Helping the Uninsured (and insured) by eliminating mandates.
The Flint Hills Center for Public Policy has a new policy brief describing the costs of
state-required provisions to health insurance policies. There's no such thing as a free lunch, and feel-good mandates increase the cost of insurance for us all.

"According to new estimates, each percentage-point rise in health-insurance costs nationally increases the number of uninsured by 300,000 people. A savings of 7 to 17 percent on average is possible for states without mandates or any-willing provider legislation. For the average family, that could translate into a savings of anywhere between $600 - $1,500 off their current policy."

Labels: Health care

(permalink)

Towards a Better Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs has recently published Oklahoma Policy Blueprint '04, a collection of ideas to improve life in the Sooner State by enabling enhanced consumer responsibility and choice and sharpening government's tasks on its core missions.

Among the topics: K-12 education (teacher pay, home schooling, education spending and performance, plus more), health care (Medicaid for the poor, insurance regulation for the rest of us), economic development, and various tax policies. Read the fine print, and you'll find that I was one of several contributors, a fine list indeed.

Labels: Health care, Medicaid

(permalink)

Homeless Numbers Overestimated?
When data drive policy, it's important to have accurate numbers. The number of homeless persons was exaggerated for agenda-driven purposes during the 1980s.

At least that's the conclusion of a report in the Journal of Urban Affaiars, as reported by the Reason Public Policy Institute.

"Beginning in the early 1980s, estimates of the homeless were exaggerated, often 2 million or more. By the mid-1980s, reliable social science estimated numbers of homeless at much lower levels, between 250,000 and 350,000. The media continued to use the higher estimates because they relied on homeless activists and shelter providers for information, an inadequate defense of its more reliable homeless estimates by HUD, and the liberal bias of the media." (permalink)

Subliminal Messages on Sports Team Website.
I noticed that one of the menus on the Minnesota Twins web site has these two entries side-by-side: "New ballpark" and "Fantasy."

That pretty much sums up the attitudes of mega-millionaire team owners and mere multi-millionaire players: a new ballpark fantasy--paid for at the public expense.

O wait. I forgot. Subsidizing the private business of men who can play games for a living is so vital to the public interest that it requires taxpayer money. Isn't it? (permalink)

Michigan Tries to Smoke Out New Revenue.
Faced with a(nother) budget shortfall, Michigan's politicians went back to the well and raised the "sin" tax.

In this case, it meant raising cigarette taxes to the second highest level in the nation. Not only does this present many possibilities for trouble--smuggling and job loss, to say the least--but it represents a lost opportunity to use a difficult situation to improve the long-term budget situation.

Say again? If officials had responded not by raising taxes but by making the state shed some unnecessary burdens, the long-term fiscal health of state would have improved. Fewer responsibilities in the future, less money required, and fewer budget crises.

As a result of this latest tax increase, the state continues to work at cross-purposes with itself. One rationale for the increased tax rate is to improve public health by decreasing the habit of smoking. But another rationale is simply to raise funds. Oddly enough, one way that the money is spent is on ... public health programs. A $2 a pack tax is at once a denunciation of smoking, and an acknowledgement that government is addicted to tobacco (taxes). (permalink)

When Words Lose Meaning.
The hand-painted signs at the entrance to a small liberal-arts college that I drove near read "Bush is a fascist." Doubtless it is replicated many times throughout the country.

Of course, Bush is sometimes compared to Nazis, including the number one Nazi himself.

If we ever had a real fascist in power, we'd have to invent a new word to describe him. (permalink)

Cool is Another Word for "Gimme Cash."
Attempts at central planning can be somewhat amusing when they aren't deadly.

Writing in the Detroit Free Press, Dawson Bell finds that a discussion of how to make Michigan "cool" to the youth turned out to be dominated by, as one participant put it, "well-meaning but clueless old farts."

Bell's reaction? That "is to be expected when government agencies take on a subject like cool."

He finds that the "cool" fad has several themes: pork-barrel spending by another name, incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo, and sloppy thinking.

Yep. Get the basics right--good services, low-taxes, solid options in schooling. (permalink)

Welfare Dollars = Independence?
The State of Maryland is launching an oddly-named welfare benefit card.

