Economic Outlook in the States & the Work of ALEC: Jonathan Williams on Job Creators Network
ALEC is an organization unlike any other, created to pursue good public policy in the 50 laboratories of democracy.
Jonathan Williams, ALEC Executive Vice President of Policy and Chief Economist, spoke with Alfredo Ortiz and Elaine Parker on Main Street Matters of Job Creators Network. In the interview, Williams touched on the work ALEC has been doing across the states, balanced budget amendments, and economic trends around the nation.
Williams touched on the overall set up of ALEC with its partnerships with state legislators to implement policies that uphold the values of limited government, free markets, and federalism.
We’re the nation’s largest, nonpartisan individual membership organization of state legislators and just celebrated our 50th anniversary and it has been an incredible time to reflect back on five decades of working on free market principled policy solutions at the state level and limited government and federalism.
In regard to general economic trends, Williams referred to the latest edition of the Rich States, Poor States ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index report for analysis of each state’s economic outlook and recommendations for building on economic growth.
We wanted to put together this report for state policymakers, but also just concerned Americans across the board and business owners as to how does your state rank versus the other 49 when it comes to key economic criteria that will drive future growth and health and estate and prosperity for people. We haven’t changed the variables over 16 years. We have an incredible time series now to be able to show either progress or lack of progress for states. These are based on things that we know matter for economic growth but also just as importantly, things that state policymakers in capitals across the country directly control because there’s so many of these surveys and rankings out there today can be a little bit confusing, but ours is actually rooted in good economics.