Announcements

• On Over-Caffeinated, the Beacon Center of Tennessee sat down with Dr. Ben Carson to talk about future potential elections, the culture of protesting, and whether or not he’d ever consider running for office again.

• The Buckeye Institute continues to represent Eric Flannery, owner of The Big Board restaurant, against the District of Columbia’s aggressive tactics. Taken together, DC’s additional fines, nitpicky warnings, and temporary suspension of Mr. Flannery’s outdoor permit make it look like he is being singled out because of his speech regarding D.C.’s COVID-19 mandates.

• The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty released model school board policies as an addition and alternative to the limited options that school boards have access to.

• The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty testified to suspend a rule regarding ballot “curing.”

This Week on SPN.org

What is a recession?

Network case studies to inspire your next issue campaign

SPN State Jobs Report: Nevada joins short list of states that have surpassed pre-pandemic job counts

Success Stories

• The Foundation for Government Accountability highlighted how more than 213,000 building permits for housing units were issued in Florida in 2021—close to double the national average growth rate in new authorized housing units.

• A Wisconsin judge issued a summary judgment decision that holds the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (WIDOC) violated state law and the state constitution when the agency barred Catholic clergy from ministering in-person to the spiritual needs of inmates under a COVID-19 visitor policy. The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty sued the Wisconsin Department of Corrections in May 2021 on behalf of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee seeking invalidation of the visitor policy.

Solutions from the states: This week’s policy briefs

• The Buckeye Institute released its expert economic analysis of Ohio’s latest jobs report—explaining what the numbers tell us about the state of Ohio’s economy, what the numbers mean for Ohio’s businesses and workers, and what commonsense policies lawmakers should adopt to expand economic freedom and prosperity. 

• A new report by the Empire Center finds New York can increase its use of renewable energy and reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, but it cannot do so cheaply or safely.

• Frontier Institute partnered with leading economists at the Texas Public Policy Foundation to put together an analysis of budgets for Montana’s six most populous counties and cities compared to the metric of population growth plus inflation over the last decade.

• A new Goldwater Institute report reveals how Arizona public school spending surged during the pandemic.

• The Washington Policy Center released a new extensive study on the state’s long-term-care program, WA Cares.

• The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty released a policy brief that encourages the Wisconsin Legislature to fix Wisconsin’s open records law to ensure that government actors are held accountable when they are sued for withholding records. 

Policy News from the States

Crime

Groups Take Steps To Tackle Rising Crime (Pelican Institute)

Law Enforcement Dividend: Who Benefits When Crime Is Prevented? (Pioneer Institute)

Education

Cash for Alaska’s School Districts: July Update (Alaska Policy Forum)

Watchdog: Oklahoma Schools Paid Millions For Unnecessary Services (Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs)

Educational Choice Must Accompany Increased Spending (Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs)

Report Shows Louisiana Ranked Among Worst For Public Schools (Pelican Institute)

Parents Singing the Back-to-School Blues (Texas Public Policy Foundation)

Energy and the Environment

Portland’s Clean Energy Fund Didn’t Deserve a Green Light (Cascade Policy Institute)

New Hampshire’s 10-Year Energy Strategy Puts Consumers First (Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy)

Free Market Solutions to Kansas’s Rising Electric Costs (Kansas Policy Institute)

Solar Installations Hasten Loss Of Virginia Farmland (Thomas Jefferson Institute)

Government Accountability

Pritzker Gives Himself Emergency COVID Powers For 32nd Time (Illinois Policy Institute)

Healthcare

New York’s health insurance affordability problem gets worse (Empire Center)

More States Adopt Full Practice Authority (Empower Mississippi)

Health Care Price Transparency in Missouri: Part One (Show-Me Institute)

Washington State Hospitals Are In Financial Trouble—Blame The Government (Washington Policy Center)

Housing

Minneapolis Makes List Of Top Ten Cities Homebuyers Want To Flee (Center of the American Experiment)

Why Hawaii Should Consider The ‘Tokyo Model’ For Housing (Grassroot Institute of Hawaii)

White House Preparing For Recession (Mackinac Center)

Inflation/Gas Prices

Gas Prices Are Falling Because People Can’t Afford To Buy It (Center of the American Experiment)

What The June Inflation Numbers Mean For The Poor (Georgia Center for Opportunity)

Kansas Families Are Losing $8,700 Annually From Inflation (Kansas Policy Institute)

Jobs And State Economies

Poor Nashville Policy Combined with Inflation Is Detrimental to the State’s Future (Beacon Center of Tennessee)

