Washington’s response to the mortgage crisis ignored the very government policies that created the problem.
Policymakers are quick to issue press releases about how many jobs will be created when they give discriminatory favors to certain businesses. Where are the press releases when those predictions fall short?
A merit-pay program for Michigan's public schools would reward teachers based on student achievement, rather than longevity and advanced degrees.
In practice, this ruling will make it more difficult to achieve policy change through executive fiat because the courts will engage in a meaningful review to determine whether the agency action was permitted by the Legislature’s statute.
Implementation of smart growth policies frequently results in the loss of private property rights.
The decision to “show Michigan the money” — or not — is a matter of priorities, not resources.
Michigan lawmakers are unlikely to pass any of these eight ideas into law any time soon, even though a case can be made that each one would help turn around Michigan’s moribund economy. Sometimes the people have to act when legislators won’t.
Done right, school support service privatization can save money and improve services — even if the privatization option is used solely to persuade public employee bargaining units to sharpen their pencils.
The Mackinac Center has long recommended a “Big Three” of tide-turning policies: Eliminate the Michigan Business Tax, prohibit employers from mandating union membership as a condition of employment and rein in oppressive regulation.
But even with this very generous definition of what constitutes a representation expense, our review of union financial reports reveals that a typical union local in Michigan spends little more than half of its money on representing its members.
To the extent that this document is what it appears to be, it leaves little doubt that the Reform Michigan Government Now ballot initiative is a partisan power play.
Our leaders in Washington and Lansing should encourage the responsible development of our abundant oil and natural gas reserves by eliminating arbitrary road blocks such as the ban on directional drilling.
Given a state unemployment rate of more than 8.5 percent, Michigan cannot afford to abandon competition in electricity supply for the benefit of its two biggest utilities.
Michigan’s political establishment has a proven ability to postpone the hard work of truly reforming and downsizing state government.
The question that apologists for the status quo have failed to answer is why investors and job providers increasingly avoid Michigan.
Since our last survey, media reports from around the state indicate that additional schools are using privatization to yield savings.
Michigan’s future energy policy is far too important to leave to the behind-closed-doors manipulation of government officials.
These failed policies will see Michigan taxpayers actually writing huge checks to politically “sexy” enterprises favored by political elites.
As long as the MEDC exists it should do one thing noticeably well to help facilitate job creation: advance right-to-work legislation.
Maybe it’s time that we as taxpayers and voters query candidates for public office less on what they will do if elected and more on what they won’t do.
