Michigan’s pork barrel spending is out of control. Lawmakers have directed billions of dollars in recent years to politically connected groups, promoting political development, not economic development.
The latest deal is a lousy housing investment that is unlikely to lead to any economic growth. As uncovered by The Detroit News, a $15 million legislative earmark is being directed to Invest UP, an Upper Peninsula economic development organization. The group has never had an annual budget of more than $1.5 million — one tenth of the earmark.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News August 12, 2025.
College freshmen will stream on to campus later this month, trailed by proud but teary-eyed parents. Ask a first-year student what they are looking forward to most, as I did this week, and they might say meeting other students or listening to a well-known professor’s lectures or joining a club.
What if lawmakers fixed a problem and no one noticed? We don’t have to speculate. The political debate is filled with problems that were solved decades ago but that people don’t seem to have noticed. It leads to pandering and a lot of bad policy.
Consider this progressive call “to ensure corporate polluters are held accountable for the damage they do.” The United States fixed this in the 1970s when federal laws made companies liable for environmental harms. Fear of lawsuits has drastically changed industrial practice, and environmental measures have drastically improved over the past fifty years.
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation, which administers the state’s business subsidy programs, gets plenty of skepticism from policymakers these days. A House Oversight subcommittee on corporate subsidies and state investments has been hearing objections to the deals the state organization makes. Attorney General Dana Nessel is investigating the office over its involvement in a grant to a Democratic political supporter’s organization and has asked legislators to stop funding the group.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News August 4, 2025.
Three weeks ago, I offered seven questions people can ask to analyze policy ideas. Several readers told me the framework was helpful. Here are four more ideas for your policy analysis toolkit.
Michigan’s population has been stuck in the same spot for a generation, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants to change that. Her population committee delivered a report and her growth office is handing out grants to do something to attract and keep more people in the state. It’s been two years since Whitmer created her task force, and it’s time for state officials to reassess their strategy. They should start by looking at the places around the country that are growing and notice that they are not the ones you might expect.
How high do taxes have to climb before people simply stop paying them — legally, at least?
Economist Todd Nesbit of Ball State University and Mike LaFaive, senior director at the Mackinac Center’s Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative challenge this question on the Overton Window Podcast. Their conversation centers on their recent study examining the scale and impact of cigarette smuggling driven by varying state excise taxes.
By Jason Hayes
The Mackinac Center appreciates the opportunity to provide comments supporting the approval of the Line 5 Tunnel Project Proposal (Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy application number HQ3-8BYB-N9DT1). The project ensures energy security, economic stability, and environmental protection for Michigan and the Midwest.
President Trump issued his administration’s “Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan in July. The White House announcement on artificial intelligence shows promise, but the effectiveness of the Trump plan will be moderated by the actions states, including Michigan, take in response to the rise of artificial intelligence.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News July 29, 2025.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer just appointed Shaquila Myers to the Michigan Public Service Commission, the agency that oversees electric and gas rates. Myers has an opportunity in her new role to examine what neighboring states are doing well. In particular, she and her fellow commissioners should review Ohio’s recent energy reforms.
By Jason Hayes
My name is Jason Hayes. I am the Director of Energy and Environmental Policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. The Mackinac Center, based in Midland, Michigan, is a nonprofit research and educational institute that advances the principles of free markets and limited government. The Mackinac Center is a leading voice for free-market principles, limited government, and policies that prioritize individual liberty and economic opportunity. We strongly support energy policies that ensure an abundant, secure, and affordable supply of reliable energy to power prosperity for Michigan's families, businesses, and communities.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer offered a company billions of dollars, and her administrators signed a contract saying that they won’t tell anyone about it. After the company canceled its project, officials disclosed the name of company and what was offered. This is not how the state ought to conduct its business.
