State Policy Network

A fresh discussion on ways to cut Michigan state government spending has been triggered by recent reports that the 2010 state budget could overspend revenues by $2 billion. To address the politician-created overspending crisis, this commentary delivers numerous spending-reduction recommendations, to the tune of $2.24 billion, which could bring the budget into line without raising taxes.

According to this JLF survey, a $5,000 scholarship would cover the yearly tuition of the average private elementary school in North Carolina, $6,000 would cover the average high school tuition. This compares favorably with average per pupil expenditure in N.C. public schools, which totaled $9,370 in 2007-08. Further, the average class size in the private schools was 14 students; no private school reported a class size of more than 30.

The S.C. Dept. of Agriculture has spent nearly $54,000 so far this fiscal year on advertising to persuade South Carolinians to eat more local produce and products because they're fresher, healthier, better for the environment and doing so will boost the state's economy. In reality, the advertising effort is nothing more than economic protectionism and a subsidy for the state's agriculture industry dressed up in feel-good pseudo economics.

More often than not, charter schools in downstate and suburban Illinois are outperforming the average at district schools. This is the case with low income students in particular. Parents who seek schools with stronger academic records are likely to be happy with their choice of charter schools. And, it appears, parents who choose schools for other reasons do not have to sacrifice academic quality to send their children to a charter school.

Ohio's recent college graduates are looking for jobs. Many of them will likely settle somewhere other than Ohio. To make The Buckeye State a more attractive place to live, policymakers need to point the state in a new direction. Eliminating the income tax and compulsory unionization and introducing universal education vouchers would ensure that far more college graduates stay in Ohio.

City-owned golf courses throughout Minnesota lost approximately $2 million in 2007. At $50 per round, that's the equivalent of 40,000 rounds annually of taxpayer-subsidized golf. The negative trend recently led the city of Renville to sell Stoney Creek Golf Course to a local business. Between 2003-2007, that city's course operating losses approached $600,000 - in a community of 1,200.

Meridian officials have stated, the city will begin posting line-item expenditure data on its website. Meridian is the fourth Idaho community to agree to a new level of transparency, allowing citizens to see how their dollars are spent. Eagle already posts its transactions online. Nampa and Canyon County are preparing to post line-item reports online. IFF is in the process of developing its own transparency in government website database.

Investor's Business Daily senior editor and editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez will speak at a June 24 breakfast in Boston. Ramirez is a two-time winner of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize; three-time recipient of the Society of Professional Journalism Award; in 2005 he received the National Journalism Award and he has also won The H. L. Mencken Award. Ramirez is the author of the new book, Everyone Has the Right to My Opinion.

In 2006 the Rio Grande Foundation was a leading opponent of the proposed Albuquerque, New Mexico streetcar. Though the issue remains on many policymakers' agendas, it lacks momentum to move forward due to public opposition. However, some continue to tout the unsound project. This commentary thoroughly rebuts one advocate's arguments for a scaled-back version of the original streetcar proposal.

Even though the Alabama Department of Education website continues to show a projected four-year dropout rate of only 9.76 percent, reliable sources report the state's dropout rate is almost 39 percent. In other words (after controlling for transfers in and out of the system and for deaths), only 61 of every 100 students who enter the 9th grade in Alabama will graduate from high school on time.