The Heartland Institute

Two North Carolina municipalities are at odds over funding of one city’s broadband system. The City of Salisbury and the Town of Spencer—both located in Rowan County—will likely wind up in court to settle whether Salisbury possessed authority to borrow $5 million from Spencer’s water and sewer capital reserve fund to help finance ...

With transportation coffers barely able to maintain highways, let alone adding new capacity to relieve congestion, many transportation economists and urban planners have concluded that the best solution to U.S. freeway congestion is to implement variable pricing on all congested freeways. At the same time, many political scientists ...

With transportation coffers barely able to maintain highways, let alone adding new capacity to relieve congestion, many transportation economists and urban planners have concluded that the best solution to U.S. freeway congestion is to implement variable pricing on all congested freeways. At the same time, many political scientists ...

Hydraulic fracturing has enabled profitable extraction of oil and gas in diverse areas of the country. As a result, many states sitting atop the country’s shale formations are reconsidering the way they tax these resources, to fill budget holes. Many of these debates are occurring in states with unconventional deposits and where ...

The recent discovery of vast deposits of oil and natural gas trapped in shale rock formations has revolutionized our nation’s short-term, mid-term, and long-term energy outlook. For example, proven natural gas reserves in the United States rose by 40 percent between 2004 and 2009. At the same time, new technological advancements ...

High-risk young men who are admitted by lottery to the schools they choose commit fewer crimes and remain in school longer, according to a new study of North Carolina students. Author David Deming, professor of education and economics at Harvard University, studied 6th to 11th graders in the Charlotte-Mecklenberg school district ...

The current economic environment of low—virtually zero—interest rates has hit savers hard, but the US Federal Reserve’s accommodative monetary policy is actually having a stabilizing effect on the economy. Abruptly raising interest rates could harm economic growth and the housing market. Until the economy stabilizes enough that ...

Cut federal debt or the United States will cease to exist as a superpower—that was the message Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson had for a packed house at Duke University’s Page Auditorium. Bowles and Simpson, co-chairs of a congressional committee created through a 2010 executive order of President Barack Obama to address the ...

Whooping cranes, among the rarest species in the world, are extending their range into North Carolina, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports. Observers report—and U.S. Fish and Wildlife confirms— a pair of the endangered birds are wintering in western North Carolina. This marks the first time whooping cranes have been observed ...

Executive Summary Following the passage of “Chemicals of Concern” legislation in Maine, Washington, and California, several states are considering adopting similar statutes. Although everyone supports reasonable measures aimed at protecting human health and the environment, these particular efforts are ill-considered and unnecessary ...

North Carolina Pastor Michael King is trying to start a food truck ministry. He’s converting old buses his church bought into food trucks to employ the poor and homeless in Rowan County. The first truck—nicknamed the “Mac-Attack Wagon”—is ready to hit the road, but it has been stopped in its tracks by a state regulation ...

This report is the summary of extensive research that examined the criticism that has been leveled over the past three years at the national efforts to improve intercity passenger rail and introduce true high-speed passenger rail in the United States. In the course of this research it has been heartening to discover that there ...

The North Carolina Joint Underwriting Association and North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association (NCJUA/IUA) is a residual market insurance company for homeowners and wind-only insurance coverage in the state of North Carolina. The NC JUA/IUA had experienced significant exposure growth in recent years after the voluntary market ...

The North Carolina Joint Underwriting Association and North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association (NCJUA/IUA) is a residual market insurance company for homeowners and wind-only insurance coverage in the state of North Carolina. The NC JUA/IUA had experienced significant exposure growth in recent years after the voluntary market ...

Many folks have been asking questions regarding the impact the medical loss ratio (MLR) rule released last week will have on health savings accounts and high-deductible health plans. Follow up by David Hogberg at Investor’s Business Daily raises more questions. He writes: A new Obama administration rule could drive out of ...

Country singer Dolly Parton joined her lesser-known brother Randy Parton on Nov. 11, 2005, in Roanoke Rapids at a groundbreaking ceremony for a city-owned music theater that would bear his name. Thousands of citizens and several government officials attended the event. Project supporters said the Randy Parton Theatre would make ...

In North Carolina, as in all states but a few, anyone who wants to drive on our roads is required by law to carry liability insurance. It is a crime, a Class 1 misdemeanor, one of the highest misdemeanors, under North Carolina law if you drive without buying this product. The law requires the Department to make sure ...

A new taxpayer-funded cardiac care center has sparked a public vs. private sector fight over the provision of medical services in North Carolina’s largest county. Rex Healthcare was a private hospital until the UNC Health Care System purchased it in 2000. It recently acquired a “certificate of need” to build a state-of-the ...

As states begin to estimate the price of implementing President Barack Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), one costly component of the law has yet to receive much-needed attention: accountable care organizations (ACOs). According to Obamacare proponents, ACOs will be federally financed organizations for Medicare ...

A good deal of discussion of late has centered on reforming North Carolina’s tax code, and that is a good thing. There is no aspect of North Carolina’s tax system not in need of significant change. The current code penalizes worker productivity while placing multiple layers of taxation on saving, investment, and entrepreneurship ...