Maryland has moved to an Electronics Benefits Transfer (EBT) system for the distribution of food stamps. It uses technology similar to ATM and debit cards: swipe a card at the supermarket, and money is withdrawn from the buyer's account and sent to the retailer.

There is, though, a significant difference. The money in the "account" is not earned by the grocery store customer; instead, it is given to him as part of a welfare program.

Now as far as welfare programs go, there's something to be said for EBT cards. If we are going do things such as give people money for food, having an EBT card can bring some efficiencies and perhaps accountability.

I also think it would be great to use this model for health care. Instead of putting everyone involved through the mess that is Medicaid, spend the money on health savings accounts (HSAs) for the poor, and purchase high-deductible insurance policies as well. An EBT can serve as the way for people purchase medical services from the HSA (one of the most promising alternatives in health care financing in a long time.) So, in the abstract, EBT cards have some advantages.

But Maryland gives its EBT card for food stamps an odd twist. As a matter of policy it has decided that some people we will depend on others for their food budget. Nothing new there.

Just what do they call this new EBT card? The Independence Card.

Thanks to the guys at powerlineblog, who call this "beyond euphamism."

Labels: Health care, Medicaid

(permalink)

Read the Smoke Signals: Michigan Raises Taxes.
Jennifer Granholm deserved some praise when, during her first year as governor, she fashioned a budget without a tax increase. Now she's taken the state back on the same old destructive path of raising taxes and keeping the size and scope of government largely intact.

With the consent of the legislature, Granholm increased the state's cigarette tax to $2 a pack--a move that is likely to set off tax evasion, smuggling, and the loss of 5,000 jobs.

Granholm told legislators: "If you don’t like the revenues we have proposed, you must find the revenue to fund (the budget)."

That's not the only option. There's also cutting spending. To be fair to Granholm, it must be said that the legislature hasn't been up to this task, either. It's a bipartisan problem. (permalink)

If You Don't Like Cigarette Smoke, Don't Smoke.
The introductory remarks for a local talk-show says that it is broadcast from St. Paul, Minn., "the city where nothing is allowed." That joke is on its way to becoming reality.

The city council recently voted to ban all smoking in all bars and restaurants. Mayor Randy Kelly threatens a veto.

But don't celebrate the mayor for being a man of principal just yet. His objection: a city-only ban would hurt city finances. That's fair enough, a recognizition of reality. But he wants the entire metro region to enact a ban: you can run but .... Maybe you won't be able to run anymore, either.

Here's the response of this life-long nonsmoker whose eyes start watering after prolonged exposure to smoke: Don't like smokey bars and restaurants? Don't go in them! Nobody is required to drink at Sam's Saloon, or bus tables at Rick's Restaurant. But of course, we are already far down the road towards trampling freedom of association and voluntary diversity. (permalink)

Will the Last Person in Detroit ...
Over the last 3 years, Detroit has lost more people than any other U.S. city over 100,000 in population.

During 2000 to 2003, almost 40,000 people left for better schools, safer environments, lower taxes, and more responsive government services.

Kwame Kilpatrick, the mayor of Detroit, gets high marks from a fellow politician from neighboring Oakland County. But, says L. Brooks Patterson, "he may just be rearranging the furniture on the deck of the Titanic."

One problem Kilpatrick has not been able to overcome is the death grip that the teachers union has over education reform; it was instrumental in scotching a plan to introduce new charter schools in the city. Yet as a recent study from Ohio suggests, school reform is vital to urban revitalization.

Labels: Charter schools, Education

(permalink)

So Much for Insufficient Revenue.
To listen to many publications and groups dealing with state finances, you'd think that governments have been shutting their doors. "O woe. The money has just dried up."

On the other hand, an editorial in today's Wall Street Journal points out that New Jersey has had spending increases in excess if 6 percent per year in four of the last 6 years. On top of this, lawmakers are set to raise taxes yet again, setting the stage for a 13 percent budget increase.

"In the past year alone, New Jersey's private sector has added close to 60,000 new jobs, the fourth-highest in the nation. The catch is that many of these new jobs are being created by employers fleeing the high tax levels of New York State and City. By raising levies, Mr. McGreevey is stripping the Garden State of its comparative regional tax advantage." (permalink)

What Kind of School Choice is Best?
Andrew Coulson explores the various questions confronting education reformers.

