Friday, August 31, 2007

Overpay + Raise Taxes = Michigan (Democrats)

A couple of days ago the Mackinac Center for Public Policy issued "The Effects of Michigan's Prevailing Wage Law" study.

Guess what?

Construction unions don't like to hear that there's an interest in dumping the state's expensive and ineffective prevailing wage law because it forces them to be competitive in the market.

Marty Mulcathy, editor of the Building Tradesman, the publication of the Michigan Building and Construction Trade Council in Lansing, regurgitated the expected recently when the Mackinac Center reported that the state is speding (wasting) $250 million more than necessary because of the law.

"When you're paying $8 or $10 or $12 an hour, you don't know what skill level you're getting," he told The Detroit News. You may be paying the unionized people a little bit more but you're getting a more skilled worker."

A little bit more is a fallacy. Try three times as much, if not more than that. Also, let's apply his "skill" argument to the roads, as an example. Apparently all that skill hasn't helped keep the potholes from returning each year or entire stretches of road from crumbling (spare me the freeze and thaw cycle argument, lots of states suffer drastic weather changes).

This isn't about skill. It's about paying off the state's unions and Michigan can't afford to pay that premium.

And then to piggy back on that, there is this....

Dems apparently have plenty of discretionary income.

An analysis of zip codes that are the top sources of campaign loot: Dems hauled in $32 million compared to the GOP's $13.8 million. I thought the Dems were for the little guy?

Click here to read the article from USA Today. What you'll notice is, besides all the money that's enough to make you sick (on both sides)......

No Michigan zip in the top 50.

Why?

We're cheap. Or broke, given high taxes (both income and sales), to pay for all that "high skill" work.

I'll say it again - You really want government to run healthcare?

Really....

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