Sunshine Week 2018 Shines a Light on Ongoing Need for Transparency
Sunshine Week highlights government transparency and access to public information.
Government action should take place in an atmosphere of transparency and accountability, with respect for private property, individual rights and freedom of speech. A top down analysis of federal, state and local regulations can help protect individuals from government overreach with respect to such concerns as eminent domain, local architectural ordinances, municipal broadband and civil asset forfeiture.
Technology Can Trump Tough Love
Sometimes, efforts to legislate and regulate turn ordinary Americans into lawbreakers or foundering pariahs.
Marsy’s Law of Unintended Consequences
Proceed cautiously with a victims' rights amendment.
News Release: Foundation President McCutchen Stepping Down at Year’s End
After nearly 25 years, Foundation CEO is accepting a new position.
A Thanksgiving to be Grateful for Leaders with Integrity
By Benita M. Dodd
Tim Huelskamp, speaking at the 2017 Georgia Legislative Policy Forum, told attendees, “I spent six years in Washington and it’s still the same today: The real action, the real opportunities for growth and actually reinvigorating…
Feeding on Problems: From World Hunger to Abundance
By Harold Brown
Harold Brown, Senior Fellow, Georgia Public Policy Foundation
Remember when India was a poster-country for overpopulation and starvation? In just one sign, The New York Times carried more than 100 articles per year from 1965 to…
The Unintended Consequences of Trade Protectionism
By Jeffrey Dorfman
Jeffrey Dorfman
The International Trade Commission has ruled that imported solar panels from China and other countries were injuring U.S. manufacturers, which will provide President Trump with the opportunity to impose tariffs in order to protect American solar panel…
Burying Power Lines: A Shocking Cost
The Marietta Daily Journal of September 27, 2017 published a letter to the editor in the midst of recovery from recent hurricanes that downed power lines and prompted calls for utilities to bury the lines. The letter writer raised some…
Commonsense Recommendations for SPLOST Reform in Georgia
By Ron Sifen and Benita M. Dodd
Georgia’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) is an optional 1 percent county sales tax used to fund local capital projects for a county and participating municipalities. Thirty-two years after lawmakers passed the…
Certificate of Need: A Blunt Instrument for a Fiscal Problem
The problem and the solution are funding, not regulation.
Reading is Fundamental to American Liberty
By Gerard Robinson
“Reading is fundamental” was a popular slogan when I was an elementary student in Los Angeles during the 1970s. Today, parents, teachers and tutors stress the importance of literacy to public, private, home and virtual school students. Reading…
Kicking the Deadly Opioid Abuse Habit
By Megan May
Drug overdoses, mainly opioid-affiliated, have surged in the United States in recent years. According to recent health data, deaths from drug overdose will soon surpass the number of deaths due to motor vehicle accidents each year in Georgia.…
Report Highlights How Road Pricing Helps Manage Congestion
Road space is scarce and valuable, Why not use prices to allocate it like we do for almost everything else?
Who are Georgia’s Uninsured?
By Kelly McCutchen
The chart below breaks down Georgia’s 1.38 million uninsured residents based on Census Bureau data for 2016.
The vertical axis represents income as a percent of the federal poverty level, which is about $12,000 for a single person. The…
On Muni Broadband, Buyer Beware
A year after the Savannah City Council approved a $62,500 contract asking consultants to explore potential demand for a municipal broadband network, the firm finally has released its findings and recommendations.
Can We All Just Get Along?
What connection do air conditioning, airlines and education have with today’s overheated political climate?
Eyes In the Sky Over Sandy Springs?
The use of drones has exploded over the last several years, with the (mostly) flying robots so ubiquitous that it is easy to forget that even as recently 10 years ago, no consumer-grade versions of the devices were even available.…
Making a “Clean Break” from Civil Asset Forfeiture in Georgia
The topic of civil asset forfeiture, the practice of law enforcement seizing and holding property even if the owner is never charged with or convicted of a crime, has made the news recently both in Georgia and nationally.
The Georgia Public…
Global Brightening and Hazy Predictions
By Harold Brown
Global warming, simplified: Burning fossil fuels generates carbon dioxide into the air, trapping energy radiated from the globe. The earth is made warmer because this energy is prevented from escaping into outer space.
But then there are air pollutants…
Return Insurance Regulation to the States
Let's reawaken the constitutional idea of federalism.
