Robert Alt, Buckeye’s president and chief executive officer, joined CATO’s Caleb O. Brown for a discussion on state‐​level criminal justice reform and Alt’s white paper, Criminal Justice Reform: A Survey of 2018 State Laws, which he authored for the Federalist Society and offers an overview of recent state-level criminal law reforms.

The distance between a worker and that next, better-paying job just got shorter. Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted recently announced Ohio’s new TechCred program, which offers financial assistance to businesses that help their employees earn short-term degrees or job certificates, commonly referred to as micro-credentials. TechCred, along with the policies in House Bill 2—which would help individuals cover their costs of earning a micro-credential—will enable workers to quickly get the skills they need to be eligible for promotion and, as research shows, earn more money.

On Monday, The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief in Ricks v. Idaho Contractors Board calling on the United States Supreme Court to protect citizens’ civil liberties and to strike down laws that create unnecessary impediments to employment. Buckeye argues that the ever-growing maze of bureaucratic regulations and laws, created outside of the legislative process, violates civil liberties and, in Mr. Ricks’ case, cause undue economic harm.

On Thursday, The Buckeye Institute joined the Due Process Institute in filing an amicus brief in Guedes v. ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives) calling on the United States Supreme Court to protect citizens from unelected government bureaucrats effectively redefining what constitutes a crime.

Rea S. Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center and vice president of policy at The Buckeye Institute, issued the following statement on the 2019 Kiplinger Tax Map, which ranks Ohio one of the 10 least tax-friendly states in the country. “Everyone wants to be above average. However, as Kiplinger’s 2019 Tax Map reveals, being above average on taxes has made Ohio one of the ten ‘least tax-friendly’ states in the country.”

In The Hill, Buckeye’s Rea Hederman looks at efforts to “remove choice and flexibility from health care and state health insurance markets,” writing, “Opponents of the new guidance appear to be against innovation, flexibility, savings, and more affordable health insurance plans. They want to use the Congressional Review Act — a law that allows Congress to repeal executive rules — to retract the new rules and return to the cookie-cutter, Obama-era guidance that had made health insurance under the ACA unaffordable. Such a retreat would be a mistake.”

The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra calling on the United States Supreme Court to recognize that people have the right to donate to charities and nonprofit organizations without having their own personal information turned over to the government. In filing the brief, Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, said this case is, “an alarming violation of the First Amendment right of free association and would have a chilling effect on free speech.”

Andrew J. Kidd, Ph.D., an economist with The Buckeye Institute’s Economic Research Center, commented on newly released employment data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, saying, “With fears of a recession still on the horizon, slow job growth in Ohio is a concern, but, with a growing labor force, Ohio’s economy continues to show resiliency.”

Citing The Buckeye Institute’s amicus brief in Thomas v. Bright, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the First Amendment and struck down Tennessee’s billboard law as a violation of free speech on Wednesday. Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, said of the ruling, “Tennessee attempted to justify its sign restrictions as a public safety measure, but we are pleased that The Buckeye Institute’s brief was able to help the court see through Tennessee’s deceptive pretext for violating free speech.”

As the Ohio House State and Local Government Committee examines Ohio’s burdensome occupational licensing requirements, Buckeye’s Andrew Kidd—an economist and aspiring licensed super-tough person—previews a forthcoming report that will outline licenses that Ohio can eliminate and ones that should have the number of training hours reduced. In our research, Buckeye has already identified a Top Five list of licenses that can be eliminated.