Ronald Regan once said:

"Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States."

He's still exactly right.

Small businesses are the drivers of everything that makes our nation unique in the world: opportunity, prosperity, and freedom. 

Lawmakers should be protecting an individual's right to create a business and provide products or services that customers value. Sadly, that's not the case currently in Lansing.

Actions have consequences...

... and so does bad policy.

Wendy's is rolling out their nationwide plan to offset the effects of hiking the minimum wage. 

Mondays can sometimes be the worst.

But, not this Monday! 

Allow us to introduce you to Paul Kocher.

It’s happening again.

Michigan lawmakers are looking to suppress consumer choice. This time they see an opportunity when consumers are most vulnerable – after an auto accident in the repair shop.

This morning, members of the state House of Representatives approved a conservative package of bills that puts Detroit school kids first, rejects a union-backed scheme to cap parental choice via a misguided Detroit Education Commission, and institutes important financial and structural reforms for the new Detroit Public School system.

After Millage Passes, Superintendent Removes Evidence of Campaign Finance Violation

Until this week, Dexter Community Schools was facing a $1.5 million budget deficit for the 2016-17 school year. If the May 3rd millage didn't pass, then Dexter Schools had to work to trim their $35.5 million budget to $34 million. 

Desperate times called for desperate measures. 

Dexter Community Schools Superintendent Christopher Timmis improperly used public resources to advocate a 'Yes' vote on a local special education millage. 

This column originally appeared in The Detroit News on April 21, 2016.

Ten years after the Michigan Legislature voted to establish the highly controversial Detroit Education Commission, an estimated 14,260 students found seats in their classrooms in the Detroit Public Schools, as the morning bell rang in the new school year.

How long the buildings stay open this fall depends on the latest DPS bailout proposals working their way through the state Legislature, as teachers face payless paydays as early as next month.

Since Michigan passed its right-to-work law in 2012, unions have been labelling those that leave the union as “free riders.” But where unions see “free riders,” others see forced riders.

Several weeks ago, our own Greg McNeilly wrote in the Detroit News about the effect corporate cronyism is having on the price Michiganders pay at the electric meter.

DTE and Consumers Energy last year raised rates on families by $364 million a year, and are back again with hundreds of millions more in planned rate hikes.  At the same time, the monopoly energy providers have spent over $4 million pushing Senate Bill 437 – the Nofs-Nesbitt energy plan—in the state legislature trying to outlaw electric choice.

Not surprisingly, a couple former lawmakers came to the utilities defense, claiming calls of “corporate cronyism” are “just a distraction.”