Why Detroit has nothing to lose from bankruptcy

A person named Lynndee Kemmet opined in the Detroit News that Detroit should avoid bankruptcy because:

When municipalities receive bankruptcy protection, or go into receivership, unionized employees are not the only ones who stand to lose. A city in bankruptcy becomes a far less attractive place to live and work. Residents with the resources to move elsewhere often do, leaving behind those least able to pay the taxes needed to get the city out of its mess.

Bankrupt cities have taken decades to recover. A bankrupt city is not only less attractive to residents and good employees, but it’s also far less attractive to businesses that might help spur future economic growth.

And then there are future investors. A bankrupt city is unlikely to find buyers for future bonds for roads, sewer and water projects, city buildings and parks.

Hey babe – relax: Those trains all left the Michigan Central station many moons ago.

Shikha Dalmia on Detroit’s “Flashy Projects”

She won’t be fooled again -

In her latest column for Forbes, Reason Foundation senior analyst Shikha Dalmia includes a poignant, touching rendition of her immigrant’s-eye perceptions when she first arrived in Detroit 21 years ago, not long departed from her native New Delhi:

What was surprising was that there was no sign that the looters (of Detroit’s abandoned homes) were doing anything constructive with their ill-gotten gains. In India, the entire project of life can be conducted out of ramshackle structures erected on dirty sidewalks from scraps of discarded tarp, pilfered corrugated metal, bamboo poles and a few logs for fuel scavenged daily from trash heaps. In these filthy, exposed dwellings, families are raised, goods produced and sold (tandoori roti, dal, sabzi), services provided (ironing, shoe repair), and even animals given shelter. They are not ennobling or uplifting. But they are testimony to the powerful human need to survive and flourish, even in the direst circumstances. 

It didn’t seem plausible that this basic urge had somehow ceased to exist in Detroit. Hence, when Mayor Dennis Archer started talking in the mid-’90s about reviving the city by erecting new stadiums and casinos, his message resonated with Detroiters, including me . . .

Dalmia goes on the recap how these “flashy projects” from Archer and his successor failed to revive the city, and to express amazement at the latest credulous hype, this time fueled by misplaced faith that a handful of artsy-craftsy Bohemian-types buying some cheap houses will act as “first-stage gentrifiers, paving the way for the return of doctors and lawyers and other bourgeois professionals.” This notwithstanding out-of-control crime, a completely dysfunctional city government, and a fiscal black hole that threatens to further diminish an already meager and alienated remainder of a city that once claimed 2 million thriving souls.

The Mackinac Center’s Michael LaFaive has documented in more detail the rise and fall of some of those “Flashy Projects” Dalmia refers to.

Is Boone Pickens History’s Boldest Rent Seeker?

Probably not, there have been some real doozies over the centuries, but he certainly is one of the boldest in the current era. Last year he made news with a cockamamie scheme to use government subsidies to build a zillion windmills out in the prairies, with the absurdly expensive power backed up by – wait for it – generators fueled by the natural gas in which he has substantial investments.

This week he’s proposing a slightly less byzantine but equally goofy scheme in the Wall Street Journal: “Adopting a ‘cash-for-clunkers’ program in the utility sector can save money and reduce emissions right away by retiring the oldest, least efficient and most polluting power plants in exchange for modern gas-powered plants.”

Yep, gas power plants powered by the fuel in which – wait for it – he himself has substantial investments.

You almost have to admire such gall. Almost.

Collectivists accuse opponents of what they themselves perpetrate

Back during the Cold War I was often struck by how many times the Evil Empire would accuse the U.S. and the West of doing things that were in fact SOP for the communists themselves, such as rigging elections, quashing dissent, manipulating statistics, etc. Actually these things are characteristic of government itself, but in the open societies of the west attempts to perptetrate them rarely escape public exposure and retribution, while in police states they are business as usual. 

So now we have the spectacle of the President, Democrats, the left and their tools in the mainstream media accusing the right of whomping up bought-and-paid-for opposition to a government run health care system. Here’s “hack columnist” Bill Press (Reason Hit & Run’s characterization) on the current opposition to ObamaCare:

Taking a page right out of a Nazi playbook, organizers bus in professional protestors and arm them with instructions on how to take over meetings, shut down discussion, shout over any pro-health care reform speakers, and then post video of the resulting chaos on YouTube. It’s mob rule, pure and simple. Taking a page right out of a Nazi playbook, organizers bus in professional protestors and arm them with instructions on how to take over meetings, shut down discussion, shout over any pro-health care reform speakers, and then post video of the resulting chaos on YouTube. It’s mob rule, pure and simple.

