Voters may get the chance to authorize or reject a tax hike on high-earning households in Michigan. A group called Invest In MI Kids will be collecting signatures toward an initiated constitutional amendment that would get rid of the constitutional prohibition on graduated income taxes and increase the state’s rate from 4.25% to 9.25% for high-income taxpayers.
By Molly Macek
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News June 5, 2025.
Is pouring money into smaller class sizes the answer to Michigan’s education crisis? Lawmakers seem to think so. They’ve proposed spending hikes as a way to reverse the downward performance trend in our public schools.
The “No Kings” protest involves millions of people, so it had to mean many different things to many groups of people. Some seem to have been motivated by sincere opposition to President Trump, without reference to a specific policy issue. Others objected to the military parade the president put on. And some were just looking for a chance to join another protest.
Are cities or suburbs winning over more Americans since the pandemic? Lots of different choices go into the decision of whether to live in a major city or one of its suburbs. Some people enjoy the bustling lifestyle and easy commute of a city; others go for a detached home and a lawn of its suburbs. Throughout history there has been booms in both city and suburban growth. Yet cities and suburbs grew at roughly the same rate from 2000 to 2019, meaning that neither cities nor suburbs were more attractive. Since 2019, however, lots have changed. Suburbs pulled out ahead, but only by a bit.
Sandra Hernden, a Michigan mother and veteran police officer, never imagined that advocating for her son during the COVID-19 school shutdowns would lead to a legal battle with national implications. Sandra tells her story alongside Steve Delie, the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation attorney representing her case, on The Overton Window Podcast.
Connecticut governor nixes pay for strikers, ‘missing middle’ housing regs
Connecticut residents have been spared punishing housing regulations and additional payments to organized labor after Gov. Ned Lamont vetoed two bills in late June. House Bill 5002 would have burdened local communities with mandates to provide a “fair share" of affordable and “middle" housing. The bill, which was initially supported by Lamont's administration, ran into heavy opposition from local leaders and community groups. “I think this, you know, crossed the line for a lot of folks, in particular, when it comes to dictating or suggesting the number of units you ought to have,” Lamont said in announcing the veto. The governor also blocked House Bill 8, which would have put Nutmeg State taxpayers on the hook for unemployment payments to workers who choose to go on strike. “Paying striking workers is a bridge too far and doesn’t help our cause,” Lamont said. Yankee Institute President Carol Platt Liebau praised the vetoes, noting that HB 8 would have “discouraged job creation, incentivized labor unrest, prolonged strikes, increased unemployment insurance rates for businesses, and driven up costs for essentials like food and construction.”
Mackinac Island is one of the jewels of Michigan tourism and culture. Probably because of its unique history, state law gives the municipality some unusual regulatory powers. But not all of those powers are good. A proposed statute granting broad regulatory powers over transportation to and from the island would be costly and damaging to this favorite state destination.
Debates over Medicaid policy are intensifying across the country, with rhetoric often running far ahead of reality. In Michigan, that’s playing out in real time — with alarming claims and overblown numbers drowning out thoughtful discussion.
Rather than give in to fear-based talking points, we need to get back to basics: Medicaid is meant to be a safety net, not a substitute for self-sufficiency. Work and community engagement requirements for able-bodied adults are one tool to keep that promise.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News June 24, 2025.
Michigan sports fans pay close attention to the rankings for college football and basketball, looking to see how the University of Michigan and Michigan State compare to other schools.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has asked for digital service taxes and House Bill 4142 would create those taxes. It would charge companies such as Alphabet (Google) and Meta (Facebook, Instagram) for their sales of digital advertisements, adding a tax of 2.5% to 10% to the price of each ad. The rate levied would depend upon the taxpayer’s global sales, which raises important legal questions. HB 4142 could also create an unfair penalty for one kind of advertiser and not others. Because this kind of preference is prohibited by a federal law, similar taxes imposed by other states are being challenged in court.
The American experiment has now lasted 249 years. Congratulations to all of us. The country has faced many challenges along the way. More will be coming. It will be easier for us all to face future problems if we try to bolster a great American virtue: civility.
My family would occasionally help an elderly neighbor named Timmy. His finances were no better than his failing health. He left no heirs when he died. What little property he owned was in hock to the bank, and the insatiable tax man threatened the remaining residue.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News June 17, 2025.
