"Former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm Makes the Case for Right to Work Laws"

"Former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm Makes the Case for Right to Work Laws"

Matt Mayer of the Buckeye Institute debunks the long-term economic growth without Right To Work freedom is sustainable. Mayer uses a Columbus Dispatch reporter Joe Hatlett column that featured Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to expose the fact that corporate welfare and reduced regulations ignore the “proverbial elephant in the room weighing down” compulsory union states like Indiana, Ohio, Illinois,, and Michigan. From Matt Mayer’s post: “With Michigan bleeding jobs and tax revenues, Granholm said she followed the corporate playbook in her attempt to close a huge state budget deficit and make Michigan more competitive. ‘In listening to the business community, I cut takes [sic] 99 times, and I ended shrinking government more than any state in the nation. In my two terms, I cut more by far than any state in the nation. And yet, we still have the highest unemployment rate. There was no correlation.’ Granholm conceded that streamlining business regulations and lowering taxes — Kasich’s economic recovery mantra — are helpful, but they aren’t a panacea…[l]abor costs, help with start-up costs and proximity to markets are other factors.” Hallett and Governor Granholm fail to mention why streamlining regulations and lowering taxes aren’t helping the northern states (located within 50 percent of the U.S. population and with low start-up costs) compete against the southern and western states. Instead, Hallett ignores the obvious answer and pleads for an end to corporate pork (with which we enthusiastically agree). The reason Michigan and Ohio can’t compete is that the southern and western states already have fewer regulations and lower taxes, so “catching up” with those states still leaves the proverbial elephant in the room weighing down the northern states. Plus, those states are also pushing for lower taxes and fewer regulations, so the northern states are perpetually behind them. The elephant, which Governor Granholm does hint at, is labor costs, or, more specifically, unionized labor costs (see: General Motors and the United Auto Workers). As I noted in Six Principles for Fixing Ohio, “Of course, tax and regulatory burdens also impact a state’s economy. Although many of the forced unionization states have heavy tax burdens and many of the worker freedom states have light tax burdens, some heavily taxed worker freedom states (Idaho, Nevada, and Utah) had the strongest sustained job growth from 1990 to today. Similarly, a few moderately taxed forced unionization states still had weak job growth (Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri). The combination of both a heavy tax burden and forced unionization is deadly when it comes to job growth, as 11 of the 15 worst performing states are ranked in the top 20 for high tax burdens.” If Ohio and the other states from Missouri to Maine want to truly compete with Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina, then those states need to enact laws that protect the rights of workers not to join a labor union to get a job.

Idahoans Commemorate Right to Work Anniversary

Idahoans Commemorate Right to Work Anniversary

Gem State Politicians Eager to Be Associated With Successful Law (Source: September 2010 NRTWC Newsletter) Back in the 1970's and 1980's, as they successfully pressed first for passage of a state law prohibiting forced union dues and fees, and then to prevent Big Labor from overturning this law in a statewide referendum, Idaho Right to Work activists had few friends in the political establishment. Last month, former National Committee President Reed Larson joined with grass-roots Right to Work activists and elected officials in Idaho to applaud the Gem State's 25-year-old ban on forced union dues and fees. Credit: Courtesy of Gary Glenn The Gem State's union-label Democratic governors during those decades, Cecil Andrus and John Evans, were unabashed cheerleaders for compulsory unionism. Meanwhile, establishment Republicans' relationship with the Right to Work movement was often frosty. For example, 1986 GOP gubernatorial nominee David Leroy tried to have it both ways during his campaign, announcing late in the game that he would oppose efforts to reinstate the then-fledgling Right to Work law if Big Labor succeeded in overturning it. (Ironically, this craven attempt at self-preservation probably cost Mr. Leroy the governorship.) Also in 1986, Republican James McClure, then Idaho's senior U.S. senator, poured cold water on both local and national pro-Right to Work efforts, publicly declaring: "I've urged Republicans not to raise the issue for years. I think it's a bad political issue for us, and it's a real motivational issue for the union people." But after Idahoans upheld their Right to Work law by a solid 54% to 46% margin on November 4, 1986, and also reelected their staunchly pro-Right to Work junior U.S. senator, Republican Steve Symms, on what was otherwise a bleak day for GOP U.S. Senate candidates, Mr. McClure admitted he had been wrong. Most Idaho Politicians Have Finally Decided to Stop Arguing With Success In 2010, 25 years after the Idaho Legislature overrode Gov. Evans's veto and adopted a state Right to Work law prohibiting the termination of workers for refusal to pay dues or fees to an unwanted union, most of the Gem State's politicians have finally decided to stop arguing with success.