The Heartland Institute

When state and local education budgets need cutting, Americans favor firing administrators, freezing salaries, basing layoffs on performance instead of seniority, increasing the number of students top teachers teach, and replacing pensions with individual retirement plans, according to a new poll. Majorities of U.S. adults in the ...

Carbon taxes have reentered the political discussion amid reports former Congressman Bob Inglis (R-SC) is building support for a carbon tax swap that would eliminate subsidies for all energy companies, tax all fuels based on carbon emitted during combustion, and refund the additional revenue to taxpayers by cutting taxes on savings ...

The Supreme Court may have ruled the individual mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act constitutional, but legal challenges to the federal health care law have only just begun. The case taken by the Supreme Court, NFIB v. Sebelius , contained a broad challenge to the law’s constitutionality, including challenges ...

An auditor's report finds no widespread test cheating in Washington, DC. Struggling students desperately need to learn algebra , writes charter school teacher Ryan Hall. Idaho officials approved a charter school that plans to focus on America's heritage . Mississippi lawmakers express interest in charter schools and vouchers . Eighty ...

Readers of Skeptic magazine should exercise skepticism themselves regarding the magazine’s biased and flawed reporting on global warming, a well-known global warming expert observes in a newly published paper by the Science and Public Policy Institute. “Be skeptical, be very skeptical,” Lord Christopher Monckton, Viscount of Brenchly ...

Catherine the Great is supposed to have said, “A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.” In Washington, winds are stirring for corporate tax reform. But while there is broad bipartisan agreement that tax rates should be reduced, there is less consensus regarding what the tax rate should ...

I know, I know. Another article on cloud computing? Sometimes we tax commentators are like our favorite sales tax auditors: We’re dogs with a bone, and we can’t let go. The tax implications of cloud computing have received tremendous coverage, both in this publication and others. Perhaps it’s because we tax people really just ...

Ohio’s public schools, like many across the country, will soon have to learn to do more with less. A new study lays out a blueprint to maintain or improve their current performance, for a lot less money. The study by KnowledgeWorks, a Cincinnati-based policy research organization, says schools could cut $1.4 billion dollars ...

“We’ll invest $15 billion a year over the next decade in renewable energy, creating five million new green jobs that pay well, can’t be outsourced, and help end our dependence on foreign oil,” candidate Barack Obama pledged in a November 1, 2008 radio address. Three years and eight months later, as unemployment has exceeded ...

Unlike those in other states which have chosen to implement President Obama’s health care law, Vermont’s health insurance exchange isn’t expected to last long. Instead, it is envisioned as a short-term bridge which will be destroyed to achieve the state’s ultimate goal: a government-run single-payer health care system. In April ...

The American Bird Conservancy has filed suit in federal court accusing the U.S. government of “flagrantly violating” the Freedom of Information Act by failing to appropriately respond to its FOIA requests for correspondence between the federal government and wind power companies. The Conservancy is seeking information about bird ...

Pennsylvania’s legislature is considering legislation that would end school property taxes and instead increase income and sales taxes to raise the $13 billion the state spends on K-12 schools. “It’s been very well received,” said state Sen. Dave Argall (R-Schuylkill), cosponsor of Senate Bill 1400. “People just hate the school ...

In this news story from Greenwire, Nick Juliano of the Energy and Evironment Daily reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) gave a speech in Las Vegas detailing his hopes to tax carbon emissions to combat climate change. ...

Unless there is a substantial change in leadership in Washington in the next election, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will go into effect as planned. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the measure as constitutional in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, Sup. Ct. Docket Nos. 11-393 and ...

Private donors are stepping up to help California keep its state parks open, allowing state officials to forego plans to close 70 of California's 278 state parks. Low Attendance, Revenues The Parks and Recreation Department had targeted the 70 state parks for closure due to low attendance and low revenues. Parks and Recreation ...

A new genetic study suggests polar bears arose between 4-5 million years ago and thus survived the more than 50 glacial/interglacial cycles of the Pleistocene... Read More Regional Climate Models: How Well Do They Work? (7 August 2012) A new study finds there is still a long, long way to go before they are likely to ...

The Supreme Court’s decision on the constitutionality of the individual mandate to buy health insurance was an unprecedented expansion of federal powers, blindsiding the parties and virtually obliterating the notion that the federal government is one of limited, enumerated powers. The majority opinion held the government does not ...

An abundance of domestic energy will enable the United States to cut in half its reliance on oil from the Middle East by the end of the decade, and could end any reliance at all by 2035, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). New Technologies Boost Outlook America’s bright energy outlook is due to ...

Financially strapped homeowners stand to become even more downtrodden in 2013. As Congress focuses on the upcoming federal elections, a little-known or -understood law is scheduled to reappear, potentially costing those in foreclosure or loan modification thousands of dollars in new tax liabilities. "There is a very dark cloud ...

Facebook has quietly launched a real-money online gambling application in the U.K., marking a major thrust of the social networking site into online gambling. The Financial Times is reporting that starting this week, Facebook will offer users in the U.K. ages 18 and over online bingo and slots for cash prizes. Slate.com picked ...