From the comments piling up on Bridge’s stories about school-employee pension reform, both here and at Mlive, where Bridge shares content, you’d think…well, you’d think a lot of things. For a topic that involves actuarial tables and lots of numbers, it gets blood boiling like few others. But if there’s one takeaway I hope every […]
Everybody feels our pain
Posted inMichigan Government
Teacher retirement fund has $45 billion hole
When something once vital and secure dies, it must be mourned. And so David Campbell, superintendent of the Livingston Educational Service Agency in Howell, likes using the language of a funeral director when discussing Michigan’s retirement program for school employees. “We’re in the middle of a grieving process,” he said recently, going through stacks of […]
Posted inMichigan Government
GOP fix for MPSERS calls for bigger checks from teachers, retirees
The way state Rep. Rick Olson sees it, there are only three places to find a solution to financial problems in the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System. “Increased contribution by employees, reductions in benefits — or find a magical money tree somewhere,” the Saline Republican said. With no magic to call on, a group […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Educators see violation of trust in pension proposal
When Kathy Kapera started working as a Michigan teacher in 1976, she made about $7,000 a year. Over the course of her career — most of it spent teaching hearing-impaired children in Royal Oak — she earned a master’s degree, and steadily accumulated seniority and experience that all led to the moment in 2010 when […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Teacher pension gaps pop up around Great Lakes
As dire as conditions are for the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System, be advised it could be worse. Just look at Illinois. Across the country, pension funds are suffering from the same confluence of factors, including rising health-care costs, falling returns on investment, lax oversight and more. It is very difficult to directly compare […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance” — Henry David Thoreau. * Bridge reported last week that a center of contention in efforts to streamline state regulations may be how the state regulates — some might even say hampers — the alcoholic beverage market. TheMackinacCenter for Public Policy […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Early childhood efforts need more than office equipment
By Jack Kresnak/Michigan’s Children A new report on the nation’s efforts to provide quality early learning shows Michigan was one of the few states to increase preschool funding last year. The bad news: We still serve only 18 percent of 4-year-olds and no 3-year-olds, putting Michigan in the bottom half of states in accessibility to […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Traditional polling worthless in predicting ballot-proposal votes
By Mark Grebner/Practical Political Consulting Inc. Some polls prove to be right on the money, while a few miss by five or even 10 points. But some polls that aren’t worth anything at all: The ones that try to predict how a ballot proposal will fare with the voters. When the final pre-election poll published […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Snyder pushes end to personal tax on business
Steve Carlson considered buying a couple of new machines for his plastic molding business near Lansing, but he and the company’s other owners decided to hold off for now. One reason, he said, is Michigan’s personal property tax on the new equipment would drive up the cost of doing business, adding another 30 percent to […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Business, Republican leaders express confidence in personal property tax repeal
In the looming battle over Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed personal property tax repeal, both sides agree on one thing: It’s a tax neither particularly likes. “This is an investment penalty,” said Lt. Governor Brian Calley before a Senate committee Wednesday. “The more you invest, the more you pay.” The Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the […]