Mackinac Center for Public Policy
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| Established | 1987 |
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| Chairman | Joseph Olson |
| President | Joseph G. Lehman |
| Budget | Revenue: $6,434,630 Expenses: $6,003,578 (FYE December 2015) |
| Location | Midland, Michigan |
| Address | 140 West Main Street, P.O. Box 568, Midland, Michigan 48640 |
| Website | mackinac |
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is an American non-profit free market think tank headquartered in Midland, Michigan. It is the largest state-based free market think tank in the United States. The Center states that it is "dedicated to improving the quality of life for all Michigan residents by promoting sound solutions to state and local policy questions."
The Mackinac Center conducts policy research on a range of public policy issues. It also conducts educational programs such as workshops for high school debate students and sponsors MichiganVotes.org, an online legislative voting record database. Mackinac Center scholars generally recommend lower taxes, reduced regulatory authority for state agencies, right-to-work laws, school choice, and enhanced protection of individual property rights.
According to the Mackinac Center, the organization was founded in 1987 by a group of citizens who met on Mackinac Island and shared an interest in making Michigan a better place to live and work. The organization is named after Mackinac Island. The Center began operations in 1987 with no office or full-time staff. It formally opened offices in Midland in 1988 with its first president, Lawrence W. Reed, an economist, writer, and speaker who had chaired the economics department at Northwood University. The Lansing-based Cornerstone Foundation provided early direction and some funding. The Center's first annual budget under Reed was $80,000. In 1997, the Mackinac Center moved from rented offices to its current headquarters after having raised $2.4 million to renovate a former Woolworth’s department store on Midland’s Main Street. Reed served as president from the Center’s founding until September 2008, when he assumed the title President Emeritus and also became the president of the Foundation for Economic Education. Former Chief Operating Officer Joseph G. Lehman was named the Mackinac Center’s president on September 1, 2008.
The Mackinac Center is classified as a 501(c)(3) organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. The Mackinac Center is a member of the State Policy Network, an umbrella organization of conservative and libertarian think tanks operating at the state level. In November 2006 the New York Times published a two-part series about state based free market think tanks that described how the Mackinac Center trained think tank executives from 42 countries and nearly every US state. New York Times reported that, “When the Mackinac Center was founded in 1987, there were just three other conservative state-level policy institutes. Now there are 48, in 42 states."
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