MichiganVotes Bills

Michigan bill to unravel privatization of non-instructional services heads to Whitmer’s desk

Privatization has been popular among Michigan school districts

A bill before the Michigan Senate would roll back three decades of private contracting for non-instructional school services, a widely used practice. House Bill 4356 do this by undoing a law that lets districts contract out for these services without having to negotiate with unions.

Under current law, unions for non-instructional services are treated “on an equal basis with other bidders,” per a House Fiscal Agency analysis of the bill. Prohibited topics of negotiation include the school’s decision to hire a third party and the identity of that third party. That prohibition would be eliminated if House Bill 4356 were enacted.

The bill passed the Michigan House last week and the Senate Labor Committee this week. It’s headed to the full Senate next. To be enacted into law, the bill would need to be passed in identical forms in the House and Senate, then signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Read it for yourself: House Bill 4356 of 2023

A House Fiscal Agency explainer of the bill is pictured below:

The Senate Labor Committee held a hearing on this bill. Its advocates said the bill would benefit employees who “have taken a beating over the last decades” and would remove a law that “was made to punish school employees.”

Steve Delie, director of labor policy at the Mackinac Center, recently published a legislative testimony on this subject. In it, he said that school districts prefer to contract out some services to private entitities.

“Such a repeal would be shortsighted, as these services have been overwhelmingly popular with schools as the best available option on the market,” Delie testified.

Contracting out dates back to 1994 and has become more popular. In 2001, 30% of school districts contracted in one of the non-instructional fields: custodial, transportation services and food service. By 2020, 44.5% of districts contracted for food services, 50.5% contracted for custodial services, and 28.2% contracted for transportation services.

Michigan schools favor privatization. Some 86.1% of districts say they are satisfied with the current system, and only 1.4% say they are dissatisfied.

Ewan Hayes is a Michigan Capitol Confidential intern.

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.

News Story

DTE head: ‘Sometimes you can’t count on’ wind and solar

As energy giant moves away from coal, CEO emphasizes need for reliable nuclear and natural gas

DTE Energy CEO Jerry Norcia acknowledged the unreliable nature of wind and solar power Wednesday morning before a panel of Michigan lawmakers. He specifically used the troubled energy transitions in Europe and California as examples of what not to do.

“Now, solar and wind are fabulous resources,” Norcia told the House Energy Committee, “but sometimes you can’t count on it when you need it.”

Norcia held out natural gas and nuclear as examples of reliable energy.

In 2035, DTE Energy will retire the Monroe Power Plant, which will be the last coal-burning plant in Michigan. But as Michigan moves away from coal, reliability is a concern, Norcia said. In 2021, four of Michigan’s top 10 energy producers were coal plants.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels

Some lawmakers want DTE to stop using coal before 2035. Senate Bill 276 would require companies to retire coal plants by 2030, years ahead of schedule.

“Beginning in 2030,” the bill reads, “an electric utility shall not include a coal-fired electric generation facility in a plan.”

Read it for yourself: Senate Bill 276 of 2023

“The first thing that we worry about is reliability,” Norcia told lawmakers. “We don't want to destabilize the grid, right? We’ve seen it happen in other jurisdictions, you know, we’ve seen it happen in California and other states. We’ve seen it happen there in a fundamental way.

“And so we pay very careful attention that as we retire coal plants, we’re replacing it with assets that can be called on when you need them. So for example, natural gas assets are there when you need them. Nuclear assets are there when you need them.”

Norcia testified for about 70 minutes before the committee.

Storms in February and March resulted in back-to-back power outages across Metro Detroit. In response, House Energy Committee Chair Helena Scott, D-Detroit, vowed to create an energy work group.

That has not happened. DTE President Trevor Lauer testified before the House and Senate energy committees, while Norcia visited the House committee Wednesday. But no work group has been formed, and no current legislation calls for steps to bolster energy reliability in Michigan.

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.