Authors

Photo of Harry C. Veryser Jr.

Harry C. Veryser Jr.

University of Detroit-Mercy

… economics at the University of Detroit-Mercy and was previously the … Studies from the University of Detroit.  Veryser has served as Chairman … articles have appeared in The Detroit News and The Intercollegiate …

Results 1 to 10 of 6645

Pandemic response drove increase in government assistance in Michigan

One-third of the state is on government assistance. COVID-19 response was the dividing line

… cohort on government aid. During the COVID-19 pandemic, states did not have to verify the eligibility of Medicaid recipients. That has changed. The Detroit News reported this month that 540,000 people were purged from Michigan’s Medicaid rolls just since the start of 2024.  In recent years, Michiganders …

Happy fourth anniversary, COVID lockdown!

Has Michigan learned anything from its episode of executive overreach?

… which she repeated in each of her hundreds of orders, also never made sense. Whitmer found a 1945 statute enacted in response to an urban riot in Detroit that had not been used in 50 years. She claimed it granted her the authority to do whatever she wanted for as long as she said there was an emergency. …

After decade-long saga, Wayne County to move to new jail

Wayne County went $100 million over budget, even more than the Fail Jail

… never finished, and after accruing $100 million of cost overruns on the second attempt, Wayne County has taken possession of a new jail. As the Detroit Free Press’s JC Reindl reports, the March 18 handoff of the keys to the Wayne County Jail starts a six-month clock for various entities — the sheriff’s …

‘No reason to fear a charter school,’ West Bloomfield treasurer told school board

But board voted anyway to tear down Roosevelt Elementary, build new school with millage money

… local taxpayers to build another elementary school. In so doing, it rejected a $1.7 million offer to buy and renovate the century-old building. The Detroit News reports that Roosevelt Elementary is the oldest school building in Oakland County. House Bill 5025, the legislation Finkelstein supported in …

Fox2 Detroit misstates impact of declining school enrollment

Some Michigan schools have larger payrolls than current conditions allow

… of money or closing schools to stay afloat,” according to a recent Fox2 Detroit story. The TV station adds that the number of school buildings in Michigan … are opting out of the services conventional school districts offer. The Detroit News reported in December that Michigan public schools have lost 131,000 …

Michigan’s lawless corporate welfare

State business subsidies defy a century of laws and legal precedent

… generated positive ripple effects throughout the economy. Subsidizing railroads "will be of great service to the entire population of Michigan,” the Detroit Free Press argued on Jan. 13, 1838. “It will create new life in every kind of business ... and will place Michigan on a footing with any of the new …

Do kids need mental health days?

And is this a matter for lawmakers in a state that struggles with school attendance?

… needs a day off, the parent is the best judge. James David Dickson is a Detroit News columnist and managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential. Email him at dickson@mackinac.org. This column ran first in The Detroit News on March 13.

Nessel says her energy advocacy saved $3B in 2023

Attorney General neglects to mention her push to shut down the Line 5 pipeline

… natural gas liquids are refined into propane and used in the Upper Peninsula, while other products are routed for processing at oil refineries in Detroit and Toledo, Ohio. The remainder crosses the St. Clair River for processing in Sarnia.”

Why do West Bloomfield schools fear competition?

Oakland County school district has drifted from its A+ ways

… just moved from Inkster to Detroit’s west side. We were too late … the neighborhood option, Detroit Mumford, was a non-starter. … became home. Commuting from Detroit every day, sometimes requiring … a three-decade veteran of Detroit Public Schools. He knew what … if competition is good for Detroit schools and Pontiac schools, …

Endnotes

… Policy, July 12, 2011), https://www.mackinac.org/15396. 7 Beth LeBlanc, “Whitmer signs laws boosting teacher union rights at bargaining table” (The Detroit News, July 26, 2023), https://perma.cc/VV2Z-BK3Z. 8 Audrey Spalding, “Roadblocks to Reform?: A Review of Union Contracts in Michigan Schools” (Mackinac …