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Category: Whither Michigan?

Silverdome: A loser from Day One

Pontiac residents should stop griping about selling the Silverdome for a lowly $580,000 or so. Time to cut bait.

The stadium has been a loser from Day 1. State and local governments poured millions into the facility to kiss the butt of the Detroit Lions. For example, state taxpayers kicked in $800,000 a year, for years, to help keep the lights on. The Lions thanked taxpayers by abandoning the Silverdome and returning to Detroit (for a new set of favors).

It's what happens when government pretends it has business savvy. It's like current officials giving "green" industries a break while sticking it to other companies. Those other companies include those who faithfully stick with Michigan despite being kicked around (including kicked with a 22 percent tax surcharge). Meanwhile, Clint Eastwood and other movie makers visit, and return to Hollywood with millions of Michigan's dollars.

The next big thing isn't invented yet. And it won't be invented in Michigan because state officials are chasing the last big thing, including boutique environmental industries such as solar and wind power. If state officials were good at business, they wouldn't be in government. They'd be risking their own money (not yours) and piling up a fortune.

To cover its bets, the state should reduce business taxes across the board. That would attract all sorts of businesses, perhaps the next Microsoft or Google.

Meanwhile the Silverdome sale is a national joke. Tough call. If you have $500,000 to spare, do you buy a nice home in Bloomfield. Or go all out and buy the Silverdome?

Government should stick with the basics. Police, fire, garbage collection, roads, and a few other core services. Sticking with basics would save Michigan taxpayers billions over the years.

Category: Whither Michigan?

Public education:
the scam continues

So now there are a few more government/foundation initiatives to make education work for Detroit kids.

Great.

Yet more proof that the job is not getting done, else why the need for a change in strategy? The state poured uncounted billions into public education over the years. How come the money didn't buy better results? If the job was getting done, we wouldn't fix-it programs.

The new effort, to train teachers, suggests that teachers-now-working don't know how to do the job. True in too-many cases. Schools of education, especially those in Michigan, are basically a scam. Teaching pedagogy and handing out degrees, even if the newly-minted teacher knows little about the subject she is to teach.

Michigan taxpayers are spending plenty on education. But they're not getting their money's worth, thanks in part to cowed administrators and teacher unions that protect incompetents.

One of the new program is aimed at teaching math. Why bother? The state is working to dumb down math standards. So here we are: spending more money to teach to dumber standards.

Here for story.

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Category: Whither Michigan?

Michigan: Time for public education to reinvent itself

More good news. Gov. Jennifer Granholm again cut state spending for education. The public education system, when flush, left hundreds of thousands of students behind. So in an economic crunch, there's no need to fund it at previous levels, given the system's sorry performance record.

This would be a good time for the state's too-many school districts to reorganize its thinking and budgets. There's no credible evidence that higher spending increases student performance.

Trim the administrative staff. Do you really need assistant superintendents in hard times? How about also axing assistant principals and have one principal for, say, every five schools? Give teachers more responsibility. Michigan teachers are some of the highest paid in the country. If they need close watching by principals, perhaps it's time to rethink their training and qualifications, too.

Perhaps it is time to disband school transportation systems. That'll save money and walking to school will do kids good, if reports of Michigan's fat progeny are any indication.

In hammering education, however, the governor is a tad disingenuous. She's calling for new taxes to cover cuts in the education budget. There's plenty of revenues to cover those cuts.

All the governor and legislature have to do is trim other programs.

It's called balancing the budget, a matter of priorities.

At the moment, education is at the bottom of the priority list.

Here for story.

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Category: Whither Michigan?

The latest terrifying Blob: Michigan's public payroll

"There are now 637,000 public employees in Michigan compared to fewer than 500,000 workers left in manufacturing. Government is the largest employer in the state, but the number of taxpayers to support these government workers is shrinking."

-- Wall Street Journal, talking about Michigan's ongoing budget debacle.

In 2007, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the legislature ordered up tax and fee hikes to balance the state budget.

That is, despite high unemployment (higher now), lawmakers opted to squeeze more money out of family budgets and certain businesses. Government thinks is has better ways to spend your money than, say, allowing you to sock it away for a rainy day. Or for a college fund.

This year, lawmakers toy with a 3 percent surcharge on doctors, a move bound to drive up medical bills.

An example of how the Michigan budget thinking works: The governor and others laud the huge subsidies to Hollywood moviemakers -- tax credits of up to 42 percent of the companies' spending in Michigan. Those California types last year hauled $48 million in benefits, which could balloon to $200 million or so in the future.

Yet the governor just issued a budget veto taking away $54 million from Michigan school districts -- including 26 in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

Translated: There's plenty of money to pass around to Hollywood millionaires while, at the same time, plucking money out of Michigan classrooms. Swell.

