Michigan kills paycheck protection for teachers

Sen. McBroom votes with Democrats to pass bill, giving it the dint of bipartisanship

By James David Dickson | July 28, 2023

Michigan public schools can now use their resources to facilitate union membership, after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday signed House Bill 4233 into law. Thus ends the era of paycheck protection for teachers in Michigan, which had been the law for a decade.

Under the old system, signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder in 2012, public school teachers could cut a check to their unions at their own discretion. Now the deduction takes place via direct deposit, facilitated by the school itself, letting the union be paid simultaneously with the employee.

Democrats control both houses of the legislature by two-vote margins: 56-54 in the House and 20-18 in the Senate. Though the Democrats did not need Republican help to pass the bill, one Republican senator, Ed McBroom, R-Waucedah Township, voted along with them. The rest of the Republican caucus voted no except Sen. Dan Lauwers, who did not vote.

Read it for yourself: House Bill 4233 of 2023

With McBroom’s vote, Democrats can claim the mantle of bipartisanship.

On Twitter, the Senate Minority Leader, Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, railed against a package of labor bills Whitmer signed Wednesday. House Bill 4233 was one of them.

“The priorities of Gov. Whitmer and legislative Democrats are made more clear every day; they turn a blind eye to parents and students, while putting their hand on the scale for union bosses,” Nesbitt wrote.

The bill was introduced by State Rep. Jaime Churches, D-Wyandotte, on March 9.

According to the House Fiscal Agency analysis, under “brief rationale”:

According to testimony, the standard model for a school aiding a labor organization in collecting dues or service fees is a one-time transfer of information from the school to their teacher's union. Reportedly, in practice, this prevents a teacher from having to walk around the school and collect information to send to the teacher's union, freeing up valuable time and ensuring a more efficient process for the union.

Is it the job of government institutions to “ensure a more efficient process for the union”?

Sen. Thomas Albert, R-Lowell, said during a June 28 floor speech:

Does it help teachers or other union represented workers? There might be a convenience factor, but other than that I don’t see much of a tangible benefit. Does this change help kids? No. And that is the problem with this bill and this legislative package. In fact, it’s a problem with the approach the Democrats have taken to labor law all year. These changes are designed to benefit the organization and leadership of unions. These changes are designed to help with their political fundraising, the workers themselves in this case—Michigan schoolchildren as well—are just an afterthought.

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.

Michigan offered company $28B in corporate welfare, and still didn’t land it

Cash incentive offered to Micron was bigger than Michigan’s budget for state police and corrections

By James David Dickson | July 27, 2023

Michigan taxpayers were almost on the hook for $28 billion in corporate welfare and tax abatements to an Idaho-based semiconductor company, The Detroit News reports. But that company, Micron Technology, took a bid from New York State instead and will open its facility near Syracuse.

The Detroit News’ Beth LeBlanc reports that the Michigan Economic Development Corporation made an offer to Micron Technology in Sept. 2022. Between $4 billion in cash and site prep and $23.8 billion in tax abatements over 50 years, that’s nearly $28 billion in state incentives for “Project Copper,” as the deal was called.

LeBlanc reports:

State economic development officials disclosed this week that they also promised Micron $277 million in direct incentives for its suppliers, more than $800 million for site preparation and infrastructure in Clinton County's Eagle Township and another $480 million in job training for the facility. The total upfront taxpayer investment, pending legislative approval, was more than $4 billion, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

The state’s September offer also included a 50-year property tax break amounting to about $23.8 billion in tax savings for the company over the lifetime of the abatement, according to the MEDC. That tax break would be offset at least partially by a negotiated payment in lieu of taxes.

Michigan made “the largest known offer” of incentives in its history, and Micron still opted for New York. Micron says it will hire 9,000 people.

“The permission to pay less in property taxes or not at all is a very different thing than cash, and it was unclear how much less in property taxes New York offered,” said James Hohman, the Mackinac Center’s director of fiscal policy.

“The big lure is cash. Money up-front matters, and Michigan offered a lot more of it than New York. The takeaway that the governor wants is that Michigan needs to be able to write bigger checks. The takeaway that people should get is that Michigan shouldn’t be in the business of writing big checks.”

Despite the smaller offer, Project Copper is now Project Yankee, The News reports:

A few weeks after Michigan made its offer, Micron announced it would locate its $100 billion, 9,000-job semiconductor project in New York, a state offering the company $5.5 billion in incentives over the 20-year construction period. The 9,000 workers hired over the 20 years are expected to earn an average annual salary of about $100,000.

The News reports that the $2.5 billion in direct cash incentives Michigan offered Micron “would have exceeded the individual annual budgets last year of about a dozen state departments, including the Michigan State Police, the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy,” along with the Michigan Department of Corrections.