Modernizing Procurement in Missouri
Innovators in Action 2014 Since joining the Missouri House of Representatives in 2011 and subsequently taking the reins of the Missouri House Downsizing State Government Committee, Missouri State...
View ArticleInnovators in Action (December 2014 edition): Modernizing Procurement in...
The latest interview in Reason Foundation's Innovators in Action 2014 series focuses on recent legislation introduced in Missouri to allow for “best value” procurement and create a statutory framework...
View ArticleNew Reports on State, City Fiscal Conditions
Privatization & Government Reform Newsletter Two recent reports by the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) and the Pew Charitable Trusts, respectively, offer the latest evidence...
View ArticleUniversity of Michigan Survey Finds High Use, Satisfaction with Local...
Privatization & Government Reform Newsletter With the heated rhetoric that often surrounds the privatization of government services, a perspective often lost is that of those officials that...
View ArticleEnding a Busy Year in Water/Wastewater Privatization
Privatization & Government Reform Newsletter In what was already a busy year in the water and wastewater public-private partnerships space—see my writeup from the July edition of this...
View ArticlePrivatization & Government Reform Newsletter #13 (December 2014 edition)
The December 2014 edition of the Privatization & Government Reform Newsletter is now online. Topics covered in this issue include:BUDGETS: New Reports on State, City Fiscal ConditionsPENSIONS:...
View ArticleAssessing the Costs and Benefits of Renewable Portfolio Standards
More than half the states have renewable portfolio standards in place requiring certain and growing percentages of electricity to come from specified sources. Are these policies providing society with...
View ArticleReport Highlights Need for States to do Their Own Endangered Species Research
One of the key conclusions that can be drawn from the recent report released by the U.S. House Resources Committee—on the flawed science and lack of independent peer review used by the U.S. Fish and...
View ArticleWill Missouri Replace I-70 with a 21st Century Interstate?
Public Works Financing Next year could lead to the first actual use of the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) pilot program to toll-finance the reconstruction of an Interstate highway—I-70 in...
View ArticleEPAâ??s Clean Power Plan: Legal? Maybe. Effective and Equitable? Hardly.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a new set of rules that would set limits on carbon dioxide emissions from electrical power generators. The EPA wants each state, within roughly a...
View ArticleSouthern California's Half-Trillion Dollar Transportation Plan Won't Ease...
Orange County Register The Southern California Association of Governments recently approved minor changes to its long-range transportation plan but failed to fix the plan’s biggest problems –...
View ArticleA Plan to Reduce Congestion in Denver
This report provides a detailed framework for Denver to increase its mobility. With significant growth projected over the next 25 years, Denver’s productivity and quality of life are threatened by a...
View ArticleNew $52 Billion Plan to Reduce Denverâ??s Traffic Congestion
Traffic congestion is already negatively impacting Denver’s economy and quality of life and the 2035 Metro Vision Regional Transportation Plan admits that, despite its $133 billion price tag,...
View ArticleThe Saga of the Gunnison Sage Grouse and Why it Matters
Gunnison County, Colorado, along with Utah and Colorado, have filed notices of intent to sue the Interior Department over the listing of the Gunnison sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act. Even...
View ArticleMillennials and Pensions â?? Do They Know Public Pension Systems Need Reform?
After the midterm election results there has been a lot of talk about the young people who didn’t turn out to vote. There are around 8 million millennials, people ages 18-to-35, in California. And the...
View ArticleWhy Millennials Should Care About Pension Reform
California Political Review After the midterm election results there has been a lot of talk about the young people who didn’t turn out to vote. There are around 8 million millennials, people ages...
View ArticleHow to Fix California's Infrastructure Crisis
Orange County Register Gov. Jerry Brown recently unveiled his latest budget proposal and noted that California must “deal with longstanding infrastructure challenges.” He’s right. California’s...
View ArticleUnsustainable Risk Taking by Public Pensions
In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Andrew Biggs shows the bleak picture of public pensions’ risk taking. Biggs points out that many major public pension plans hold substantially more risky...
View ArticleCalPERS Pension vs. Social Security Benefit
Is a California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) pension as modest as its supporters suggest? The answer is no, according to Robert Fellner at the California Policy Center. In this...
View ArticleWhat Caused Increases in Public Pensions UAAL?
How did public pension plans become underfunded? A recent study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College provides some insights to this question. Based on the data on 150 state and local...
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