This article originally appeared in The Hill October 15, 2022.
For centuries scholars have studied economic growth and development with an eye toward explaining what makes some places wealthy and others less so. We recently added to the large volume of studies by examining the relationship between economic freedom and labor market outcomes in the 383 local economies, or metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), in the United States.
In mid-September, President Joe Biden admitted the COVID-19 pandemic was over. But a few weeks later, Elizabeth Hertel, Michigan’s health director, indicated just the opposite. She didn’t directly contradict the president, but Hertel did unilaterally issue new “epidemic orders” in October related to COVID-19.
By Holly Wetzel
In response to her campaign opponent Tudor Dixon’s claim that students were kept out of schools, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer asserted in the final gubernatorial debate that “kids were out for three months.” The governor later backtracked by saying that she was only referring to the closures mandated directly by her administration, but even this claim doesn’t hold water.
Some commentators think Michigan is suffering from what they term disinvestment. It sounds like they mean that state spending is down. A look at tax revenue and spending trends ought to unravel that yarn. State taxes collect more revenue and the state budget has gone up by a lot.
Voters are being inundated with appeals from the candidates running for election. They get mail, hear about them on radio, on television, on the internet, and often directly as candidates knock on doors. The points candidates make as they’re trying to win votes, and the stances they take in positioning themselves for victory, matter. I speak about issues and campaigns with Adrian Hemond, CEO and Chairman of Grassroots Midwest, a bipartisan political consulting firm, for this week’s Overton Window podcast.
This article originally appeared at Real Clear Policy September 2 2022. The first sentence has been modified.
We feel compelled to alert policymakers of a robust movement of manufacturing and other jobs and opportunities from Ohio to Michigan and Indiana, our home states.
If you’re looking for a different kind of horror movie this Halloween, a new documentary from the Freedom Fighters Project, “Stand with Marlena” might be just the thing. Rather than resorting to cheap thrills such as vampires or ghosts, “Stand with Marlena” features the monstrous problem of government infringement on the rights of small-business owners. Once the opening scene’s upbeat music ends, the movie tells a tale that should make all Americans shiver.
The Bon Secours Richmond Community Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, is a small 104-bed hospital in a low-income area, and it has an emergency room and psychiatric ward. Yet it earns up to $100 million in profits annually, more than any other hospital in Virginia. How? By taking advantage of a government drug discount program.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer demonstrated the skill of a long-serving politician Tuesday while pettifogging her role in the Line 5 stalemate.
“There has been no change to Line 5,” Whitmer said during her debate with challenger Tudor Dixon. “No change.”
This is precisely true. The necessary, long-delayed environmental improvements to Line 5 remain on hold. The governor’s quixotic campaign to shut down the pipeline is also stalled, facing opposition from federal, state and provincial authorities on both sides of the border and having lost two key rounds in federal court. Nor has the regime uncertainty over the future of the international pipeline improved during Whitmer’s tenure.
In her election advertisements, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer promotes her success at balancing the budget without raising taxes. Michigan has gone without tax increases during her tenure, but that wasn’t for lack of trying on Whitmer’s part.
In her first year of office, Whitmer proposed to increase fuel taxes by $2.5 billion in order to spend $1.9 billion on roads and the rest on her other priorities. She mocked legislators for proposing “phony political ‘fixes’ and half-measures,” by not increasing taxes. And she claimed that anything less than a tax increase that raised $2.5 billion tax was not serious.
A rise in contested school board races has led many in the media to start paying attention to these races.
The Detroit News reports:
Nonpartisan school board races across Michigan are anything but this election season. Super PAC money, attack ads and expensive social media campaigns have elevated once-quiet, historically independent races into emotional battlegrounds between parents and nonparents, conservatives and progressives and everyone in between with an opinion or agenda.
This article originally appeared at Townhall October 15, 2022.
When a teacher pays dues to a union, how is that money used? Probably not as the teacher expects.
