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  • Arizona Passes Fundamental Pension Reform image

    Arizona Passes Fundamental Pension Reform

    According to the Reason Foundation’s Pension Integrity Project, the reform package will save Arizona taxpayers a combined $1.5 billion over 30 years.

  • Three Things You Need to Know about Transparency in Higher Education image

    Three Things You Need to Know about Transparency in Higher Education

    Sunshine Week provides an ideal opportunity to call for transparency in a sector that rarely demonstrates any: higher education.  Transparency is essential to harnessing consumer choice to reduce costs and…

  • ALEC Alumni Address Taxpayers’ $310 Billion Unauthorized Appropriations Problem image

    ALEC Alumni Address Taxpayers’ $310 Billion Unauthorized Appropriations Problem

    Recently, ALEC alumnus and House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (GA) joined ALEC members on a conference call to discuss free market solutions to federal budget challenges. Congressman Price discussed…

  • Transparency Critical to Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform image

    Transparency Critical to Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform

    Civil asset forfeiture abuses in various states throughout the country are well-documented. There are several instances where individuals have seen their property seized by the state or federal government, despite…

  • Right-to-Work in 2016 image

    Right-to-Work in 2016

    Even before the third month of the year is finished, there have already been major victories for advocates of increased worker freedom. For the first time, a majority of U.S.

  • The Navajo Nation and the Clean Power Plan image

    The Navajo Nation and the Clean Power Plan

    A lot has been written in this space about the potential downsides of the Clean Power Plan (CPP), which is currently being litigated in the courts: rising electricity costs,…

  • Sunshine Week: Disclosure of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Composition Act image

    Sunshine Week: Disclosure of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Composition Act

    During the first part of the 21st century, some of the greatest examples of American ingenuity and achievement took place in and around the oil and gas patches across the…

  • New Report Highlights 17 States That Cut Taxes in 2015 image

    New Report Highlights 17 States That Cut Taxes in 2015

    Seventeen states cut taxes in the 2015 legislative year, matching a high-water mark that was first reached in 2013, according to a new report by the Center for State Fiscal Reform at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

  • For Retirement Security, K-12 Teachers Should Embrace Higher Ed Model image

    For Retirement Security, K-12 Teachers Should Embrace Higher Ed Model

    In a modern, defined contribution system, all workers and retirees get an annual report on the status of their pension investments.

  • A National Race to Government Transparency image

    A National Race to Government Transparency

    As Treasurer of Ohio, I believe taxpayers have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent. So in December 2014, I launched OhioCheckbook.com which for the first time in Ohio history puts every single state expenditure online.

  • Interview with Representative Christina Hagan image

    Interview with Representative Christina Hagan

    Representative Christina Hagan, an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) member and Midwestern Chair of the ALEC Women’s Caucus, is the youngest woman ever elected to the Ohio State House of Representatives. She…

  • Massachusetts Plays the Lottery with Students’ Futures image

    Massachusetts Plays the Lottery with Students’ Futures

    Last Wednesday, the families of 366 Massachusetts students waited anxiously while their educational fates were decided by a lottery. The families were applying to the Holyoke Community Charter School, one of the best in Massachusetts, but because charter school enrollment is arbitrarily capped in the state, only 34 were chosen to enroll in the school. Unfortunately, scenes like the one at Holyoke are not uncommon in Massachusetts, where the law allows only a certain number of charter schools to operate.

  • Rationalize Maryland’s Regulatory Environment image

    Rationalize Maryland’s Regulatory Environment

    For years, Maryland’s over-regulation has been hurting the state’s economy, stifling entrepreneurship and generally creating bureaucratic nightmares for…

  • Tennessee Senate Passes Ban-the-Box Legislation image

    Tennessee Senate Passes Ban-the-Box Legislation

    The Tennessee Senate recently passed Senate Bill 2440 with a 25 to 7 vote. The bill, colloquially known as “ban-the box,” requires state employers to delay inquiring about criminal…

  • ALEC Principles Shine Light on Government Failures image

    ALEC Principles Shine Light on Government Failures

    Sunshine Week, running from March 13 to 19, aims to promote transparency in government, which is a fundamental component of the ALEC principles of limited government, free markets and federalism. The private sector can offer superior alternatives to failing public schools, overly complex healthcare services and expensive infrastructure projects. When government services are transferred to the free market, private companies deliver high-quality public services at far less cost to the taxpayer.

  • As Clean Power Plan is Litigated, More States are “Putting their Pencils Down” image

    As Clean Power Plan is Litigated, More States are “Putting their Pencils Down”

    In early February, the U.S. Supreme Court elected to stay implementation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan (CPP). This recently finalized regulation – the centerpiece…

  • ALEC Alumni Spotlight – Jerry Madden image

    ALEC Alumni Spotlight – Jerry Madden

    The ALEC Alumni Association works with former lawmakers to promote limited government, free markets and federalism in their communities when their time in state legislative office comes to an end.

  • ALEC and ACCE Offer Lawmakers Resources to Prevent Future Flint Crises image

    ALEC and ACCE Offer Lawmakers Resources to Prevent Future Flint Crises

    As Flint officials handle the water crisis sickening town residents, state and local lawmakers should take a closer look at their own water supply and infrastructure viability. Thankfully, ALEC members have focused on this issue for years and can offer solutions that can be applied back home.

  • The Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act (UMITA): Shining a Light on the Hidden Costs of Unfunded Mandates image

    The Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act (UMITA): Shining a Light on the Hidden Costs of Unfunded Mandates

    ALEC hosted a congressional conference call with Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (NC) on Tuesday, February 23. The Congresswoman discussed her sponsorship of the Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act (UMITA), and described UMITA…

  • CMS ‘Reinsurance’ Program Deceives U.S. Treasury Department, Taxpayers image

    CMS ‘Reinsurance’ Program Deceives U.S. Treasury Department, Taxpayers

    The list of failures, misrepresentations and falsities surrounding the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is almost unending. First there was the assurance that under the ACA if Americans…