As legislators consider yet another subsidy program for select businesses, it’s time to review the research. In short, such programs don’t work.
As a record amount of funding goes to schools, Michigan’s school districts and state leaders have the means to accommodate a variety of parental interests.
It’s a good thing the Legislature repealed the Emergency Powers of Governor Act of 1945, a law that violated key principles of Michigan’s system of government.
The state government ought to diffuse controversies over school masking policies by encouraging parental choice in education.
A smuggling cell that brought cigarettes from China into Michigan illustrates the opportunities for crime that governments create by increasing taxes on cigarettes.
Consumers Energy has increased its electricity rates for certain times of the day, touting it as a market-based response to climate change. In reality, this is the utility’s way of coping with the inherently unreliable nature of the green energy sources it favors.
When lawmakers hand out taxpayer money to specific companies, it may look like they’re doing something good for the economy. The reality is far different.
Reforming the state’s rules on teacher certification will help schools find the teachers they need.
The economy and environment of Michigan would benefit if Gov. Gretchen Whitmer stops opposing a plan to move the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline to a cement-lined tunnel far below the Great Lakes.
While Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has said her COVID-19 policies are based on science, many decisions were made on the fly, with some influenced by anecdotes and public pressure
While Michigan government has discouraged residents from traveling, it spends money to encourage people to travel here from out-of-state.
Local officials must decide what to do with a windfall of money from Washington.
Some new rules from the governor could turn businesses into mask police.
An individual or a company with an idea could get permission from the regulatory agency to begin operating without having to wait for it to write new rules.
The virus is no longer a general public threat when people can protect themselves from its transmission; at that point, it becomes an issue of personal responsibility.
The “Fight for $15” effort is unwittingly working to keep the youngest and least educated out of the workforce.
The Michigan Legislature is considering several new laws that would secure pensions for public employees and save taxpayers money.
Lawmakers should change the state corporate income tax code to let businesses deduct the cost of equipment purchases in the year they make them, rather than require them to stretch out those deductions over time.
Legislators should reject Gov. Whitmer’s proposal to cut per-pupil funding for cyber schools while increasing funding for conventional schools.
Patients would benefit if the state brought back temporary measures Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made to suspend some unnecessary and costly regulations in health care.
Under the governor’s approach to the pandemic, all that is not explicitly permitted is prohibited under penalty of law.
The financial relief pushed to schools during the pandemic has created gaps between different schooling options in ways that discount actual student needs.
If lawmakers were to cut the Michigan income tax rate, state revenues would still grow. A cut would make good on a 2007 pledge to phase out what was supposed to be a temporary tax increase.
Parents who need financial help in getting their children to a school of their choice should receive state- funded transportation scholarships
In 2020, Michigan lawmakers resisted the temptation to spend taxpayer money on corporate handouts. They should hold firm in 2021
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s preference for using debt rather than current tax revenue for road repairs means that the state is spending less on fixing roads than it otherwise would.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a need to offer more options and flexibility for students with special needs.
The governor’s attempt to close rather than upgrade the Line 5 pipeline is part of a broader environmental policy that could subject Michigan residents to higher costs, restricted access to essential energy, and a diminished quality of life.
State government could increase its revenue by removing the favors it grants by law to a few special interests.
Kindergarten enrollment at Michigan school districts is down this year, suggesting that dissatisfaction with remote learning has lead parents to seek other options.
Given the chance to opt out of the Michigan Education Association by both a right-to-work law and the U.S. Supreme Court, public school employees have left the union in large numbers.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says she wants residents of the U.P. to have affordable and reliable energy, but her opposition to relocating the Line 5 pipeline works against that goal.
Strategies developed by state experts do not include governor’s actions
The Michigan Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer acted without constitutional authority by unilaterally issuing COVID-related executive orders after an initial 28-day period. In doing so, the court upheld the separation of powers, a key constitutional protection for citizens.
The law Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is using to justify her unilateral COVID executive orders has historically been used primarily to deal with riots, and when it wasn’t, it stirred controversy.
Do state government efforts to encourage businesses to create jobs do any good? Not when their costs are considered.
Lawmakers have decided to give money to districts for students they don’t have, an act that slams the door on parents scrambling for options.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer once loosened some of the state’s licensing rules for medical professionals as a way to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Those changes ought to be made permanent, not reversed.
Though it may appear that tax credits shrink the size of government, they can do just the opposite.
Lawmakers can make it easier for parents to deal with the uncertainties of the next school year by adopting policies that give them the options they need.
As states reopen their societies, they ought to do so without handing out select subsidies to businesses.
The Line 5 pipeline should be buried 100 feet below the lakebed.
School districts and families will need more flexibility to cope with schooling in a reopened society
Michigan should end its prohibition on sales of to-go mixed drinks.