Among the questions:

• Should financial reforms (vouchers, tax credits, etc.) be targeted towards the poor, or open to all?
• Should parents be able to choose whatever school they want, or should the state step in and "guide" the choice?
• Are vouchers preferable to tax credits? What about other avenues?
• What has been the experience of school funding in other countries, some of which have made extensive use of mechanisms of choice?

It's a hefty compilation, but worth consideration by anyone interested in improving K-12 education performance.

Labels: Education, School choice

(permalink)

Charter Schools Improve Student Performance.
One criticism of school choice programs is that they "skim" the best students, making any superior performance an artifact of the student body. A recent study refutes that claim.

The Goldwater Institute examined the test scores of more than 60,000 students in Arizona. The students, whose test scores for a three-year period were the basis of the study, attended 873 schools, both charter and traditional government schools.

The findings? No skimming. Charter "school students, on average, began with lower test scores than their traditional public school counterparts, and showed overall annual achievement growth roughly three points higher than their non-charter peers. Charter school students who completed the twelfth grade surpassed traditional public school students on SAT-9 reading tests."

Labels: Charter schools, Education, School choice

(permalink)

What Brings You Here?
The ways in which people visit this blog make me wonder about the usefulness of search engines.

I occasionally look at what search terms bring people to this web site. It can be a useful exercise (the second most common term used in searches for this site is "Michigan," which makes sense given my Great Lakes-region focus).

But it can also be amusing in two different ways. One, it makes me wonder "why is someone looking for that?" Two, it makes me think "Oh. That person must have been disappointed to find out that I didn't write on the subject. I hope they found something interesting anyway."

A few months ago someone came to the site after typing the following words into Google: "Manitowoc pornography computers police." Perhaps someone thought that the Best and Brightest of the lakeside Wisconsin town are indulging some base habits while on the clock. I don't know, but I certainly haven't written about such a police scandal.

On the other hand, I have used each of those terms at least once during the year-plus history of this blog. I have written about how a passenger ship that travels to Manitowoc is facing unfair competition from government-subsidized company. I have also written about the question of whether Congress can (or should) require libraries that receive federal money to use porn-filtering software. And I've written about police in their various jobs. But I've never written about police in Manitowoc watching (or watching out for) pornography. Yet because the various terms were used (though never together), Google snagged the PolicyGuy website as a place that may have talked about it.

Other people have come to the site looking for self-help information that simply isn't here, such as "how to find out if you have points on driver licenses in Ohio." I have not written about that, to my knowledge, and I suppose a call to the Secretary of State's office would be in order.

More promising, finally, are these search terms: "ladybugs sold by 5 year old." Now that's an entrepreneur. (permalink)

Outsourcing? How About Insourcing?
While India may be the new bogeyman for populist rhetoric, it is the "New Land of Opportunity," says Business 2.0.

The article is available online to subscribers only, so here's a quick rundown of the most significant points.

First, Indian's middle class exceeds 400 million, which means that it "outnumbers the entire U.S. population." That's plenty of opportunity for businesses that know how to tap the market rather than lobby state and federal governments for protection.

Next, trade negotiations have been useful after all, as more and more sectors in India become open to international competition.

U.S. sectors that have fallen into hard times due to a saturated market and their own mistakes--fiber optics and automobiles, for example--can find an economy snapping up new goods. Properly positioned, western goods such as Apple computers, telephone switching equipment and Coca-Cola are hot items.

Certainly, there are lots of challenges to being successful in any foreign market, including India. In many cases, it's easier to decry "outsourcing" and ask for protectionist economic policies than to respond to competition and enter new markets. But on the whole, it's a better route that will lead to more jobs within the U.S. (permalink)

Transit Costs Soar-Again
Minnesota's foray into the train business is becoming expensive--double the projected cost.

In 1998, the expected cost for the Hiawatha Line was about $400 million; now the final bill will be over $715 million for the 12-mile line.

"Construction of the region's first light rail line is paid for by a mix of federal, state, county and local contributions," went a report in the St. Paul Pioneer Press (registration required).
Contributions, you say? Oh sure, I understand the logic--the reporter is trying to describe the mix of the funding stream. But remember those funds come from taxpayers (and not thin air), a point that's hard to emphasize too much. Is the money from those taxpayers being spent wisely? Not when you consider the relative cost-ineffectiveness of rail systems compared with roads, or even a bus system.