Gosh, all that sounds so much like every right-of-center speaker on a college campus in the past 25 years getting shouted down for daring to voice dissent on minority preferences, global warming, socialism, etc. How many times have we seen “bussed in” protestors on the Capitol lawn in Lansing when the issue was pay or benefit cuts for government workers, accepting a $200 million charter school grant for Detroit, placing a anti-minority preferences ballot initiative that had received 500,000 petition signatures on the ballot, reducing state higher education appropriations, and many more?

Just as the governments in the open societies of the west could (rarely) get away with secretly using police state political tactics in the either the Cold War or present era, so the right is completely incapable of mounting “astroturf” and “hire-a-mob” tactics in this health care debate without the story quickly being exposed on page one of the Washington Post and NYT. People intuitively know that claims to the contrary are laughable, which might explain why the President and his allies are getting a black eye for suggesting it.

“Conservative” has become a meaningless term

Discuss and analyze:

Burkeian conservatism is an honorable tradition and a coherent political theory. However, “conservative” as used in the current political context denotes nothing but an idiosyncratic bundle of disconnected prejudices, the specifics of which vary with each person claiming the label. As such the word has become meaningless, and much besmirched. The label has been claimed by everyone from Arlen Specter to David Duke and Richard Nixon, and in its current sense they all have a legitimate claim to it. 

Hayek and Milton Friedman knew what they were about when they declined the label.

~~~~~

So the Admiral Stockdale question: “Who am I, why am I here?”

“Libertarian” is a meaningful term but it has its on problematic connotations (“hangs with kooks”), although these seem to be diminishing. It’s also very broad, encompassing everyone from anarcho-capitalists to people who claim the same awkward label that I do, “supports limited government.”

Someone recently challenged the usefulness of that, saying ”everyone supports limited government.” They did not understand the term. ”Limited government” is a noun, not a noun-with-adjective; it denotes a system like the one created by our founders, with government’s role restricted to explicitly delineated powers and duties – and no more.

~~~~~

BTW, one reason “conservative” may be so vulnerable to abuse is that it is ”relativistic” – it only has meaning in reference to something else. Notwithstanding the shortomings of “libertarian,” it actually does mean something all by itself, independent of any other political theory.

My Oshkosh 2009: A real life hero; an amazing coincidence; the most beautiful airplane ever

As expected, my first Experimental Aviation Association annual Oshkosh fly-in was overwhelming, an airplane-buff’s utopia. Way too much to describe in detail, but here’s a couple high points.

One of the main features of this year’s show was the arrival of one of only two flying examples of the WWII Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, which flew night missions over Germany for the RAF from 1942-45. I described to friend Kate and 9-year-old nephew Lucas how grim and terrifying those missions were -  in the dark and cold at 20,000 feet, knowing that at any moment a German nightfighter or flak could turn your roaring heavy truck of a bomber into a flaming coffin with no warning whatsoever.

 

Lancaster at EAA, 2006

When I was not much older than Lucas I read one amazing story about a Lanc’ tailgunner’s near-death experience. The rear turret was so cramped that the gunner could not wear a parachute. He crawled in though a small hatch at the rear of the fuselage, the door of which had to be closed for the turret to rotate. If the plane was hit the idea was that he would climb back through the hatch, put on the ‘chute, and jump.

Yeah, right. Kate, Lucas and I were able to peer into the rear turret and confirm that, yep, you could not sit in there with a parachute on.

Anyway, the story I read decades ago told of a gunner whose plane was hit and was going down in flames. He reached for his chute, but it was a smoldering ruin from the fire. The airman, 21-year-old Nicholas Alkemade,  faced a grim choice – burn to death or jump without a chute. He jumped. Amazingly, he lived, falling through pine boughs and landing in a snow drift.

After my long talk with the Spitfire pilot (below), while sitting below the wing of that gorgeous fighter with Lucas putting on sunscreen, I was repeating the story to a young gal who was there with the Spit’s owner, Vintage Wings of Canada. We were politely interrupted by an elderly gentleman:

“Excuse me, I hope you don’t mind the interruption, but I was in Stalag Luft III with the man who jumped from that plane.”

