggested 180-day school year. Underlying the length of the school year debate is the assumption that more time in school increases student achievement. Unfortunately, it doesn't.
As a senior in high school in 1976, I had the opportunity to view the 1968 Halloween horror film classic "Night of the Living Dead" at the local university campus. A gentleman seated next to me asked for my opinion about halfway through the film, sparking a lengthy conversation on montage and mise-en-scene. The gentleman excused himself shortly thereafter, and appeared on stage as guest speaker upon the film's conclusion. The speaker was none other than the film's writer/director, George Romero. His last words to me before leaving were something along the lines of, "You seem pretty sharp, kid. You might want to think about making horror movies yourself."
Mackinac Center scholars were cited in four different newspapers - including one from North Carolina - on four different topics Friday, Sunday and today.
Michael D. LaFaive, director of the Center's Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, was cited in the Lansing State Journal regarding school consolidation and other reforms being pushed by House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford. LaFaive said bold moves are necessary to fix Michigan's budget, but pointed to a 2007 Center study that showed savings from school district consolidation are overestimated.
One recipient of government business incentives is angry at the state for publishing an "absurd" value of those incentives, according to the Michigan Information & Research Service. The incident illustrates the need for transparency over the state's economic development efforts.
Maybe Michigan farmers suffering from low crop yields from yet another cold Midwest growing season can recoup their losses by renting out their fields to combat global warming with state-subsidized wind farms?
Reports continue to trickle in about agricultural damage this year (and last, and the one before that) from an unusually cold and rainy growing season. In addition, data showing that Great Lakes levels are up and global temperatures are flat since 1997 contradict the climate alarmism coming from Lansing and Washington, D.C.