Labels: Transportation

(permalink)

Coca-Cola Exec Gets it Mostly Right.
Coca-Cola's new CEO says that Americans are getting fat because they don't exercise enough. But is that a concern for the company?

According to a Dow Jones story reprinted in the Toronto Star, Neville Isdell said that "Obesity is a very real problem for consumers, for us, for society at large." Well, certainly a problem for consumers, as obesity is a health hazard.

But a problem for Coke? Isdell has kept open the door for the argument that his company is somehow culpable. Yes, obesity is a problem for Coke in that a customer base that says "I'm too fat, I shouldn't buy that" is going to be a tough sell. The idea has gone far beyond that in some quarters though, blaming McDonalds or Coke--the products and even the companies--for the overweight status of Americans.

That misses the entire point of consumer choice and the fact that decisions to consume rest with, well, the consumer. It also misses the importance of moderation. A glass of wine with dinner can be a wonderful thing; a bottle of wine on an empty stomach followed by a drive down the road is a disaster and tragedy waiting to happen. Likewise, a sugary Coca-Cola product can be a small, enjoyable diversion; a diet of it morning, afternoon, and night is bad. Neither the vineyard nor Coke bear the responsibility for how the consumer uses the product.

And the new CEO has defended that position, more or less. The rising incidence of obesity, he said cannot be addressed with "bad science, funny solutions or even scapegoating certain foods which are good or bad." He has called for increased exercise. Is that a good thing? Sure. But for a food company to be leading the charge? It's an attempt to placate the critics, and it won't work. (permalink)

Federal Tax Policy: The Great Enabler for States.
Tax policy offers all sorts of strange and dangerous incentives for the public and politicians alike.

For example, who doesn't know someone who is happy to receive the "windfall" of a large federal income tax refund? While it makes no sense to give an interest-free loan to the U.S. Treasury for months at a time, many people do intentionally over-withhold on taxes in a "forced savings program."

When state governments work out their tax policy, the federal income tax code comes into play again. State income taxes are deductible expenses on federal income tax forms, but consumption taxes are not. From an economic point of view, it's better to have consumption taxes than income taxes, but federal tax law makes an income tax more desirable for the state policy maker.

It does so in two ways: on a common-sense level, when residents of the state can save some money on their federal obligations with one tax (income) but not the other (sales), it's hard to argue against the tax that will let people "get some money back."

On a more cynical plane, federal tax deductibility lessens the political cost of raising taxes: "Hey, you can get some of that back when you file your federal form."

Writing for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Byron Schlomach points out that Texas has taken the hard way: it relies on sales taxes, not income taxes. It bucks the incentives for a state income tax system, in other words.

Federal legislation under consideration would extend tax deductibility to sales taxes, though--a move Schlomach favors.

There is both a danger and an opportunity here. The danger is that such a measure would weaken opposition to sales tax increases ("Hey, you can get some of that back.") It also offers an opportunity, however; perhaps more sales-for-income tax swaps may go forward if the measure is adopted. (permalink)

Michigan Extends Ski Hill Contract to 15 Years.
While it's a problem when government does things the wrong way, a more serious situation arises when government tries to do things it shouldn't.

One thing it shouldn't be doing is operate recreational activities, especially when private businesses provide the same service. The most common example is the municipal golf course. A more obscure example is a state-owned and run ski hill in the far reaches of Michigan's upper peninsula.

This last ski season, the state--facing a budget crunch and public scrutiny in light of some publications by the PolicyGuy and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy--contracted out the operation of the Porcupine Mountain ski area to a private concern.

The original contract was for one year. Obviously that's too short of a time to provide any incentive for improvements to the lift equipment, the making of new trails, and so forth.

But thankfully, the two parties have just now come to a 15-year agreement. While that is short (similar contracts between the U.S. Forest Service and ski companies in Aspen, Vail, etc. run for 40 years), it does provide make some improvements financially worthwhile for the contractor.

Says the Ironwood Daily Globe, "the Department of Natural Resources has finalized a 15-year contract with Lonnie Gliberman for operation of the Porcupine Mountain Ski Hill."

