UPDATE: Govenor Ricketts issued Executive Order “to provide relief to restaurants and bars” In a time of emergency many regulations are lifted to help business continue and keep people employed. Many states and large cities have lifted regulations allowing for the curbside or delivery sale of alcoholic beverages to keep these places in business. The...
A 600 employee fitness equipment company based in Columbus, Ohio seized the opportunity to reach out to the many people suffering from job loss resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Rogue Fitness announced it was hiring 100 new employees and increasing wages temporarily by $2/hour. Why? Because Rogue Fitness realized that they had the capacity and...
To see the study – click here. To see the details on Nebraska – click here. The Mercatus Center has pre-released its Healthcare Openness and Access Project (HOAP). This index measures the extent to which states leave patients, providers, and businesses free to seek or provide healthcare as they deem best. Each state is evaluated...
The Platte Institute has released a list of recommendations for state policymakers on issues of tax compliance, budgeting, regulation, and government transparency in the COVID-19 crisis.
Nurses and doctors are at the forefront of the COVID-19 crisis. At a time when our country is trying to avoid an overrun of our healthcare system, technicalities and license requirements need to be relaxed. We can look to Iowa for a perfect example of this. Governor Kim Reynolds issued a State of Public Health...
The COVID-19 emergency response requires state policymakers to focus on the essential and conduct their business with transparency.
The last week or so has been something of a whirlwind here in Nebraska, as cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) started to show up. Events have been canceled, schools have closed, state basketball tournaments have been modified to have no meaningful fan presence, colleges have moved toward remote classes, and some businesses have closed down temporarily....
I noted last week that recent research by the Goldwater Institute suggests that universal recognition enacted in Arizona was showing significant benefits for both the state's labor market and for workers seeking to continue to practice their occupation in a new location. A new policy report from Arizona State's Center for the Study of Economic...
Here’s an interesting story about the silliness of some occupational licensing boards. A man trained in electrical engineering, questions the formulas used for timing red lights in Oregon, after his wife gets a ticket for moving through the intersection to make a right turn on a yellow (the light turned red while she was turning)....
Universal Recognition for occupational licensing burst onto the scene almost a year ago when Arizona enacted its "universal recognition" bill last April. Pennsylvania became the second state to enact universal recognition in late July of 2019. This year, more than a dozen states, including Nebraska, saw legislation introduced (although none passed yet) which would create...
A recent analysis by the Archbridge Institute found that in neighboring Iowa, occupational licensing requirements added between 1993 and 2012 was associated with a 4.7% reduction in economic mobility and a 10.9% increase in income inequality. Growth in occupational licensing is associated with fewer opportunities for workers to earn more than their parents and a...
Today (Tuesday, February 25) marks Day 30 of Nebraska's 60-day legislative session this year. Halfway there. In reality, probably a little over halfway, because Speaker Scheer has typically tried to close the session out between days 57 and 59. If you look at the Legislative Calendar found here, you'll see that Day 59 falls on...
Sometimes, circumstances remind me of songs, and the John Lennon song "Imagine" came to mind as I was reading the articles I link to below. This article popped up in my Google alerts yesterday. It appears that a couple of legislators in Tennessee have decided to float a very bold idea: Tennessee lawmakers introduced two...
On Thursday, I testified on two bills before the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee of the Nebraska Legislature. The first one I testified on was Senator Andrew La Grone's (LD49) LB1187, which would provide for "universal recognition" of occupational licenses of people who move to Nebraska from other states. A nice write up of...