Consider a timely news report out of Ohio. Teachers in the state’s Hilliard City Schools recently participated in an initiative backed by the National Education Association’s LGBTQ+ Caucus, which urged faculty to wear badges featuring the words “I’m Here.” The goal, according to the initiative’s website, is for teachers to “Show your students you’re a safe person.”
This article originally appeared in The Hill Sept. 17, 2022.&
President Biden’s plan to have taxpayers cover the cost of canceling student debt has come under fire from many sides, but there is one thing everybody can agree on: The cost of college has gotten out of hand.
This article originally appeared in The Hill September 3, 2022.
Workers have been trying to unionize Starbucks, Amazon, news groups and automakers, sometimes successfully. This has caused commenters to wonder — again — whether this means unions in America are back.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News August 24 2022.
For the second time in under a year, a U.S. District Court Judge has ruled against Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. The federal court rejected Nessel’s argument that state actions to shutter the Line 5 pipeline should be considered in a state court, upholding the federal government’s jurisdiction over interstate and international pipelines.
This article originally appeared in The Hill August 22, 2022.
It’s common to hear people refer to states as “red” or “blue,” or even “purple,” based on whether a majority of Republicans or Democrats get elected. It would be a mistake to think that red states are all the same or that blue states all enact the same kinds of policies. States are far more complex than these partisan caricatures suggest, and policies are based as much on what is popular as they are by their political officeholders.
Arizona became the second state to offer all school age children an education scholarship that their parents can use to support their education as they choose. I speak about it with Matt Beienburg of the Goldwater Institute, a free market think tank in Arizona, on this Overton Window podcast. He also talked about how this scholarship can change the face of education.
This article originally appeared in The Hill October 1, 2022.
Nuclear power is back in vogue, buoyed by the demand for a significant source of emissions-free energy. Government should encourage the trend by ending policies that prevent the only reliable carbon dioxide-neutral energy source from flourishing.
Which candidate for governor supports handing over taxpayer money to business owners and managers? In an advertisement against Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon, the Democratic Governors Association alleges that she wants “tax giveaways for billionaires.”
Traverse City’s public electric utility, Traverse City Light & Power, launched a government-owned internet network in 2020. TCLPfiber is backed by tens of millions of tax dollars and is rolling out in five phases, with broadband being built out and plans sold to customers.
Midland is Michigan’s top performing metropolitan area in an index of economic freedom. It is also the only metro area in Michigan with an economic freedom score that exceeds the national average. This is important because higher economic freedom scores typically do better on important outcomes — such as employment growth — than those with lower ones.
In March 2022, the city of Detroit laid out plans to build and manage its own broadband network. The stated goal is to hook up every address in Detroit to “world class fiber optic connectivity” for half what high-speed internet currently costs. Well, it’s off to a poor start.
If college affordability is a crisis, is the answer to throw more money at the problem?
When passing the state budget in June, lawmakers set aside $250 million for a scholarship program but did not sketch out the details.
Now, they’ve approved a program that will provide $5,500 annually for students attending state universities for up to five years and $2,750 annually for students attending community college for up to three years. Eligibility is based on income, but the cutoff is high: students whose families make $120,000 or less annually would likely qualify.
Legislators approved a bill in September to spend an extra $1 billion, and the package includes $596.1 million in new business subsidies.
The money goes into a program created in 2021 that hands out money to select companies. The amount a company can receive is not subject to any limit other than what legislators have allocated into the fund. Legislators also required any deal to be confirmed by the legislature’s appropriations committees.
Shifting the Overton Window can take a lot. It can take important research to answer vital questions. Digging deep to tell the stories about the people harmed by the status quo, clever marketing and careful outreach. And lots of patience. Jarrett Skorup helped put all of these together for his work to change Michigan’s civil asset forfeiture laws, and I speak with him about it for this week’s Overton Window podcast.