The transition from government operation to private operation is not always easy, and there have been a few unexpected moguls (bumps) on this ski hill transition. Some local skiers have expressed dissatisfaction with the new contractor's grooming management, especially of the cross-country trails. But Gliberman says that he met and even exceeded the standards set by the contract.

According to the Globe report, "Gliberman said half-way through the skiing season, he changed the approach to grooming and that satisfied many skiers."

I haven't seen the new contract, but perhaps it makes some provisions that will satisfy even more people in the area. On the other hand, a few skiers have, for many years, enjoyed meticulous groomed snow at public expense. So if the state decided to economize, by not paying for as much grooming, well, that's just one thing to suggest that the old state subsidy was more generous than first thought.

Some local folks may volunteer to help with the maintenance. If there's not a market for cross-country trails, then it's only reasonable--and commendable--for civil society to step in to fill the gap, rather than rely on taxpayers, especially those scattered throughout the rest of the state.

Says the Globe, "Friends of the Porkies will discuss assisting with finances for grooming cross-country ski trails and might be able to assist with interpretive programs, which were not done this past winter. [County Commissioner] Antila said she felt the meeting was very worthwhile."

Labels: Golf

(permalink)

Will the Pistons Pump Pesos into Detroit Economy?
With the NBA championship only one win away, the Detroit Pistons could give a boost to the economy of southeast Michigan. At least that's the speculation of the Detroit Free Press.

Columnist Susan Tompor consults David Littman, an economist. Littman calculates that the Piston's playoff performance, if it ends tonight with a victory, will have generated $67.2 million in economic activity.

Is that a big deal? Yes and no. It sounds like a large amount, especially if you're not a millionaire. But the money spent by those celebrating and viewing the playoffs--pennants to waive, meals and drinks to consume at sports bars, and so forth--was simply diverted. That money could have been spent on movie tickets or "popcorn and crackerjacks" at a game of the lowly Detroit Tigers, at the mall, etc.

Sure, the various playoff opponents and their fans, as well as the media types, represent people who might not have otherwise bought particular goods and services (hotel rooms, meals, etc.) from Michigan vendors at this time. But let's put things into perspective: $67.2 million is a pittance--roughly 0.02 percent of Michigan's economy.

Even so, expect reports such as this to be used in various locales to justify taxpayer funding of stadiums for millionaire pro athletes and their billionaire bosses. (permalink)

Government Policies Drive Gas Prices.
A majority of Californians, it seems, blame oil company greed for high gasoline prices. But government has policy has had a role, as I argue in a commentary for the Mackinac Center.

Government folly could be compounded, though. A measure to bar the sale of discounted gasoline is actually enacted in Michigan and probably other states as well. (permalink)

Reagan Week Photos.
The guys at Minnesota-based Powerlineblog have some great photos from the Reagan week.

For example, here are some mourners (including a small girl).

Then there is the throng that crowded the roadways and the capitol rotunda.

My favorite, perhaps, is the photo of Lech Walesa touching the U.S. flag that is draped over Reagan's coffin. Ronald Reagan's legacy has many components, but the one that means more to me than anything else is his willingness to endure the scorn of the chatterati to label evil forms of government there were, well, evil. For his work in hastening the cause of freedom for hundreds of millions of people, well, that alone earns RWR a place among the presidential greats. (permalink)

How Much Outsourcing Have You Done Lately?
When businesses contract with other businesses to perform services, it's a political outrage. Yet consumers do the same thing, every day.

I do a lot of outsourcing, and I'm sure you do, too. Do you buy food from the grocery story, instead of growing crops and livestock? Buy clothes off-the-rack, rather than design and sew them together yourself? Pay someone else to do your own dental work?

If so, congratulations! You're outsourcing!

But what about the latest alleged evil in commerce, off-shoring, the production of goods and services outside the U.S., for consumption in this country? If you ever buy fruit out of season, there's a good chance you're off-shoring your agricultural production to New Zealand, Latin America, or some other place.

But what about manufactured goods that now read "Made in China?" Off-shoring, yes, but that's simply a relocation of outsourcing.

