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Backgrounders

View all policy studies.

  • Abolishing Oklahoma’s death penalty would be good for justice and for taxpayers
    Abolishing Oklahoma’s death penalty would be good for justice and for taxpayers

    Since 1981, 10 people in Oklahoma have been exonerated while on death row awaiting execution.

    By Vittorio Nastasi
    October 6, 2022

  • Abolishing Ohio’s death penalty would be good for justice and for taxpayers
    Abolishing Ohio’s death penalty would be good for justice and for taxpayers

    Since 1979, 11 people in Ohio have been exonerated while on death row awaiting execution.

    By Vittorio Nastasi
    September 23, 2022

  • Testing mileage-based user fees as a replacement for Georgia’s gas tax
    Testing mileage-based user fees as a replacement for Georgia’s gas tax

    Georgia’s highways need a new, sustainable funding source.

    By Baruch Feigenbaum and Adrian Moore
    August 22, 2022

  • How to improve transit service for today’s workers and commuters
    How to improve transit service for today’s workers and commuters

    U.S. metro areas need a new transit approach that is tailored to serving the needs of today’s workers.

    By Baruch Feigenbaum
    July 22, 2022

  • Examining the Teachers Retirement System of Texas after the pension reforms of 2019
    Examining the Teachers Retirement System of Texas after the pension reforms of 2019

    Senate Bill 12 of 2019 made reforms, but TRS contributions will likely be insufficient because the pension plan is using outdated economic assumptions.

    By Leonard Gilroy and Steven Gassenberger
    June 3, 2022

  • What is a revenue-risk public-private partnership?
    What is a revenue-risk public-private partnership?

    And when is revenue risk the better financing choice for the state and taxpayers?

    By Robert Poole
    May 6, 2022

  • Why paying down New Hampshire pension debt faster would be a win for taxpayers
    Why paying down New Hampshire pension debt faster would be a win for taxpayers

    A “catch-up” payment toward the New Hampshire Retirement System's unfunded liabilities would reduce pension debt and yield long-term cost savings.

    By Zachary Christensen
    May 3, 2022

  • Evaluating the potential impacts of Louisiana Senate Bill 438
    Evaluating the potential impacts of Louisiana Senate Bill 438

    The proposed hybrid plan is more expensive than the current pension under all scenarios.

    By Leonard Gilroy and Steven Gassenberger
    April 22, 2022

  • Paying down PSPRS debt faster is a win for taxpayers
    Paying down PSPRS debt faster is a win for taxpayers

    Unfunded PSPRS and ASRS liabilities make those pension systems more costly, pressuring government budgets. Paying down pension debt as fast as possible avoids interest costs and saves taxpayers money.

    By Leonard Gilroy and Steven Gassenberger
    April 19, 2022

  • House Bill 2486 threatens Oklahoma’s pension progress 
    House Bill 2486 threatens Oklahoma’s pension progress 

    Public pension changes of the magnitude being proposed should receive rigorous actuarial and risk analyses that ensure future generations’ interests are protected.

    By Steven Gassenberger and Leonard Gilroy
    April 8, 2022

  • Actuary highlights House Bill 55’s costs and risks to the Alaska Public Employees’ Retirement System
    Actuary highlights House Bill 55’s costs and risks to the Alaska Public Employees’ Retirement System

    Changes of the magnitude being proposed in Alaska House BIll 55 should receive rigorous actuarial and risk analyses that have not yet been conducted.

    By Ryan Frost and Leonard Gilroy
    April 4, 2022

  • Understanding the recent nationwide increase in crime
    Understanding the recent nationwide increase in crime

    Violent crime has decreased dramatically since its peak in the 1990s. In 2020, the violent crime rate remained near the record lows achieved throughout the 2000s.

    By Vittorio Nastasi
    April 4, 2022

  • Pennsylvania House Bill 2272: Making the state’s distilled spirits monopoly illegal
    Pennsylvania House Bill 2272: Making the state’s distilled spirits monopoly illegal

    Pennsylvania HB 2272 would end the state-run liquor monopoly, but stops short of establishing a competitive, private market replacement.

    By Austill Stuart
    April 4, 2022

  • Senate Bill 10 undermines the Teacher Retirement System of Louisiana
    Senate Bill 10 undermines the Teacher Retirement System of Louisiana

    SB10 is likely to weaken the Teachers’ Retirement System, which is already burdened with $9.3 billion in unfunded liabilities.

    By Steven Gassenberger
    March 28, 2022

  • The benefits of the pupil transportation policy reforms in Arizona’s SB 1630
    The benefits of the pupil transportation policy reforms in Arizona’s SB 1630

    Smaller, lower-cost vehicles would help students living in rural, geographically diverse areas of the state, but also assist urban families.

    By Marc Scribner and Aaron Garth Smith
    March 22, 2022

  • Keeping politics out of public pension investing
    Keeping politics out of public pension investing

    Policies directing public pension systems to make politically-motivated investments can undermine fund governance and increase financial risk to future generations.

    By Leonard Gilroy and Steven Gassenberger
    March 2, 2022

  • Phoenix’s traffic congestion is expected to worsen despite $70 billion in transportation spending plans
    Phoenix’s traffic congestion is expected to worsen despite $70 billion in transportation spending plans

    Vehicle hours of delay spent in Phoenix's traffic congestion are expected increase by at least 50% at all times of day by 2050.

    By Leonard Gilroy
    February 17, 2022

  • Guiding principles and a legislative checklist for consumer privacy regulation
    Guiding principles and a legislative checklist for consumer privacy regulation

    By Spence Purnell and Ian Adams
    February 14, 2022

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