Featured Articles
Shifting the Cost of Government
By Marc Kilmer
You
have to keep your eyes on politicians. They are always looking for new
ways to tax you. Their latest scheme is called the "earned income tax,"
and its design is almost ingenious in its trickiness. Knowing that most
people enjoy government benefits better if they do not have to pay for
them, this tax targets only a certain segment of the population to pay
for services used by all. While this design may make the tax more
likely to be approved, voters need to be wary of the idea that you can
get something for nothing.
Buckeye Voices
David
Hansen discusses the negative economic impact of a proposed mandatory
sick leave ballot issue with WSPD's Brian Wilson on this week's BuckeyeVoices.
High APR Necessary for Payday Loans
The
Toledo
Blade reports,
"House Bill 545, passed by a bipartisan 68-26 vote, would cap annual
interest on payday loans at 28 percent. Currently, interest and fees
can run as high as an annual rate of 391 percent. The legislation also
would establish a minimum 31-day loan period, limit customers to four
loans in 12 months, and prohibit loan-initiation fees."
In
his
testimony before the Senate Finance and Financial
Institutions Committee regarding HB 545, Buckeye Institute guest
scholar Dr. Tom Lehman notes, "The annual percentage rate (APR) on
payday loans must, of
necessity, be significantly higher than the APR on conventional
higher-balance and longer-term loans due to the much smaller economies
of scale on small-balance loans. The fixed costs of originating a note
loan are roughly the same, regardless the size of the loan. That is, it
would require roughly the same fixed capital and labor inputs for a
lender to offer, say, a $1,000 non-collateralized loan for 12 months
that it does to offer a $500 payday loan for 31 days. However, the
larger and longer-term loan can generate more revenue for the lender at
a relatively low APR and still allow the lender to remain profitable
due to the size and duration of the loan, whereas the smaller and
shorter-term loan would generate only a fraction of the revenue
necessary to cover fixed and variable costs at the same APR. Thus, by
necessity, if the payday lender in this example is to expect to profit
and remain in business, it must charge a significantly higher APR."
Helping Special Ed Students Through Choice
In opposing legislation to create vouchers for special education students, "[State Representative Keith] Schuring said special-needs children 'need the full support of what the public schools can give them' and public schools offer a better setting for the students," according to the Canton Repository.
In What the Florida McKay Program Can Tell Us About Bringing Special Education Vouchers to Ohio, Greg Forster, a senior fellow at the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation, writes, "Most people don't realize that special education spending per student has been steadily increasing for decades. There is no sign that the system's problems are being alleviated by these increased resources. Fixing the special education system, in Ohio and elsewhere, requires structural changes. Increasing the dollars put into the system without addressing the system's larger problems is not having any significant effect."
A Path to Economic Recovery
The Columbus Dispatch reports, "April was a month to forget for central Ohio. A startup airline went bankrupt, leaving thousands of passengers stranded across the country, and three struggling restaurant chains were sold or announced for sale. In the aftermath, the region lost coveted jobs and corporate headquarters, and attracted national attention for the wrong reasons."
In
Ohio Needs More, not Fewer,
Companies Like Skybus, Buckeye Institute Fellow
Sam Staley writes, "Ohio doesn't just need one or two new businesses.
It needs a ground swell. Gov. Strickland and state policymakers should
dump the failed policies of the past and consider adopting outside the
box reforms like phasing out the state income tax over the long term.
Ohio's economic future rests in the state's ability to create a
business climate that fosters entrepreneurship without prejudice from a
broad base. We need to improve our business climate for
entrepreneurship because, in the words of economists Noel Campbell and
Tammy Rogers, the 'primary impact of economic freedom on
entrepreneurial activity lies in permitting entrepreneurs to see and
exploit economic opportunities.'"
Buckeye Institute in the News
The Hillsboro Times Gazette published Matthew Carr and Beth Lear's op-ed on school choice.
