I took this photo at 10:30 p.m. earlier this week at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. It’s the taxi stand outside Terminal B, where dozens of tired travelers were waiting in line for cabs to take them to their destinations.
A minute and a half after I snapped this shot, I was in a Mazda driven by a very pleasant man named Alireza, en route to my hotel thanks to the Uber app on my smartphone. Just three taxis had arrived in the interim to take away the long-suffering residents of the DCA cabstand.
For over a decade, local governments in Michigan have been complaining they need more money from state taxpayers. A recent push by Wayne County Executive Warren Evans is only the most recent example.
That is what they say, but how they act suggests their fiscal complaints are exaggerated. For example, providing post-retirement health care benefits to employees is an expense that should be the first to go if there is a real financial problem.
By Jack McHugh
House Bill 4344, Mandate auto repair shops use vehicle maker's own parts: Passed 33 to 4 in the Senate
To codify into law a comprehensive regulatory regime that is currently imposed on vehicle repair facilities through administrative regulations, including a state registration mandate. Among other things, the bill would prohibit a repair shop from replacing a major part on a newer vehicle with one not made by the vehicle's maker, which has been criticized as protectionism benefiting the Big Three and other car makers.
A ridesharing entrepreneur who recently participated in a panel discussion at a Mackinac Center Issues and Ideas Forum in Lansing shared his story with Lansing State Journal readers in a recent op-ed.
Tim VanDongen began driving for Uber and Lyft as a way to make extra money, but eventually was earning enough to leave his primary job and make a career out of driving. Now, he has started a company, Ryde Media, which puts advertisements in Uber and Lyft vehicles.
Sports writer and commentator Bill Simmons is transitioning from ESPN to a new show on HBO. In his promotional, “I Believe,” the never-gun-shy Simmons lays out some of his positions.
His last statement is the most notable: “I believe billionaires should pay for their own [expletive] stadiums.”
Michigan’s success in contracting non-instructional services to keep money in the classroom was highlighted in a recent op-ed arguing the benefits of allowing districts to use private companies for janitorial, busing and food services.
The Chicago Daily Herald op-ed, co-authored by Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative at the Mackinac Center, and Kristina Rasmussen, executive vice president of the Illinois Policy Institute, explains why an Illinois law that makes it difficult for schools to use contractors for non-instructional services hurts children:
It is a common trope in Michigan and elsewhere that the path to state prosperity is to have high taxes and quality services, with Minnesota pointed to as the paragon. Yet high taxes do not guarantee quality services, as Detroit can attest.
Detroit has the highest effective property taxes in the country, according to the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence’s 2014 property tax study. For commercial property at all different values, Detroit is No. 1 in the nation. For homesteaded property, only Bridgeport, Connecticut surpasses Detroit. Detroit also has the highest property taxes for most values of industrial property. Only New York City has higher property taxes on apartments than Detroit. All of these rates are higher than those in Minneapolis. The one saving grace for property taxpayers in Detroit is that the net tax burden has decreased with the collapse in real estate values in the city.
More does not always mean better, especially when it comes to education funding.
This finding was the subject of a recent op-ed co-authored by Mackinac Center Education Policy Director Ben DeGrow and Edward Hoang, assistant professor of economics at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, who co-authored a study examining the relationship between education funding and student performance.
Ridesharing companies operate in six cities in Michigan and have provided job opportunities and rides to thousands of Michiganders. But they currently operate in a legal gray area, putting drivers at risk. We recently spoke to a handful of drivers for Uber about their experiences and why it is important to establish statewide regulations to protect the service.
The federal government is seizing a historic Detroit recording studio under its forfeiture laws. It appears to be a case where forfeiture may be justified, but provides us with an example to talk about how forfeiture should be used.
The Detroit Free Press sums up the case:
The Mackinac Center and Sierra Club often hold different positions on policy, but have come together to call for a more transparent and accountable government. The Detroit Free Press recently published an op-ed written by David Holtz, chairman of the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, and Michael Reitz, executive vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
The International Economic Development Council is recognizing its 90th anniversary by promoting what it calls “Economic Development Week,” designed to celebrate its industry and professionals. Yet the act of governments using tax dollars to pick winners and losers is nothing to celebrate. If anything, government development agencies interfere with rather than facilitate economic well-being, particularly when they use targeted tax deals and subsidies.
