Renewable Energy:
Assemblyman Justin Watkins, D-Las Vegas, has introduced Assembly Bill 270, legislation designed to reinstate net-metering subsidies for rooftop solar costumers. The proposed law would set a minimum credit of 11 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity fed back into a utility’s grid from a rooftop solar installation. The actual market price of power at the time — whether or not the utility company could purchase excess power from a cheaper source — is simply ignored. As NPRI has explained before, government coercion and price fixing — not necessarily the per-kilowatt price — is the real problem with net-metering mandates. (Read more)
Labor unions:
When public sector employees get paid leave-time to conduct union business, it costs taxpayers big time. According to a new report by the Office of Personnel Management, government employees spent nearly 3.5 million hours doing union business rather than government business — costing taxpayers $162.5 million in 2014 alone. (Read more)
Fiscal and taxes:
Tax season is officially here — and it’s costing the American economy billions of dollars. Taxpayers spend an estimated 6.1 billion hours and $234 billion every year complying with the tax code. And things are only expected to get worse. According to Pete Sepp, president of the National Taxpayers Union, “The paperwork burden inventory at the Office of Management and Budget related to Treasury is expected to rise by another two billion hours in the next few years.” That alone could push tax compliance costs above $400 billion per year. (Read more)
Free markets:
Nevada lawmakers this session are again taking aim at ridesharing companies such as Uber and Lyft. One bill would give the Nevada Taxicab Authority — which has been exceptionally hostile to the concept of ridesharing — authority over the industry. Another unfriendly proposal put forward by Taxicab Authority allies was to require ridesharing consumers to wait fifteen minutes for their ride. It was killed earlier this week. (Read more)
Education reform:
Large school districts, such as Clark County, have historically been plagued by inefficiencies, fraud and corruption. As it turns out, the primary root of the problem likely lies in the particular way in which schools have tried to lessen corruption: through ever-tighter layers of centralization, bureaucratic oversight, detailed standard operating procedures and a growing administrative state. Just like any other overly bureaucratic entity, the larger school districts become, the less responsive they are to the actual needs of those they serve. (Read more)
