Speed Limits to Rise on Illinois Tollway?
Officials at the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority are thinking about raising the 55-mph speed limit, at least in some areas. A spokesman says "We're looking at doing anything we can do to improve customer service."

Well, good for them. While metro Chicago highways have their stop-and-go times, often cars travel in excess of the stated speed limit. The motorist who sticks with 55 is more likely than not going to be a traffic hazard.

With the limited enforcement of the current speed limit, it makes sense to bring the stated limit more into conformity with the speed at which most people actually drive. The 85 percentile rule, I think it's called. People are in general smart enough to know what's an appropriate speed, and artificially low speed limits only furthers a cynical view of law.
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Swim, Jim, Swim
Not exactly a policy story, but since I've lived in a Great Lakes state for my entire life, it's still interesting. A 40 year old Michigan man is 10 stages through a planned 16-stage trip to swim the length of Lake Michigan. He launched the 340-mile trip after withdrawing from an attempt to swim across a portion of Lake Superior. He tries to swim for 20 miles at a time, though on occasion that means a 42-hour swim.

A representative of the Coast Guard, which has tracked his path, said "He's raising money for Big Brothers and Big Sisters, so he's got a good cause, but he could pick a better time of the season to do it."
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Do it for the Teachers
Negotiations to bring 15 more charter schools to Michigan have hit an impasse. Meanwhile, 3,000 people protested the proposal outside the capitol. The Detroit Free Press said of the crowed "many of them teachers," but I suspect the percentage was close to 100 percent, and if not teachers, then their allies in other unions or the education establishment.
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Don't Call Me, I'll Ignore You
A few thoughts:

1. Congress is acting now because it is a very easy way for each member to
gain political points. "See, I am helping you spend time with your family
and not answering phone calls from unscrupulous companies."

2. Phone calls pitching fraudulent transactions are already subject to anti-
fraud laws, regardless of whether there is a do not call list.

3. As much as we would like to not receive this calls, there is no
constitutional right to expect this to happen, anymore than there is a
constitutional right for me to not be offended by seeing the Detroit Tigers
slide into the history books as the worst-ever team in baseball while the
Yankees move towards another World Series championship.

4. Though there is no constitutional right to not be pestered by phone calls,
Congress may enact a law or authorize a regulation prohibiting it from
happening. However, that law or regulation must be enacted only through
specified procedures. In a country operating under the rule of law (more or
less--less than I would like, more than pessi-conservatives would admit),
process and procedure ARE important, and cannot be short-circuited just
because the end result is popular. A judge has ruled that the process of
bringing the national do not call list into being was wrong. The solution?
Congresses passes a law and gets the process right.

5. Despite what I just said, it is an open question of whether or not a do
not call registry violates a true, enumerated right in the constitution--to
free speech. Even businesses have a right to free speech under the
constitution. An individual's right to free speech can in fact limited in
some very specific cases ("shouting fire in a crowded theater").
Businesses' right to free speech is limited as well (in case of fraudulent
claims, for example.) Whether or not limits apply to a do not call registry
would still have to be tested in court. If I had to flip a coin, I would
say they will win.

6. A friend of mine has suggested that what is at stake is his property right to control what happens to the telephone. It's an interesting argument, and I'm sympathetic to most proposals to rely on property rights. A companion argument to this would be that freedom of speech does not establish a requirement to listen.

7. By the way, here's a great column on the topic from Dave Barry.
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Government as Competitor to Private Business
Some things, the government should do, and do well--such as organize and provide national defense. On the other hand, they get into trouble by trying to do too much--such as things performed by the private sector. Not only does this unnecessarily enlarge the size of government, it provides unfair competition.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation recently issued a report (PDF) describing how governments in Texas have gone afar from their core functions by entering into commercial ventures. Some cities are in the Internet business, for example. Municipally-owned electricity is a $3 billion industry. In all, 3 percent of the state's gross product is performed by government agencies.
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Multi-state Tuition Agreements
One unusual feature of higher education finance in Minnesota--or at least a feature I have not seen elsewhere--is a reciprocal agreement it has with other states. Residents of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and some other states (one or both of the Dakotas, plus Manitoba) can attend state universities outside of their own state, at the same tuition as residents of those states.

It sounds weird, but it seems to be an innovative way to avoid empire building in the upper Midwest, even allowing (at the margin) for some economies of scale: not every state needs to have a graduate program in music therapy, for example.

