Brand New Model Policy Solutions for the States: Jonathan Williams on The Schilling Show (Charlottesville, VA)

ALEC President and Chief Economist Jonathan Williams recently appeared on The Schilling Show, where he highlighted ta record-breaking 74 new ALEC model policies that can serve as resources for growth in the states.

The first policy issue Schilling asked about was election integrity, particularly The Ballot Harvesting Ban Act.

“This is really stopping those bad actors from using postal service or using a resident of the same dwelling as a voter,” Williams explained, “or you go the examples of nursing homes where there’s rampant ballot harvesting that has been alleged in states across the country.”

The conversation then turned to education policy, focusing on the 529 Education Freedom for States Act and its impact on education tax benefits for states.

“What this model does is it puts the state on record to say we want to be at least as generous as what has been expanded under the new federal law,” he explained. “States obviously can go further and have more tax deduction savings for hardworking residents that contribute to 529 plans, but we think this is a great common sense starting point.”

Schilling then brought up the topic of foreign influence in higher education. Williams pointed to the model policy, Foreign Influence Operations Out of American Education Act, and how it would prohibit public universities from receiving aid from countries of concern.

“If states are not enforcing what is under federal law to be enforced and actually have real reporting from public universities, that if you are receiving public dollars,” Williams noted. “This is going to be and should be disclosed at the very least and should really be prohibited from receiving aid from countries of concern.”

Later in the discussion, Williams highlighted the Resolution to Establish a Local Taxpayer Bill of Rights, based on Colorado’s Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR).

“TABOR limits the growth of spending to population plus inflation,” he explained. “Of course, it can be applied at the state level and/or any local government that would like to take that same approach to say we want to put government on this type of a limit.”