Nick Ciaramitaro of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union argued on a MIRS podcast that transitioning to a defined contribution plan would “cost a half billion” to “provide significantly less benefits” to employees. I guess he is proposing a paradox that the plan would both cost more and be less generous. He is mistaken. The proposed 401(k) plan would be more generous, but not trigger huge transition costs.
By Jack McHugh
House and Senate sessions were shortened this week due to the tragic death by suicide of Rep. John Kivela from Marquette after a second drunk driving arrest. This report includes some Senate budget votes and amendments from the previous week.
Senate Bill 135, Senate version, 2017-18 Health and Human Services budget: Passed 25 to 13 in the Senate
By Jason Hayes
(Editor’s Note: A modified version of this article was published by the Detroit News as a letter to the editor on May 4, 2017.)
Renewable energy advocates regularly argue that wind and solar are cost competitive, meaning as economical, as other energy options. If it’s true that solar and wind power make financial sense, there shouldn’t be any need to subsidize them. But we do.
In places around Michigan, local governments prevent people from legally renting out their own property. But some new bills would change that, freeing up private property rights for homeowners.
In Traverse City, the government doesn’t allow short-term rentals of homes. That means residents can’t use services like Airbnb or HomeAway. Even in business districts, the city requires residents to be licensed and at least 1,000 feet away from other license holders. As The Detroit News reports:
By Jason Hayes
For several weeks, we have been inundated with media reports about thousands of protesters publicly opposing what they feared was the end of science in the United States, and possibly the world.
The March for Science website described how an “unprecedented coalition” gathered together on April 22 – Earth Day – in over 600 separate marches to “defend the role of science in policy and society.”
By Kahryn Riley
Early this year, the Michigan House of Representatives began considering a measure that would give voters the opportunity to enact a state constitutional amendment to protect their data from warrantless searches and seizures. As people shift more and more of their personal information to digital devices such as cellphones, it’s critical that this intangible form of property receive the same constitutional privacy protections as our papers, homes and persons.
By Ben DeGrow
At Central Academy poverty represents an unusually large challenge for an Ann Arbor school, but it in no way constitutes an excuse.
Success at Central Academy, one of Michigan’s longest-standing charter schools, follows an intentional focus on breaking down barriers built by poverty and different cultural mores. This focus reflects the passion and expertise of the school’s long-time leader, Dr. Luay Shalabi, the 2015 Michigan Charter School Administrator of the Year.
National Travel and Tourism Week starts May 7. It’s an ideal time to remind taxpayers, voters and lawmakers that the state of Michigan spends $34 million each year on a program to promote tourism. Unfortunately, the program, called Pure Michigan, is demonstrably ineffective and wasteful. Both the state government and the private trade association for the tourism industry make poorly supported claims on its behalf. A recent statement by tourism lobbyist Deanna Richeson about the Mackinac Center’s research is particularly shameful.
By Jason Hayes
I was pleased to see DTE’s response to my column in which I questioned the value of the MiGreenPower program. Unfortunately, the energy company’s response contained a few errors. So, to help correct the record, I’ll work through a few of the details.
DTE’s first critique employed the unique rebuttal tactic of admitting my argument was correct. It said, “Mr. Hayes first claims that customers already pay for renewable energy in their rates. This is true, of course, but only for the projects used to comply with the Renewable Portfolio Standard.” So, yes, DTE customers do already pay for renewable energy. This wasn’t a terribly effective rebuttal, but it was good for my argument.
By Jack McHugh
First budget votes this week
The House and Senate passed separate versions of an "omnibus" state budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Following weeks of committee hearings and votes this is the first big milestone in an annual budget process that will probably conclude late next month.
By Kahryn Riley
Michigan’s Criminal Justice Policy Commission recently heard from representatives of Oakland and Kent counties about Michigan’s system of pretrial detention. At the request of the Legislature, the commission has the task of examining Michigan’s criminal justice system to identify ways to save money and improve its effectiveness.
