Another look at the Alabama Tax Reform/Hike Plan
The Institute for Policy Innovation, which has released several good studies on the federal income tax system, has come up with a brief analysis of the Alabama tax hike proposal on next week's ballot. Forest Hunter, the brief's author, argues that "the pro-tax increase side is arguing that good, Christian people should be willing to pay more taxes and spend more money on government beneficence programs," even though the plan has little to no accountability built in. Seems like accountability would be as much of a Christian virtue--indeed moreso--than the claim that compassion should be delivered through the means of the tax man.
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Grade Inflation in College
As the college school year starts up, it's worth remembering that a college degree ain't worth what it used to be. One reason is grade inflation. Herbert London provides an example: "At Harvard, for example, the proportion of grades that were A’s or A minuses rose from 33.2 percent in 1985 to 48.5 in 2000. At Princeton, the percentage of A’s increased from 30.7 percent in 1973 to 42.5 in the late ‘90’s. At Dartmouth, the average grade point average (GPA) rose from 2.2 in 1958 to 3.33 in 2001. At Duke, the GPA went from 2.79 in 1969 to 3.37 in 2001."

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni, publisher of a recent study on grade inflation, is a worthy organization deserving of financial support to anyone who values higher education.
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Independent Restaurants Fight Back
One cultural critique sometimes lodged against capitalism is that it promotes a homogenization of the business landscape: no matter where you go, there's a McDonalds or a Wal-Mart. But there's no conspiracy at work; such businesses succeed because they prove themselves in the marketplace. Those who don't like the Golden Arches or the megastore with the blue-vested greeters sometimes put their energies into zoning battles and even sillier attempts (such as one proposal, in Illinois, to ban the construction of superstores such as WalMarts). Instead, they ought to fight back by starting their own businesses.

One Minnesota group of restauranteurs is doing just that; it is getting together to promote independently owned restaurants. Says one operator: "You can go from suburb to suburb to suburb and see the names of the same chain restaurants." [I can vouch for this; every time I think I may have found a local restaurant, I find another one 10 miles away.] The owner of the Jax Cafe continues, "I believe in running a hands-on family restaurant, and I think there needs to be more of them."

More power to 'em. I still haven't been to a decent, locally-owned (non-chain) restaurant since I moved here last year. I am still looking for a good Greek or Chinese restaurant, for example. Then again, what should I expect from an area famous for lutefisk? Unfortunately, the market doesn't guarantee that my, or anyone's, particular tastes will be met.

Here's an interesting footnote: the Twin Cities is one of the "whitest" areas around, and it lacks the old immigrant communities such as Detroit's Greektown or Chicago's Chinatown. That's one reason I can't buy a good pastichio.
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Detroit Public Schools Chief: We Want Charter School Money
Michigan allows several authorities, including local school districts and state universities, to hold the charter of charter schools. Robert Thompson, a retired businessman wants to build, out of his own money, $200 million worth of school buildings for some new charter schools for Detroit.

The proposal has been hindered by the refusal of the Detroit Public Schools chief, who has used his friends in the state government to block the new schools. Remember the old rule: Follow the Money.

If the DPS charters the schools, it gets a 3 percent commission of the funds ($6 million). If, as the DPS suggests, 25,000 students go to the charter schools, it also loses over $175 million each year in state funds.

The CEO of the schools, Kenneth Burnley, says that the Detroit system can be trusted with the charter. Thompson begs to differ. Burnley may in fact be an honorable man, but given the history of the DPS, I'd trust Thompson on this.
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New Approaches to Reduce Recidivism?
The Department of Justice is doling out $100 million of your dollars in an attempt to reduce recividism. Over 630,000 criminals are released from state prisons each year, and roughly two-thirds of them will be arrested for new crimes within three years. Here's hoping that the money--which, to DOJ's credit, will be used on a variety of pilot programs--will find something that works. Actually, we do know that religion works, as demonstrated by the success of the Life Changers Institute, a program offered by Prison Fellowship in several states.
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Recycling is Garbage
Over the weekend, I got into a conversation about trash collection (some life, huh?) Someone commented that "they ought to make recycling mandatory."

