Recently, there has been a flood of potentially harmful legislation that risks undercutting Ohio’s prosperity. Bad bills that expand burdensome occupational licensing requirements to an ever-larger number of Ohioans remains a serious impediment to creating an economically prosperous state where people are able to pursue job opportunities and career advancement without needing to seek costly, time-consuming permission from government.
The Buckeye Institute testified before the Ohio House Finance Committee on the DataOhio project and the transparency policies that are included in House Bill 3. “Transparency helps citizens better understand what their government has done, what it is doing, and what remains to be done with their tax dollars. Fiscal transparency helps keep government accountable to the citizenry, fosters a more informed public, and facilitates a better dialogue between the people and their elected representatives.”
The Buckeye Institute commented on newly released unemployment data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, saying, “In August, the two payroll surveys diverged painting a contrasting picture of the Ohio labor market. The household survey…continued the bad news from July, with the unemployment rate increasing even as Ohioans left the labor force…However, the payroll survey…showed good news as private-sector employment increased by 11,000 in August.”
Ohio Governor John Kasich and Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper issued a letter that laid out their ideas for fixing the Affordable Care Act. In a nutshell, the plan’s goal is to increase government spending and enforce the individual mandate in an effort to prop up the ACA insurance markets. Unfortunately, simply spending more taxpayer money does little to fix a core flaw of the ACA – heavily regulating insurance companies – which has driven up premiums and caused insurers to leave markets and leave Ohioans with few or no insurance options.
The Buckeye Institute, along with the National Federation of Independent Businesses, CATO Institute, and other nonprofit organizations, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States asking it to take up the case of Garco Construction, Inc. v. Secretary of the Army that could overturn Auer deference. “In taking up Garco Construction v. Army the Supreme Court has the opportunity to overturn Auer deference and bring some clarity to government regulations, by reasserting the judiciary’s duty to say what the law is.”
