Opinion
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Mo. Judge Pulls Tax Cut from Ballot
Opinion -A judge in St. Louis County, Missouri has ruled that trustees for a local fire protection district may ask voters to raise the district's maximum tax rate, but not to lower it. Judge James R. -
Muni Broadband Hall of Shame
Opinion -Dalton, Georgia (est. -
Municipal Broadband Subsidies Are ‘a Waste’
Opinion -Fifty-two municipal broadband systems have soaked up $840 million in taxpayer money over the past 20 years while providing little benefit, according to a study released in February. -
Municipal Broadband Systems Censor Web
Opinion -In decisions that might become more common as cities deal with user congestion on their municipal wireless systems, two cities are blocking access to high-bandwidth content and applications. -
Municipal Consultant Rips Broadband Activists
Opinion -The head of one of the top international municipal wireless consulting firms has accused the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) of promoting a political agenda at the expense of a sound business plan for a -
New Hamp. Legislators Address RFID Concerns
Opinion -Controversy over the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) continues to grow as New Hampshire has reintroduced legislation to regulate the use of RFID chips in consumer products and entirely ban their use in government documents such as driver's -
New Mexico’s Gross Receipts Tax Offers a Cautionary Tale
Opinion -Gross receipts taxes are beginning to spread nationwide, to the dismay of economists, businesspeople, and consumers, a new report observes. -
President Curbs Power of Agencies to Issue Regulatory ‘Guidance’
Opinion -An executive order by President George W. Bush, aimed at curbing the power of federal agencies to regulate businesses through "guidance," will be watched closely by business and environmental groups in the coming months. -
School Choice by the Numbers
Opinion -Getting Choice Right: Ensuring Equity and Efficiency in Education Policy edited by Julian Betts and Tom Loveless Brookings Institution Press, December 2005 255 pages, $19. -
Several Systems Studied
Opinion -The municipal telecom systems selected for analysis in Wi-Fi Waste: The Disaster of Municipal Communications Networks, the Pacific Research Institute report by Sonia Arrison, Dr. -
Small Companies Seek Alternatives for CALEA
Opinion -With the deadline for compliance with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) approaching, rural telephone companies are scrambling to meet the Congressional mandate to make it possible for possible for law enforcement personnel to -
States Eye Open Source Software Rules
Opinion -Three states are looking to legislate procurement and use of computer software formats for document storage, triggering a new round of debate over whether such laws actually benefit citizens and save money or simply provide a government-aided advantage -
Tax Burden Puts Georgia at a Disadvantage
Opinion -Georgia’s tax burden was 10.4 percent of income in 2006, which ranked the state 25th nationally, according to a Tax Foundation study released January 30, 2007. -
Taxpayers Cry Foul as AMT Affects Millions of Americans
Opinion -Over the past three Congresses, the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) has morphed from a little-known "stealth tax" into a widely known, highly discussed, and almost universally despised parallel income tax system with unintended consequences. -
Telecom Taxes Are Unduly Harsh, Regressive: Study
Opinion -Taxes and fees imposed on cable TV and phone services in 59 U.S. cities cost the average household approximately $264 a year, according to a new report from a team of researchers at The Heartland Institute and Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University. -
Telecom Taxes Are Unduly Harsh, Regressive: Study
Opinion -Taxes and fees imposed on cable TV and phone services in 59 U.S. cities cost the average household approximately $264 a year, according to a new report from a team of researchers at The Heartland Institute and Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University. -
Today’s IT news in pictures
Opinion -Telephone companies were providing video service to almost 2.7 million customers as of year-end 2006, according to Emerging Media Dynamics. -
U.S. K-12 Schools Fail to Prepare Students: Report
Opinion -The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Enterprise Institute, and Center for American Progress jointly released a report at the end of February showing the poor state of public education nationwide. -
Utah Voucher Opponents Move to Block Program
Opinion -In early April, opponents of Utah's new universal voucher law began announced they had enough petition signatures to get a referendum to repeal it. -
Vouchers for At-Risk Students Proposed in Texas
Opinion -On March 9, Texas state Sen. Kyle Janek (R-Houston) introduced Senate Bill 1506, which would allow the State Comptroller's office to give students vouchers to "escape poor-performing, inadequate, or unsafe schools. -
Vouchers for Special-Needs Students Fail in Committee of Virginia Legislature
Opinion -The Virginia House Appropriations Committee defeated Senate Bill 1419, the Tuition Assistance Grants for Children with Disabilities Act, by a 13-7 vote on February 16. -
WiMax Gets Ready for Prime Time
Opinion -WiMax--the wide area, meshed, broadband radio network technology that has been discussed for a long time as "just a few years away"--is finally coming to fruition. -
Is Global Warming a Sin?
Opinion -In a couple of hundred years historians will be comparing the frenzies over our supposed human contribution to global warming to the tumults at the latter end of the tenth century as the Christian millennium approached. -
Consumer Power Report #79
Opinion -Consumer Power Report, written by Greg Scandlen, director of Consumers for Health Care Choices at The Heartland Institute, is a weekly report summarizing recent developments on consumer-directed health care in the media, legislative, and regulatory