| General Updates |
| Comms All of comms will be on vacation at some point over the next two weeks. Check our calendars for a more accurate update. Merry Christmas! Events Stay tuned for all the exciting events that will be happening next year 🙂 Advancement The Mackinac Center received $2.26 million in donations in the one-week period from Dec. 7 through Dec. 13. This equals about 34 percent of our original fundraising goal of $6.71 million or about 25 percent of our latest projection of $9.55 million in donations. On another front, Don Orrico helped a $1,000 donor increase their gift to $10,000, and in thanking them Don also learned Mackinac Center is the #1 beneficiary of their estate plans. Executive Joe had some good end of year donor visits the week of December 9th. He will be traveling December 16-19 for MCPP business in Las Vegas and NYC. He will be on vacation December 23-January 5. Mike is involved in two Strategic Planning meetings the week of December 16th. Wednesday the 18th is full of off site meetings. Vacation begins on December 19th, with Mike returning to the office after the new year.Amy has a couple of Strategic Planning meetings the week of December 16th, with other time out of the office noted on her calendar. She will be on vacation from noon on December 20th to January 3rd.Note that your Strategic Planning Review meetings will be held on January 13th and 14th – individual meeting invitation will be going out. Operations team schedule update: Michelle off – 12/24 – 1/1 Dale off – 12/20 – 1/1 Christine off – 12/23 – 1/1 (in as needed) Pat – 12/26Front desk coverage: Thank you to Kara, Michelle & Brigette for covering mail, phones & such on the days we are open. To steal a line from CapCon, Ops never sleeps. 😉 Expense reports: Please get your December expenses in to Christine as soon as possible so we can start wrapping up 2019. Welcome our new administrative assistant: JoAnne Kelley will be starting on Thursday, 1/2/20 as the new administrative assistant in operations (email with details going out soon). Be sure to swing by the front desk to welcome her. 2019 invoices: Be sure to get all 2019 invoices to Christine to be paid ASAP. 2020 parking passes: Your new parking pass will be in your mailbox, once the city drops them off to us. We typically get a break from ticketing the first couple of days of the new year. |
| Policy Updates |
| Education Enjoyed good networking opportunity at the MAPSA Social on Dec. 11 National School Choice Week is only 6 weeks away!As the Espinoza oral arguments approach on Jan. 22, cooperating with national partners and working on a national article that puts Michigan’s need for greater educational choice in the limelight. Formatting data and drafting report for our next Elementary & Middle School CAP Report Card Our PACE director continues pursuing good leads on stories & connections in the Flint area to promote school choice advocacy, while we also focus on building out PACE social media content Environment Roundtable discussion / meeting with Sec. of Interior last week. Writing a few reports Final edits on energy primer 7 Principles of Sound Environmental Policy is currently in editing Out December 23- Jan 6 Fiscal With no more voting session days, and a sunset of 2019, the Good Jobs for Michigan program will cease to award new deals. There will be a fight in 2020 to keep it from rising from the grave.James is prepping further support for our corporate welfare transparency and accountability package, and will have a piece in The Hill about Florida, Planet Hollywood and clawbacks. Criminal Justice The Hill published my op-ed with David Safavian (American Conservative Union) on some of the early findings from the Governor’s Task Force on Jails and Pre-trial Incarceration.I spoke with a professor at the University of Denver who is part of a research team studying why similarly situated states have taken different approaches to reforming (or not reforming) their criminal justice systems.We have begun the process to renew our MOU with Safe & Just Michigan for 2020. This year, S&JM contributed $10,000 toward our criminal justice activities.We expect a notification before the end of the year on our $100,000 grant proposal to the Coalition for Public Safety. The grant would support our Prison-to-Workforce Pipeline project, which would combine new research with outreach on existing initiatives that reduce barriers to employment for ex-offenders. Kelly Paul (Rand’s wife) is on the board, and when a proposal review committee member mentioned to her one of them was ours, she replied, “Oh, I love the Mackinac Center! I’m so glad they’re a finalist.” Research Nothing new to report! Gov. Affairs Despite some (DC) weather difficulties, Grover Norquist and Margaret Mire from Americans for Tax Reform made it here last Tuesday morning for a full day of activities. In addition to our I&I event, he met with several legislators and attended the December Center Right Meeting. Preliminary conversations have taken place regarding the formation of a Taxpayer Protection Caucus (at least in the Michigan House), and Rep. Shane Hernandez signed the federal ATR Taxpayer Protection Pledge.Per above, the December Center Right Meeting took place in our Lansing office on Tuesday afternoon. Our conference room was full even though both houses were in session and the only legislator able to attend made it by during the last five minutes. In 2020, the Lansing Center Right Meetings will move to the second Tuesday of the month from 4:00-5:00 p.m. Other meetings: I had several meetings related to the corporate welfare legislative package. James and I sat down on Thursday with House Transportation Chairman Jack O’Malley and with Michigan Petroleum Association President Mark Griffin on the local-option gas tax legislation.Legislators have gone home for the year. The next session day during which attendance will be taken is Wednesday, January 8th.This week, I am in Midland on Monday, Thursday, and Friday for five strategic plan meetings. |