Michigan public education, of course, is over-funded, given the mediocre results it delivers. And the film subsidy is small compared to the overall state budget. But still, it's the principle of the thing.

The argument for the Hollywood subsidies is that they create jobs. Absolutely, lower business taxes leave comapanies with more money to create jobs. So how about reducing taxes -- not just for Hollywood -- but for longtime Michigan businesses, too. That'll put the latter on a par with Hollywood to create more jobs.

The sad part of recent budget deals: The Legislature, mostly Democrats, have had nothing but contempt for longtime Michigan businesses, while happily dispensing favors to out-of-staters.

Here and here.

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Category: Whither Michigan?

Detroit: The 17 percent solution

The cameras in Detroit police cars work only about 17 percent of the time, according to a report earlier this year.

That's in line with the city's overall record -- works about 17 percent of the time.

For the time being, how about Detroit taxpayers be charged only 17 percent of their annual tax tab. To bring costs in line with service?

Here for story.

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Category: Whither Michigan?

MFIC Coleman Young, others star in Time story on Detroit

"He called himself the 'MFIC' -- the IC stood for 'in charge,' the MF for exactly what you think."

-- Daniel Okrent, writing about former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young. In Time Magazine.

Okrent takes a hard look at Detroit, blaming Young for setting a faulty course at a critical time in the city's history.

"Detroit was dying, and its mayor chose to preside over the funeral rather than find a way to work with the suburban and state officials who now detested him every bit as much as he had demonized them," he wrote.

Of course, Young wasn't the only culprit. Okrent takes aim at one of my favorite Detroit stories -- the tale of philanthropist Robert Thompson, who offered to pony up $200 million to build 15 small high schools in Detroit. The teachers union objected. And some people didn't want the help because it would come from a white man. So Thompson withdrew his offer. It's reported that Thompson might have brougt in another $200 million from others, so the city really lost out.

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick helped lead the charge against Thompson, playing to the crowds. But with the current mayor, Dave Bing, voters returned an adult to the office.

Now the city's public schools face a $300 million deficit. Perhaps the teacher's union, which spurned Thompson's money, can send a check to make up the difference.

Here for story.

Category: Whither Michigan?

Free college tuition in Michigan? Details needed.

Michigan students would get free college tuition under a plan by State Rep. Fred Durhal. The lawmaker says no tax dollars would be used but we'll see. At minimum, give Durhal credit for creativity. Most of his fellow lawmakers are mostly sucking their thumbs as the state tanks.

Under Durhal's proposal, the scheme would be funded by three annual "super" lotteries; an income tax check-off box; corporate and foundation donations or endowments; and the contribution of 1 percent of total gross receipts from all functioning Michigan casinos.

The proposed lottery money, while not technically tax dollars, would still be public funds. If you give the money to college students, that means some other state program might be short-sheeted and taxpayers would pick up the slack, or lawmakers would cut the program. Either way it's a cost. An income-tax check off box, while not a tax, still creates a pool of public funds.

It's not clear whether the the 1 percent "contribution" from casinos would be mandatory. If it's mandatory, it's a tax. Otherwise, one percent of gross is a big piece of change for any business. I can't see casinos, which are in a downturn, willing to pony up. But maybe. And what happens if the voluntary loot runs out. Do taxpayers pick up the tuition tab?

Details at 11.

Here for the lawmaker's announcement.

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Category: Whither Michigan?

Detroit union wants more money. Money from where?

So one of Detroit's unions toys with going on strike. They want more of everything, and don't like Mayor Dave Bing's plans for the city to live within its means.

Well, if the unions want more, it's up them to explain where the money will come from.

There's no free lunch.

Meanwhile, over at Oakland University, professors have authorized a strike. But they say they really care for students, who may not get the instruction they paid for. One prof even urged students not go to class taught by a substitute, if a strike is called.

Here and here for stories.

Category: Whither Michigan?

Trouble at the school board. Old story, again.

More back-biting and bitterness among Detroit public school officials. Despite all the calls for reform, some things remain the same.

Little wonder families with children flee, if they can.

Here for story.

Category: Whither Michigan?

Time to nuke Detroit public schools, rebuild

Corruption in Detroit schools! No surprise here. It's been going on for decades. The system has failed several generations of Detroit students -- leaving the city an illiteracy rate hovering near 50 percent.

Some teachers care. Hundreds upon hundreds don't. And of course, there's no efficient way to cut the dead wood, given union contracts. Management has been AWOL for decades. The beat goes on. Former Gov. John Engler tried to clean it up, but after five years of reforms, voters opted for the old way of doing business.

One option: dismantle the district and rebuild it under a different model, charter-school, KIPP, Teach for America, or other such system. The Legislature has the power to do that. But no guts.

Here for story.