This weekly round-up shares the latest news about what the Network is doing to promote state-based solutions that will improve the lives of families, workers, and local communities. If you are an SPN member and have an update you’d like us to include in next week’s round-up, please email us at updates@spn.org (all submissions are subject to SPN approval).

Announcements

  • America’s Future Foundation is celebrating the five year anniversary of its Writing Fellows Program. What started as just seven young writers in Washington, DC now boasts 235 liberty-minded alumni across the country.
  • First Liberty Institute awarded Jones Day partner Christopher DiPompeo with its prestigious Philip B. Onderdonk, Jr. Religious Liberty Award. The award honors a hero who has proven to be a champion of religious liberty. DiPompeo was co-lead counsel in the American Legion victory at the US Supreme Court earlier this year.
  • The Forge Leadership Network is celebrating its fifth anniversary. Forge mentors, trains, and connects young conservatives, equipping them to lead in politics, business, and culture. In five years, Forge has trained over 300 students and young professionals, preparing them to become the leaders of tomorrow.
  • The Foundation for Government Accountability announced Stephen D. Pryor, former president of ExxonMobil Chemical Company, has joined the organization’s Board of Directors.
  • The Jesse Helms Center’s board of directors named Brian Rogers as its next president. Rogers has been with the Center for 15 years serving as chief operating officer. 
  • The Texas Governor appointed Arun Agarwal, board member of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, to the Texas Medical Board. The Board regulates the practice of medicine in the state. TPFF appointed Thomas “Tim” Lyles, Jr. as chairman of TPPF’s board. Lyles succeeds long-time chairman Dr. Wendy Lee Gramm.

Success Stories

  • The Wall Street Journal published a profile on the Acton Institute, highlighting the ministry of Acton co-founder Rev. Robert Sirico. The piece, “When the Market Meets Morality,” explained the mission of Acton: Uniting markets with morality.
  • Center of the American Experiment’s “Educated Teachers MN” project resulted in a union expanding teachers’ annual opt-out period from seven days to 30 days. CAE’s project helped Minnesota teachers evaluate their relationship with the teachers’ union. The campaign has helped free several teachers from financially supporting a union that is not aligned with their values.
  • The Empire Center was mentioned in a front-page New York Times article about the shortfall in New York’s Medicaid budget, which has grown since the powerful Greater New York Hospital Association contributed to the Governor’s 2018 election campaign. The New York Times turned to the Empire Center for a nonpartisan perspective on the corruption behind the shortfall: “It’s everything that’s wrong with Albany in one ugly deal,” said Bill Hammond, a health policy expert at the nonpartisan Empire Center who first noticed the budgetary trick. “The governor was able to unilaterally direct a billion dollars to a major interest group while secretly accepting its campaign cash and papering over a massive deficit in the Medicaid program.”
  • Thanks to Freedom Foundation’s efforts to inform employees of their right to leave their government union, the Oregon School Employees Association (OSEA)’s has experienced a 36 percent membership decline since the Janus decision.

Research & Initiatives

  • The 1851 Center for Constitutional Law filed three lawsuits to fight for the free speech and property rights of Ohioans. In Project Veritas v. Ohio Election Commission, the Center moved to enjoin Ohio regulations that forbid undercover reporting on political campaigns in the state. In White v. Cincinnati, the Center is challenging exactions that require homeowners with a security alarm to pay a fee for the “privilege” of telephoning the police. Finally, in Stevens v. Columbus, the Center is challenging regulations prohibiting gardens in historic districts.
  • The Cardinal Institute released a new study that compares West Virginia’s occupational licensing laws to those of Ohio and Pennsylvania. The study finds much higher licensing fees in West Virginia relative to its neighboring states. 
  • The Mississippi Governor reflected on his tenure as governor in a new video from the Foundation for Government Accountability. The Governor discussed the policies he promoted to help Mississippians break the cycle of government dependency. FGA released another video featuring an Arkansas state representative who explained how work can lead to a more fulfilling life. Both videos are a part of FGA’s “Ideas in Action” series.
  • “Are you kidding me, Boise?”—the new Idaho Freedom Foundation report highlights the wasteful spending by Idaho’s largest city. The report finds that Boise City Hall wasted $144 million in the last two fiscal years.
  • The John Locke Foundation filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a case challenging North Carolina’s certificate-of-need (CON) law. The case involves Winston-Salem surgeon Dr. Gajendra Singh, who says the state’s CON law is unconstitutional and infringes on his right to serve his patients. 
  • Kansas Policy Institute is wrapping up its Candidate Policy Briefings series—events that inform candidates and the general public of the upcoming policy issues that state leaders will face. KPI is also holding the media accountable with The Sentinel, a news source that provides Kansans with important news stories they wouldn’t have access to otherwise.
  • A new survey by the Mackinac Center finds nearly 70 percent of school districts in Michigan use private contractors to provide support services. Mackinac has conducted this survey since 2001, when just 30 percent of school districts privatized.
  • To help citizens understand how their lawmakers vote on certain issues, the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity released the Freedom Index—a project that scores lawmakers on how well they promote individual, economic, or educational freedom. The index found that Rhode Island lawmakers more often vote against liberty than for freedom. 
  • The Show-Me Institute, in partnership with the Freedom Center of Missouri, is filing a lawsuit against Missouri’s Office of Administration (OA), after OA failed to provide requested state employee contact information to Show-Me. Show-Me requested the information after hearing the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has been given this information by OA for years. OA gave Show-Me the documents, but 90 percent of the information was redacted. 
  • The Yankee Institute’s released the “CT Wheel of Taxes,” a virtual spinning wheel with over a dozen new or proposed taxes Connecticut is considering. The campaign helps spread the word on how expansive Connecticut’s taxation is.