The legislative auditor has a new report, though, that reveals an oddity of the arrangement. Minnesota residents have several branches of the University of Minnesota to choose from. Those who attend the Twin Cities campus (by far the largest) pay a surcharge, on top of resident in-state tuition. Wisconsin residents who attend that campus do not. So, if you live in Minnesota and your children want to attend "the U" (as the Twin Cities campus is called), here's the cheaper way of doing it: move to Wisconsin (where taxes are cheaper anyway), and send them as non-residents.
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More on Medicaid
Stateline.org has a short story on the latest Kaiser Foundation study on Medicaid, released last week. What stands out in this story is the attempt to squeeze money out of providers and current recipients, rather than be more careful about how gets into the program in the first place. This is exactly what you would expect from public choice theory--bring more and more people into the program (to create more voters who depend on or favor expansion of the program), and focus less on actually improving the service provided to people already there. By the way, 49 states have reduced payments to doctors and hospitals, but only 18 have changed the income standards for who qualifies--standards that sometimes let people with incomes of up to 2 or 3 times the federal poverty level to enter a public program in some way.
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Schools for the Students ... Or for Teachers?
Michigan politicians are negotiating the expansion of the state's charter law, a move that would allow another 15 charter schools in Detroit. The teachers union responds by ... organizing a protest that draws so many teachers out of the classroom that the school system sends students home.
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Victimless Non-Crimes
Sometimes, the virtual world needs more virtue.

Police in Michigan received a tip that a man had agreed, through an Internet chat, to meet a 13 year-old girl for a sexual encounter. The man's employer--a high school--and local media heard about it, too. They received the man's picture, home and e-mail addresses and telephone number, from a concerned citizen.

The girl never existed. She was made up, a creation of a sting. Police pose as prostitutes all the time, and they have also started to pose as minors in online forums, trolling for pedophiles. But in this case, it wasn't the police who did the trolling. It was a private citizen in Wisconsin, an online--and unnamed--vigilante.

According to the Detroit Free Press, the would-be virtual pedophile's attorney says that his "conversation was 'all make believe' that 'happens online a million times a day in these chat rooms.'"

While the vigilante's tactics can be questioned--there is, after all, plenty of opportunity for defamation--you've got to wonder why any right-thinking person would even play at being a pedophile.
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Next Time You Hear "Teachers are Underpaid," Remember This
Some Chicago Public School teachers will receive a raise of $13,000, to be spread over five years.

Actually, that understates the raise, since the number of school days will be cut from 180 to 174.
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Some Things Do Change, After All
I'm not much of a baseball fan, but I did notice this line from the fron page of the Chicago-area Daily Herald: "It's Sept. 24. Do you know where your Cubs are? They're in first place. All by themselves."

Cubs in first place? In late September? Next up: "Pigs can fly; prototype unveiled."
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Wisconsin Politician: Cut My Pay
According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "The Washington County Board chairman's pay would be slashed $17,820 next year, a 50% reduction, as part of a budget-cutting resolution that the Executive Committee adopted Tuesday." Other officials may--this proposal has only been passed by a committee, not the full board--be cut by a smaller amount, 9 percent.

Chairman Ken Miller volunteered for the cut Tuesday, and members agreed to cut his pay--but they were not eager to cut their own pay by 50 percent, a proposal that one of them called "an insult." Another member, according to the paper, "said the board in effect had cut its salary by not approving a raise since 1999."

Sounds like Washington DC accounting: the lack of an increase is a cut. Reminds me of the teacher who said that he wasn't getting a pay cut because the pay scale hadn't moved--though he was getting a step increase based on the schedule. Hey, if it's more money in your paycheck, it's a raise. And if your paycheck remains the same, it isn't a cut. Yes, I understand the effects of inflation.

But I've got a word for the Washington County board member who laments the lack of a pay raise: get used to it. Some of your constituents haven't had a pay raise in four years, either. And public service--especially for a part time gig--is, well, a service, not a right.
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Aging Prisoners Costing Taxpayers a Bundle
In 1997, 5.3 percent of Michigan's prisoners were over 50. This year, the percentage has more than doubled, to 11.4 percent.

With an aging prison population, the Michigan Department of Corrections faces the same problems facing Medicare: as people age, they tend to need more medical care, and that demand is compounded with a growing aged population.

According to the Detroit News, "Experts predict that these costs will increase every year until sheer economics dictate early release of old prisoners who have health problems and are a low risk to return to a life of crime."

The Department spend $170 million a year on medical care, and will go up if projections hold. (The department already consumes 20 percent of the state's general budget.) Keeping the public safe through a criminal justice system is a core function of government, so the expense is not necessarily wasted. But since the demand for health care is, in theory, infinite (one cannot be "too healthy"), and the courts will (and have) imposed minimum levels of care for inmates, the state may have to make more aggressive (and wise) use of parole for older prisoners.
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The Personal Isn't Political
One of the most tiresome (though trivial) aspects of the modern entertainment industry is the tendency of artists to make political statements. (Come to think of it, the fact that we have an entertainment industry shows how prosperous we are. What was an occasional avocation by weary workers looking for a break after a long, hard harvest is now an industry that surrounds us.)

