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Open Enrollment Policies Should be Expanded Nationwide
Open enrollment is the simple notion that families should be able to send their children to the public school of their choice and not simply the school tied to their ZIP code or assigned by school district administrators.
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Redesigning Cost of Living Adjustments Would Improve PERA Sustainability
The Public Employees Retirement Association Pension Solvency Task Force projects PERA currently has only a 38 percent chance of reaching full funding by 2043.
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Why PERA Being Only 71 Percent Funded Is Not Enough
The New Mexico Public Employees Retirement Association has at least $6.1 billion in pension debt and potentially more if its current actuarial assumptions are too aggressive, which is likely.
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Gov. Newsom’s Much-Needed Call to Simplify California’s Marijuana Taxes and Regulations
Reducing the regulatory burden would be a big step in the right direction. Next up: lowering cannabis taxes.
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Tackling the Federal Government’s Spending and Financial Mismanagement
The national debt is over $23 trillion and the 2019 deficit alone was $1 trillion. We need significant and substantive reforms to deal with this growing crisis.
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Why New Mexico Needs to Reform the Public Employees Retirement Association Now
The proposed reforms would be a meaningful step toward strengthening PERA while putting as little stress on members and taxpayers as possible.
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Study Finds Minnesota’s Taxes on E-Cigarettes Led to an Increase in Smoking of Traditional Cigarettes
The report's authors then postulate that if the same tax was levied across the entire United States, 1.8 million fewer people would quit smoking over a 10-year period.
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What Would Actually Convince the Surgeon General Vaping Is Better Than Smoking?
Whenever the evidence suggests e-cigarettes may benefit public health, it is treated with extreme skepticism and never quite good enough to merit a word of recommendation from the Surgeon General.
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Even California Democrats Prefer the Private Health Care System Over Medicare for All
Fifty-seven percent of the state’s likely Democratic primary voters favor incrementally changing the existing private health care system while 37 percent want to replace the private system with a single-payer Medicare for All system.
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How Cities Often Overstate the Economic Impact of Events and Facilities
Visit Sarasota estimates the World Rowing Championship generated $22 million in economic impact, while the official body of the championships calculated an impact of $7 million.
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Instead of Vaping Bans, States Should Incorporate E-Cigarettes Into Long-Term Public Health Strategies
Banning all e-cigarette flavors is likely to cause more harm than good to public health since it would deny adult smokers access to a safer alternative to cigarettes.
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USPS Has $120 Billion in Pension and Other Post-Employment Unfunded Liabilities
From 2007 through the 2019 fiscal year, the USPS lost $77 billion and it hasn’t contributed to its retiree health care fund since 2012.
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Michael Bloomberg’s E-Cigarette Ban Would Endanger Public Health
Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg announced his intention to ban the sale of all flavored e-cigarettes.
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California’s Free Community College Plan Collides With Skyrocketing Retirement Obligations
According to a Reason Foundation analysis of 2018 audited financial reports, California community college districts face total non-current liabilities of $36 billion, an average of roughly $500 million per district.
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Florida’s Anti-Toll Legislation Threatens the State’s Economy
Florida has $10 billion in planned toll projects in the pipeline. These projects are now in peril unless the state’s recent anti-toll policies are reversed.
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The Wisconsin Retirement System Is Fully Funded and a Model for Other States
Wisconsin's fully-funded status can be attributed to a combination of plan design and pragmatism.
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CDC Survey Shows Flavors Aren’t Driving Youth Vaping
The CDC finds only 22 percent of young people say they tried e-cigarettes because they “are available in flavors, such as mint, candy, fruit or chocolate.”
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PAYGO Is the Most Costly Way to Fund a Public Retirement System and Would Be Bad for New Mexico
Pensions are meant to be prefunded so that current taxpayers and current public employees share the costs of those workers’ benefits.