Think Tanks in the News

  • Greg Kaza, executive director of the Arkansas Policy Foundation, considered how low the state’s 3.4 percent unemployment rate can go in an op-ed for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
  • Capital Research Center’s research on the Left’s “dark money” was featured in a Wall Street Journal article. The Left outspends the Right on politically active nonprofits and nominally nonpartisan voter registration efforts in swing states, according to CRC.
  • The Cascade Policy Institute made the case for not extending Portland’s temporary gas tax. Cascade explained how the program is mismanaged and has failed to live up to expectations. Illinois Policy Institute considered the origins of the state’s gas tax hike, raising questions on whether corruption was at the heart of it.
  • Minnesota is not in good shape if another recession hits, according to the Center of the American Experiment. The state’s slow growing economy and increasing unemployment rate are cause for concern, and Minnesotans should be worried. Minnesota has done a poor job of preparing for the next downturn, says CAE.
  • In an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, the Freedom Foundation considered how unions are losing members on the West Coast after two historic US Supreme Court cases—each ruling it unconstitutional to force government employees to fund unions. Freedom Foundation observed: “This mass exodus has returned more than $50 million back into the pockets of those who actually earned it, while simultaneously denying unions the ability to finance their political agenda with someone else’s money.”
  • “Whether you live in a red state or blue state, every state can be a yellow state,” says Country Time Lemonade in their new “Legal-Ade” campaign. The company launched a campaign to help citizens change the law in the 35 states that require permits to sell lemonade. Illinois Policy Institute pointed out that ensuring community health doesn’t just mean surprise inspections and heavy regulations—it also means allowing people to share their talents with the neighborhood. The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty applauded bills in the Wisconsin Legislature to allow minors to operate lemonade stands without a permit.
  • Libertas Institute president Connor Boyack’s book series that teaches children free-market ideas was featured in an Epoch Times article. The Tuttle Twins book series tells the story of twins Emily and Ethan, who learn about central planning, entrepreneurship, individual rights, inflation, and even the golden rule—treating others the way we want to be treated.
  • The Maryland Public Policy Foundation pointed out the economic benefits Baltimore will see if it caps the property tax rate at a competitive level. In an op-ed for The Baltimore Sun, MPPF explained how Baltimore’s high property taxes cause great damage to the city’s economy. The Garden State Initiative also discussed property taxes, participating in a “tax talk” event on rising taxes in New Jersey.
  • The Mississippi Center for Public Policy considered a gubernatorial candidate’s proposed education policies, arguing the policies would bankrupt the state.
  • The Pacific Research Institute considered California’s recent decision to offer free or low-cost health insurance to undocumented adults. Starting on January 1, around 138,000 undocumented adults will be qualified for Med-Cal, the state’s taxpayer-funded free and reduced cost healthcare plan. PRI said this expansion is representative of a government that’s too big.
  • After Louisiana was ranked at the bottom in lawsuit climate, the Pelican Institute for Public Policy explained that reforming Louisiana’s legal system is critical to bringing back jobs and opportunity to the Pelican State. Pelican also criticized the Louisiana Governor’s tax increases, arguing the increases are driving residents from the state. 
  • As the pension crisis deepens in states across the country, state think tanks continued to offer ideas for reform. To eliminate $6 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, New Mexico is considering reforms that would require government employees to pay more into the system and reduce the cost-of-living adjustments available to retirees over a three-year period. The Rio Grande Foundation said the changes would better fund the Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA), but urged the state to consider other reforms too. The Yankee Institute for Public Policy disproved recent claims that pension payments are helping Connecticut by pumping money into the state’s economy. Illinois Policy Institute research was cited in an article Illinois’ pension health. Following IPI’s research, a new report finds the state’s pension system to be the worst in the country.
  • The Show-Me Institute explained how Medicaid expansion takes resources away from Missouri’s underserved poor in a NPR Illinois article. The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs also commented on Medicaid this week, pointing out an overlooked aspect of the expansion debate—many Oklahomans are uninsured by choice.
  • More than 2.7 million Virginians will be getting a refund check in the mail this month, after they faced an unintended state tax increase as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act last year. The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy said this refund is good for taxpayers, but the state should have passed more long-lasting reforms to save taxpayers money.
  • The Rio Grande Foundation continued to argue that the New Mexico Governor’s free college tuition plan would cost much more than $35 million. In his weekly column, Georgia Public Policy Foundation CEO Kyle Wingfield also discussed free college tuition and the student debt crisis. Wingfield highlighted higher-education expert Jenna Robinson’s ideas to address student debt. Among them: Aligning universities’ incentives with students’ best interests.
  • The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty’s study on the Wisconsin Governor’s lack of transparency was featured in an article for the Badger Herald. The study found one-third of open records requests to the Wisconsin Governor’s office were unfilled or recorded improperly.

Events & Opportunities

  • On October 23, The Jesse Helms Center will host an Admiral James W. Nance Foreign Policy Lecture in Raleigh, North Carolina with special guest Walter Lohman. Lohman is Director of the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation, and will deliver a talk on the United States’ relationship with China.
  • The Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s Georgia Legislative Policy Forum will take place on November 15 in Atlanta. Experts from the Mercatus Center and the American Enterprise Institute, among others, will share their ideas on how to engage legislators in market-oriented, limited government approaches to policy issues.