Efficiency

Efficiency and Cost Saving

Michigan, like the rest of the U.S., is becoming stifled by over-regulation.  We don't need more, we need fewer, smarter regulations.  President Obama recognized this by instilling an ethos of eliminating one rule for every new rule proposed.

​

• Michigan should require that all ballot proposals and referendums come with a cost and risk analysis. It simply is not good governance to have citizens vote on matters that do not disclose how much the proposal will cost or what the risks are.

  • 9-day early voting is a good example of this. It does not make sense for a small township that has very few voters (the smallest township in Michigan has 15 residents), even when combined with the county. In our county during voting, we had days when zero voters came in. This is not efficient. I wish I had realized this before I voted in favor of it. Early in-person voting makes sense for cities. Not so much for small townships.

• Michigan needs to immediately program all new Real ID licenses to reflect citizenship status. This resolves the ID issue in MI (but not other states) for likely over 95% of voters, leaving a very small number of potential voters to pay attention to. I view this as an efficiency matter - let's get ahead of this so that it is not a fire drill when we are forced to. Most of us have already proven citizenship at the Secretary of State. Let's leverage this.

• Foreclosure costs have skyrocketed to $50,000 to $75,000 – making it difficult for banks to lend on inexpensive homes.  So they don't.  Retail banks used to make 60% of mortgages. Today they make 30% of mortgages.  Let’s unwind some of this excess cost.

  • This has resulted in a hidden market for Michigan's ultra-low-cost homes. They simply aren't listed but sell by owner or by word of mouth because they are either for cash or by land contract.  Land contract sales are not captured until the land contract is filed, which in many cases is 30 years later.  And no realtor will list these.

• Institute a constant improvement process in government to continually eliminate and streamline regulations.  This includes eliminating regulations that cost more than their benefits.

• Require any new rule or regulation to receive a minimum number of public comments before it is enacted.  This will force the agency to effectively reach out to people.

  • ​A tiny fraction of highly controversial rules get millions of comments, while the overwhelming majority get nothing.  A comprehensive FiscalNote study on regulatory dockets found that under certain administrations, the median number of comments received per docket was exactly 0. Even during administrations with highly public pushback on rules, the median was only 1 comment per docket.

  • Researchers tracking bureaucratic data often refer to this as "zombie rulemaking" or "rubber-stamping." Agencies publish the required text, the short window elapses with no public submissions, and the rule quietly becomes binding law.  The notice-and-comment framework is an illusion of public input that is structurally biased against ordinary citizens, functioning instead as a closed-loop system for insiders.​