Category: Uncategorized
Category: Uncategorized (page 31)
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New State Budget Solutions Study Shows $4.1 Trillion Pension Funding Gap
It’s no secret that most state pension plans across the country are deep in the red. However, a study by the nonpartisan group State Budget Solutions, Promises Made,…
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Lawsuit Reform is a Key Free-Market Issue
For a marketplace to function properly, a legal system must incentivize good behavior and punish bad behavior. Lawsuits exist to make the wrongly injured financially whole by the injurer. If…
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As Government Shuts Down, Exchanges “Open”
Yesterday’s government shutdown coincides with the much anticipated debut of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) health insurance exchanges. But while consumers across the country were immediately met with…
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Massachusetts Tech Sector May Catch a Break
At first blush, the Massachusetts “tech tax” appears similar to tax regimes in other states. However, the Massachusetts tax on computer software services has a unique set of implications—and would…
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ALEC Approves Model Policy to Encourage Smarter Sentencing
In an era plagued by partisan posturing and gridlock, federal criminal justice reform proposals bring a breath of fresh air that follows on the heels of several years of bipartisan…
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Why work when welfare pays more?
The Cato Institute recently released an updated version of a decades-old study analyzing welfare benefits on a state-by-state basis. The study, The Work vs. Welfare Trade-Off, found that the…
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Privacy Concerns High as States Brace for Oct. 1st Exchange Enrollment
An employee for Minnesota’s new health exchange accidentally sent 2,400 Social Security numbers to an insurance broker earlier this month, underscoring privacy concerns with the Affordable Care Act (ACA),…
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Texas vs. Maryland: Opposing Economic Strategies
Recently, Texas Governor Rick Perry and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley had a verbal sparring match on CNN’s Crossfire. Both participants mentioned various statistics and claimed the mantle of economic success…
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Competition Leads to Cost-Savings in Water Infrastructure
Every year in North America, 300,000 water main breaks threaten the safety of our communities and place enormous financial burdens on states already struggling to balance budgets. Decisions on how…
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How Wireless Spectrum Works Magic
Twenty years ago, the amount of electronics needed to power your smartphone would have filled a room. Today, everything from a stereo sound system with complex speakers to the World…
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The Death Tax – Taxes on Death
By: Will Freeland and Matt Portu It has been said that the only certainties in life are death and taxes. Thankfully, across the states it’s becoming less likely for Americans…
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Government Threatens Montanans Privacy
By: Representative Daniel Zolnikov, House District 47, Billings Heights We take privacy for granted. Too often we mistakenly assume that we are the only ones privy to our personal information.
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New Guide: Illinois Pension Reform is Possible
The American Legislative Exchange Council Center For State Fiscal Reform’s latest publication, Keeping the Promise: State Solutions for Government Pension Reform, offers a solution-based perspective that should be valuable…
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Ronald Coase, Titan of Economic Thought, Passes Away at 102
Ronald Coase, an economist hailed as one of the top 10 greatest economic thinkers of all time, passed away Monday, September 2, 2013, just shy of 103 years…
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Alaska’s Bold Pension Reforms
By Nick Oswald Unfunded pension liabilities are becoming a greater and greater threat to state budgets. However, the American Legislative Exchange Council’s publication, Keeping the Promise: State Solutions for…
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Massachusetts Targets Tech Sector for Revenue
With a pool of tech-focused firms and a slew of graduates from top-notch universities like MIT and Harvard, it’s no surprise that Massachusetts is home to a flourishing tech economy.
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Myth of the Day: Real Household Income Has Not Grown in the Last 20 Years
One key tax myth that drives much of the desire for redistribution is the notion that real household income is not growing for any group but the wealthiest Americans. The…
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States Find Success Promoting Advanced Communications Technologies
By Jon Anzur The dynamic and fluid nature of the Internet has helped to ease communications, but those same characteristics make the Web ill-suited to state and federal regulation. As…
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Michigan Pension Reform: A Model for the Nation
Americans have become accustomed to hearing about unfunded liabilities generated by the various federal entitlement programs, but many state and local governments have serious public finance problems looming as well.
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Successful Pension Reform in Rhode Island
In ALEC’s latest publication, Keeping The Promise: State Solutions For Government Pension Reform, former State Senator Dan Liljenquist details how the state of Rhode Island successfully addressed its unfunded…