Detroit Bailout Solved: Sell Just ONE Painting

Use state money to fill potholes statewide

By Michael D. LaFaive and Jack McHugh | May 7, 2014

As described in a recent post, one of the challenges surrounding a partial bailout of Detroit using $350 million in state money spread over 20 years is that the current Legislature cannot guarantee that a future Legislature will follow through on the commitment.

The latest suggestion for squaring this circle is to just give the city a somewhat smaller amount up front. Specifically, $195 million, which if all handed over this year would be roughly equivalent in value to giving Detroit $350 million over 20 years.

The proposal at least has the virtue of clarifying the issue before legislators: To spend more for Detroit or to not spend more for Detroit, and instead use the money to meet other vital state needs?

It also brings certain alternatives into a sharper focus. For example, instead of short-changing the needs of residents in other communities by $195 million, what if Detroit could get the same amount by selling just one painting from its art museum?

For example, Christie’s auction house was hired by the city to appraise paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts, and estimated that one of them, "The Wedding Dance" by Pieter Bruegel, would sell for as much as $200 million.

The sale of a single painting would hardly be a death blow to the city. The art museum would still contain a magnificent collection of works by Bellini, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet, Degas and many others.

Alternatively, House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, has argued that the city employee unions that have been so enriched by taxpayer dollars should also pitch in, given how much they did to help push the city into bankruptcy. With a nice union contribution maybe the city could get away with selling a less valuable painting.

Finally, the whole "sell the art" gambit is something of a red herring, because Detroit owns countless other assets it could live without that are worth at least $195 million.

But even if it comes down to unloading the Bruegel, that doesn't seem like much for Michigan taxpayers in other communities to ask from a city to which they have already given so much over the decades.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

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Despite Shortage Of Bus Drivers, Union Wants Worker Fired For Not Paying Dues

Right-to-work law allows Wyoming Public Schools to protect employee

By Tom Gantert | May 7, 2014

The Wyoming Public Schools needs more bus drivers and district officials say they have "exhausted our options" trying to find new workers.

Yet, a Michigan Education Association UniServ Director asked the district to fire a substitute bus driver because he did not sign paperwork to join the union. School district officials said the bus driver didn't have to join the union as a condition of employment under the state's right-to-work law.

In an April 16 email to the district, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, MEA UniServ Director Sandy Paesens asked the district to tell the substitute bus driver that he could no longer be allowed to work for the district "unless he fills out the required paperwork to become a bargaining unit member."

Matt Lewis, director of finance and human resources for Wyoming Public Schools, responded to Paesens by saying that the district cannot compel the bus driver to join the union or pay dues.

"Many days we don't have enough substitute drivers to fill routes, so I struggle to see how he is taking work away from individuals who are compliant with union paperwork requirements," Lewis wrote.

Paesens said that the driver was doing bargaining unit work and was not a union member. "We have a closed shop," Paesens wrote.

"I will not terminate his employment," Lewis responded. "He is a sub driver taking work from no one. We cannot find enough sub drivers, so he's not even taking work from a prospective union member; no one is applying for the sub jobs."

Paesens did not return a request seeking comment.

"Right-to-work saved this bus driver's job," said Audrey Spalding, education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. "It's spiteful that the union tried to get him fired for not paying dues."

The Wyoming Public Schools Board of Education ratified the union contract on March 22, 2013 before the right-to-work law became effective. However, the school district contends that the union can still not use "force, intimidation or unlawful threats to compel public employees to become or remain members of a labor organization or refrain from joining," Lewis said in an email.

"In other words, we are a closed shop, but the district cannot threaten termination of an employee who refuses to pay union dues," Lewis said.