The John Locke Foundation’s research staff headed to Denver this week for the State Policy Network’s annual meeting. While there, Health and Human Services Policy Analyst Katherine Restrepo discussed certificate-of-need laws during a panel discussion about health care solutions. Before heading west, Restrepo had spoken about problems linked to the Affordable Care Act during Americans for Prosperity’s “Call Out Kay” tour. The Midtown Raleigh News and North Raleigh News promoted her upcoming appearance in another local ACA debate. Chapel Hill’s Daily Tar Heel interviewed Restrepo for an article about Medicaid expansion. The Kernersville News published her column on the impact of regulations and transparency on health care costs.
Print versions of both the Charlotte Observer and News & Observer publicized Vice President for Research and Resident Scholar Roy Cordato‘s new report calling for reduction or repeal of the state capital gains tax. (As income taxes scale down in North Carolina with systematic changes the legislature enacted last year, a conservative think tank is suggesting the state go a bit further. The capital gains tax, said the conservative John Locke Foundation in a new report, hinders economic growth and should be re-evaluated. The report acknowledges, however, that a flat-out repeal of the tax on equity investment returns is a hard political sell.)
The Kernersville News published Director of Regulatory Studies Jon Sanders‘ column rebutting myths about the government-mandated minimum wage. The Chapel Hill News interviewed Director of Research and Education Studies Terry Stoops for an article about student proficiency and graduation rates. NCPoliticalNews.com and N.C. Senate Republicans cited Stoops’ column on state education spending. NCPoliticalNews.com and the Senate GOP also promoted Director of Fiscal Policy Studies Sarah Curry‘s column addressing false claims about state education spending.
A letter in the Jacksonville Daily News cited John Locke Foundation research into private school tuition. (The Daily News proposes tax credits for private school tuition. That approach works best for those who already have the economic liberty to remove their children from public schools: upper middle class and wealthy North Carolinians. That this is the case is suggested by a 2009 study by the John Locke Foundation. According to that study, “(T)he average annual tuition for a private elementary day school, as opposed to a boarding school, was $4,889. For middle schools, the average was $5,410; the average was $5,916 for high schools.”) A Charlotte Observer article, also picked up by the WBTV and WECT Television websites, noted JLF concerns about fraud and abuse within the federal school lunch program.