A majority of U.S. voters favor supplying the country’s energy needs with a mix that includes proven power generation such as oil, coal, and gas as well as politically popular sources like wind and solar. An “all-of-the-above strategy” appeals to 55% of voters, according to polling data from YouGov. Self-styled moderates including Democrat Sen. Elissa Slotkin and Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley are standard-bearers of the all-of-the-above movement.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration is pushing to make Michigan reliant on so-called green energy. In 2023, state lawmakers passed legislation requiring the state to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. But Michigan leaders are not telling you the actual cost – and risks – of such an endeavor.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pressing soft drink manufacturers to shift away from high fructose corn syrup in producing their products. Though the movement away for corn syrup is a cornerstone of the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, the Department of Health and Human Services has so far limited itself to making recommendations to food producers.
Richard Vedder has spent more than half a century in the classroom. A distinguished professor emeritus of economics at The Ohio State University and a former advisor to Joint Economic Committee of Congress, Vedder has seen firsthand how the American higher education system has changed — and what it has failed to change. On The Overton Window Podcast, he explains the ways he thinks the system needs fundamental reform.
By Molly Macek
Will states struggle to support student achievement as a result of the Department of Education shrinking its workforce?
Not likely. Instead, a smaller federal education department could pave the way to progress for states that commit to improving student outcomes.
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation hands out taxpayer money and other favors with the stated goal of creating jobs. But over the years, it has often felt like a punchline. The corporation is under intense scrutiny after state investigators raided its Lansing offices in June and seized records tied to a $20 million legislative grant funneled through former MEDC board member Fay Beydoun, a donor to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s gubernatorial campaign.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News July 22, 2025.
“Ann Arbor teacher says pay is so low he has to deliver pizzas,” the Ann Arbor News reported in an alarming summer 2017 story.
The article explained how Jeff Kass, an English teacher in Ann Arbor, worked two jobs to make ends meet. He would teach all day and then work late-night shifts several times a week. During teacher contract negotiations, Kass spoke out at a school board meeting. He showed up to the meeting in his Cottage Inn uniform and called for higher teacher pay.
The federal 340B program allows some hospitals and medical clinics to buy drugs from manufacturers at a huge discount and then resell them for large profits. Initially a relatively small program, a rule during the Obama Administration skyrocketed the program’s usage.
Should public employees retain the right to stop supporting a union, regardless of a prior written membership agreement, as guaranteed by the U.S. Supreme Court?
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to answer that question. In an amicus brief filed July 24, the two organizations ask the Court to reaffirm and enforce the constitutional standard it set in the 2018 Janus v. AFSCME decision: that no money may be taken from a public employee’s paycheck for a union without the employee’s clear and affirmative consent.
Michigan legislators have not found much to agree about this year. And the Democrats with a majority in the Senate are blaming the Republicans with a majority in the House over the one thing they need to do: pass a budget.
Yet it is unclear what they are arguing about, outside of a handful of issues.
The Middle Michigan Development Corporation will offer taxpayer funded incentives worth up to $2,000 to select Central Michigan University graduates who stay in the area, specifically in Mt. Pleasant or Union Township, according to WNEM news report.
The agency received a grant from the Michigan Growth Office to fund the program, which means all taxpayers are paying for it. For many reasons, practical and empirical, this is a bad idea. There are better alternatives.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News July 15, 2025.
Voters want to understand vast and complex public policy ideas, ranging from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to ballot measures before Michigan voters to road-funding deals percolating in the Michigan Legislature. But there are so many issues. People are busy and probably won’t develop a broad range of policy expertise. So it can be easy to judge a bill using weak indicators like which party proposed the idea or who endorsed it.
The abrupt cancelation of Sandisk’s planned $63 billion semiconductor manufacturing plant near Flint is another failure to be filed under “corporate welfare.” State officials offered more than $6 billion in subsidies, $5.5 billion of that money in cash. Taxpayers have already spent at least $260 million. Gov. Whitmer attributed the company’s decision to “national economic turmoil.”
