The Benefits of Right-to-Work
In his latestEconomic Freedom Roundup, Jordan Bruneau of the Charles Koch Institute compares right-to-work (RTW) states with non-right-to-work states. His findings are instructive.First, the 2012...
View Article"Full Pension Reform" In Long Beach Leaves $700 Million Unfunded Liability
The city of Long Beach, California has tried harder than most California municipalities to reign in rising pension costs and reducing its unfunded liabilities. Considering that this is California,...
View ArticleReason Foundation's Fall Pension Reform Webinar Material
Reason Foundation’s pension reform project aims to produce meaningful research and functional resources to aid any jurisdiction that is serious about effectuating pension reform. In October 2013,...
View ArticleSelective Outrage Over NSA
Orange County Register Another National Security Agency spying scandal recently erupted when some of the documents obtained by whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the U.S. was even spying on the...
View ArticleCalifornia's Correctional Health System Needs Real Reform
California's correctional health system is a $2 billion failure. Eight years of federal receivership has yet to bring California's correctional health system to a constitutionally acceptable level,...
View ArticleValue-Added Tolling and Interstate Modernization
Public Works Financing Newsletter I’ve received a lot of feedback on last month’s column suggesting that by far the largest opportunity for toll concession P3 projects is a several-decade effort to...
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The Terrible Toll of Typhoon Haiyan Doesn't Excuse Bad Policy
The terrible toll of Typhoon Haiyan—estimated to have killed more than 4,000 people—reminds us of the often awesome power of the weather. Some say the death and destruction in Asia are symptoms of...
View ArticleImbalanced Reporting on Private Prisons
Despite the fact that private prisons have been in existence for roughly three decades and only account for approximately eight percent of the federal and state prison population, sensationalized media...
View ArticleProposed National Bicycle Route System Fails Cost-Benefit Analysis Test
In the face of massive shortfalls in federal and state highway funding, what are FHWA and many state DOTs busy doing? Creating what is envisioned as a 50,000-mile US Bicycle Route System (USBRS),...
View ArticleStreetsblog Throws Temper Tantrum After Transit Experts Recommend not...
What do you do if you are a rail advocacy group and a national panel of experts has just told you that rail is the wrong solution for a specific area? If you are Angie Schmitt of Streetsblog, you...
View ArticleJudge Rules CA Bullet Train Plan, Spending Must Stop
California Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny issued two rulings today that put the brakes on the state's bullet train project. In essence the Judge finds that the high speed rail authority's plan...
View ArticleHow California Counties Are Using Prison Realignment Funding
California is projected to distribute $4.4 billion to California counties by 2016-2017 in order to facilitate the significant overhaul of the California corrections system known as "Realignment."...
View ArticlePhilosophical Objections to Prison Privatization
This month is the fourth anniversary of an important date in privatization history. On November 19, 2009, in Academic Center of Law and Business, Human Rights Division v. Minister of Finance, the...
View ArticleA Major Setback for California's High Speed Train
Following up on my post yesterday about the court ruling on California's bullet train project, Ken Orski at Innovation Briefs writes a nice summary of the court ruling and its implications. Here's the...
View ArticleInnovators in Action 2013
Innovators in Action While the public sector is expected to experience tepid economic recovery in 2013, policymakers at all levels of government are busy applying their lessons learned from the Great...
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Pursuing Fiscal Self-Reliance in Utah
Innovators in Action 2013 The recent partial shutdown of the federal government sent a strong warning to states that fiscal pressures in Washington D.C. can have major ripple effects at lower levels of...
View ArticleSasha Volokh on Philosophical Objections to Prison Privatization in Israel
Sasha Volokh has an interesting new article on Reason.org discussing a 2009 decision by the Israeli Supreme Court striking down a law authorizing the use of private prisons. As Volokh explains in the...
View ArticleSupport Builds for U.S. ATC Corporation
A growing number of U.S. aviation stakeholder leaders are expressing dismay with FAA's dire budgetary situation and the outlook for further cuts threatening NextGen, facility consolidation, and...
View ArticleToledo Officials Tout Public-Private Partnership in Solid Waste Collection
I’m always on the lookout for examples of policymakers explaining how privatization helped them deliver benefits to taxpayers. Unfortunately, there are too few examples. But this great promotional...
View ArticleMaking a Brave Move on the Transportation Front
Georgia Public Policy Foundation The announcement that the Atlanta Braves are abandoning Turner Field in downtown Atlanta for a location in the suburbs was a shock to almost everybody. There are many...
View ArticleInnovators in Action (November 2013 edition): Pursuing Fiscal Self-Reliance...
The latest interview in Reason Foundation's Innovators in Action 2013 series focuses on recent reforms enacted in Utah in the pursuit of fiscal self-reliance. One state that is increasingly recognizing...
View ArticleMassachusetts State and Municipal Retiree Systems Costly, Underfunded
An October 10th bulletin by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Association has summarized the growing and challenging issue of underfunded pensions and retiree health care obligations on all levels of...
View ArticleMore Boasts from California Contractor Regulators For Wasting Time and Money
California's Contractors State License Board (CSLB) is at it again.Since early October, the board's Statewide Investigative Fraud Team (SWIFT) busted 102 unlicensed contractors in sting...
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Still A Loser: The Tampa to Orlando High-Speed Rail Proposal
EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe Tampa to Orlando high-speed rail project was cancelled by Governor Rick Scott in 2011 to shield Florida taxpayers from billions of dollars in liabilities. Yet, a recent report for...
View ArticleThe Search for a National Freight Policy
In enacting the MAP-21 surface transportation reauthorization bill last year, Congress put new emphasis on goods movement. It called for the US DOT to develop a national freight policy, designate a...
