Sasha Volokh on Pension Protection and the Detroit Bankruptcy
Sasha Volokh has a new article on Reason.org today that explores how constitutional pension protections interact with bankruptcy law in the context of Detroit's ongoing bankruptcy. Here's an excerpt:On...
View ArticleThe Prairie Chicken Ruling Doesn't Make Sense
An editorial in today's Odessa American laments that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service went ahead and listed the lesser prairie chicken. The editorial notes that the plan was unable to accomplish...
View ArticleComment Period Re-Opened on Proposal to List Rufa Red Knot as Threatened
Fish & Wildlife Service has reopened the comment period for proposed listing of red knot, a species of sandpiper that migrates from South America up the East Coast in the spring and takes a variety...
View ArticleThe Magical Effects of Pre-K
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is claiming that an early childhood program can not only raise educational outcomes, it can prevent disease later in life, according to new findings. After a...
View ArticleWith Pension Costs Soaring, Should New Jersey Commit Billions to More Open...
The New Jersey Legislature is currently considering a bill—Senate Concurrent Resolution 84 (SCR84)—that would amend the state Constitution to dedicate six percent of the state’s Corporation Business...
View ArticleRobbing Cap and Trade to Pay for High-Speed Rail in California
The Orange County Register Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest budget magic trick seeks to find a way to pay for the proposed California high-speed rail system. Brown wants to shift money from the state...
View ArticleBad News for the Prairie Chicken as Environmental Groups Oppose Conservation...
The lesser prairie chicken, which was listed under the Endangered Species Act two weeks ago, just got some more bad news. On Thursday, three environmental pressure groups—Center for Biological...
View ArticleSchool Salary Transparency Can Help Disadvantaged Students
The Orange County Register Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest budget includes $11.8 billion in increased education spending next fiscal year and the Legislative Analyst’s Office predicts that schools may...
View ArticleObama on TVA: Time to Transfer to Help Mitigate Risk to Taxpayer
Kudos to the Obama Administration and its proposed fiscal year 2015 budget for continuing “to believe that reducing or eliminating the federal government’s role in programs such as TVA [the Tennessee...
View ArticleState of Louisiana v. Bernard Noble
Brief Amicus Curiae of Micah Project, Prison Fellowship Ministries, Reason Foundation, ACLU of Louisiana, and Drug Policy AllianceState of Louisiana v. Bernard Noble Bernard Noble is a 45 year old man...
View ArticleFinding a Sustainable Highway Funding Source Part I
The U.S. highway trust fund is scheduled to “run dry” by August. Washington policymakers are doing their best to attract media attention in hopes that it will inspire Congress to find money from...
View ArticlePart II: Finding a Sustainable Highway Funding Source
Yesterday we discussed how the U.S. highway trust fund is “running dry” and how solutions such as general fund transfers and gas tax increases are short term solutions. Today I want to detail the most...
View ArticleMinority Television Project, Inc. v. Federal Communication Commission and...
Brief Amicus Curiae of Reason Foundation, Citizens United, Atlantic Legal Foundation, Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, Individual Rights Foundation, Northwest Legal Foundation, Mackinac Center...
View ArticleDon't Raid California's Rainy Day Fund to Pay Down Its Debt
Breitbart The special legislative session in Sacramento this week is weighing the future of California’s rainy day fund, particularly how much of it should be used for paying down the state’s debt....
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Reforming Defined-Benefit Pension Systems in Bakersfield and Kern County
Innovators in Action 2014 It’s relatively rare in public service to have the opportunity to implement similar reforms in different units of government—especially on challenging public policy issues...
View ArticleInnovators in Action (April 2014 edition): Reforming Defined-Benefit Pension...
The latest interview in Reason Foundation's Innovators in Action 2014 series focuses on reforming defined-benefit pension systems in Bakersfield and Kern County, California.When he was serving as a...
View ArticleEven With California Love, Inglewood Still Up to No Good
The Inglewood Unified School District (IUSD) is in dire straits. The district has run up staggering debts, enrollment is plummeting and, despite the school district’s financial duress, administrators...
View ArticleO.C. Must Compete on Education Front
Successful investors often know a good thing when they see it, and right now more than 250 private equity firms have investments in the education sector. San Francisco-based AltSchool, a for-profit...
View ArticleSchool Choice, Funding Portability, and Trends In Educational Privatization
Annual Privatization Report 2014 This section of Reason Foundation's Annual Privatization Report 2014 provides a comprehensive overview of the latest on school choice, charter schools, school funding...
View ArticlePrivatization and Public-Private Partnership Trends in State Government
Annual Privatization Report 2014 This section of Reason Foundation's Annual Privatization Report 2014 provides a comprehensive overview of the latest on privatization and public-private partnerships in...
View ArticleCriminal Justice Reforms Prompt Evolution in Private Sector Rehabilitation...
Privatization & Government Reform Newsletter Detractors of private prisons often cite a supposed conflict between privatization and the growing trend towards criminal justice reforms and reduced...
View ArticlePrivatization & Government Reform Newsletter #6 (Apr 2014 edition)
The April 2014 edition of the Privatization & Government Reform Newsletter is now online. Topics covered in this issue include:PRIVATIZATION: Reviewing the Past Year in State...
View ArticleTrends in Educational School Choice, Charter Schools and Student-Based Budgeting
Earlier today, Reason Foundation released the Education section of their Annual Privatization Report – a publication 27 years in the making. This most recent edition provides evidence that the upward...
View ArticleCalculating Public Sector Pensions in All 50 States
In an effort to compare the retirement benefits between public and private sector employees more accurately, the PublicSectorInc.org project of the Manhattan Institute has launched an expanded version...
View ArticlePresident Obama's Proposal to Allow Tolling to Rebuild Interstates Is the...
