State parks in Michigan are facing a long road to recovery, even with new funding sources On a mild winter morning in March 2009, prison inmates working at Ludington State Park discovered that part of the roof at the park’s popular Great Lakes Visitor Center had collapsed. A hard winter, which dumped 130 inches of […]
Michigan Government
Citizens cannot do their job of running their government if they don’t know what their public servants are doing.
Posted inMichigan Government
Consolidation seems simple enough
One of the great challenges in good governance is the paradox that seemingly obvious solutions may not be solutions at all. Such is the case with the oft-repeated desire to streamline Michigan’s plethora of local governments and their functions. The human mind sees Michigan’s 2,300-odd units of local government and instinctively knows that some pruning […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Beach closures hit record; stormwater runoff blamed
Diana Farris took her family to Young State Park in Charlevoix in late July to try to escape a brutal heat wave that was baking much of the Midwest. Her plan was to spend the hottest part of the day swimming in the lake with her husband and two daughters. Things changed a couple of […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Pure slacking — Michigan falters on conservation
Images of children frolicking on scenic beaches fill a television screen as the soothing voice of actor Tim Allen narrates the commercial promoting Michigan as the place to spend “the perfect summer.” A line you won’t hear Allen speak: Beach closures due to bacterial pollution — contamination linked to fecal matter — have doubled in […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Moroun family gets busy
We’re all familiar with the secret ballot in our democratic republic. Now, Michigan apparently has secret lobbying. The Michigan Campaign Finance Network reported today that it found $4.7 million in broadcast ad spending by the Detroit International Bridge Co. so far in 2011 — and none of it has been reported as lobbying. The ad […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Legislature, check your residency work
One of the more ill-advised things the Legislature and Gov. John Engler did back in the 1990s was to impose their “wisdom” on Michigan communities that made residency requirements for certain public servants. The Legislature decided that for the city of Detroit to require police officers to live in Detroit was unacceptable, for example. They […]
Posted inMichigan Government
SE Michigan is hotbed for government collaboration talks
Michigan is well-populated with organizations and people studying how to develop better public policies and better governments. One such group is the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan. A key part of their work is to survey government leaders to discern what’s going on in the trenches of delivering […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Michigan's regulation of liquor business is sobering
(Originally published June 22, 2011) By Susan J. Demas No, it’s not your imagination. That bottle of Jack Daniels really does cost more in New Buffalo than in Michigan City, Ind. “There is a mark-up,” said Andrea Miller, spokeswoman for the Liquor Control Commission, the state agency that regulates alcohol. Why is that? The answer […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Learning from prison cuts in other states
(Originally published Feb. 3, 2011) When Judge Steven Alm was appointed to a Honolulu felony court in 2004, it didn’t take long before the new jurist identified what he considered a major flaw in the system: Offenders on probation repeatedly flouted simple rules without sanction, until a-dozen-or-so accumulated violations sent them to state prison for […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Why Snyder's government reform plan may sound familiar
(Originally published March 22, 2011) Gov. Rick Snyder’s speech Monday aimed at reinventing local government actually reinvented (or at least reiterated) numerous reform ideas offered in recent years by the Center for Michigan and other public interest groups. Examples: • Intensifying local government consolidation and service sharing was a key recommendation of the Center’s citizens’ […]
You must be logged in to post a comment.