Government Reform

Civil asset forfeiture is inherently unjust, as I’ve explained many times in the past (here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). Why?…

North Carolina House Bill 56 got a lot of press earlier this autumn when the General Assembly overrode the governor’s veto of the legislation.  But most of the discussion…

What do subsidies for “green” energy, mandated health insurance benefits, and quotas on imported sugar all have in common? Most obviously, all three policies generate a wealth transfer from the…

Published on May 4, 2017 Katherine Restrepo, John Locke Foundation director of health care policy, discusses the U.S. House’s vote on a bill to repeal elements of…

You may have heard that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42, but nobody knows the question. In state government, people either have questions or they…

Local governments across North Carolina, like other employers, are wrestling with the question of how to provide quality health care to their employees in a cost-effective manner. This is…

The Cato Institute regularly publishes a report titled Freedom in the 50 States.1 According to the most recent edition, since 2010, North Carolina has improved substantially, advancing from 26th…

20 Years of Agenda

“Green” school buildings in North Carolina fall far short of their promises to protect the environment through lower energy costs and increased efficiency.

In the last two years, academics and scholars of public policy have identified North Carolina as a state with an overly complex criminal code that can ensnare small businesses, farmers, and individuals who unknowingly fail to comply with regulatory rules. In 2014, Professor Jeff Welty of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government published an article in the North Carolina Law Review, “Overcriminalization in North Carolina”; and James Copland and Isaac Gorodetski, directors respectively of the Center for Legal Policy and the Center for State and Local Leadership at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, published a primer, “Overcriminalizing the Old North State.”