With President Joe Biden signing the American Rescue Plan into law, The Buckeye Institute is out with a new policy memo, How to Spend Federal Stimulus Money Wisely, that outlines sound spending principles that Ohio policymakers should use to guide decisions on how to spend the federal COVID-19 aid that the state will soon receive.
Rea S. Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center at The Buckeye Institute and vice president of policy, commented on newly released employment data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, saying, “As Ohio and the country mark the one year anniversary of the pandemic, Ohio’s labor market continues its slow recovery, with the unemployment rate falling to 5.3 percent, the labor force participation rate increasing to 62.3 percent, and the private-sector adding 22,800 new jobs.”
The Buckeye Institute filed a new lawsuit on behalf of three Ohioans—Joel Curcio and Summer Curcio of Springfield Township, Ohio, and Chris Ackerman of Walbridge, Ohio—which calls for the court to declare unconstitutional an Ohio law that allows the cities of Oregon, Ohio and Toledo, Ohio to tax the income of workers who do not live in, and have not been working within, the respective municipalities.
The Buckeye Institute submitted written testimony to the Ohio House Insurance Committee on the policies in House Bill 122, which would permanently expand access to telehealth for all Ohioans. In his testimony, Rea S. Hederman Jr., vice president for policy at The Buckeye Institute, pointed out that “[p]atients have experienced firsthand the value that telehealth provides and will be reluctant to see telehealth access restricted again.”
The Buckeye Institute released an analysis using data from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to estimate the impact of a $15 an hour minimum wage proposal included in the Raise the Wage Act of 2021. The analysis found that nearly 18,000 West Virginia workers would lose their jobs if the federal wage hike is imposed.
The Buckeye Institute released an analysis using data from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to estimate the impact of a $15 an hour minimum wage proposal included in the Raise the Wage Act of 2021. The analysis found that nearly 116,000 Ohio workers would lose their jobs if the federal wage hike is imposed.
Thirty-nine renowned public policy organizations have filed amicus briefs with the United States Supreme Court in support of The Buckeye Institute’s case, Thompson v. Marietta Education Association, which calls for an immediate end to laws that force public-sector employees to accept a union’s exclusive representation. Robert Alt, president and CEO of The Buckeye Institute and one of Mrs. Thompson’s attorneys noted, “The sheer number of groups asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear this case demonstrates the depth and breadth of the constitutional problem of forced exclusive representation.”
The Buckeye Institute filed its amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of itself and 34 other public policy organizations in the combined cases of Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra and Thomas More Society v. Becerra. The brief calls upon the Supreme Court to protect the privacy and First Amendment rights of individuals who donate to charities and other nonprofit organizations.
The Buckeye Institute released a new policy report, New Hampshire’s Economic Recovery: Better Than Expected, by its Economic Research Center in partnership with the Josiah Bartlett Center. The new report found that “[c]oming out of 2020, New Hampshire is in better financial shape than many other states thanks to a sound revenue structure, relatively restrained spending, a strong economy, and good management.”
The Buckeye Institute submitted written testimony to the Ohio Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee on the policies in Senate Bill 44, which would eliminate the taxpayer-funded subsidies included in the “notoriously flawed” House Bill 6 from the 133rd General Assembly. In his testimony, Greg R. Lawson, a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, told lawmakers that eliminating the “notoriously flawed” taxpayer-funded subsidies included in House Bill 6 was an “important course correction” that would end one of the worst examples of crony capitalism.
