A lawsuit appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court is challenging the doctrine of exclusive representation that gives teachers unions the sole right to negotiate teachers’ salaries with school districts, even the salaries of non-members. Choice Media’s Bob Bowdon looks at The Buckeye Institute’s case to end to laws that force public-sector employees to accept compelled union representation.
When state governments run surpluses, the temptation to spend is almost irresistible. Rea S. Hederman Jr. of The Buckeye Institute joins Caleb O. Brown on the CATO Daily Podcast to discuss what should happen to those excess tax dollars.;
In The Blade, Buckeye’s Greg Lawson urges the Toledo City Council avoid adding new occupational licenses for drywall professionals, writing, “City council’s proposal to license drywall professionals will do little to protect the health and safety of the citizens, and a city license, which compels competent drywall installers to pay a fee, will only make it more difficult for people to gain employment.” ;
In The Des Moines Register, Buckeye’s Andrew J. Kidd, Ph.D.; and John Hendrickson, with Tax Education Foundation Iowa, look at pro-growth strategies that Iowa policymakers can pursue that will allow Iowans to keep more of their hard-earned money. The two write, “State policymakers should take full advantage of Iowa’s economic strength and surpluses to pursue pro-growth tax reforms—without delay…Now is the time to act to bring about reforms that can propel the state, along with its families and businesses, forward economically and make Iowa a national leader in good tax policy.”
In The Columbus Dispatch, Buckeye’s Andrew J. Kidd, Ph.D., looks at two innovative solutions policymakers can implement to help make Ohio a more attractive place to live and start a business, which would help reverse Ohio’s negative economic trends. Kidd writes, “policymakers cannot maintain the status quo and expect Ohio to turn around economically.”
In The Columbus Dispatch, Brianna McKinnon, a special-education teacher and a military spouse whose family is stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, urges the Ohio General Assembly to adopt the policies in Senate Bill 7, writing, “Ohio should no longer ask its military families to make yet another sacrifice in service to the country. The Air Force asks its men and women in uniform to “Aim High,” and the Army once challenged young recruits to “Be All You Can Be.” Ohio should not stand in the way of military spouses heeding that advice and accepting that challenge at home or at work.”
In The Columbus Dispatch, Buckeye’s Rea Hederman looks at how Ohio policymakers need to adapt and find new strategies to fight the opioid crisis, writing, “Even as high-profile trials for prior misconduct dominate news headlines, civic leaders and policymakers should focus less on assigning blame for the past and more on winning victories and limiting casualties in the future.”
Robert Alt, Buckeye’s president and chief executive officer, talks to Tyler Olson of FoxNews.com about Buckeye’s legal fight to immediately end laws that force public-sector employees to accept union representation. In the article, Olson writes, “In the wake of a 2018 Supreme Court ruling that public-sector unions cannot force non-members to pay a fee for workplace representation, a new challenge to union power is taking shape.”
"Sometimes good public policy needs to be protected in the court of law. And through the work of The Buckeye Institute’s Legal Center, our lawyers are defending worker freedom, protecting people’s rights, and upholding the U.S. Constitution," writes Buckeye's Lisa Gates in a blog looking at the Institute's work to are prevent government overreach in people’s lives, defend free speech from those seeking to silence diverse opinions, and its support of allies in the fight for freedom and liberty.
In The Clermont Sun, The Buckeye Institute’s Greg Lawson looks at the experiences of Amelia and Newtonsville, Ohio as examples of why Ohio’s communities need to consider local government reform, writing, “Add Amelia and Newtonsville, Ohio, two tiny Clermont County villages, to the growing list of exhibits in the case against Ohio’s failing local government structure. The financial picture in both municipalities is so bleak, in fact, that residents of both communities will take to the polls on November 5 to decide whether to dissolve the municipal villages.”
