It’s Friday!
Quotes of Note
“If we move in mass, be it ever so circuitously, we shall attain our object; but if we break into squads, everyone pursuing the path he thinks most direct, we become an easy conquest to those who can now barely hold us in check.” – Thomas Jefferson (letter to William Duane, 1811)
“[T]he crisis is arrived when we must assert our rights, or submit to every imposition, that can be heaped upon us, till custom and use shall make us as tame and abject slaves.” – George Washington (1774)
“We cannot build a free market health care system on this flawed structure of centralized government control, we must repeal all of it and start over with commonsense solutions that make health care more affordable and accessible for every American.” – Georgia Senator Judson Hill
Events
January 24, 2013: Just one week after attending the national Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting, Robert W. Poole will keynote, “Moving Georgia Ahead: What’s Coming Down the Pike,” an 8 a.m. Leadership Breakfast hosted by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation at Cobb County’s Georgian Club. Poole, a Senior Fellow at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, is a co-founder of the Reason Foundation and its director of transportation policy and Searle Freedom Trust Transportation Fellow. He will provide an update on the outlook for transportation policy, funding and innovation amid fiscal constraints and partisan politics, and outline Georgia’s options for mobility and congestion relief. Registration for this event is $25; register here: http://tinyurl.com/y27h3dk.
Economy
This is Global Entrepreneurship Week, a time to reflect on the value of entrepreneurship. This week, the Goldwater Institute released a new study showing that states with a larger share of entrepreneurs do a better job at reducing poverty than states with fewer entrepreneurs. Read where Georgia ranks in Increasing Entrepreneurship is a Key to Lowering Poverty Rates, which found that for every percentage point increase in the rate of entrepreneurship there is a 2 percent drop in that state’s poverty rate, meaning thousands of families are lifted out of poverty. And giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to pursue their versions of the American Dream is as easy as lowering taxes and reducing regulatory barriers.
Tax and spend consequences: On December 31, 2012, a large swath of the federal income tax code is scheduled to expire, an event which has come to be known as the “fiscal cliff.” How will the impending “fiscal cliff” affect typical families in each state? The Tax Foundation’s analysis finds that for Georgia, the tax increase from 2011 to 2013 will be $3,250, a 4.63 percent increase as a percentage of income. Read more at http://tinyurl.com/an9p4qc.
Education
What does the “fiscal cliff” mean for education funding? Find out in Education Week’s blog, here: http://tinyurl.com/b89gzuh.
Transportation
End of the road for the Macon Terminal Station: Worried about the operating shortfalls at the historic Terminal Station, a Macon City Council committee is passing the buck. The Public Properties Committee decided to hand ownership to the Macon Transit Authority for $10 and expects full council approval on Nov. 20. The transit authority, which has its office and transfer hub in the building, has managed rental, maintenance and security for the facility since February. Mayor Robert Reichert said authority ownership would make the building eligible for federal transit grants that the city can’t receive on its own. The city must now pay 100 percent of any operating shortfall, but if the building is the transit authority’s, federal funding will pay for half of any loss, with the city paying 60 percent of the remainder and Bibb County covering the rest. Bottom line: One way or another, taxpayers are on the hook. Source: Macon Telegraph
Media and social media
This Week in The Forum: Recent Foundation articles and posts are on The Forum at http://forum.georgiapolicy.org/category/the-forum/.
We have nearly 1,780 Facebook “likes” at www.facebook.com/GeorgiaPolicy. “Like” us for timely policy news, daily views, quotes and photos from recent events. Then join the nearly 800 followers of the Foundation on Twitter at twitter.com/gppf.
Visit www.georgiapolicy.org to read the Foundation’s latest commentary, “African-American Voters Inspired by School Choice,” by Douglas A. Blackmon.
Have a great weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Kelly McCutchen
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