The Heartland Institute

As Congress considers whether to allow tax rates, including those on capital gains, to rise in 2013, some state legislators are debating whether to change their state-level capital gains taxes. One of those debates is in Oregon, which has one of the nation’s highest capital gains tax rates. According to research by the Oregon ...

It would appear that the greater warming of daily minimum temperatures, as compared to daily maximum temperatures, has been a great boon to winter wheat production in Northern China... Read More Streamflow Trends in Nepal Since the 1960s (11 December 2012) How have they responded to the concomitant warming of the globe ...

Studies are mixed regarding whether plastic bag bans offer significant environmental benefits, but claims of rampant environmental harms are suspect. Proponents of bag-bans omit the most important consideration, which is what replaces the plastic bags? Other bags (including cloth) have even worse environmental impact profiles, and ...

James Locklock, orginator of Gaia theory, and one of the great founders of modern environmentalism, writes a letter of objection in regards to a proposed windfarm development in the English countryside. Notable passage: I am an environmentalist and founder member of the Greens but I bow my head in shame at the thought that ...

If plunging over the fiscal cliff in January would threaten the nation’s economy, Congress and the President could also do harm in another way: by dodging the cliff through gimmicks and bogus budget cuts that create only illusory savings in a “grand” budget bargain. Both the White House and lawmakers have shown a propensity ...

Growing almost as fast as the wireless communications industry are the fees and taxes paid by wireless phone users. Even as revenue earned per wireless phone falls, taxes and fees climb. In a new report, Scott Mackey of KSE Partners examines the burden these taxes and fees add to wireless phone users’ monthly bills. Mackey ...

In this letter to Congress, president of the Energy Consumers of America, Paul Cicio contends that a carbon tax would add to manufacturing costs of about $16.6 billion per year. It would also increase the cost of natural gas, electricity, and transportation fuels. ...

UPDATE: On March 13, 2013, The Heartland Institute was among 16 conservative think tanks and advocacy groups that signed a letter urging a sense of the Congress resolution opposing a carbon tax. You can read that letter here . On December 12, 2012, 14 conservative think tanks and advocacy groups joined forces to urge Congress ...

Benjamin Domenech speaks with Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli of Virginia, on the legal challenges to Obamacare. ...

Government-provided deposit insurance is not free. The reason is straightforward: Government-provided deposit insurance in practice differs significantly from that proposed in theory. First, the FDIC must expend real resources administering and operating the Deposit Insurance Fund. Second, the FDIC is committed to bailing out depositors ...

Draft legislation in Michigan would restructure the school finance system so state funds predominantly follow children, allowing them to attend any public school in the state that will have them. Gov. Rick Snyder commissioned the 302-page proposal from the Oxford Foundation, a Michigan nonprofit. Districts would be free to choose ...

Bills that would make Michigan the 24th right-to-work state in the nation passed in the House and Senate on Dec. 11, with the backing of Gov. Rick Snyder (R), who signed them into law later that day. Workers in right-to-work states have the freedom to choose if they want to be members of a union and are not forced to ...

With the reelection of President Obama, there will be no movement at the federal level to repeal the President’s health care law. For Idaho, a state where Republican Gov. Butch Otter considered “nullifying” the law when it was passed, the future of Obama’s law is less certain. When the Supreme Court upheld the law, Otter ...

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal took the stage at a center-left think tank to promote school choice and competition as a bipartisan, “consensus issue.” “Equal opportunity in education should not be a conservative or liberal position; it should be an American position,” said Jindal, who chairs the Republican Governors Association. Since ...

The family of a teenager who stowed away in the wheel well of a Boeing 737 jet at an airport in Charlotte, North Carolina and fell to this death after the plane took off is suing the city, its airport, and the airline for negligence. The 16-year-old accessed the airport and climbed into the wheel well but didn’t fall ...

One suggestion for dealing with greenhouse gas emissions is to implement a revenue-neutral tax on carbon emissions. If we implemented a carbon tax and cut income taxes by the same amount, we would be reducing taxes on something we want (income) and increasing taxes on something we don’t (air pollution). As good as it sounds ...

Heartland’s James M. Taylor and Jim Lakely talk about the Eighth International Conference on Climate Change, held in Munich Germany on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 2012. The conference, co-sponsored by the Germany-based European Institute for Climate and Energy (EIKE), was also dubbed the Fifth International Conference on Climate ...

Alberta has the highest level of economic freedom among all Canadian provinces and U.S. states, according to a new report by the Fraser Institute, Canada’s leading public policy think tank. The “Economic Freedom of North America 2012” report ranks Saskatchewan second among the provinces and third overall. Canadian provinces make ...

What is the future of ObamaCare in Florida now that President Obama is reelected? If Republican Gov. Rick Scott has his way, the state will continue to resist the president’s signature law. Gov. Scott has been a high-profile opponent of Obama’s law since the controversial legislation was proposed. Even though voters returned ...

After half a day of math training, Oregon high school history teacher Jessica Keskitalo is teaching seventh grade math this school year. She is one of 365 Beaverton School District has shifted according to seniority rather than classroom needs during budget cuts. Oregon requires districts to lay off teachers with the least ...