Occupational licensing laws are a growing and significant barrier to gainful employment, affecting more than one out of every five workers in Michigan. A bipartisan group of U.S. representatives and senators is proposing a reform that would take a look at these regulations.
Michigan lawmakers are going to take another $1.5 billion from taxpayers this year and distribute it to state universities. That is roughly $390 for every household in the state. Yet it may be that in no other area of government is there less accountability than in sending taxpayer dollars to these institutions.
In a recent piece in Bridge Magazine, I made two key points: 1) By subsidizing public universities, Michigan taxpayers are redistributing money upward — from middle-class and low-income families to the well-off and educated; and 2) Many Michigan universities are not doing a particularly good job with the money they receive from taxpayers.
Editor's Note: This op-ed was originally published by The Hill on April 19, 2017.
Michigan has made great strides to reforming civil forfeiture — the process that allows law enforcement to take someone’s property and forfeit it to the government. But Michigan still has laws that are among the weakest in the nation when it comes to protecting the constitutional rights of citizens.
If you were wondering whether your government works for you or for politically connected special interests, your elected officials are about to give you a simple answer. That’s because if some politicians and bureaucrats in Lansing have their way, your next income tax check might go to a billionaire real estate developer rather than schools, roads or other public services.
In addition to a bill to give more taxpayer dollars to select developers to build buildings, state lawmakers are considering another package that would give more taxpayer dollars to select businesses. The package contains bills with similar language to that of the state’s old business subsidy program, the Michigan Economic Growth Authority. The state stopped awarding new deals for that program in 2012.
Editor's Note: This op-ed was originally published by The Detroit News on April 13, 2017.
It’s been a bad couple of weeks for those who oversee Michigan’s public employee pension systems. The evidence of mismanagement coming out of Michigan’s Office of Retirement Services is starting to pile up and lawmakers should respond by rolling back the agency’s power.
By Jack McHugh
Senate Bill 275, Ban police sex with prostitutes: Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate
To repeal an exemption that allows police to have sex with a prostitute as part of an investigation.
Who Voted "Yes" and Who Voted "No"
Senate Bill 178, Authorize professional sports teams specialty plates: Passed 33 to 3 in the Senate
In an article in MLive, Michigan Future President Lou Glazer says that Michigan needs to attract more talent. “Michigan won’t be a high-prosperity state unless metro Detroit and metro Grand Rapids are able to compete with national talent magnets like Chicago and Minneapolis for mobile talent,” he told the paper. He should have checked the numbers first since Grand Rapids is the leader of this group and Chicago is shedding people to other places.
In a previous blog post titled “What’s Old Is New Again” I mentioned just three similarities between the state’s disastrous Michigan Economic Growth Authority law of 1995 and the proposed Good Jobs for Michigan legislation (specifically, Senate Bill 242). There are many others — 12 major ones by my count — and most are marked by some identical language or concept.
By Ben DeGrow
Michigan state Superintendent Brian Whiston caused a small stir at a recent State Board of Education meeting when he remarked that Detroit district leaders would be shutting down some schools this year.
The School Reform Office released in January a list of 38 persistently failing schools subject to closure or other drastic interventions. Twenty-five of the schools are in Detroit, all but one operated by the school district or the almost-defunct Education Achievement Authority. But state officials have never closed down a conventional public school for poor performance.
By Jack McHugh
House Bill 4080, Authorize new energy-related purchase/debt scheme for schools: Passed 36 to 0 in the Senate
To include schools in a scheme authorized by a 2016 law for counties, which lets them contract with vendors for energy efficiency projects, and pay for these with money the projects are supposed to save (or from regular tax revenue if savings don’t appear).
(Editor’s Note: The following is legislative testimony given by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center, to the Michigan House Tax Policy Committee on April 19, 2017, concerning a series of bills — Senate Bills 111-115 — intended to give taxpayer-financed subsidies to select real estate developers.)
The Michigan Senate has already passed and the House is considering a major expansion of Michigan’s corporate welfare regime. The House Tax Policy Committee held a hearing on March 8, and two officials from the agencies in charge of current business subsidy programs came to explain and justify the state’s corporate welfare apparatus.