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather! Not just at the coincidence, not just the living history, but because I was instantly aware that we were in the presence a hero. Why? My friends, there was only one way to become a “guest” of this infamous German Luftwaffe POW camp for allied aircrew (the camp at which The Great Escape occurred), and that was to survive getting shot down over occupied Europe.

The new participant was Bill Whitney, a B-26 Marauder pilot who was shot down in flames over Dunkirk in May, 1944. (Read about it on his “My ‘Shot Down’ Story” webpage, here.)

Bill Whitney in 1944 (He looks the same in 2009 except older).

If there was one mission worse than flying Lancasters in the cold and dark over Hitler’s Germany, it was flying medium bombers like the B-26 on “straight and level” bombing runs over some of the most heavily defended targets of the war. Unlike the “heavies” – B-17s, B-24s, Lancasters – which flew at 24,000 feet or higher, “mediums” like the B-26 flew at much lower altitudes. Mr. Whitney’s formation was at just 14,000 feet when his plane was hit by flack. Up above 20,000 feet only the big ’88s could reach the heavies, but everything above 20mms could reach out and touch aircraft flying below 15,000 feet – and did.

I salute you for your service, Mr. Whitney, and am proud to have met you. Like many of his generation he is modest and matter-of-fact about what he did – it’s just what you did in that time and place. Yes, just as leaping without a chute from a burning Lancaster is just what you did in that circumstance, also. Incredible men, incredible times.

Mr. Whitney added this little tidbit to the Nicholas Alkemade story: The orderly Germans were so blown away that he had survived the leap that they gave him a certificate stating that he had bailed out without a parachute and lived.

Bill Whitney is 87, and said this will probably be his last Oshkosh. I now realize why I should have attended long ago – these guys are going fast now – but my sister chided me for saying so, correctly observing that I should be glad for the experience I did get to enjoy. I’m also glad that 9-year-old Lucas now has his own piece of first-person WWII history to pass on for another 80 years or so.

 BTW, here’s  the story of the no-parachuted survival as related in wiki:

