(Capitol Research Center) Taxpayers paid more than $129 million in salaries and benefits to federal employees for doing “official” union work in 2009. These federal employees logged about 3 million hours and received government paychecks for doing union work. How can this be? Title V of the US Code allows federal employees to do union work while on the job working for the taxpayer. This is called “official” time in the Code. In effect, the taxpayer pays for activities which provide literally no direct public benefit. This can also include union lobbying activities for federal legislation. So, you may be paying for a union representative to complain about inadequate bathrooms, parking spaces or inadequate windows in offices. This happens while the union representative (federal employee) is collecting a paycheck from you, the taxpayer. (read more…)

Recently, there has been much discussion in Anchorage regarding  public employee wages, education and property taxes. Folks on both sides tend to throw out numbers regarding whether or not public employees are paid enough, and whether Anchoragites pay high property taxes. The Policy Forum has posted salary and benefit information for Anchorage Municipal employees and Anchorage School District employees on our website: http://www.alaskapolicyforum.org/resources/municipality-of-anchorage/homepayroll/. This has been done to clear away the “clutter” and provide transparent information to the general public. Armed with this information, citizens can debate the issues on a more rational basis.

To further clarify the debate concerning whether or not Anchorage property taxes are too high, too low or just right,  we provide this informational graph. The data for this graph is provided by The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan educational organization which promotes a sense of “tax consciousness” in the public.

A bipartisan contingent of senators has reintroduced legislation to provide better protections for federal whistleblowers. The 2011 Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act is virtually identical to the legislation that narrowly missed passage last December, when an anonymous senator blocked it on the last day of the 111th Congress. (Read more…)

In December of 2009 the Alaska Policy Forum recommended that the ASD implement a program to identify fraud, waste & abuse in the District. Unfortunately, our recommendation went unheeded. In light of the recent discovery of alleged fraud by District employees maybe ASD leadership should reconsider our recommendation. It’s still not too late! The original 2009 story follows. (Read more…)

Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act. The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from “surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities.” Given that the SEC is a regulatory body, the provision covers almost every action by the agency, lawyers say. Congress and federal agencies can request information, but the public cannot. (Read more…)

(NCAP) With a new union contract under her arm Chancellor Michelle Rhee, of the the District of Columbia, has fired 241 under-performing teachers. Recent teachers’ union negotiations have given teachers their own report cards, with large raises and the boot on either ends of the scale. 

Read the article <here>

(AlaskaWatchdog.org) After struggling with more than a few gaps in their evidence database, the Alaska Wildlife Troopers are on the brink of updating a system that has been in place since 1984.

Director Col. Gary Folger said the current system does not sort or categorize items in any kind of searchable database, making it difficult to compile any sort of record of seized items.

“When we seize evidence, whether it’s hair on a murder scene or an airplane, we assign a letter code,” Folger said. “But records wise, it’s very much possible to fall through the cracks.”

(Read more…)

STATEHOUSE (June 24, 2010) – Senate Republican leaders today proposed the Daniels administration unilaterally move forward without a legislative mandate on a new “transparency website” showing budgets and spending by Indiana state government.

The key GOP senators said the site should later be expanded to offer finance plans and records of Indiana school districts and local units of government.

Read the full article <here>

(The Spokesman-Review) The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a big victory for open government when it ruled that political petition signers do not have a broad First Amendment guarantee to hide their names from public view. The 8-1 decision stemmed from a challenge by a Washington state religious group, which sought to block the identities of people who signed Referendum 71 petitions out of fear they would be harassed for trying to overturn the state’s “everything but marriage” gay-rights law.

Of the 24 states that allow for citizen initiatives, 23 of them, including Washington and Idaho, deem petitions to be public records. When a couple of advocacy groups sought the Referendum 71 names so they could post them on the Internet, the cry arose that this would chill free speech.

Read the full  article <here>

(Heritage Foundation) Congress will soon consider a $23 billion spending measure for public education. This money comes on the heels of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)—the so-called stimulus bill—which contained $80 billion in K-12 education funding. Further, President Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2011 budget request seeks to increase discretionary education spending by 10 percent.

Since ARRA was enacted, states have continued to increase both teaching and non-teaching staff positions and have funded numerous infrastructure and school maintenance projects. Yet the Obama Administration claims that more federal spending is needed in order to prevent “catastrophic” teacher layoffs. Another education bailout from Washington would permit states to spurn fiscal prudence with the knowledge that the federal government will award them more taxpayer dollars during difficult budgetary times.