I'm reminded of this tendency of the creative types to use their platform for political statements by the latest pronouncements of the Dixie Chicks. This all-woman trio has decided that it's no longer a country music act. Jonathan Last of the Weekly Standard provides a quick review of how the Chicks have alienated many of their Bush-voting country music fans.

Now that one of the trio says "We don't feel part of the country scene any longer, it can't be our home anymore," Last offers three possible reasons why the group has gone out of its way to offend conservatives (and some others) by insulting President Bush and then people who might vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger: (a) they're sore for not winning any awards at the latest country music self-congratulation ceremony; (b) it's a calculated marketing strategy; (c) they simply don't like their fans.

I have a copy of their breakout CD, "Wide Open Spaces," in my car, and I occasionally play it. I enjoy listening for the banjo and fiddle playing, and occasionally wonder about picking up fiddle playing myself. (My other musical experiences are limited to playing the piano and singing in a college chorus.)

The people who know me well find this an odd choice in music. But my standard reply is that if I bought CDs only of people who shared my politics, I would have a very slim music collection. I'm willing to separate a person's creative performance from his politics.
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Don't Drink, Drive, and Skip Your Court Date
In Wayne County (Detroit) Michigan, over 7,000 people have been cited for driving under the influence, but have ignored their court dates.

Says the county sheriff, "The real problem is that the traditional game for years in Wayne County has been that if you're a drunk driver and you get arrested, you can post a $100 bond and you're out on the street," apparently, never to deal with the criminal justice system.

The State of Michigan is giving the county $392,400 to pursue scofflaws. Proving that some government officials have a sense of humor, the newly created task force is named the "Last Call" unit.

By the way, the Detroit News has a more substantial take on the development.
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Zero-Tolerance: Zero Sense
Blogger Mitch Berg tells how his son was suspended from school for carrying three plastic pellets from a tiny gun. " The odd thing is, the assistant principle didn't know what the tiny beads were; she had to be told--by Berg's son--what they were. Berg concludes: "As I walked out the door of the building that had been cleansed of plastic toy ammunition, I tallied up the day's balance sheet: Half a day of work missed; half a day of school missed; and a son who's learned one of life's most important lessons: The Authorities Just Aren't Very Smart.
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Popular Advocate of Low Taxes Leaves High Tax Minnesota
The power of talk radio can be overstated, but advocates of better-and-smaller government in Minnesota will miss Jason Lewis, of KSTP-AM, who is taking a job in Charlotte, North Carolina. The local St. Paul Pioneer Press calls the "best friend Minnesota Republicans ever had."

More importantly, he has been a consistent proponent of change in Minnesota, driving home (literally--he has had the evening drive time slot) the message that state residents are already overtaxed. The Charlotte Observer quotes Sarah Janacek, a Minnesota-based political consultant, as saying that "the no-new-taxes [pledge of Governor Tim Pawlenty] was greatly enhanced by Jason yakking about it every night." And amazingly, Pawlenty and the legislature (half Republican, half Democratic) put together a budget that dealt with a $4 billion deficit without a tax increase. To the extent that Jason Lewis was responsible, I am grateful. I didn't listen to him that often--my schedule didn't allow for it--but I am going to miss knowing that his voice was out there.
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Medicaid Growth Slows in 2002
The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured has three new reports today about Medicaid spending. A survey of the 50 states reveals more of the same--cutting payments to physicians and other health care providers, and raising copayments or restricting services to beneficiaries.

It's not true that Medicaid spending is actually down; spending has increased from year-to-year for quite some time. What is different is that the rate of increase for 2002 was less than the rate of increase from the previous year--the first time something like that has happened in 7 years. In 2001, the rate of growth was 12.8 percent; in 2002 it was "only" 9.3 percent.

In the last 3 years, states have leaned heavily on providers--all 50 states have frozen or even reduced payments to doctors and other providers. But only 32 to 35 have increased copayment requirements, restricted or reduced who is eligible, or reduced benefits.

The Foundation lays the cause of increased spending on the elderly and people with disabilities (rather than the stereotypical low-income household). It notes that spending increased by $7 billion in FY 2002, while overall state revenues decreased by $62 billion (of course not all that "lost money" would have gone to Medicaid, magnifying the importance of increased spending.)

Cutting provider payments and nickel-and-diming beneficiaries cannot stem the fiscal disaster that will befall states if the current path continues. The National Center for Policy Analysis, meanwhile, offers a number of ways to reform Medicaid that will increased consumer care and decrease costs.

An old (March 2003) story in USA Today offers some more statistics.