View ArticleNew Reports Highlight Fiscal Shape of States, Cities
Privatization & Government Reform Newsletter Earlier this year, three separate reports by major national organizations suggested that states and local governments are going to face continued fiscal...
View ArticleAre Local Vendor Preferences a Good Thing?
Privatization & Government Reform Newsletter In a recent article, Strategic Partnerships, Inc. CEO Mary Scott Nabers discussed an emerging trend of municipal governments adopting ordinances that...
View ArticleReforming Mandatory Minimum Laws in Louisiana
Privatization & Government Reform Newsletter Louisiana today has the highest incarceration rate among the states, with 868 of every 100,000 of its citizens in prison. A major cause is the expansion...
View ArticleResponding to Critiques of Correctional Privatization
Privatization & Government Reform Newsletter One of the more contentious areas of privatization policy debate involves competitive contracting in corrections, including the operations and...
View ArticleReviewing the First Year of the I-495 Express Lanes
Privatization & Government Reform Newsletter In recent years, managed lane projects—projects involving the tolling of highway lanes where prices vary throughout the day depending on the amount of...
View ArticleLobbying, Cronyism and Section 1705 Loan Guarantees
Over the past decade, federal and state governments have significantly increased their support for nonconventional energy technologies, ranging from wind-powered electricity generators to...
View ArticlePrivatization & Government Reform Newsletter #2 (Dec 2013 edition)
The December 2013 edition of the Privatization & Government Reform Newsletter is now online. Topics covered in this issue include:STATE/LOCAL BUDGETS: New Reports Highlight Fiscal Shape of States,...
View ArticleThe Department of Energys Stimulus Loans Went to Junk Grade Investments...
A new Reason Foundation study finds 22 out of 26 projects were rated as “junk” grade investments before they were awarded taxpayer-backed loans as part of the Department of Energy’s Section 1705 loan...
View ArticleWeighted Student Formula Yearbook 2013
The Houston Independent School District scored an A+ thanks to significant test score improvements by disadvantaged students and a significant closing of the achievement gap between affluent and...
View ArticleSchool Districts In Houston, Hartford, Cincinnati and Oakland Get "A's"
The Houston Independent School District scored an A+ thanks to significant test score improvements by disadvantaged students and a significant closing of the achievement gap between affluent and...
View ArticleTSA Behavior Detection Blasted by GAO
In one of the hardest-hitting GAO reports I've ever read, Congress's auditing organization has, in effect, said that the TSA's Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT ) program does not...
View ArticleTexas Families Show Strong Demand for More School Choice
Beginning in 1991, when the Minnesota legislature passed the first charter law, more decision-making power over a child’s public school enrollment was given to parents. Since then, nationwide, states...
View ArticleSouthwest Struggles As Legacy Airlines Establish Solid Business Models
In its 40th year, Southwest, the original low-cost carrier’s profits are declining. The airline is struggling to integrate AirTran cities into the Southwest network. And many longtime travelers feel...
View ArticleHuman Rights Watch Exposes Injustice of Plea Bargains and Mandatory Minimums
Federal prosecutors offered Roy Lee Clay, a 47-year-old part-time house remodeler from Baltimore a choice: plead guilty to conspiring to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin and face 10 years in...
View ArticleMileage Based User Fees or Road Usage ChargesSome Thoughtful Commentary
The August/September issue of Thinking Highways (North American edition) includes a pair of articles by Jack Opiola and colleagues from D'Artagnan Consulting on the subject of road usage charging...
View ArticleParks 2.0: Operating State Parks Through Public-Private Partnerships
Reason Foundation & Buckeye Institute The ongoing fiscal challenges facing state governments are creating an existential crisis for state parks. With budgets stretched increasingly thin, state...
View ArticleReason-Rupe Poll: Americans Want to Go Back to Previous Health Care System,...
At a recent event, President Barack Obama said the health care law is here to stay and vowed, "We aren't going back.” But 55 percent of Americans say they’d prefer to go back to the health care system...
View ArticleBaltimore City School District Has Come a Long Way since 2007, but There's...
In Reason Foundation’s recently published Weighted Student Formula Yearbook 2013, Baltimore City Public School (BCPS) district received an overall “F” grade and ranked last among the school districts...
View ArticleAlaska Governor Proposes $3 Billion Towards Paying Down Pension Debts
In 2005, Alaska was one of the first state governments to implement significant pension reform, phasing out the traditional defined benefit plan for employees hired on or after July 1, 2006 in favor of...
View ArticleWhat to Make of Struggling P3 Toll Roads
I've received several queries about a Nov. 21st front-page story in the Wall Street Journal about financial difficulties at a number of U.S. toll-concession projects. Besides noting the bankruptcies of...
View ArticleIts Time to Let the Wind Energy Production Tax Credit Expire
For the eighth time since its inception as part of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, the federal wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) is set to expire at the year’s end. While it has been extended every other...
View ArticleE-Cigarette Regulations Likely To Do More Harm
Orange County Register Regulations in Southern California, and across the nation, to limit the use and sale of electronic cigarettes are spreading rapidly. But like so many well-intentioned policies,...
View ArticleBarnes v. Zaccari, 11th Circuit, 2013
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUITTHOMAS HAYDEN BARNES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. RONALD M. ZACCARI, BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF GEORGIA,...
View ArticleE-Cigarette Regulations Likely to Harm Anti-Smoking Efforts, Yet NYC Still...
In my latest Orange County Register column, I note that the wave of regulations local officials are enacting or proposing to restrict the sale or use of e-cigarettes is more likely to harm public...
View ArticleUnmasking the Mortgage Interest Deduction: Who Benefits and by How Much? 2013...
The deduction of mortgage interest from federal income taxes subsidizes homeownership, making it more affordable to become a homeowner. It is a highly popular tax break, yet one that is not without...
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