Detroit Automakers, Michigan Politicians Ignored Ailing Vital Signs

Michigan’s manufacturing sector is losing jobs due to “high labor costs and a business tax structure that discourages new investment,” according to a bi-partisan report completed with the oversight of two lawmakers.
“Michigan has lost jobs to neighboring states and will continue to as long as the current tax structure and organized labor policies are in place,” the report reads.
This is NOT a report that is being provided to four federal government appointees visiting Detroit today to check out the demise of the Detroit Three.
It is the crux of a report that was issued in 1972, compiled at a cost of $135,000. Really. How smart are we?
Michigan has learned nothing in the 37 years since that study. So we can ponder whether the inability of politicians to face reality – a free market does not include an artificially overpaid labor force – is simply the way business has to be done, or are these elected officials just ignorant of a business economy.
All of today’s auto panel members are true blue Democrats, immersed over the years with three of the four providing fairly decent donor money to Democrats. Ron Bloom, in particular, appears to be a man who would not let the country’s interests get in the way of a decent deal for his union cronies. Diana Farrell, also part of the team, is a veteran economist who has donated to Kerry, Dean and all the rest during her storied career.
Meanwhile, the majority of Americans are fully against additional bailout money for the automakers. While this Quinnipiac University survey finds 65% of those polled do not believe the government has a responsibility to help the automakers, A USA Today poll in February found 75% opposed giving more money to the poorly-run General Motors and Chrysler.

Michigan - The New Denmark?

The governor of Michigan this week held up Denmark as a fine, upstanding
example of “job creation” and lauded its terrific energy policies. It appears that Denmark has it all in her eyes, in fact.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm, in her remarks, says, “Denmark leads the world in wind power technology, an industry employing 20,000 people in a nation with half Michigan’s population. In fact, Denmark has a 2.2 percent unemployment rate. Denmark-based Vestas, the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, is a bright spot in a slumping world economy, reporting a 51 percent rise in operating profit for 2008.
Denmark has cut residential electricity usage to less than half of the typical U.S. household while maintaining the highest standard of living among Nordic countries. And that nation’s gross domestic product doubled during the past 30 years while electricity consumption has stayed constant.”
OK, we can go there in that Denmark is an example of good government in that the roads are plowed and free of potholes and most people are employed. And can we add that some there have a good sense of humor? After all, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten is where the cartoons lampooning Muslim Prophet Muhammad first appeared in 2005. Now that’s funny.
In the meantime, in Michigan and in many other U.S. states, we have government here that is appallingly ineffective and wasteful and hamstrung by overwhelming layers of bureaucracy.
Let’s also be aware that nearly 45% of Denmark’s working population lives on government-tied funding, and a full 33% of Demarkians work for the government. This requires a tax rate of around 68%, including sales and other sundry taxes. A new car purchase includes a tax of nearly 100% and gas runs about $7 a gallon. Denmark also has what some call the most stringent immigration laws in Europe, laws that would inflame even the most moderate progressive.
The independent spirit that has served the U.S. in so many ways is quite markedly absent in Denmark. Yes, you can attend university for free. But if you choose not to attend, the government is there to ensure you have a paper-pushing job that provides free health care – which may or may not work out for you – and six weeks of vacation a year.
Oops: headline and subhead in today’s Jyllands-Posten:
"Failure of treatment of elderly…We need a small revolution in health care, says a think tank."
Well, anyway, when Granholm holds up Denmark as any kind of model, be it on energy or otherwise, there is a subtext that should be pondered. Recall the workaday in Orwell’s 1984. The nanny state, one in which the truly wealthy are mostly government connected, is a very scary place. And Granholm, who has no trouble paying her bills, is the perfect advocate for such a state.

Bad Driver Tax Proposed for Elimination

Michigan is one of the few states to impose a “bad driver tax,” which adds more fines to those already imposed for a traffic violation. This scofflaw assessment was made law in 2003 (sb509) and permits a levy of $100 annually to drivers who have accumulated seven or more points in a two-year period, to be paid every year that total remains over seven points.
Higher fees are handed down for more serious infractions like drunk driving or fleeing police. Also, drivers who leave their proof of insurance at home are taxed $300, in addition to any local penalty. The vote was 67-43 in the Senate, with 70% of Democrats voting for and 53% of Republicans saying yea. The stated reason for the tax? To close a gap between state spending and expected revenue. We are joined by New York, New Jersey and Texas in this type of tax.
This week, State Sen. John Gleason from Genesee County introduced legislation
that would end this tax on Oct. 1. We thank you for attempting to end the madness that this tax represents.

