Educating Arizona: Credit Where Credit’s Due

Arizona’s public education establishment has gone on red alert, talking about a possible lawsuit or ballot referendum as a strategy to derail a $500 income-tax credit for private-school scholarships. Governor J. Fife Symington III (R) signed the measure into law on April 7. For many parents now worried about low test scores, high drop-out rates […]

Tax Credits for Private Tuition, Arizona House Bill 2074

State of Arizona ——— Senate Engrossed House Bill House of Representatives Forty-third Legislature First Regular Session, 1997 House Bill 2074 An Act Amending section 43-1021, Arizona revised statutes; Amending Title 43, Chapter 10, Article 5, Arizona Revised Statutes, by adding sections 43-1087 and 43-1088; relating to individual income taxation. Be it enacted by the legislature […]

Testing for Drugs in Schools: The Constitutional Issues

Beginning in 1985, nearly five million members of the American military underwent routine drug testing, a program which continues, and which is credited with having virtually eliminated from the military the serious problems of drug abuse which afflicted it following the Vietnam war.1 That program is generally adjudged a successful one, though it has inspired […]

The Do’s and Don’ts of a Tax Cut for Maryland

Governor Parris N. Glendening (D) has proposed a sizable cut in income-tax rates for Maryland. While the governor has taken an important step in recognizing that the key to economic growth is a lower tax burden for state residents, his proposal has several key defects that must be remedied before enactment. The Glendening Proposal On […]

Fixing Baltimore: Suggestions for Restoring Efficiency in Government

According to scholars Anthony Downs, Katherine Bradbury and Kenneth Small, Baltimore was a city in distress as early as 1982.1 Today, the town is in a similar state, if not worse, given the diminishing tax base and increased demand for services that have occurred over the last several years. Many of Baltimore’s – and other […]

A Conservative Robespierre: A Review of Bork’s Gomorrah

Tod Lindberg contends that the winning Republican coalition of the 1980s is cracking up. The state legislatures, the governorships, the Congress – all are increasingly Republican, while the presidency has now twice gone Democratic for the first time since FDR. Lindberg argues that practical Republicanism sells at the local level. But the Republicans’ ideology does […]

Why Maryland Should Screen Welfare Applicants for Drug Use

It is by now well known that the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Welfare Reform has recommended that legislation be crafted allowing the state to screen welfare applicants for drug use. The task force is co-chaired by Senator Martin G. Madden (R-Howard and Price George’s) and Delegate Samuel I. Rosenberg (D-Baltimore City/County). There are a […]

High Taxes, Low Growth: What Maryland Hasn\’t Learned from Others

Governor Glendening has reneged on his pledge to cut taxes. This is a political mistake as well as an economic one for the state. While he may pay the political price that befell George Bush in 1992 and the Democrats in 1994 after they broke their promises on taxes, it is Maryland residents who will […]

No U-Turns: Why Welfare Reform Must Not Be Undone

With Bill Clinton’s reelection to the White House, doubtless there will be intensified talk of “revisiting” welfare reform – largely with a view to gutting it. Likewise, at the state level, this reporter recently participated in a public debate on welfare reform at Loyola College in Baltimore. A well meaning opponent earnestly defended the old […]

Are You Afraid of the Religious Right ?

Evil, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder, and the religious right serves as a good case in point. Some Americans, mostly liberal and secular, believe the religious right poses the greatest threat to American democracy since the country’s founding. Others, mostly conservative and religious, believe it represents God’s last battalion in […]