By Jack McHugh
Senate Bill 739, Authorize 2-mill DARTA property tax and limit: Passed 32 to 5 in the Senate
To specify that the property tax that the Detroit Regional Transit Authority may collect under a 2012 law may be for up to 2 mills but not more, which at that rate would reportedly extract an additional $300 million annually from Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw, and Wayne County property owners. Also, to exempt this tax from being skimmed by a “tax capture” authority’s tax increment finance scheme (for example a downtown development authority).
By Ben DeGrow
Overshadowed by important debates and competing proposals about the future of education in Detroit, a longshot legislative proposal to give special-needs students access to more opportunities has exposed the priorities of school choice foes.
House Joint Resolution B by Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw, would place a constitutional amendment before Michigan voters to allow families of special-needs students to use public funds to support their child even if they enroll in a private school. A favorable vote from two-thirds of House members would be needed to place the idea before voters on the ballot.
A new bill in the Michigan Legislature would prevent local governments from banning or overregulating the use of plastic bags commonly used by consumers. Senate Bill 853, sponsored by Sen. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, would “pre-empt local governments from imposing regulations and restrictions on plastic grocery bags or other ‘auxiliary containers,’ defined as a disposable or reusable bag, cup, bottle, or other packaging.” The bill passed the full Senate recently and heads to the House.
The Michigan Legislature is currently debating how much more it should spend on the state’s public universities. Gov. Rick Snyder and the Senate want to spend an extra $64 million while the House wants to spend an extra $51.6 million. These amounts would increase current spending by 3.4 to 4.2 percent, which is well above inflation.
Individual workers aren’t the only ones who stand to benefit from right-to-work laws, according to data from a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report.
Vincent Vernuccio, director of labor policy at the Mackinac Center, explains in a Washington Examiner op-ed that unions also benefit from worker-freedom laws. According to BLS data, unions in right-to-work states gained more members in 2015 than those in states that allow forced unionism.
West Virginia was in the news recently for becoming the nation’s 26th state to adopt a right-to-work law. One product of the debate is that there is new evidence of these laws’ positive effect on workers and state economies. The evidence comes from statistics of various measures of economic well-being.
Several towns in West Michigan are considering subsidizing municipal broadband, a high-risk strategy to provide better internet access for residents. One plan to provide fiber internet in Holland would cost city taxpayers more than $60 million dollars, even if projections are met. And in Laketown Township, outside Holland, residents narrowly rejected a proposal to spend $8.6 million on a similar system.
A report from the state House Fiscal Agency shows that there has been a steady decline in the number of police officers in Michigan, falling 15.4 percent from 1990 to 2015. The report does not go into why this is, but here’s one theory: Pension underfunding is crowding out government spending, including hiring decisions.
By Jack McHugh
Senate Bill 800, Appropriations: 2016-2017 Omnibus budget: Passed 26 to 11 in the Senate
The Senate version of the non-education portion of the state government budget for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1, 2016. This would appropriate $38.673 billion, compared to $38.616 billion authorized the year before. When combined with the education budget (next bill), the Senate proposes to spend $54.779 billion on all of state government next year, vs. $54.530 billion originally approved for the current year. Of this, $22.567 billion is federal money and $32.212 billion comes from state tax and fee collections, a 2.4 percent increase in the state share.
There is an underappreciated level of both job creation and job loss constantly happening in Michigan. This can be seen in the most recent “job churn” figures covering July through September of 2015. During that quarter 195,118 jobs were created in Michigan, and 204,087 jobs disappeared according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
By Ben DeGrow
In recent months, Detroit Public Schools has been rife with turmoil: districtwide teacher sickouts, sensational pictures of widespread deplorable building conditions, an employee kickback scandal, reports of misappropriated federal funds, and now … more sickouts.
Mackinac Center’s Director of Labor Policy F. Vincent Vernuccio joined Fox Business this week to discuss the widespread closures of Detroit schools caused by teachers calling in sick to protest potential funding cuts.
This is all about politics. They’re putting politics in front of the education of kids. … The union would rather keep their monopoly and keep these kids in failing schools instead of giving them choice and the opportunity to succeed.
As Michigan legislators discuss a bailout of the Detroit Public Schools, some have argued that this makes obvious fiscal sense for the state since state taxpayers are ultimately responsible for DPS debt. Yet a look at the composition of the district’s debt shows very little taxpayer exposure.