On March 24, 1944, 21 year old Flight Sergeant Nicholas Stephen Alkemade (1923 – 1987) was a member of No. 115 Squadron RAF. His Lancaster II “S for Sugar” was flying to the east of Schmallenberg, Germany on its return from a 300 bomber raid on Berlin, when it was attacked by a Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 night-fighter, caught fire and began to spiral out of control. Because his parachute was destroyed by the fire, Alkemade opted to jump from the aircraft without one, preferring his death to be quick, rather than being burnt to death. He fell 18,000 feet (5500 m) to the ground below. His fall was broken by pine trees and a soft snow cover on the ground. He was able to move his arms and legs and suffered only a sprained leg.

~~~~~~~~

That’s the people story of my Oshkosh, here’s the hardware one (also with some people parts). I spent a couple joyful hours worshipping at a temple of the most beautiful airplane in the history of manned flight, the Supermarine Spitfire. And not just any Spit, but perhaps the most beautiful of all Spits – a Mark 16 with teardrop canopy and full elliptical wings. The Mark 16 was a Mark 9 with Packard Merlin, and they all came off the line with cropped wings. This one had the full ellipticals because it was the personal aircraft of Sir James Robb, RAF Air Chief Marshall, who had places to go and people to see, so they put the easily-added wingtips on his plane (giving slightly better high altitude performance at the expense of low-level speed).

Vintage Wings of Canada Spitfire Mk. 16

Much thanks to pilot John Aitken, an ex-RCAF Voodoo and F-104  jock*,  who was most generous with his time offering detailed information about the aircraft and his own fascinating career. (Poor guy – his last air force duty was evaluating the various types under consideration when Canada adopted the F-18. John was forced to fly the F-16, Mirage F1, and possibly one other. And then, years after retiring, for his sins they gave him a Spit to fly!)

I also spent some time swapping history stories with another Spitfire worshipper as we paid homage together to this magnificent aircraft. We both agreed that but for the Spit, the Brits almost certainly would have lost the Battle of Britain, cut a deal with Hitler and dropped out of the war (this was Hitler’s actual goal in the summer of 1940 – he didn’t really want to invade Britain).

If that had happened Germany would have had a free hand when it invaded Russia in the spring of 1941, and given how close the Wehrmacht’s panzers came to victory that fall, probably would have won the war. (Among other things Barbarossa would not have been delayed by a campaign in Greece to pull Mussolini’s rear end out of the fire – a delay that proved fatal when the Russian winter closed in early six months later.)  It’s entirely plausible that from the Atlantic to the Urals, Europe today would still be part of the Greater Third Reich, and under the rule of Hitler’s successors.

“But for a nail the shoe was lost; but for a shoe the horse was lost; but for a horse the soldier was lost; but for a soldier the war was lost.”

But for the Spitfire, and its designer Reginald Mitchell . . .

*Interesting sidelight: The F-104 Starfighter was kind of a Cold War version of the Spitfire – an ultra-high performance, short range, point-defence interceptor. Both aircraft had broader roles, but that’s that they were really born and bred for.

Making an aviation buff’s pilgrimage

In Islam, each member of the faithful must make the hadj or pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime.

I have been a faithful aviation buff for lo these 50 years, and the time has come for me to make the hadj to aviation Mecca – the annual Experimental Aviation Association fly-in in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. We depart Lansing at 4:00 a.m. Sunday, destination Ludington, and the good ship Badger, one of the last coal-fired steamers in the world. It will transport Kate, me and nephew Lucas on a breathtakingly beautiful journey across Lake Michigan at it’s widest point, around 100 miles.

A bit more than four hours after sailing we three and the trusty Taurus wagon (loaded to the gills with bikes, camping gear, cooler, etc.) debark in Manitowoc, and 90 minutes later arrive in Mecca.

The trip came about a few weeks ago when I was telling 9-year-old Lucas about the EAA Oshkosh event. I mentioned the ferry, and the WWII submarine parked at the dock in Manitowoc, and he said, “We should go.” From the mouths of babes . . .

So, I anticipate a stiff neck the next few days from looking up, and a sore back from salaaming before holy temples of flight – Spitfires, Mustangs, B-17s, F-18s, and Lord knows what else. We have tickets and are camping right on site, but as for what exactly to expect I’m mostly walking in cold. The one thing I do know is that there will be far more than we can possibly absorb in three days, meaning that perhaps future pilgrimages will be in order.

[I did read one cute thing - near the camping area they have an outdoor theater with a drive-in movie type screen, and every night at 8:30 show a movie. Guess what kind? Right! Airplane movies!   :-)  ]

No Silver Lining to Michigan’s Decline

Derek Melot of the Lansing State Journal pens what may be one of the best local journalist’s blogs in the state, “Just Asking,” in which with an experienced, sensible, mature journalist’s eye he does just that about public and other affairs in and around Lansing and the state. His July 6 entry describes the latest dismal economic and employment figures, and ponders the question of whether Michigan can be a prosperous state of just 8 million, vs. it’s current 10 million. He concludes hopefully, “Being smaller is not automatically a bad thing.”

Derek, it’s only human to look for a silver lining to any bad situation, but sometimes that’s really not the appropriate response. The tragic history of Ireland provides a poignant example.

Over several years beginning in 1848 Ireland’s population fell from nearly 8 million to half that number or less, due to the famine and ensuing emigration. Population continued to fall and the country remained an impoverished basket case for another 130 years, only reversing direction beginning around 1980, when enlightened, free market-based tax and other public policies triggered the birth of an economic turnaround that gave the country the nickname, “the Celtic tiger,” a reference to the fast-growing “Asian tiger” economies of Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.

After the 1848 famine Ireland was no doubt a more pleasant place in many ways, at least for visitors and those of means. Certainly less crowded, with the natural scenery less impeded by human structures, etc.

At the risk of laying it on cruelly, in 1848-49 the prospect would have given no comfort to a stick-thin waif expiring in the ditch, or a penniless immigrant in the stinking hold of a “coffin ship.”

So it is today in Michigan, when radical environmentalists loftily celebrate how wonderful things will be when the population has fallen to eight or six million from the current 10 million. That’s no comfort to millions who have seen the value of their life’s work fall in half, and seen the industry that sustained the state ravaged by labor laws that enabled pernicious union work rules and contracts, by absurd federal CAFE standards, and yes, also by the folly and hubris of past managers who failed to confront these destructive forces head on.

Here’s the bottom line: There is nothing good about “involuntary” depopulation, whether the cause is famine, barbarian invasions, or pernicious public policies that make a place unable to compete in a dynamic “post-industrial” economy. This is not something to accept philosophically and with resignation, but to fight against tooth-and-nail, resisting to the bitter end.

