A Northville Public School official said the district will remove a link on its Internet home page that announced a school board member's run for the state's House of Representatives after being told by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy it may be in violation of the state campaign finance law.

The Northville Public Schools put a link on its home page that read: "Wadsworth Launches Campaign" under the "District News" heading. (Northville has pulled down the link, but you can view a screenshot here.) School Board Vice President Joan Wadsworth is running as a Democrat for the 20th district seat. The Wadsworth announcement linked from the district's site to a PDF file. The announcement of Wadsworth's campaign was written on Northville Public Schools letterhead.

When contacted, Wadsworth said that she had a different release she sent out and that the release on the Northville home page was published by the school district. She said it was done to inform the people in the district that she would stay on as vice president unless she won the election.

Mackinac Center for Public Policy Senior Legal Analyst Patrick Wright said what crossed the line was a quote from Wadsworth in the press release that talked about her ability to make "positive contributions" as a member of the House of Representatives.

"This is a campaign document," Wright said. "This expressed advocacy for this person running for this office. And it's blatantly illegal. Government's role is not to advocate for one party. ... This is about as egregious a violation (of Michigan campaign finance law) that you can find."

David Bolitho, assistant superintendent for Northville Public Schools, thanked the Mackinac Center for bringing the issue to the district's attention. He said the link would come down until the school could consult with its legal staff.

"The district and Ms. Wadsworth don't want to create any controversy for the district," Bolitho said.

The school could face a fine up to $20,000 and the person responsible for posting the item could face misdemeanor charges if the post was found to violate the campaign finance law.

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A recent print edition of Michigan Capitol Confidential examined other questionable postings on public school district websites.

Before beginning a presentation that criticized the Michigan state government for its excessive spending, Charlie Owens first had to take a jab at the federal government.

Owens, the Michigan director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, said he had just read a story about President Barack Obama’s plan to give businesses tax credits if they started hiring.

“We don’t really hire employees because you give us a tax credit,” Owens said Thursday at a luncheon in Jackson. “We hire employees because we have a reason to hire them. … You might want to work on the reasons we aren’t hiring.”

Owens said government officials’ claims that they have “cut to the bone” were false.

“They don’t even know where the bone is, folks,” Owens said.

He gave several examples.

Owens said the state claims as cuts that it reduced its “current services” appropriations from 2.5 percent to 1 percent to universities and community colleges. All it did, he said, was reduce the amount of the increase.

“That is not a cut,” Owens said.

He talked about a hiring freeze Gov. Jennifer Granholm enacted in 2007. He said that freeze’s only exemptions were for jobs that would protect the health, safety and welfare of Michigan residents.

But Michigan has made 2,373 hires, including a $96,642 “communications specialist” for the Michigan Economic Development Corp., three jobs to test racehorses for drug use and a $70,000 job for the Michigan Film Office.

“That’s what passes for a cut to the bone in Lansing,” Owens said. “We are rapidly getting to the point in this state where the tax spenders will outnumber the taxpayers.”

Owens said no reform can be done without dealing with the public sector unions.

The average state employee’s salary has increased from $43,893 in 2001 to $53,369 in 2010. Owens said these salaries and benefits are no longer sustainable.

According to Owens, the state is in a cycle where its gets a budget deficit, raises taxes, gives more money to public sector unions and then the economy takes another downturn, leading to another deficit.

“Is there a model for that?” Owens asked. “Yeah. It’s called the city of Detroit.”

He went on to say Michigan's government must end its practice of offering tax incentives to certain types of businesses.

“Today it is batteries. Tomorrow it is windmills. Then it is bioscience,” Owens said.

The tax incentives, he said, are nothing more than “little bubbles” protecting targeted businesses from an “abysmal business climate” the other businesses have to live in.