• First, 47 million people (or 1 in 6 people--16 percent of the population) receive Medicaid benefits. By any standard, that's a large number.


• Nationally, 20 percent of state budgets are spent on Medicaid--second only to education.


• Since its inception in 1965, the number of people covered by Medicaid has "expanded dramatically."

The story ends with a call by FamiliesUSA for national health care. Until recently, there hasn't been much work on finding consumer-friendly alternatives.
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Public Policy Term for the Day: Optical Solution
If you google the term "optical solution," you will get over 5,000 hits, most of which have to do with either high tech or eyeglasses. Nothing terribly useful if you, like me, are interested in public policy.

But here's another use of the term: a highly visible government program or initiative that does nothing to achieve a public policy goal; a symbolic act to convince the public that the government is "doing something" about a problem.

I came across this term in the Seattle Weekly. I perused this "alternative" newspaper while on a trip to the Northwest recently, and read an article about how difficult it is for the U.S. government (and Canadian government, for that matter) to patrol the U.S.-Canadian border.

The U.S. government will be adding a number of employees in an attempt to prevent terrorists from entering the country through Canada. Given the large number of miles and small number of agents (roughly 600 agents and 5,200 miles of border), it's nearly impossible to control what's going on. So has the recent emphasis on the northern border, and adding more border agents actually achieved anything? According to Kathleen Walker, an immigration attorney, what the U.S. has gained is the appearance of having control. In other words, she says, it has achieved an optical solution.

Such a useful term. Remember that next time you read of a new program, or law, to deal with a problem, real or imagined. Does the act actually mitigate the problem, or is it only an optical solution?
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Something's wrong in Wisconsin
With less than 2 percent of the nation's population, Wisconsin leads the country in the number of sexual predators released into neighborhoods. Of all all the perverts released under such laws, one-third have been released in Wisconsin.

Under the law, dubbed Chapter 980, sexual predators are released, but are subject to being placed back into confinement if they violate certain rules. (Think of it as lifetime parole, I guess.)

Before 2000, the convicts were not released until a doctor certified that they were making substantial progress in their "treatment" (whether or not treatment can be effective is a debate for another day). But then state's Department of Health and Family Services waived that requirement.

Not surprisingly, officials have a hard time finding a place to house these offenders; neighbors have a way of objecting and raising a protest. Most other states with release laws have released one, or at most, two offenders.
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Don't Call Us, We'll ....
The Indianapolis Star takes a look at some Indiana-based telemarketing companies who believe that the new, federal "Do Not Call" registry will in fact help them. "We think this improves telemarketing," said one telemarketing executive. The law will be a boon to some companies, that sell products to other telemarketers to keep them on the right side of the law. Another said that he expects to see fly-by-night telemarketers disappear in a few years.

Just what the world needs. A respectable telemarketing company. By the way, one
telemarketing firm cited in the story has "doubled its sales about every six months."
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Pre-Paid College Plans Put Taxpayer on the Hook
Michigan was the first state to enact a prepaid college tuition program, under which parents turn money over to the state now for a guarantee of N units of prepaid credits available at a later date for their children.

According to the Detroit News, the Michigan Education Trust--available only to state schools--has been a financial boon to some families. However, taxpayers could be asked to kick in money if tuition rates go out of sight. (Colorado ran into a similar problem, and halted new entrants to its program.)

Aside from putting taxpayers at risk, the MET is troubling because it encourages taxpayers to place their faith in government planners, rather than turning to private investor services. The dependency of the middle class on government services continues, and as often the case, the incentive is education.

The News also notes that three private colleges in the state--including my alma mater--have joined over 200 private colleges across the country in a similar, privately-run program.
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Flexible Spending Accounts and Non-Prescription Drugs
After an administrative ruling by the IRS, people with flexible spending accounts (FSAs) will soon be able to use the tax free money to buy prescription drugs. The Detroit Free Press offers the comments of several Michigan-based employers on the topic. It also offers a consumer-oriented Q&A and a list of the most commonly-used drugs that may (depending on the plan's provisions) be purchased with FSA dollars.

Since only 20 percent of eligible people (nationwide) participate in these tax-free accounts, participation rates have nowhere to go but up. This is a move in the right direction, in that it makes people more aware of the costs of health are (in this case, medications) and accustomed to being wise consumers of health care dollars. It may also save some overall dollars in health spending; currently, people face an incentive of obtaining more expensive "free" (covered by health insurance) medication than generics, which are often less expensive and just as effective, or nearly so.

On the other hand, FSAs are limited in one important aspect: they still impose a third party--employers--in the provision of health care. The Freep article suggests that consumer receipts will be carefully monitored by employers for fraudulent claims.
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