Archive for the ‘Recent News’ Category

Will Compulsory Education Until Age 18 Lower Alaska’s Dropout Rate?

Would raising the legal mandatory school attendance age to 18 improve graduation rates and reduce truancy, juvenile crime, pregnancy and other at-risk behaviors? State Senator Bettye Davis (D-Anchorage)  thinks so. She recently filed SB 9, which proposes to compel school attendance from age 6 to age...
March 2nd, 2011 | Education, Recent News | Read More

Payroll Database for Anchorage Now Online

Payroll Database for Anchorage Now Online
The Alaska Policy Forum has launched a transparency website for the Municipality of Anchorage payroll. The website allows citizens to view payroll and benefit data for nearly all Municipal employees by navigating an organizational chart. The data provided lists the employee, the position title, bargaining...
February 21st, 2011 | Featured, Fiscal Policy, Recent News, Transparency | Read More

Alaska Governor Rebuffs Federal Health Care Takeover

(Politico) Governor Parnell appears to be asserting Alaska’s independence when it comes to Federal Obamacare and its mandates. (Read more…)
January 4th, 2011 | Health Care, Recent News | Read More

The Changing Face of Unions

(WSJ) Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota discusses the growth of government unions and their impact on the political landscape.  No longer does the typical union member look like a construction worker, truck driver or factory worker.  (Read more…)
December 15th, 2010 | Recent News | Read More

Education: How To Fix a Broken System

(Washington Post) Top Educators Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of the D.C. Public Schools, and Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, say we need to shift to a performance-driven education system to ensure our students can compete.  We need to focus on the kids, not the adults...
December 9th, 2010 | Education, Recent News | Read More

Untying the Hands of an Effective School

(Download a PDF of this article) By David Boyle Quality education is a cornerstone of the American Experiment and is vital to its leadership role in the Free World. To maintain this leadership role, we must ensure that our education system is second-to-none. Unfortunately, today, the United States lags...
November 4th, 2010 | Education, Recent News | Read More

The cost of Green Energy mandates in Massachusetts

Massachusetts has attempted to lead the push for renewable energy and energy efficiency programs. The state currently offers over 25 unique mandates, programs and incentives to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. Since all of these mandates, programs and incentives attempt to influence the...
November 1st, 2010 | Recent News | Read More

Public Service Millionaires in Ohio

The state of Ohio has a program option called DROP that allows public employees (police officers, firefighters) to “double dip” on their pensions. This report from the Buckeye Institute explains why the program matters to the individual Ohio citizen, and specifically how the system should...
October 28th, 2010 | Recent News | Read More

Is Health Care Reform Unraveling?

Grace-Marie Turner outlines ten reasons she thinks that the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, is unraveling: 1. State pushback 2. Voter rejection 3. Lawsuits 4. Rising costs 5. Towering deficits 6. Seniors hit hard 7. Millions losing coverage 8. Job-killing mandates 9. Companies searching for exits 10....
October 26th, 2010 | Health Care, National Health Care Reform Legislation, Recent News | Read More

Quickbrief: Medicaid Expan$ion Will Bankrupt the States

(NCPA) The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is expected to add up to 16 million more Medicaid enrollees and will significantly expand eligibility for families with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. The PPACA requires states to streamline their enrollment process...
October 25th, 2010 | Recent News | Read More

Broken Promises: Cutting Medicare to Pay for Health Care Reform

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or the recent health care law, was rushed through the political process and touted as deficit neutral legislation. One of the of the ways it was supposed to pay for itself was through cuts in other programs. Devon Herrick from the National Center for Policy...
September 20th, 2010 | Health Care, Recent News | Read More

Audio: The Failed Experiment of Pension Bonding

In 2008, the Alaska Legislature passed House Bill 13, which authorized the selling of bonds (debt) for investment to fill the $10 billion pension gap in PERS/TRS. But Steve Malanga from the Manhattan Institute says pension bonding is an idea that has been attempted in other states with some terrible...
August 31st, 2010 | Fiscal Policy, Recent News | Read More

Audio: Federal Health Care Law would create more paperwork than IRS could handle

Josh McIntyre from Mikunda, Cottrell & Co., Inc. in Anchorage explains the increased 1099 reporting requirements in the federal Health Care law. (4:47) Federal Health Care Law would increase paperwork and reporting to the IRS - Click here to listen
August 20th, 2010 | Health Care, Recent News | Read More

Federal employees collect far more than private sector

(Daily Policy Digest) As private sector pay growth has slowed, federal employee pay has putzed along to double its counterpart’s rate. Federal compensation has ballooned nearly 30% more than private pay since 2000. Read the article <here>
August 13th, 2010 | Recent News | Read More

Social Security ripe for bailout

(NCPA) As questions regarding Social Security issues are raised, methods of dealing with them that include raising the retirement age and payroll taxes are being floated. This year Social Security paid out more than it received, and predictions say it will only continue. Read the article <here>
August 11th, 2010 | Fiscal Policy, Recent News | Read More

Financial Regulation Bill Exempts SEC From FOIA Requests

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...
July 29th, 2010 | Accountability, Recent News, Transparency | Read More
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