This report explains why assigning criminal penalties to administrative rules and regulations should worry anyone concerned about the rule of law and the potential for abuse in the administration of criminal justice. It describes several reasons why allowing administrative agencies determine what is criminal behavior is problematic, using examples from Michigan’s administrative rules. It also outlines some basic principles that should help guide efforts to reform Michigan’s regulatory code and practice.
This booklet contains the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation’s final legal filing in a nationally known case involving the illegal unionization of Michigan’s home-based day care business owners and providers as government employees. Wright argued the case in the Michigan courts on behalf of Sherry Loar, Michelle Berry and Paulette Silverson, who each own home-based day care businesses.
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation sued to end the DHS' illegal diversion of so-called "union dues" from state subsidy checks received by home-based day care providers who watch children from low-income families. The "dues" were funneled to a government-employee union that purports to represent more than 40,000 of Michigan's home-based day care providers, who are actually private business owners and independent contractors.
The case was ruled moot by the Michigan Supreme Court after the DHS ceased to collect the dues and the DHS director stated that these home-based day care providers are not public employees.
For policymakers and voters serious about restoring freedom and economic vitality in the Great Lakes State, the Mackinac Center presents the following 101 recommendations.
Michigan could support low-income families’ efforts to transport their children to better schools and boost these children’s chances for upward socioeconomic mobility by creating Student Mobility Scholarships. A transportation scholarship plan is rooted in the idea of providing a more level playing field for Michigan's most economically disadvantaged families. The idea is for the state to assist qualifying families in paying some of the costs incurred from transporting a student to a school of their choice.
A secret ballot election is one where individuals get to make a private choice based on their own personal decision, and this is how most unions certification elections work. However, unions can also become certified to be the exclusive bargaining representative of a workplace through a process known as "card check." Under this method, unions can "win" an election when a majority of the workers sign authorization cards. The significant downside to elections via card check is that workers can easily be pressured, intimidated and even coerced into signing cards because they are not afforded the privacy of a voting booth.
Unions have repeatedly lobbied to make it easier for them to use card check elections, and a new bill in Congress would do just that: the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act. This report explains why certain provisions of the PRO Act are problematic, and why it is important to protect the right of workers to use the secret ballot for union certification elections.
Privatization of support services has been a method that Michigan school districts have used for several years to lower costs. More than ever before, Michigan school districts are privatizing the three main support services they offer — food, custodial and transportation. Our annual survey finds that 48.8 percent of Michigan school districts are contracting out for these services. This is an 8 percent increase over 2009.
The largest impetus for contracting is cost savings. The survey found that first-year contracts alone are expected to save districts $16.7 million cumulatively.
Just what constitutes a public record? Are documents created by a public official on a public computer system “public records” under Michigan's Freedom of Information Act? In this "friend of the court" brief, Mackinac Senior Legal Analyst Patrick J. Wright argues the answer is “yes” and warns that a failure to readily disclose such documents would seriously undermine FOIA's value.
With Michigan’s public school districts facing a decline in per-pupil funding, more districts are contracting out for at least one of the three major school support services — food, custodial and transportation — than ever before. This year’s survey of school districts found that 44.6 percent of all Michigan school districts contract out for at least one of these services, a 5.6 percent increase over 2008. This year, new contracts alone are expected to save $6.9 million.
