The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of Congress. GAO evaluates federal programs and provides analyses to help Congress make informed funding decisions. Sens. Maria Cantwell (WA) and Susan Collins (ME) requested the GAO to evaluate how climate change impacts will increase costs for the...
Like much of the transportation infrastructure community, I was stunned and dismayed when President Trump suddenly told several Democratic members of Congress that “P3s don’t work” and are “more trouble than they’re worth.” He even trashed the largely successful experience of Vice President Pence’s home state of Indiana, which is...
The Thomas Jefferson Institute’s Third Annual Conference on Virginia’s Economic Future was held Friday, November 10, 2017 and featured presidential campaign economist Stephen Moore, NFIB economist Bill Dunkelberg, and Virginia’s top financial advisor Steve Cassaday. Here are the powerpoints of their presentations:
... Every year at the state and local level of government, budget debates include funding issues surrounding our K-12 public schools. Teacher salaries and class size are usually the focus, and competing comparisons compensation and limited budget dollars are always at issue. But rarely do we discuss one of the on-going...
Cities and counties across the United States are experiencing chronic fiscal stress, and the reason has nothing to do with Republicans or Democrats and everything to do with what Chuck Marohn calls the “growth Ponzi scheme.” “Why are cities going broke?” he asked at a forum hosted by the Partnership...
As the Affordable Care Act came into effect, many discussions took place as to whether certain health plans would be considered “Cadillac” plans, subjecting their sponsors to an excise tax because of too generous benefits. However, due to “subrogation” provisions, which enable a plan to gobble-up any personal injury award...
( This article is responded to by John Butcher in the next column.) Maybe it’s time for Virginia to scrap the Standards of Learning (SOL) tests. The SOLs arose in the mid-1990s as a way to provide feedback to the community on how well local schools were performing. It was...