A movie fan walking into a theater 70 years ago had no idea how easy it would be to watch a movie in 2025. Back in the day, if you wanted to watch a movie, you had to call the movie theater, ask for show times and then drive there to watch.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News June 10, 2025.
A new coalition wants a massive tax hike for public schools. Invest in MI Kids proposes a constitutional amendment that would raise $1.7 billion from high-income individuals and couples. This coalition is part of a growing chorus of calls for more school funding, even though school spending in Michigan has never been higher.
Members of the Michigan House toyed with a better policy to fund universities but backed off. Their proposal would have replaced roughly half of the state’s payments to universities with student scholarships. Doing this would have made the state’s higher education funding fairer and less arbitrary.
A rural community in west Michigan is essentially banning short-term rentals in most areas of the township. Park Township would join many other towns that have completely banned short-term rentals — like Airbnb and VRBO — or disallowed them in residential neighborhoods. New York City essentially destroyed its own short-term rental market, a move that, along with limits on the building of new hotels, has driven up hotel rates and harmed the Big Apple's tourism industry.
Only 16% of cigarettes consumed in Michigan came about through tax evasion in 2023. This is the lowest rate we have recorded since we first published state-by-state cigarette smuggling rates in 2008. Seventeen states have higher inbound smuggling rates than Michigan. We expect Michigan’s inbound smuggling rate to drop again in the coming years due to a large tax increase in Indiana.
Do politicians truly have our best interests at heart when they approve millions of dollars to renovate baseball parks?
Patrick Wright, vice president for legal affairs at the Mackinac Center, sat down with colleague James Hohman on the Overton Window Podcast to discuss the organization's latest legal effort: a lawsuit challenging Michigan’s growing use of special district projects, often referred to as “pork projects” or “earmarks.”
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News June 4, 2025.
The swamp of Washington, D.C., has defeated many crusaders, and it appears Elon Musk will join the ranks of the vanquished. In his role with the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk made a riveting figure. Day after day he highlighted waste, even wielding a chainsaw during one public appearance.
In 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear facility suffered a meltdown. The crisis caused no injuries, and other parts of the plant continued to function for decades, but the event effectively killed growth in nuclear energy in the United States. And the chief impediment to American nuclear development has been an organization ostensibly created to foster its growth: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Since the commission was created in 1975, it has functioned almost entirely to prevent or delay the building of new nuclear capacity. France, Canada, South Korea, China and other governments have forged ahead to build gigawatts of new nuclear energy, leaving America in the dust
In 2024, a slew of housing bills was introduced in the Michigan Legislature. The so-called Renters Bill of Rights package would have significantly increased regulations on housing providers. This would have meant fewer landlords, fewer options for people seeking housing and higher prices for renters.
By Molly Macek
The school aid budget passed by the House last week offers a different approach to funding Michigan’s public schools. Unlike the budgets proposed by the Senate and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, it would give school leaders a greater say in how to spend increases in state funding.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News May 28, 2025.
To the class of 2025, congratulations. Whether you attend college or start a career, you are entering adulthood at the most hopeful and prosperous time in history.
People will tell you to worry about the future, and perhaps you do. People worry about many challenges — economic uncertainty, political turmoil, environmental concerns, the cost of living, artificial intelligence, the fragility of physical and mental health. Every generation hears that civilization is on the brink. But here’s a test: Would you trade today for living in 1970 or 1800 or the year 253? Probably not.
Look beyond the partisanship of the No Kings rallies, and you’ll see they’ve got an interesting point that ought to appeal to Americans across the political spectrum. Citizens shouldn’t want a monarch who gets to do whatever he wants by royal fiat. And that’s not what America has. America has a president who can exercise only the powers granted by the Constitution. Last weekend’s protesters could make a good case that executives around the country act beyond their limited authority and thus behave like monarchs.
When the American founders declared their break with Great Britain by penning the Declaration of Independence, they justified their action by appealing to human rights. Each year, we rightly celebrate their courage through Independence Day activities, including parades and firework displays. Preceding July 4, though, is another milestone in American history. On Juneteenth, we remember the end of slavery in this country and what it meant to bring to life the promises of the declaration. Freedom, if it means nothing else, means the end of slavery, or the condition of being owned by another.