~~~~~~~~

With all that in the background, 2010 will be a critical year for Michigan, one in which the people make key decisions about whether the state will emulate the growth-stultifying, inward-looking policies of Ireland for 60 years after gaining independence in 1921, or the pro-growth, “supply side” ones of the past 20 years (notwithstanding the fact that the auld sod too is now suffering now from the worldwide recession).

It’s clear that no “man on a white horse” will come to our rescue in the political sphere. In fact, our craven, self-serving political class is only capable of following the incentives imposed on it by the climate of public opinion. Whether we can change that particular climate is unambiguous – we can. To paraphrase the title of a book by my favorite thinker on these kinds of issues, “It’s in our hands.”

How do we do it? Obviously I don’t have all the answers, but let me offer two valuable concepts to guide us. First, to keep in mind that definition of insanity – “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”

Second, consider that who loses elections is almost always more important for changing that all-important political incentive structure than who wins them. This suggests that we begin to think about the electoral process and the choices we make in very different ways.

Felice 4 luglio, Ragazzi!

My sister has four charming Italian 11-year-olds in an exchange program staying for the weekend. She picked them up from the airport yesterday and they have practically no English! Having lived in Roma one year, oh, about 40 years ago, I happen to have the most Italian (ie., solo un poco).

However, as is the way of such things my sister’s own 9- and 11-year-olds seem to have little trouble communicating the important things. (“Vuoi giocare i video giochi?”)

For more profound communcations there is Babelfilsh – Grazie, tecnologia!

Nel Congresso. 4 luglio 1776:

Riteniamo queste verità manifesti, quel tutti gli uomini siamo uguale generato, quello che sono dotati dal loro creatore con determinati diritti unalienable, che fra questi sono durata, la libertà e l’inseguimento di felicità. – Che assicurare questi diritti, governi sono istituiti fra gli uomini, derivare i loro poteri giusti dal consenso del governato di, – che ogni volta che una forma di governo particolare diventa distruttiva di questi obiettivi, esso è la destra della gente alterarla o abolire ed istituire il nuovo governo, gettante la relativa base per tali principi ed organizzante i relativi poteri in tale forma, quanto loro sembrerà molto probabilmente effettuare la loro sicurezza e felicità

Here’s leadership on government employee bennies

 I don’t usually have much good to say about politicians on this blog, but here’s an exception.

 Lorence Wenke is a former state representative who assembled a pretty impressive portfolio of specific proposals for reforming government employee health benefit programs that are way out of synch with private sector norms.

I don’t agree with all of this – specifically the proposal for an income tax increase to finance the transition of school employees from defined benefit to defined contribution (401K) pensions (no surprise that I would find the money by cutting other spending). However, this is a serious and sincere smorgasbord of very worthwhile reforms.

 From MichiganVotes.org – 21 bills introduced by Rep. Lorence Wenke (R) with keyword “employee” (less dupes):

 Introduced 2008 House Bill 5772 (Require higher public employee insurance copays ) to prohibit the state and local governments from paying more than 75 percent of the cost of the health insurance benefits provided to public employees.

Introduced 2008 House Bill 5636 (Clarify state employee pension double dipping ban ) to expand the definition of “employed by the state” in a new law that prohibits a state government employee who retires and begins collecting a pension to then take a state job as a direct employee or working for a contractor, and collect a paycheck and a pension both (double dipping). The bill would clarify that the ban applies to someone who is hired indirectly by the state under a contract with an employment agency, or is hired as an indirect contractor.

Introduced 2007 House Bill 5271 (Raise income tax and transition to 401K for school employees ) to increase the state income tax by .1 percent and use the money to pay the costs of transitioning “all public school employees” from the traditional defined benefit pension system to a defined contribution plan (401K).

Introduced 2007 House Bill 5167 (Establish regulations for transition to school defined benefit system ) to establish detailed regulations that would apply to the transition of the school employees retirement system to a defined contribution plan.

Introduced 2007 House Bill 5168 (Establish regulations for transition to school defined benefit system ) to establish detailed regulations that would apply to the transition of the school employees retirement system to a defined contribution plan.

Introduced 2007 House Bill 5169 (Transition new police and firefighters to defined benefit system ) to require the fire fighters and police officers retirement system to adopt a benefits structure that would “cost no more than a defined contribution plan” for employees hired after June 30, 2008.

Introduced 2007 House Bill 5170 (Transition new State Police to defined benefit system ) to require the State Police retirement system to adopt a benefits structure that would “cost no more than a defined contribution plan” for employees hired after June 30, 2008.

