Focus & Unintended Consequences

Earning a salary of $71,685 plus over $10,000 in expenses, our lawmakers in Lansing need to devote their time and energy to crafting good legislation, representing their community, and solving problems in their community. In sports, when you lose focus, you risk making errors and losing. As a former college athlete, I understand this.

Like a college athlete, being a state representative is not an easy job, especially when there is so much that needs to be done. A loss in focus could be detrimental, resulting in poorly researched policy, wasted tax dollars, and problems left unsolved. One such legislator with too many outside distractions to remain focused on his job, is Brian Banks.

From the beginning of his first term to present day, Brian Banks has not introduced a bill that has been signed into law. In 2013 Rep. Banks co-sponsored legislation to remove questions about past felony convictions from job applications, this is commonly known as “Ban the Box” legislation. In 2015 Banks introduced two bills that he promoted as “insurance reform.” Both instances make for great talking points, but lead to dangerous, unintended consequences.

According to researchers at Brookings Institution, a well respected think tank in Washington D.C., “Ban the Box” legislation is counterproductive. In states with such policies in place, the probability of employment for young, low-skilled, black men decreases by over 5%. For young, low-skilled, hispanic men the probability is decreased by nearly 3%.

Many of our neighbors do not have a job but are desperately trying to find work. Meanwhile, Banks is promoting policies that have not been well researched and do not solve the underlying problem facing ex-offenders. Instead of ban the box type legislation, we need to focus on introducing legislation that provides more information about and improves an ex-offender’s job readiness.

In 2015, former State Senator Virgil Smith introduced SB 288, a bill to realize Mayor Duggan’s “D-Insurance” program. A bill analysis was conducted by the Senate Fiscal Agency and published in July of 2015. In this analysis, it was shown that the average cost of an automobile insurance policy in Detroit is/was $3,400. In December of 2015, Banks introduced two pieces of legislation. One that required insurance companies to reduce rates by 12% in the city of Detroit, and another to give insurance companies a tax credit of $500 per policy when they reduced rates by 12%.

Simple math would show that the rate reduction on the average policy is $408, yet the insurance company would still receive a credit of $500, essentially a $92 profit. This is another case of policy that allows you to talk about “fighting insurance companies,” but does nothing to address the real causes of high insurance rates in Detroit.

In both cases, “Ban the Box” and “insurance reform,” Brian Banks demonstrated his lack of focus and commitment to the community, and disregard for the use of tax dollars. It didn’t take me long to uncover the problems with some of the legislation supported or drafted by Banks. It would not have taken him much time to do the necessary research either.

Taking on the role of a state representative is not about a title or status, it is about representing the community to Michiganders across the state, and using your skills and the office to solve problems that face constituents.