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Category: The Forum

Halloween, ‘Sugar’ and The Right To Try

posted 3 years ago on October 31st, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Are you ready for Halloween? I’m looking forward to good weather and good times with the hordes of trick-or-treaters this evening! Whenever Halloween and the predictions of “sugar highs” come around, I’m reminded of my mother. She had what she called “sugar.” When she died in 2012, having spent more than a painful decade as a bedridden amputee, she had battled Type 2 Diabetes for more than 40 years. The memories are mostly happy thoughts, though, because we were fortunate to have my mother in our lives nearly 75 years. I never did get to meet my grandmother: My mother was just 15 when her 45-year-old mother succumbed to the same insidious disease. It’s one of the reasons I monitor… View Article

Friday Facts: October 30, 2015

posted 3 years ago on October 30th, 2015 by 1 Comment
It’s Friday! Quotes of Note “We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money.” – David Crockett “Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others.” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 34 “Government thrives on our fears. When we’re scared, politicians are always there, promising to protect us if we just give them more money and power. We usually do.” –… View Article

Opportunity’s Knocking Hard at Georgia’s Door

posted 3 years ago on October 30th, 2015 by 3 Comments
By Benita M. Dodd Six years after the economic downturn, the job market for able-bodied adults in Georgia remains one of the worst in the nation, according to recent figures. The challenge is not insurmountable, but strengthening the job market and Georgia’s economy requires the buy-in of this state’s policy-makers. Georgia has experienced the second-largest decline in the nation in the employment rate for 25- to 54-year-olds – the prime working years – the Pew Center reports. Today, there are 5.4 fewer working 25- to 54-year-olds out of every 100 than there were in 2007. Only New Mexico beat out Georgia for last place. Add to that the startling numbers that led to Georgia’s slate of criminal justice reforms:… View Article

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle

posted 3 years ago on October 29th, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Thank you for the great work that the Public Policy Foundation is doing across our state setting a wonderful example. I first ran for the Senate in 1994, and the Foundation was that resource I called upon to be a great help to me as we were articulating positions and formulating public policy initiatives. We appreciate very much your leadership and all that you stand for.… View Article

Municipal Broadband Puts Taxpayers’ Wallets at Risk

posted 3 years ago on October 23rd, 2015 by 1 Comment
By Kelly McCutchen For centuries, too-good-to-be-true deals have snagged investors with promises that they can ignore past failures because “this time it will be different.” Peachtree City’s leaders appear to have been told a similar story. The Peachtree City city council approved a resolution last month to build out a government-owned broadband Internet network for municipal buildings and local businesses. The project will require a 10-year, $3.2 million bond issue to pay for the cost of laying fiber optic lines along the right-of-way of the city’s many golf cart paths. For those who don’t know their Georgia geography, Peachtree City is not a small, rural hamlet in the-middle-of-nowhere Georgia with limited broadband Internet access. It is located just 30 miles… View Article

Friday Facts: October 23, 2015

posted 3 years ago on October 23rd, 2015 by Leave a Comment
It’s Friday! Quotes of Note “Think tanks stand outside election cycles and alongside people who see politics as a means to ratify sound policy and don’t see policy rhetoric as a means to get people elected.” – Joseph Lehman, president, Mackinac Center for Public Policy “When entrepreneurs innovate and respond to society’s needs, they create goods and services, such as our smartphones, single-serve coffee machines, or ride-sharing companies, which make life more convenient. In doing so, they create new jobs and wealth, not just for themselves, but also for others. Increasingly, though, they find that governments at all levels place obstacles in their way.” – Jim Walker “[W]e ought to deprecate the hazard attending ardent and susceptible minds,… View Article

December 8 Event: ‘The Case for K-12 Student-Based Budgeting in Georgia’

posted 3 years ago on October 20th, 2015 by 1 Comment
EVENT INVITATION October 20, 2015 Contact Benita Dodd at 404-256-4050 or benitadodd@georgiapolicy.org The Case for K-12 Student-Based Budgeting in Georgia Atlanta – The recommendations from the funding committee of Georgia Governor Deal’s Education Reform Commission, which were expected in August, have been delayed until December 18. That means, according to news reports, a postponement of least one year – until summer 2017 – in implementing any new education funding model for Georgia. Reform is past due: Georgia’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) funding formula has stagnated since 1985 while the education landscape has transformed around it. Today, more than one dollar in every three of Georgia’s state budget is allocated to K-12 education.  Just how does Georgia ensure that funding follows… View Article

How I Grew to Appreciate Entrepreneurs: I Met Some

posted 3 years ago on October 19th, 2015 by Leave a Comment
By Jim Walker Oxford, Michigan, was a small farming community when I lived there during my childhood. After a Burger King arrived and we got our second stoplight, I thought we had hit the big time. My stay-at-home mom and schoolteacher dad had seven children; I was the third oldest. Our family had an abundance of love, and enough money to not be poor. But our finances were limited, and that created some stress. My dad scrounged for wood to heat the home, and drove used cars that were always in need of repair from the abuse they received on our dirt road. We bought bread from a bulk clearinghouse. The bread was past its expiration date, but it cost… View Article

What It Takes to be Free, In the Long Run

posted 3 years ago on October 19th, 2015 by 3 Comments
By Joseph Lehman Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to declare its independence from brutal Communist overlords. Perhaps it should not be a surprise that the country also was home to the people who had the guts to establish a free-market think tank even before the Soviets left. The Lithuanian Free Market Institute was established during the last year of Soviet occupation. Given this history, I wasn’t about to refuse an invitation from those indomitable people to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the institute’s founding. LFMI asked me to briefly address “future policy challenges.” Dr. Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute, the only other American on the program, spoke at greater length on his pioneering social science research. I… View Article

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