There have been some recent developments and debates on the tourism front. They involve empty criticism of the Mackinac Center’s tourism study; an Auditor General investigation into a Pure Michigan consultant’s reports and the announcement that the Michigan Economic Development Corporation will again bid out the right to calculate a return on investment for the Pure Michigan program. They are worth sharing with the public.
By Ben DeGrow
A recent Bridge Magazine headline proclaimed: “Michigan failing its special needs children, parents and studies say.” Yet the reporting remarkably omitted a key player from the conversation: intermediate school districts.
The article says that, on average, Michigan students with disabilities trail their peers in other states. Test scores are lower, dropout rates are higher, and many more special-needs students are diverted from mainstream classrooms into segregated environments.
By Jack McHugh
Senate Bill 496: Criminalize endangering an animal by leaving it in a vehicle
Introduced by Sen. Curtis Hertel, Jr. (D), to make it a crime to leave an animal in a vehicle in conditions that could cause harm (too hot, too cold, etc.). The bill authorizes penalties starting at 45 days in jail if no harm ensues, and up to five years in prison if the animal dies. Republican Sen. Rick Jones sponsored a companion bill with sentencing guidelines. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.
The state recently approved its latest round of business subsidies, announcing that three companies would receive taxpayer money to create “at least” 1,500 new jobs. If history is a guide, few of these jobs will ever materialize. But monthly award announcements from the state serve as reminders that there are specific people that state lawmakers care about more about than residents.
By Jack McHugh
The Legislature continues a summer break with no sessions scheduled until Sept. 6. Rather than votes this report contains some interesting or noteworthy bills introduced during the first half of the year.
Senate Bill 443: Revise definition of school bullying
As long as people have different interests and abilities, in a free society, there will be some income inequality. But government-imposed barriers can make it more pronounced by placing unnecessary obstacles in front of people trying to get ahead.
Economists across the spectrum are concerned about this problem. And there is some agreement about how to help fix it.
In a paper dated June 26, 2017, Oxford Economics (the parent company of Tourism Economics) published a review of our work on state-funded tourism promotion. As a faculty member who regularly participates on both sides of peer review (some two dozen times each year), I offer a brief response.
There are 540 public school districts in Michigan and we contact each of them every summer to find out whether they contract out for food, custodial or transportation services. This effort has shown that there has been a drastic increase in the practice since 2001 when we first surveyed districts. Today, 71.5 percent of districts report contracting out for at least one of these three noninstructional services.
Last Thursday night the Wisconsin Assembly passed a $3 billion subsidy package for Foxconn, a multinational corporation famous for manufacturing Apple’s iPhone, among other items. The subsidy, Republican leaders and others said, was needed to ensure the corporation would choose Wisconsin for a new manufacturing facility.
It’s well known that talk comes cheap to politicians the world over. In Lansing, even legislators’ written and published ideals are tossed aside for Michigan’s richest men — billionaire Dan Gilbert as one example — or some multinational corporation — like Foxconn of Taiwan as another. Lansing politicians still make sure the superrich get to play by different rules than everyone else.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published in The Oklahoman on August 25, 2017.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has declared the state's new $1.50-per-pack fee on cigarettes to be unconstitutional. This means a special session could be in the offing to pass a new cigarette tax of equal measure. Any debate must consider whether the attendant lawlessness the higher tax would inspire — including widespread smuggling — would undermine its health goals.
By Jack McHugh
The Legislature continues a summer break with no sessions scheduled until Sept. 6. The House and Senate convened pro-forma sessions one day this week in which no business or roll calls took place. So rather than votes this report contains some interesting or noteworthy bills introduced during the first half of the year.
In Michigan, the dues skim against home-based day care providers like Mackinac Center Legal Foundation clients Sherry Loar, Michelle Berry and Paulette Silverson ended in 2011. A similar skim against home health caregivers like Foundation clients Patricia and Robert Haynes ended in 2013 but only after surviving a 2012 attempt by the Service Employee International Union to constitutionalize the skim.
State lawmakers passed two programs this year to give the businesses they select taxpayer dollars. It’s the kind of policy that tells regular people that they don’t matter while the important people get to play by their own rules.
Our laws are supposed to set the guidelines for everyone to follow. These programs, by contrast, give the favored few an advantage. This is disrespectful to the people that have to pay for those favors.
By Ben DeGrow
An increasing number of school districts want to open their doors to students in August. This growing demand provides further justification for ending the requirement that districts ask state bureaucrats for permission to start the academic year before Labor Day.
By Jason Hayes
On Aug. 1, the state of Michigan posted its Great Lakes Invasive Carp challenge on the Innocentive.com website. The announcement began:
The State of Michigan has appropriated 1 million dollars for a Challenge seeking to prevent the movement of invasive carp species into Lake Michigan from the Illinois River through the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS). The Seeker is looking for new and novel ideas to function independently or in conjunction with those deterrents already in place to prevent carp movement into the Great Lakes or other locations.
Michigan high school students can spend part of their day in work training programs, often earning credits from community colleges. This is a win for schools — who may not have the resources to offer these opportunities — and a win for students — who get trained in a skill they enjoy and earn college credit at no cost to themselves.
What if lawmakers didn't have to travel to Lansing at all? What if they could just vote from home? That's the type of transformational change Mackinac Center CEO Joe Lehman suggested in an interview on the MIRS podcast on Monday, August 7, 2017.
By Ben DeGrow
By Jack McHugh
The Legislature is on a summer break with no sessions scheduled until Aug. 16. Rather than votes this report contains some interesting or noteworthy bills introduced during the first half of the year.
Various Bills: Restrict opioid painkiller prescription quantities
There is a massive turnover of jobs that goes on without politicians having much say or influence.
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Michigan added 825,800 jobs in 2016 and lost 779,810 jobs. That is the equivalent of adding and losing roughly one out of every five jobs in just a single year.
By Jack McHugh
The Legislature is on a summer break with no sessions scheduled until Aug. 16. Rather than votes this report contains some interesting or noteworthy legislative proposals to amend the constitution. To become law these require a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate and approval by voters.
There is a well-established pension funding principle that was missing from the recently published report of the Responsible Retirement Reform for Local Government Task Force. The principle is that governments should pay for the promises they make to employees as they make them. This means that governments should set aside enough money each year to cover the full costs of the pension benefits earned by their employees that year. This prevents pension debt from growing out of control.
President Trump’s secretary of labor, Alexander Acosta, called for states to reform their occupational licensing rules to encourage job creation. The Obama administration had also previously called for major reforms.
In a speech, Acosta spoke about the importance of the issue:
By Ben DeGrow
The Detroit Free Press reports that hundreds of demonstrators came out on Saturday, July 22, to call for more school funding. They rallied under the nondescript banner of the March for Public Education, a coordinated national effort in at least 16 different cities.