Comparative advantage. Steel and coffee. So "Econ 101," but so evident in our everyday lives. It's time to quit whining, and start adjusting when necessary. (permalink)

Mourning Dove Hunting Season for Michigan?
In recent years, several states (Minnesota being the latest) have added a hunting season for mourning doves. Michigan may become the latest after the House and Senate agreed on terms.

Governor Jennifer Granholm has threatened to veto the bill, however.

(Here's a fact sheet on the bird, "one of the most abundant and widely distributed birds in North America," from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.)

Good or bad? It seems like the question is a marker for one's attitudes towards gun control more than anything else, or failing that, towards hunting in general. (permalink)

Let's Boost Biotech. But Let Government Decide the Prices.
That may be a quick summary of the results, and perhaps the intentions, of the policies of Minnesota's governor, Tim Pawlenty.

He's at a trade show this week, trying to lure companies to the state. While the biotech industry holds a lot of promise for finding breakthrough drugs, Pawlenty is also an advocate of importing prescription drugs from Canada. In the country up north, prices are cheaper--by government fiat, a policy that if practiced widely enough, will cripple research. Fortunately, the U.S. is still large enough of a market that the financial incentive is still here, at least for a while.

A spokesman for the governor finds no problem with both chasing and beating up on drug companies. (permalink)

Lawyers You'll Like.
That's one way that Fortune describes the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm that fights government regulators and politicians on behalf of small business owners.

In this profile, author Julie Sloane tells the story of Chip Mellow and Clint Bolick, who created and built what has become a 14-lawyer shop with a $6 million budget. That number may sound like a lot, but compare that to the budget of, oh, one small town in Ohio. Dublin, a city of 23,000 people, had a $51 million budget in 2002.

This story in Fortune illustrates IJ's work through various examples of cases it has taken on over the years. It's hard to pick a favorite. So here's one: the Bailey family of Mesa, Arizona, has owned a brake shop and small piece of land since 1970.

The city wanted to seize the property in a use of eminent domain, for a public purpose. The public purpose? Not to build a police station or a road, but ... to hand the property over to a hardware store. "IJ argued that a retail store was not a public use. The city countered by saying that the increased jobs and tax dollars generated from the redevelopment would create a public benefit."

After getting taken to the court of law as well as the court of public opinion, the city threw in the towel.

Too often, law becomes not a tool of the public good, but a way for one business to defeat another. As the Bailey case shows, law can also be used by government to favor one private party over another, to make the job of politicians easier. (Who wouldn't like a bigger budget to manage?) The Institute of Justice is one small group of lawyers--really, there are some good lawyers out there--who are saving the law from the politicians, regulators, and bureaucrats. (permalink)

Remembering Reagan
During Ronald Reagan's last term in office, I worked as a bureaucrat within the Department of Defense. It wasn't the most glamorous or most important job--indeed, I sometimes wondered if anyone outside of our families would notice if the entire complex at which I worked as a civil servant simply disappeared.

My work took on a bit more significance--at least in my own mind--whenever I recalled that my ultimate boss (aside from the American people) was Reagan, the commander-in-chief. "We" didn't always get things right--this was the era of the $700 hammer, after all. But there was a certain satisfaction and pride from knowing that the president, the man furthest up the chain of authority, had a clear moral vision of and for the United States and its place in the world.

And of course I remember "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" In 1988, I had gone behind the Iron Curtain for a few weeks on what might be called a cultural exchange. I met some fine people who were cynical about the overwhelming state under which they lived, and interested in Americans.

In late 1989, two of my new friends from Eastern Europe came to the U.S. to enroll in college. I went to see them during a vacation. As we were visiting in a college dorm lounge, I could hear strange sounds coming from the large screen TV. People were dancing on top of the Berlin Wall. We watched in wonder, as we knew that a dramatic transformation was underway. I knew that Reagan had a hand in it.

Once again, I was proud to work--however far removed--from this president. (permalink)

Getting Government Out of the Recreation Business.
I like to ski. I like to golf. Should your tax dollars subsidize my hobbies?

The Mackinac Center is running as their "Current Comment" of the day an article I wrote about the ski operation in the Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park. The U.S. Forest Service leases land to companies that run some of the finest ski areas in Colorado (and the world); it doesn't actually run ski areas. Why can't the State of Michigan follow this example? Thankfully, it recently has.

