Reason Foundation

July 11, 2015

Top Story

A Market-Based Approach From Australia Can Help Solve California's Water Crisis

Here are six fixes California can implement based on Australia's successful water allocation system reforms

Jeff Bennett, Julian Morris

California is in the midst of a water crisis that threatens to do enormous damage to the economy and ecology of the state. Meager rains earlier this year did little to alleviate a years-long drought that has reduced agricultural output, depleted reservoirs and put a severe strain on urban water supplies.

The brief outlines water reforms undertaken in Australia in the 1990s and their results, which in many ways are applicable to California today. It emphasizes the importance of establishing clearly defined, readily enforceable property rights to all available sources of water, and enabling those rights to be traded without undue fetters.

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The Importance of Property Rights for Endangered Species Conservation

Testimony before the House Constitution and Civil Justice subcommittee on the state of property rights in America ten years after Kelo v. City of New London

Brian Seasholes

The central point of my testimony is that landowners and their concerns, which include their property values and property rights, are the key to the conservation of this country’s biodiversity, particularly endangered species. Unfortunately, one of main ways the United States goes about trying to conserve endangered species—the Endangered Species Act—is especially counterproductive because it is a penalty-based approach that often violates landowners’ property rights, and negatively impacts property values and the ability of people to earn income from their land.

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Public-Private Partnership Advocates and Trucking Industry Find Common Ground

American Trucking Associations support users-pay principle, seem open to tolling and P3 concessions

Robert Poole

On June 17^th I testified before the House Ways & Means Committee at its hearing on “long-term financing of the Highway Trust Fund.” Testifying alongside me was Gov. Bill Graves, CEO of the American Trucking Associations. While ATA is a long-time opponent of expanded tolling, the hearing illustrated that there may be more common ground between advocates of public-private partnership (P3) concessions and commercial highway users than many people think.

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New Jersey Residents Will Get Fewer Services as Public Pension Costs Skyrocket

Without pension reform, the Garden State will feel like a bankrupt city

Leonard Gilroy

It's no secret that New Jersey's government worker pension systems are a looming fiscal disaster. What may not be clear to taxpayers at this point is that unless meaningful reforms are enacted to rein in the problem, spending on pensions will increasingly poach funds from other government services.

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Enter to Win the Bastiat Prize for Journalism and Reason Video Prize

Reason Foundation will award$32,000 in prizes to the writers and filmmakers who best convey the importance of freedom and free markets

Reason Foundation is now accepting entries for the 2015 Bastiat Prize for Journalism and the 2015 Reason Video Prize. 

The submission deadline for both prizes is July 31, 2015. Winners will be honored at the 2015 Reason Media Awards dinner on November 10, 2015 in New York City. 

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How Student-Based Budgeting Could Help Rescue Detroit's Public Schools

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's plan to get Detroit's schools out of debt should utilize backpack funding

Tyler Koteskey

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder recently unveiled a plan to split the underperforming and debt-ridden Detroit Public School District in two. Gov. Snyder’s proposal would create a new body — the City of Detroit Education District — to take over the responsibility of educating Detroit’s students while leaving the old school district, Detroit Public Schools (DPS), in place with the sole purpose of paying off the district’s enormous $438 million in debts and $1.2 billion in unfunded liabilities.

Gov. Snyder’s plan would leave the currently elected school board and state-appointed emergency manager of DPS to oversee it, while a new school board of gubernatorial and mayoral appointees would run the new City of Detroit Education District. While the governor would make the majority of appointees initially, the board would transition to an elected membership over six years. In the meantime, Detroit Public Schools would continue to receive $72 million per year in pre-existing local millage funding to pay its debts. Until the DPS debt is retired, the state would provide an additional $72 million in funding for the Detroit Education District to finance its operating costs.

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Paying Down Unfunded Pension Liabilities Through Asset Sales and Leases

Leonard Gilroy

One promising strategy that policymakers are starting to consider to address unfunded pension liabilities is the sale or lease of government assets—such as land, buildings, infrastructure or enterprises—and using the proceeds to pay down existing pension debts, thereby putting public pension systems on a healthier financial footing. This policy brief considers such an approach as a complement to comprehensive pension reform efforts that seek to reduce future unfunded liabilities by shifting away from traditional defined-benefit pension systems.

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Air Traffic Control Newsletter #124

Answering arguments against ATC corporatization; New revelations about FAA's revised controller hiring

Robert Poole

In this issue:

• Answering arguments against ATC corporatization
• New revelations about FAA's revised controller hiring
• Specious claims about Nav Canada's fees
• Controller-pilot data link 25 years late
• Delivery drones and ATC
• FAA air traffic forecast numbers increase, slightly
• Upcoming Event
• News Notes
• Quotable Quotes

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