Michigan School Sued by Liberal Group over FOIA Case

While free enterprise is almost always at odds with organized labor, the litigation filed by Change to Win, against Ferris State University is, in its barest form, certainly on the mark. The refusal of Ferris to divulge this contract, which is it obligated to do under law, is unconscionable regardless of how distasteful Change to Win is in its other endeavors.
From a release: “CVS Caremark’s lack of transparency is driving up prescription drug costs for consumers and health plans alike,” said Chris Chafe, executive director of Change to Win. “Michigan law protects the people’s right to know, in this case, what CVS Caremark is charging the university for prescription drug benefits, but also what compensation CVS Caremark may be receiving in the form of undisclosed agreements with drug manufacturers and pharmacies at taxpayers’ expense.”
We’re troubled here by CVS Caremark’s history of secrecy. The University of Michigan in 2005 ended its dealings with Caremark over a lack of transparency on pricing issues. Other municipalities have done the same.
We understand that some discretion is needed to ensure a competitive advantage. But that advantage is not at issue when a private company decides to play in the public arena, and this goes for anyone, be it a concessionaire, an airline or a health care provider. If they would prefer to have their information kept private, then don’t do business with the public sector.
The complaint:
Change to Win FOIA Complaint

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One more tidbit related to this case: Margaret Kwoka is an attorney for Public Citizen representing Change to Win on this case. She is also the lawyer who is taking on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to gain access to a report showing the dangers of cell phone use by drivers.

Michigan Paroles Record Number of Violent, Sex Offenders in 2008

Convicted violent offenders in Michigan were granted parole in the largest numbers in last year since 1999, while the number of sex offenders given parole was the largest since 1996. Are we at more risk?
Parole Approval Rates 190318 7

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A January report to state legislators from Patricia L. Caruso, director of the Michigan Department of Corrections, notes that “There were a record high number of moves to parole in calendar year 2007, due to a record high number of parole decisions.
Moves to parole in 2008 decreased from that record high because of fewer parole decisions, but 2008 was still the third highest year for moves to parole in history because of an increase in the parole approval rate. The approval rate climbed from 52.5% in 2007 to 58.0% in 2008, which is the highest parole approval rate since 1993.“
It all sounds good – the rehab is working, according to Caruso. Perhaps more states should adopt our model. But remember that the dictate went out a while ago for prisons to reduce populations. And those calls have always stipulated that those being released are non-violent offenders, and in some cases, convicted drug scofflaws.
But parole approval rates for drug offenders and non-violent criminals last year were about the same as previous years. Instead, we are paroling more hard-core criminals. It all sounds nice to say that those hitting the streets are not a danger to us. But the truth is not so nice. Has anyone posed this question to lawmakers?

List of Those Who Are Holding Hand Out for Stimulus $$

Now we’ve got it – a government provided site to tell us just how the Stimulus Bill will provide for us and how that money is being spent.
I decided to poke around on the 1,238-page request list and see just who wants what from the Fed giveaway. Some stunning stuff. For example, at Wayne Gray Elementary in the Addison Community Schools district, $3,500 is needed to replace the partitions in the boy’s bathroom. OK, maybe. But the start date is listed as June 8. The completion date? September 1. It’s going to take three months to do a job that should take three hours. I might add that the city of Alma is seeking $860,000 to reconstruct a half-mile of road. That, too, will take three months. Perhaps this is the bigger problem, this snail’s pace that government likes to toil at. Lapeer Community Schools also put its hand out for $13 million to “install geothermal heating and cooling system; replace existing windows, building remodeling to accommodate geothermal…” I guess if we are going to get the dough to install geothermal, we might as well remodel the building to accommodate it, eh?
In fact, let’s look at Lapeer Community Schools. With 7,337 students, it spends $22 million a year on 354 teacher salaries and benefits. Yet somehow it feels that shelling out $13 million on geothermal heating is a suitable way to spend money.
We’re also fond of Insight Management and Consulting Practices which asked for a staggering $84.5 million. The group was incorporated in March 2008 by Tarik Hafeez, a Canton lawyer who is part of a group called LegalEase Solutions . Insight is located in Flint. Its request covers the cost of a nursing home, a high school, a neuro rehab unit (we presume the high school will prepare this unit’s team) and a study of scar tissue. This is a company with no apparent claim to credibility nor does it appear to be able to keep its Web site up to date. Sure, let’s hand them $84.5 million.
One more thing: the Ingham County Health Department received money that it didn’t even have to ask for. Nice work if you can get it.
Michigan Welfare From Stimulus

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Justice Keeps Rolling over former EMU Prez

Disgraced Eastern Michigan University President John Fallon continues to get smacked down for his role in covering for an on-campus rape/murder at Eastern Michigan University in 2006.
In the latest legal ruling, Fallon is on the hook for more than $18,000 in legal fees the school racked up defending itself against a suit from Fallon.
Fallon was fired in July 2007 following a controversy that began with the death of EMU student Laura Dickinson. Dickinson was found dead in her dormitory room in December 2006. Campus officials did not reveal the criminal nature of her death until a suspect was arrested two months later.
Fallon’s case – as well as the whole situation surrounding the murder – shows a glaring lack of respect for transparency that the educational system holds. The system often claims it is trying to protect the kids, when the reality is that people like Fallon, a longtime academic administrator, that are really being shielded. Fallon hadn’t been in office two years before this murder took place in a dorm.
Security on Campus, Inc. and a U.S. Department of Education report found that EMU had violated the federal Clery Act, a law that requires colleges and universities to disclose information about crime on and near campus.
And two weeks before the murder, three Republican appointees to the eight-member EMU board of regents resigned, claiming Eastern Michigan's administration had made poor hiring decisions and that "distrust and open animosity" exist among groups on campus.
Here is a nice timeline of the EMU debacle, which is a blueprint for what can happen when the government tries to hide things.