California Dreaming

One of President Obama's first acts was ordering the Environmental Protection Agency's review of California's request to impose its own tailpipe emission standards for CO2. In so doing, Obama delivers on his campaign promise to overturn the Bush administration's denial of California's plan. Bush was correct in denying California's request. The automobile industry has already been hit hard by the new fuel economy rules with compliance cost estimates running as high as $100 billion.
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They Keep Going and Going

Gov. Jennifer Granholm recently signed into law new tax credits for automotive battery manufacturers. The refundable credits — outright cash handouts, really, because the state expects the credits to exceed any tax that the companies may owe — could cost Michigan taxpayers up to $300 million. This is the latest in a long line of programs where the Legislature has undertaken to subsidize dwindling industries.
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Prosperity, Not Poverty

In a recent online column in the Lansing State Journal, Susan Demas correctly observes that Michigan's primary business tax is not good public policy, and that the state needs to adopt cost-saving reforms. But she implies that Mackinac Center recommendations in these areas are not broad enough to address issues such as poverty ("The Real Cost of Child Poverty," Jan. 16, 2009).
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Littmann Looks Forward

The January/February issue of "Michigan Forward," a bi-monthly magazine published by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, features an interview with David Littmann, the Mackinac Center's senior economist. In it, Littmann offers specific policy advice Michigan should consider in order to begin its economic recovery.
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Off the Clock

WDIV Channel 4 in Detroit recently uncovered blatant abuses by Ford employees and UAW officials at the company's plant in Sterling Heights. In separate exposés, camera crews caught employees stretching half-hour lunch breaks into three-hour drinking binges, and observed union officials sleeping in, leaving early, running errands and making trips to party stores, all while supposedly working.
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101 Recommendations to Revitalize Michigan

Michigan is blessed with a wealth of the human and natural resources integral to building vibrant commerce and vigorous communities in the 21st century. At the moment, however, counter-productive public policies have made it harder for our industries to compete nationally and internationally and have reduced our state's attractiveness to investors and entrepreneurs.

In addition, Michigan is not immune to the gradual erosion of equity and basic human freedom that accompanies a steady growth in the power and scope of government. Related to this, our government's ability to properly perform many critical functions, including education, has been jeopardized by policymakers' attempts to do too many things. This lack of focus has even led to confusion among policymakers over whether government exists to serve the people or vice versa.

There's a lot of work to do to reverse this, but there's good news. Once growth- and freedom-friendly policies are in place, recovery is likely to occur much more quickly than most people imagine.

For policymakers and voters serious about restoring freedom and economic vitality in the Great Lakes State, the Mackinac Center presents the following 101 recommendations.

This report is a compendium of work authored by Mackinac Center policy analysts and compiled by Senior Legislative Analyst Jack McHugh.
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Stimulating Talk

About this audio file: On Jan. 6, 2009, David Littmann, senior economist for the Mackinac Center, was a guest on "The Frank Beckmann Show" on WJR 760AM. Littmann discussed why the stimulus package proposed by President-elect Obama will not work and why across-the-board tax cuts by Presidents Kennedy and Reagan were successful. The interview is 12 minutes and 49 seconds.
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Where There's Smoke, There's Smuggling

On Nov. 13, 2008, more than 150 law enforcement officers were involved in a major bust of 18 people involved in trafficking contraband cigarettes in the Detroit area. According to the Detroit Free Press, the smuggling ring involved "104,300 cartons of illegal cigarettes worth more than $2 million in unpaid Michigan taxes."

A new study by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Cigarette Taxes and Smuggling," shows that this single bust — despite its considerable size — represents only a small portion of illegally trafficked cigarettes in the Great Lakes State. The study finds that in 2006 almost 35 percent of all the cigarettes consumed in Michigan (legal and illegal) were smuggled into the state, and smuggling is not the only unintended consequence of high state cigarette excise taxes. It has also contributed to crime ranging from vandalism to violence to terrorism.
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