Introduced 2007 House Bill 4912 (Exclude new community college employees from defined benefit pension system ) to not include community college employees hired after Jan. 1, 2008 in the school employee pension and post-retirement health benefit system (MPSERS). Beginning in 2008, the annual contribution that community colleges make to the system would be based on an actuarial calculation of the 40 year amortization cost of the unfunded liability of the pension and health insurance promises to employees already enrolled in the system.

Introduced 2007 House Bill 4799 (Limit dual state employee school pension/salary loophole ) to repeal a provision of the school employee pension law that allows an employee to “retire,” start collecting a pension, and then return to work for a school district, collecting a wage or salary while simultaneously collecting pension benefits (“double dipping”). The bill would suspend pension payments while an individual worked for a school. The bill is part of a government pension reform package comprised of House Bills 4799 to 4809.

Introduced 2007 House Bill 4803 (Cap school health benefits at state employee equivalent ) to prohibit a school district from granting health insurance benefits to its employees that exceed the most generous plans provided to state government workers. The bill would require the state to post those benefits on a web site. See also House Bill 4804, which would open up the state plan to other public employers, including schools. The bill is part of a government pension reform package comprised of House Bills 4799 to 4809.

Introduced 2007 House Bill 4804 (Open state employee health plan to all schools and governments ) to open up the health insurance plan that the state provides to its employees to all other units of government in Michigan, who would be able to be part of a much larger risk pool, and would pay the state whatever the actual cost is to cover their own employees under the plan. The bill is part of a government pension reform package comprised of House Bills 4799 to 4809.

Introduced 2007 House Bill 4805 (Cap local government health benefits at state employee equivalent ) to prohibit a local unit of government from granting health insurance benefits to its employees that exceed the most generous plans provided to state government workers. The bill would require the state to post those benefits on a web site. See also House Bill 4804, which would open up the state plan to other public employers. The bill is part of a government pension reform package comprised of House Bills 4799 to 4809.

Introduced 2007 House Bill 4807 (Limit future government employee pension costs ) to establish that the cost of post-retirement benefits for new local government employees hired after March 31, 2006, may not exceed the cost of plans for previously hired or past government employees. The bill is part of a government pension reform package comprised of House Bills 4799 to 4809.

Introduced 2007 House Bill 4808 (Limit future school employee pension costs ) to establish that the cost of post-retirement benefits for new school employees hired after March 31, 2006, may not exceed the cost of plans for previously hired or past employees. The bill is part of a government pension reform package comprised of House Bills 4799 to 4809.

Introduced 2007 House Bill 4809 (Cap local government health benefits at state employee equivalent ) to prohibit a local unit of government, college or university from granting health insurance benefits to its employees that exceed the most generous plans provided to state government workers. The bill would require the state to post those benefits on a web site. See also House Bill 4804, which would open up the state plan to other public employers. The bill is part of a government pension reform package comprised of House Bills 4799 to 4809.

Introduced 2007 House Concurrent Resolution 18 to ask the Governor to require the approximately 53,000 state employees to forgo the scheduled pay increase as well to contribute more to the cost of their fringe benefits.

Introduced 2005 House Bill 5314 (Not put new community college employees in MPSERS ) to not place new community college employees in the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS teacher pension system), but instead allow them to participate in a defined contribution (401k-type) retirement plan .

Introduced 2005 House Bill 5171 (Require prefunding school employee pension health benefits ) to require prefunding of school employee post-retirement health care benefits, rather than the current “pay as you go” system. A new state investment fund would be created for the purpose. Presumably higher employer contributions would be required until this new fund has enough resources to cover anticipated future costs.

Introduced 2005 House Bill 5173 (Eliminate pension for five-year teachers ) to eliminate the provision of the current school employee pension law that allows a school employee with just five years on the job to be eligible for a pension in some circumstances.

Introduced 2003 House Bill 5331 (Tax breaks for “start-up business”) to exempt for five years a “qualified start-up business” from any single business tax (SBT) liability in a year in which it does not make a profit. (Note: The SBT is a tax on the value added by a firm in producing a product, which means that a firm may owe SBT tax even though it makes no profit.) A “qualified start-up business” is defined as a firm that has fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees, has annual sales of less than $1 million, has research and development expenses that make up at least 15-percent of its annual expenses, and is not publicly traded. This does not necessarily apply only to new firms, and the five year exemption is not necessarily the firm’s first five years of operation. Passed in the House (103 to 4) on April 27, 2004.