The Mackinac Center: Analysis Based on Pure Politics, Not Facts
http://www.detnews.com/article/20091...private-sector#
From the Detroit News Article on the size of state government. Clearly, the analysis of the Mackinac Center is based on partisan positioning, not the facts.
"'If someone is urging the downsizing of state government, consider it wildly successful," said Gary Olson, director of the Senate Fiscal Agency.
State spending more
Not everyone agrees. In a policy brief written for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market think tank based in Midland, Gary Wolfram, a Hillsdale College professor of economics and public policy, argues that state government has grown during the recession.
"There are lots of ways to grow without adding employees," Wolfram told The News. "It [[state government) is clearly larger. It's spending billions more."
Total spending from state resources is up 7 percent -- $1.8 billion more in the 2008-09 budget year than in 2001. That's the equivalent of an additional $618,000 being spent every day since the recession began.
But those figures don't take into account inflation. While the state's total spending over the eight years increased 7 percent [[reaching $27.5 billion in '08-'09), inflation during the same period was triple that [[21.7 percent).
When adjusted for inflation, total spending has decreased 14 percent. Spending from the general fund, the Legislature's main source of discretionary money, is down 21 percent. By comparison, Ohio's general fund was down less than 2 percent, and Indiana's increased 5 percent.
Wolfram also argues total state employment is down only slightly. He cites statistics compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that lump in state university and some hospital workers as state employees.
State university employment, for example, has jumped 8 percent since 2000, paralleling a 7 percent increase in enrollment.
But labeling a Michigan State University professor a state employee isn't completely fair, MSU economics Professor Charles Ballard said. Only 31 percent of MSU's budget comes from the state; the share was 52 percent in 2000."
This "analysis" from the Mackinac Center reminds me of a forum I attended on the Center's support for FOIA. The Center strongly urged State Government to post all of its spending online, with a very compelling argument on the "spirit" of the Freedom of Information Act, and how public tax spending needs to be revealed and exposed down to the level of the salaries of individual employees. I agree that government spending should be posted on-line.
However, the hypocrisy exploded when the Mackinac Center representative was asked how deep the Center's support went, and if private contractors who receive state dollars for public purposes [[such as companies that operate private prisons) should have to also post how they spend public tax dollars, he stuttered and gave a VERY weak explanation for why they don't have to reveal how they spend public tax dollars. This was beyond the pale, and clearly exposed the GOP's, er I mean the Center's, position that the spending of public tax dollars should ONLY be reported if it is actually spent by the public, but if it goes to private companies for public purposes, then it should be kept secret. Freakin hypocrites!