There are probably a few other other examples of government-run ski areas. A far more frequent example of recreational pork, though, is the government-run golf course. As noted by Michigan Privatization Report (quoting Governing magazine), government-owned courses represent "the most nonessential of nonessential services."

In the pursuit of the alleged prestige of golf courses, and the market value they add to adjacent homes, governments can undertake heavy burdens and engage in shady accounting. Auburn Hills (Mich.) for example, paid $16 million a few years ago to buy land for a course. Since 2000, the course has run a deficit of $1.5 million. To help finance the construction of a golf course, the city took $500,000 from a police fund.

UPDATE: Here's a link to the article in Governing magazine, from 1997.

Labels: Golf

(permalink)

Taxing and Other People's Money.
Here's the problem with government workers having bargaining power: there's no fiscal incentive on either side of the bargaining table to spend wisely.

In private industry, profits are not guaranteed. Neither are pay raises, a rising stock price, nor any other method of compensation. Whether the company has a union workforce or not, labor and management alike must at some point bow to economic reality.

But when we are dealing with government employees, both labor and management workers are civil servants, largely able to keep their jobs no matter what. True, governments can and have cut jobs, but with far less frequency than in the private sector.

There is some limited discipline in government spending--people can vote out the managers. They can vote out the very top managers (legislators, school board members, and so forth), though the permanent bureaucracy being what it is, the effects of these changes are not as strong as you would think.

Generally, school finances are reasonably accountable, in theory. In most states, a large portion of school spending is directly decided at the ballot. A few states, however, have no provision for popular approval of tax increases for government schools. Pennsylvania is one of those states, as the president of the Commonwealth Foundation points out in this essay.
"Homeowners in 44 other states enjoy some degree of protection against outlandish school tax increases," Matthew J. Brouillette writes. "However, there is absolutely nothing the average Pennsylvanian can do - short of trying to remove spendthrift board members - to keep from being taxed out of their homes."

Given the problem of rational ignorance, few people will take the trouble to find out who the spendthrift board members are.

So what do residents of the Keystone State get in return? Government schools with the third-highest per-pupil revenue in the country--and SAT scores in the bottom five of states.
Brouillette quotes a school board member--presumably one who would like to be cautious with taxpayer dollars--to explain the problem.

"Today, when a school board sits down with unionized teachers, janitors, bus drivers, or cooks, there is a blank check lying on the bargaining table. The goal of the union is to fill in the highest amount possible - and when school boards are not required to get taxpayer approval of lucrative union demands, there is little incentive for board members to say 'No' to higher taxes."

Labels: Education

(permalink)

The Problem with Hyphenated Names.
In honor of the wedding-filled month of June, Frederica Mathewes-Green reviews the trouble she's seen as a person with a hyphenated surname.

If, like me, you've received mangled address labels (even without a hyphenated name), you may enjoy this short piece.

Her conclusion: "The hyphenated name wasn't a noble experiment, it was just a sign of the times, good for a few laughs, a few scrapbook pages of mangled address labels. It wasn't the important thing. So if you're planning a wedding right now my advice is: Don't plan a wedding. Plan a marriage instead. Make it wonderful, and when it isn't wonderful, make it last." (permalink)

The Change in Minnesota: Real or Imagined?
To the uninitiated, Minnesota's politics and policies reflect those of the Scandinavian countries from which many of the state's residents claim ancestral ties. Same cold climate, same socialist policies.

The old guard has been severely tested in recent years, however. First was Jesse Ventura, who (among other things) got a lot of credit for "Jesse checks." These tax rebates returned surplus tax revenue to the people, money that in other times would have been used to set up yet more state projects. After Ventura came the current governor, Tim Pawlenty, who has developed the most conservative record of any governor in decades. To be sure, he's been proded by the Republican Majority in the House.

Despite major budget problems of the last two years, there has been no major tax increase. That, and other events, have gotten the defenders of the heavy foot of government worked up.

A fairly recent editorial in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune sums up the case of the "more government is better" establishment, and its reaction to the challenge to longstanding assumptions of official policy. Margaret Martin offers a vigorous rebuke of the Star-Tribune, which ranks among the country's leading leftist papers. (permalink)

Get Ready for Two Passwords Per Site.
Can't keep all those passwords straight? It may get worse, as some experts recommend "two-factor authentication." (permalink)