I’m not a big fan of most of President Obama’s new transportation budget proposal. Much of it is not credible because it lacks a realistic funding source, especially since it calls for a nearly 40...
View ArticleLouisiana's Heroin Panic Makes Poor Policy
Shreveport Times The Louisiana legislature is in the midst of a heroin panic. A bill that breezed through the House on a 94-1 vote, and is now with the State Senate, would require anyone caught in...
View ArticleKeys to Financing Managed Lane Networks
Public Works Financing By now it’s pretty clear that most of America’s major urban areas hope to implement region-wide networks of priced (“managed”) lanes on their freeway systems. Plans for such...
View ArticleLessons and Myths of West Virginia's Pension Reform
When a state or local government's pension system gets in trouble, an oft-proposed solution is to close a defined-benefit (DB) system and open defined-contribution (DC) accounts. This eliminates the...
View ArticleDid Pension Reform in Alaska Fail?
It’s been 9 years since the Alaska state legislature passed Senate Bill 141, which among other things replaced the state’s defined benefit pension system with defined contribution accounts for new...
View ArticleSacramento's Attempt to Placate Unions
The Orange County Register California’s public sector unions are the proverbial broken record. Like clockwork, their annual push for legislation to demonize and snuff out privatization – basically, to...
View ArticleOil Trains Run Because Pipelines Don't
The Orange County Register Some politicians in California, and people like me who live near railroad tracks, are waking up to the fact that four times as much oil was shipped to California by train...
View ArticleIllinois Funding Reform Act Doesnâ??t Go Far Enough to Address Inequality:...
State Senator Andy Manar and thirteen fellow Democrats have sponsored a bill to streamline Illinois’ current education funding mechanism. The School Funding Reform Act of 2014 is intended to improve a...
View ArticleOrange County Must Compete on Education Front
The Orange County Register Successful investors often know a good thing when they see it, and right now more than 250 private equity firms have investments in the education sector. San Francisco-based...
View ArticleToll Lanes Are Key to Reducing Traffic Congestion in Southern California
The Orange County Register Orange County’s 91 Express Lanes, the first variably priced toll lanes in the nation when they opened in 1985, are a major success. Commuters can shave 30 minutes off their...
View ArticleFrequently Asked Questions on Toll-Financed Interstate Reconstruction
» Click here to download these frequently asked questions as a PDFMany governors and state DOTs are asking Congress to remove the federal ban on charging tolls on Interstate highways. The President’s...
View ArticleBig Milk's Corporate Cronyism
The Orange County Register I grew up on a small family dairy and drank unpasteurized milk growing up, so the debate over whether or not people should be allowed to buy and sell it really hits home for...
View ArticleNYC Mayor's Plan to Shut Down High-Performing Charters is Turned Against Him
In February New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he would prevent three high-performing charter schools from opening by denying them co-location space in underutilized traditional public...
View ArticleThe Time Is Right for California to Ditch the Death Penalty
The Orange County Register Last month condemned Oklahoma death row inmate Clayton Lockett was pronounced dead from an apparent heart attack more than 40 minutes after his botched execution had...
View ArticleChallenging Government-Sponsored Private Regulation of Competitors
It has been a longstanding practice in America for governments to give private entities made up of professionals in an industry the authority to regulate the profession (e.g., state bar associations...
View ArticleAdministration's TIGER Grants Need Congressional Prohibitions
Earlier this week the U.S. House of Representatives voted to decrease the budget and impose restrictions for the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants. While some...
View ArticleCongress Passes Water Bill Promoting Public-Private Partnerships
Recent action in Congress may catalyze more private investment in water and wastewater infrastructure in the U.S. Last week, the House and Senate both passed the bipartisan Water Resources Reform and...
View ArticleCongress Passes Water Bill Promoting Public-Private Partnerships
My latest commentary discusses the passage of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act in Congress last week, which includes provisions establishing two new pilot programs designed to encourage...
View ArticleReducing Bridge Maintenance Costs in South Carolina
Innovators in Action 2014 Like many states, South Carolina faces challenges in maintaining its highway system due to the declining purchasing power of state and federal gas taxes, the rising...
View ArticleConservatives Shouldn't Be Bothered By HOT Lanes
I wrote the attached article in response to a cover story in The Weekly Standard that seriously misrepresented not only my own views but also three policy issues that I have been working on for more...
View ArticleWarning Label Legislators Think You're Dumb
The Los Angeles Register A bill making its way through the California State Senate would require beverages containing added sugar to have warning labels on them. While proponents of the warning labels...
View ArticleReports: State Budgets Steady, But Future Uncertain
Privatization & Government Reform Newsletter Two new reports suggest that while state budgets have continued their slow fiscal recovery since the end of the Great Recession, significant threats...
View ArticlePrivatization & Government Reform Newsletter #7 (May 2014 edition)
The May 2014 edition of the Privatization & Government Reform Newsletter is now online. Topics covered in this issue include:BUDGETS: State Budgets Steady, But Future UncertainTRANSPORTATION:...
View ArticleInnovators in Action: South Carolina DOT Uses Innovative Technology to...
Earlier this month, I interviewed South Carolina Department of Transportation State Bridge Engineer Richard “Lee” Floyd. Floyd has introduced a new way to monitor bridges in South Carolina. The state...
View ArticleToll Lanes are Vital to Reducing Traffic Congestion in Orange County
Large metro areas across the country are building express toll lane networks or converting their existing high occupancy vehicle (HOV) networks to express toll lane networks. However, as I wrote in an...
View ArticleSmoking, Plain Packaging and Public Health
Smoking is one of the leading preventable causes of death in the world. In most wealthy countries, smoking has been declining for decades.Public health experts and anti-smoking groups have for many...
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