The Heartland Institute

This year North Carolina joined the growing number of states considering major changes to its tax system. The North Carolina Tax Fairness Act, introduced in May by Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger , lowers both personal and corporate income taxes, cuts the franchise business tax, abolishes the death tax, and lowers the ...

As technology advances, more products are becoming available online in digital formats. As digital goods such as applications, music, videos, and e-books have become more prevalent, state and local governments are looking for ways to raise new revenue by taxing these purchases. Most states impose sales tax only on transactions ...

In his 2014 budget, President Barack Obama called for a strategic review of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The budget stated selling or privatizing the TVA could result in a significant cut in the federal deficit and “put the nation on a sustainable fiscal path.” Born during the Great Depression as part of President ...

Lawmakers in Maine have proposed a comprehensive tax reform plan that would cut the state’s personal and corporate income tax rates, increase sales taxes, change how property taxes are determined, increase “sin” taxes, and eliminate the estate tax. The bipartisan group of legislators sponsoring the bill , known collectively as ...

The federal government’s “Too Big to Fail” policy remains highly unpopular with the public. Previous bank bailouts have proven to be an expensive use of taxpayer dollars and a dubious act of government interference in the market. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and David Vitter (R-LA) have proposed new legislation that would use ...

Nevada legislators are considering adjusting the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS). The RPS requires utilities to obtain a specified percentage of their power from renewable sources by a certain date. Twenty-two of the 29 states with such mandates in place have considered changing those laws in the past two years. Nevada ...

The Obama administration recently made the establishment of a National Infrastructure Bank part of its proposed budget. The project would allocate $10 billion to the National Infrastructure Bank with the goal of leveraging up to $20 billion in total infrastructure investment. Three major legislative proposals establishing a National ...

The increasing number of wireless devices, including cell phones, tablets, and laptops, has made wireless airspace a hot commodity. This airspace, known as spectrum, is a limited resource. Only certain portions of the spectrum are usable and available for communications purposes, so telecom companies fight for and pay high prices ...

Medicare Part D, the Medicare prescription drug benefit for low-income seniors, has been one of the few entitlement success stories since it was passed in 2003. Medicare Part D was designed to mobilize the market and use competition to provide prescription drug coverage to seniors at competitive prices. By almost all accounts ...

The Michigan legislature is considering in its 2014 budget a measure that would prohibit the state department of education from using public funds to implement Common Core, national education standards and tests in math and English that 46 states, including Michigan, have adopted. Another bill is in play that would withdraw ...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a new rule requiring gasoline refiners to reduce the sulfur content of their gasoline from 30 parts per million to 10 parts per million on an annual average basis by January 1, 2017. This rule is a further reduction from the previous Tier 2 standards, which lowered ...

Early this week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid began the process of pushing to the Senate floor a major online tax bill originally titled the Marketplace Fairness Act , bypassing the committee process. The proposal would expand states’ ability to force out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes for online and mail-order ...

A consortium of consultants and science educators has released its final draft of what it plans will become national education standards for K-12 science. They are titled Next Generation Science Standards but are also Common Core science standards because created by the same groups and designed to fit with Common Core math ...

According to Governing magazine, there were 28 public bankruptcies in 2011 and 2012. Although that number fell short of many experts’ predictions, it still represents a significant increase in defaults. Of the dozens of cities considering bankruptcy, Stockton, California is the largest and has received the most attention. A recent ...

The Vermont Legislature is considering a vast new array of tax changes and increases that could have a major effect on Vermonters. The proposals under House bill 528 , which recently passed through the Vermont House of Representatives, would increase income tax rates for higher-income earners while adding new sales taxes that ...

Included in President Barack Obama’s 2014 budget is a proposal to expand federally funded pre-K, to be paid for by raising the federal cigarette tax from $1.01 per pack to $1.95. Research on preschools has shown they have a limited positive effect on the very poorest and neediest children, and research on broader government ...

Colorado legislators are bucking the national trend and considering a proposal that would boost the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS). The RPS requires utilities to obtain a specified percentage of their power from intermittent renewable sources by a certain date. Twenty-two of the 29 states with such mandates in place ...

In his 2013 State of the Union Address, President Obama proposed increasing the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.00 an hour, with the stated goal of raising the incomes of millions of working families. Minimum wage laws attempt to create a minimum standard of living to protect the health and well-being of employees ...

North Carolina legislators are considering repealing the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS). The RPS requires utilities to obtain a specified percentage of their power from renewable sources by a certain date. Twenty-two of the 29 states with such mandates in place have considered changing those laws over the past two ...

The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, also known as the Dodd-Frank Act, created many new restrictions on financial instruments and activities. The new regulatory powers include a consumer protection agency and the creation of a single federal bank regulator. The act replaces market-based financial monitoring with ...