Why $23 Billion More?

Unspent Stimulus Funds. A portion of stimulus funding known as the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) was designed specifically to prevent public education layoffs and to backfill state budget deficits. The SFSF must be used by states to “help stabilize state and local government budgets in order to minimize and avoid reductions in education and other essential public services.”[1] To date, states have spent just $28 billion out of $48.6 billion available through the SFSF.[2] While some states’ phase 2 SFSF applications are still under review, it is unclear why many states report that significant layoffs will be required in the near-term without more federal funding from Washington given that over $20 billion in the SFSF remains unspent.

Creation of New Staff Positions.

In May, Christina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, stated that “hundreds of thousands of public school teachers are likely to be laid off over the next few months.”[3] Education Secretary Arne Duncan echoed that warning, arguing that another $23 billion in federal funding is needed to save more than 250,000 teaching jobs.

Reports by states to the Department of Education (DOE), however, indicate that many states have used ARRA funds to create entirely new staff positions, a large number of which are non-teaching positions. In some cases, it is evident that positions “created” by states exceeded those retained by states.

For example, Georgia’s second quarter report shows that ARRA Title I grants were used to retain 608 teachers and hire 276 new ones, to retain three high school counselors and hire 28 new ones counselors, and to retain 82 administration positions and fill 114 new ones.[4]

Nationally, the number of non-teaching staff positions has increased 83 percent since 1970—more than 10 times the rate of student enrollment growth.[5] States are using stimulus funds to fill positions such as Web site coordinators, directors of planning and research, janitorial staff, school support personnel, professional development positions, education coaches, homeless liaisons, IT support, transition coordinators, food service, office staff, family center coordinators, school psychologists, central administration staff, career specialists, behavior specialists, curriculum coordinators, technology coordinators, district coordinators, recess aides, consultants, directors of student attendance, athletic directors, and federal program directors.[6]

Increased Spending on Infrastructure.

States are also using stimulus funds for extensive infrastructure projects. For example, Wyoming has not yet drawn down any of its $45 million in SFSF education grants but reported that “stabilization dollars will be used to fund top educational priorities for which shortfalls exist, i.e., library acquisitions and instructional excellence. … A large amount of these funds will be used for modernization, renovation, or repair of facilities dedicated for instruction or research.”[7]

Expanding Non-Essential Programs.

The DoED has required that a portion of stimulus dollars be used specifically for Title I programs for disadvantaged students. For some districts, Title I funding allocated through the ARRA doubled their regular appropriation. School districts must obligate at least 85 percent of this Title I stimulus money prior to September 30, 2010—that is, they must determine how funds will be appropriated among various programs prior to that deadline. In some instances, districts have found it difficult to spend money quickly enough, and others feel “frozen” by the attached federal regulations.[8]

In other cases, school districts are using this funding to create entirely new education programs. The San Juan Unified School District was concerned that it would not be able to spend ARRA funding quickly enough, so district administrators created a large new literacy program to keep school libraries open for six weeks during the summer. As a part of the program, new literacy coaches were hired for district-wide professional development. Portland, Oregon, now provides a five-week cultural enrichment program to Native American students, and the Bassett Unified School District in California used the new funding for technology training for parents.[9] Regardless of the worth of these programs, the dire situations of state budgets and emergency appeals to Washington for additional funding demand increased prioritization of essential needs before funding new optional programs.

Inefficient Job Creation.

The proposed bailout is no model of efficiency itself. The Obama Administration estimates that another $23 billion in taxpayer money would save between 100,000 and 300,000 public education jobs.[10] If that is the case, then 300,000 education jobs would cost taxpayers $76,000 each—exceeding the average teacher salary by nearly $30,000. If 100,000 jobs were saved, each one would cost taxpayers $230,000.[11]

Long-Term Solutions Needed

If Congress appropriates another $23 billion in federal aid to states’ education budgets, $103 billion will have been expended in the past 16 months on K-12 education. This is in addition to the federal government’s annual discretionary appropriations for K-12 programs through the DOE, amounting to $50 billion for FY 2011 alone.

Long-term budgetary solutions are needed. Continuing to raise taxes and rely on more federal funds is an unsustainable plan for fixing state budget shortfalls and improving education. States along with the federal government have room to cut spending without jeopardizing teacher jobs or compensation. Instead of seeking another federal bailout from Washington, states should ensure that current funding is being efficiently spent on schools’ essential educational needs.

Lindsey M. Burke, Domestic Policy Studies Department at The Heritage Foundation.