Unemployment Is At Another Historic Low But 72,000 Workers Are Still Missing From The Workforce (Center of the American Experiment)

Illinois adds 18,800 jobs in June, still missing 117,000 from pandemic (Illinois Policy Institute)

Worker Shortage Continues: Low Wage Sectors Hardest Hit (John Locke Foundation)

What is Behind North Carolina’s Economic Success? (John Locke Foundation)

Property Tax Stabilization Program Shifts Burden To State Taxpayers (Maine Policy Institute)

June Jobs Report Shows Decline In Jobs (Pelican Institute)

Recession

Are We In A Recession? (Center of the American Experiment)

The Impact of the National Recession on Iowa (Iowans for Tax Relief Foundation)

White House Redefines ‘Recession’ Ahead of Report (John Locke Foundation)

Five Things Local Officials Can Do to Help Texans Cope with Recession (Texas Public Policy Foundation)

TPPF: The U.S. is in Recession. Here’s What Policymakers Should Do. (Texas Public Policy Foundation)

State Budgets and Spending

A Municipal Spending Quandary (Badger Institute)

Budget Growth Exposes Delaware’s Real Priorities (Caesar Rodney Institute)

If Cities Are In Financial Crisis, Why Aren’t They Panicking? (California Policy Center)

State Or Local Government: Who Taxes You In Minnesota? (Center of the American Experiment)

Where Did Iowa’s Local COVID Relief Funds Go? (Iowans for Tax Relief Foundation)

Latest State Budget Adds More Pork (John Locke Foundation)

Workplace Freedom

AFT Releases Poll to Help Democratic Allies Win Midterms (Americans for Fair Treatment)

NEA “Safe Schools” Task Force Ignores Teacher Safety (Americans for Fair Treatment)

Thwarting Union’s Theft Of Vacation Time Was No Small Matter (Freedom Foundation)

Other

Local Governments Must Change Course to Fix Their Policy Crises(Cascade Policy Institute)

Think Tanks in the News

Moms for Liberty Takes on the NEA ‘K-12 Cartel’ (Americans for Fair Treatment cited in The Epoch Times)

GOP Senators Call Out NEA for Creating ‘Enemies List’ That May Target Concerned Parents (Americans for Fair Treatment cited in The Epoch Times)

Inflation No Reason To Lose Ground On Pension Progress (Bluegrass Institute in the Richmond Register)

How To End Cancel Culture (Commonwealth Foundation in The Philadelphia Inquirer)

Florida Started Penalizing Bureaucratic Delay. Housing Permits Spiked. (Foundation for Government Accountability in The Washington Post)

Biden’s Illegal Election Hail Mary Might Still Be Intercepted (Foundation for Government Accountability at The Federalist)

How Congress Can Rein In Gas Prices — And Unelected Bureaucrats (Foundation for Government Accountability in the New York Post)

Missteps Behind America’s Energy Security Challenges (Garden State Initiative at NJ.com)

Amid Recession Fears, Economically Free States Continue to Outperform (Georgia Center for Opportunity and Texas Public Policy Foundation at RealClearPolicy)

Strive For Pre-Pandemic Achievement (Georgia Public Policy Foundation at The Northeast Georgian)

When Taxes Hit Home (Illinois Policy Institute in the Chicago Tribune)

The Senator Trying to Restore Fiscal Sanity (Iowans for Tax Relief Foundation at RealClearPolicy)

Reducing State Income Tax A Counter To Inflation (Independence Institute at Colorado Politics)

The Dynamizing Power Of The Gig Economy (Libertas Institute The Salt Lake Tribune)

Are Airbnb And VRBO To Blame For Utah’s Housing Crisis? (Libertas Institute in the Deseret News)

In Marilyn Mosby’s Baltimore, Repeat Criminals Go Free to Kill (Maryland Public Policy Institute in The Wall Street Journal)

City of Broken Windows (Maryland Public Policy Institute in City Journal)

Drug Price Controls Would Limit New Medicines (Pacific Research Institute in the Washington Examiner)

State of the Economy (Texas Public Policy Foundation on Fox Business)

Washington’s Collective Bargaining Talks Demand Transparency (Washington Policy Center in The Spokesman-Review)

Excusing Misbehavior Is Bad For Kids And Schools, But That’s What Biden Admin Wants To Do For ‘Equity’ (Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty in The Federalist)

Universal School Choice Would Help All Wisconsin Families (Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty in The Cap Times)

Events and Opportunities

Please see SPN’s Network Calendar for a full list of events.