Friday Facts: January 5, 2018

It’s Friday!

Happy New Year!

On a personal note: Hearty congratulations to Rogers Wade, chairman of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, who has been named to the Georgia Trend 2018 Most Influential Hall of Fame. It’s a tossup whether he’s more excited about the Georgia Trend honor or the fact that his beloved Georgia Bulldogs head to the National Championships against Alabama on Monday!

Events

January 23: More than 28,000 events will celebrate National School Choice Week 2018 from January 21-27. The Georgia Public Policy Foundation marks this event annually with a Leadership Breakfast. The keynote speaker is Senior Fellow Dr. Ben Scafidi; the topic is “Georgia 2020: Educational Opportunity for All K-12 Students in Georgia.” 8 a.m. at the Georgian Club. $30. Registration and information here.

Quotes of note

“Happiness depends more upon the internal frame of a person’s own mind than on the externals in the world.” – George Washington

“A wave of optimism has swept over American business leaders, and it is beginning to translate into the sort of investment in new plants, equipment and factory upgrades that bolsters economic growth, spurs job creation – and may finally raise wages significantly.” – Binyamin Appelbaum and Jim Tankersley, New York Times

“Workmen’s compensation, hours and conditions of labor are cold consolations, if there be no employment.” – Calvin Coolidge (1919)

Economy

Minimum wage: Eighteen states hiked their minimum wage beginning January 1, ranging from a 35-cents-an-hour increase in Michigan to $1 in Maine. This is expected to provide more than $5 billion in additional wages to 4.5 million workers. But, economics professor Mark J. Perry explains in an article in FEE, “It’s an ironclad law of economics that to stimulate one group with public policies like the minimum wage, protective tariffs, or farm subsidies, another group in the economy has to be equally ‘un-stimulated … merchants, businesses, business owners, and their families in those 18 states.”

Transportation

Aviation: There was not a single fatal crash of an airliner carrying passengers in 2017, making it the safest year in commercial aviation history. Source: Wall Street Journal

Cellphone ban: Smyrna’s City Council voted to ban handheld cellphone use by drivers. The ordinance, the first in Georgia, takes effect in April. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Highway Loss Data Institute finds, however, “It’s not clear that banning hand-held phone use and texting reduces crashes,” and suggests “broader” measures such as collision avoidance technology will be more effective.

Technology trumps tradition: Las Vegas Monorail ticket sales are expected to fall millions of dollars short of predictions for 2017 and 2018, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports: about $6.5 million less in ticket sales than was forecast in a ridership study, which didn’t account for the impact of Uber and Lyft.

Education

Charter funding: Georgia’s public charter school students are funded 20 percent or more below traditional school students, according to Tony Roberts of the Georgia Charter Schools Association. That’s because state law requires those state charter schools to receive the average of Georgia’s five lowest funded school districts. Also, most state charter schools have to rent their school buildings. The lower funding coupled with facilities costs often means less money for the classroom, lower teacher pay and high teacher turnover.” Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Best high schools: USA Today published a list of the best high school in every state; Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science & Technology was ranked Georgia’s top high school.

Taxes and spending

Tax policy now: Georgia legislators are proposing a “Rural Relocate and Reside” program that would offer up to $5,000 a year for 10 years in state income tax deductions to new residents in 124 (rural) counties. Source: Atlanta Business Chronicle

Tax policy then: In 2011, the final report of Georgia’s Special Council on Tax Reform and Fairness for Georgians noted, “Consistent with the principles of fairness and equity, we took a critical look at exemptions to the states sales tax system and other tax preferences and have made recommendations to eliminate or sunset many of those.”

Regulation

President Trump’s Executive Order 13771 directing federal agencies to remove two regulations for every new one they issued, and to cap the total cost of new regulations at zero. A second executive order established in each agency a “regulatory reform officer” responsible for overseeing implementation of regulatory reform initiatives and policies, and a task force to make reform recommendations.

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