I suppose that's as good a time as any to note that recycling is often a waste of time and resources. (For a more detailed look, here's an oldie-but-goodie NYT article, in PDF, on the subject. It's a poor-quality reproduction, so print it out and save your eyes some trouble.)
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Penny-wise, Pound Foolish?
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich used his line-item veto to cut $12 million in funds for treatment of the mentally ill. The guv says this brings the mental health budget back in line with what he proposed in the spring; critics say that cuts now will lead to more spending down the road, as the mentally ill revert to using inpatient hospital care. According to the Daily Herald, "the governor cut $9.2 million for a program that provides intensive services for the mentally ill to keep them out of hospitals. He cut an additional $1.75 million for a less intensive program that provides housing assistance for the mentally ill. The remainder of the $12 million cut would have paid for drugs to control symptoms of the mentally ill."

There must be $12 million in the state budget that could otherwise be cut--grants to winemakers to promote Illinois wine, for example, or a museum for gay and lesbian history (two budget items from the days of George Ryan, admittedly). And of course, Medicaid itself needs some fundamental reform rather than simple tweaks in spending.
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Fascism is a State of Geography
The story about teardowns and local standards reminds me of a speech I once heard on C-SPAN. Jonah Goldberg, an editor at National Review, explained his political philosophy roughly this way: "On a national level, I'm libertarian; on the state level, I'm somewhat so; on a local level, I'm a fascist."
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Too Much Time on Their Hands
In many suburban communities, people buy 30, 40, and 50 year old houses--and then tear them down. I've seen it, and while I am not a big fan of the "teardown" phenomenon, I understand it. Styles and needs change, as family life changes. My first house was a 50 year old ranch, valuable to me (mostly because it was my first house, and because it was in a choice setting), but for many people, it wouldn't work--no "great room", laundry facilities in the basement, three bedrooms and two baths, but no bedroom suite, and so forth. I wouldn't be surprised if it was gone within 10 years, replaced by a mini-mansion.

Lamenting the passage of the past and moving on is not enough for people, though, who still want to own how other people's houses look. So today's Daily Herald tells how Lombard, a middle-class city about 25 miles west of Chicago, is being told to restrict (even more) what homeowners can place on their property.

One architect, for example, says that Lombard may do well to create an "Architectural Review Commission." You know, those people who say"that's the wrong shade of brown on the front wall" or "turn those lights down." The proponent of such a group concedes that some people go overboard. "

"In some towns, (design review groups are) a little overzealous with what they're supposed to be doing," Colliander said.

Sometimes the panels get involved in small details, like colors in a sign or lighting levels, that are not their business nor in the realm of their understanding, he said.

Colliander was involved in a recent project where the town insisted on wall sconces on the outside of the building. Now the company is dealing with multiple complaints that the lights are too bright.

True enough. But such is the nature of the beast, once the precedent is established.
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Politicization of Fat
The Detroit News has a review of the Fat Wars. The headline of the story, as reprinted in the Grand Rapids Press, is "Political debate on fat growing." That's true enough, as far as it goes, but the story here is more one-sided than the headline suggests. Diet is a political issue only because the left has politicized it.
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State Revenues to Pick Up, but Maybe not Enough
State economists are expecting gross domestic product product to rise 2.7 percent in 2003, and 4.1 percent in 2004. Economic growth is good for state budgets--it raises revenue, and decreases demands on state services. But permanent expansions in state governments could lead to trouble anyway. Says Gov. Mark Warner (D-Virginia), "Even with an economic recovery, there will be a substantial gap between available revenues and the spending requirements which we would all judge as non-discretionary." Looks like some hard choices lie ahead.
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British Dentistry Coming to Michigan
Michigan plans to save $27 milllion from its Medicaid budget by cutting services it pays for, including chiropractic, podiatry, and dentistry. A spokesman for the Department of Community Health says that the Department must make the distinction between "the very important and vital." Says the Detroit Free Press, "Adult Medicaid recipients who are in severe pain with swelling and infection still will get emergency dental coverage, covering an exam and treatment, including a tooth extraction." The cost savings, then, will be offset, at least in part, by increased demands for emergency room and other more-costly treatment.