The actions of state regulators and and the private owner of a dam, combined with heavy rains, led to extensive flooding in the Midland, Michigan, area.
The state has dedicated certain tax collections for roads, but it will have less to spend as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of the state response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer changed some key regulations affecting health care. Michigan should enact these changes into law.
The COVID-19 pandemic will cause state income tax collections to fall and could cause spending on Medicaid to increase.
Michigan will receive at least $478 million in extra federal funding that can be used for K-12 education. Here are some ways it can put that money to use.
Policymakers and others should consider ways to keep the economy strong.
Michigan’s legislators and governors have changed laws and regulations in recent years in ways that will help the state respond to the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Several state laws give Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer the authority to undertake certain steps during times of emergencies and disasters.
Efforts to address climate change should not ruin the economy or harm the environment.
The Mackinac Center’s Context and Performance Report Card rewards school leaders whose students perform better than expected on state tests.
Citizens have the power to decide how much their local governments collect in taxes.
A report from the United Way gives an unusual and unhelpful way to estimate the extent of poverty in Michigan.
Proposed laws now in the Michigan Legislature could reform the way Michigan subsidizes a few businesses in the name of creating jobs.
School elections do not get enough attention from voters. Some reforms from state government could help.
Michigan lawmakers have only a few months to create a budget for the next fiscal year, address the Medicaid program and enact criminal justice reforms.
In 2019, lawmakers dialed back taxpayer support for business subsidies, perhaps reflecting a change in thinking.
A legislator from northern Michigan wants the state to restart taxpayer funding of the Pure Michigan advertising campaign. Lawmakers should let its funding stay at the current level: zero.
A conflict between a Republican Legislature and a Democratic governor led to restrained growth in the state budget.
Michigan has reformed some of the many licenses it requires for people to hold a job. Lawmakers should continue that work in the new year.
A set of regulations and laws that a high school student proposed as part of a biology class suggests that Michigan schools should take a closer look at the environmental impact of renewable energy sources when teaching about the benefits.
Without the Legislature’s timely intervention, the commission’s decision threatened to make it more difficult for cancer patients in rural areas of Michigan to access this treatment.
Some Michigan classrooms lack a teacher with full credentials, even though many people with teaching credentials aren’t teaching. Rather than focusing heavily on producing more teachers, the state should find ways to entice some of those teachers into the classroom.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was right to veto funding for the Pure Michigan advertising campaign in the new state budget.
While Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made Michigan’s roads the centerpiece of her election campaign, her veto of extra money for road repair shows that her most important priority is to increase how much state government taxes Michigan residents.
The new ban on flavored vaping products is harmful to public health and respect for law.
Michigan’s two big electric utilities cite their build-up of solar facilities as evidence of their environmental concern. But solar facilities pose significant environmental challenges, which the companies have not adequately prepared for.
Even if the governor and lawmakers can’t agree on whether to raise the gas tax, that’s no reason to shut down state government.
Most local governments in Michigan need to shore up the pension systems they have for their retirees.
Employers should have a larger role in shaping career and technical education programs.
Lawmakers who want to spend more taxpayer money on roads can find another extra $1 billion by using these 13 suggestions.
The state’s Schools of Choice program does not merit the attacks it recently received on a national scale.
A bill in Congress to increase the national minimum wage would harm young and inexperienced workers who need on-the-job experience.
A recent report significantly overstates the number of jobs that renewable energy sources provide.
Michigan should give parents of special needs students more say over their children’s education.
The three competing proposals for the next state budget direct more money to the roads and cut money for corporate welfare.
Michigan improved its school-grading system last year by giving parents more detailed information, but it could still be better.
Michigan has almost doubled its spending on roads since 2010, but it will take a while for the changes to show up.
State lawmakers and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer delivered on a long-needed fix to fix Michigan’s auto insurance laws, which made auto insurance here more expensive than anywhere else in the country.
Michigan should make it easy for people who have obtained occupational licenses in other states to work legally here.
The state would be better off sticking to funding roads rather than subsidizing film festivals, orchestras and garden poetry readings.
Gov. Whitmer wants government to give students a free community college education. The idea will cost at least $292.5 million per year and accomplish little.
Increasing the gas tax by 45 cents per gallon could raise $2.5 billion, but it would also cost 22,500 jobs in the private sector. Spending that money on roads and cutting other areas of state government spending by the same amount could create 24,000 jobs.
Criminal justice, government transparency and occupational licensing are just three areas ripe for reform.
Too few young schoolchildren know how to read and write at grade level. Spending more money on preschool won’t fix that problem.
State funding of Michigan schools has already increased significantly after years of economic stagnation
The Janus decision is having an effect on membership