Rather than tweak benefit levels, the state might do better to consider who gets treatment. I'm not sure about Michigan levels, but states often add "optional populations" to coverage--sometimes including people with family incomes up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level. Medicaid in nearly all states (if not all) requires fundamental reform, lest it consume state budgets.
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Hunting Mourning Doves in Wisconsin
Wisconsin joins 40 other states in allowing hunts of mourning doves. Despite being passed by a popular referrendum in 2000, it's been wrapped up in the courts--until yesterday. The measures is seen largely as an embrace of hunter's rights.
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Welfare Lives--for Corporations
The Detroit News reviewed the history of the Michigan Economic Growth Agency (MEGA) and found:

• 176 tax breaks, adding up (at least) to $1.38 billion, have been given in exchange for promises of 46,000 jobs. (That's roughly $30,000 per job). The Mackinac Center for Public Policy says that the number ought to be raised to $2.5 billion when you add in local property tax abatements, taxpayer-supplied funds for employee training, and other measures. (That's roughly $55,000 job, then)


• Proponents say that in a world of tax breaks, MEGA is necessary; doing without such selective breaks is like unilateral disarmament.


• Critics counter that "It's an expensive way for a state to bring about a very modest increase in job creation."

Better than selective tax breaks are efforts to reduce the overtall tax burden of the state, and improve the delivery of taxpayer-funded services, such as education.
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Union to Public: Drop Dead
Michigan's governor, Jennifer Granholm has been asking state government employees to take unpaid days off to help balance the budget. Well, not exactly unpaid--they'll get the money added into their retirement funds.

No dice, say leaders of Michigan government worker unions. "If you have a problem with revenues, then raise taxes," he said. "Why should I fund it? If you have to close parks or close Secretary of State offices, do it. That's what corporations do. You'll still get service, but you may have to drive 30 miles to get it."

In other words, don't touch us. This despite the fact that employees in many private sector companies have taken pay cuts, to keep their jobs.

The Michigan State Employees Union and the United Auto Workers are in a game of chicken with state residents: in this environment, all state employees will take pay cuts, or some--junior level--state employees will lose their jobs. The unions are hoping that the public will raise hell (and demand that their taxes be raised) when they, rather than state workers, feel the pinch from the down economy.
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Another Czar?
According to an Associated Press story, we're going to get another Czar. No, not the Romanovs, but "a high-level government post to nurture the manufacturing sector." President Bush made the announcement yesterday, in Ohio. The AP report hints that this is part of a re-election campaign, and it's probably right. Bush will probably be unrewarded--his bad policy of imposing steel tarrifs hasn't won him any union support, for example--but it does set bad precedent. It institutionalizes, and thus legitimizes as part of the public debate, the handwringing about manufacturing jobs that has been doing on for the last two decades (at least).

Economies change, and there's little good that government can do about it. Public efforts to sustain this or that sector of the economy are futile attempts to freeze the economy at a given point in time. The least bad that can come from this office is that it merely duplicates the efforts of the U.S. Trade Representative to get other countries to reduce their trade barriers. On the other side, it is yet another attempt to fashion industrial policy--something that hasn't worked very well, to say the least, for Japan since, oh, 1990 or so.
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Guest Workers?
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Mary Anastasia O'Grady comments on illegal aliens and labor. In particular, she endorses two new types of visas contained in a Congressional proposal. One would grant temporary work status for those in low-skill, low-pay jobs. Some European countries have a similar "guest worker" system, which has its own problems. A second visa would regularize the status of illegal aliens. They could get in the back of the line for regular immigrant visas, but only if they pay a substantial fine. The fine, O'Grady says, would be to make sure that illegals pay some penalty for breaking the law.

Purely as an economic matters, illegals are good; they take the jobs that citizens don't want. The problem with illegals is not their desire to work, or even the jobs they take, but a nexus of bad policies that strain budgets and wreck havoc with cultures. These bad policies are seen most vividly in Germany, but they exist, to a lesser degree, in the US. First, an overly generous social welfare system reduces the incentives for citizens to work--increasing the jobs for illegals (or in Germany, guest workers) to fill. Second, the problems of non-assimilation (ballots in Spanish, concerns about the balkanization of American society) come not so much because we don't have a reverse Berlin Wall along the Mexican border (reverse, as in "keep non-citizens out," rather than "keep citizens in").

From a God's-eye view, it's hard to say that one culture is better than another. But from a practical matter, a country will experience lots of stress and turmoil if its basic set of habits, customs, and practices (including, in the U.S., the speaking of English) are deemed to be up for grabs (and even racist). Such, however, is the status of elite opinion in the U.S.; assimilation is no longer expected, because elites (and ultimately, the grass roots) believe that, say, the status of the U.S. as an English-speaking country is nothing special. One cannot blame immigrants for refusing to assimilate to a society if that society doesn't expect them to do so.
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