Join us Wednesday, May 23rd at the Independence Institute's Freedom Embassy for a presentation with author Charles Sykes on his new book, A Nation of Moochers. Event is FREE and starts at 5:30pm with refreshments. For more info visit our event page.

Enormous unfunded liabilities and a funding crisis. Those two problems together spell disaster for any government program. Fixing the PERA mess is a massive undertaking that will require many reforms enacted through many steps. HB1250 was an attempt to address PERA’s impending fiscal nightmare with some sensible reforms. Economists Barry Poulson and Penn Pfiffner explain how deep the PERA hole is and what we can do to head off disaster.

Dave Kopel and Trevor Burrus examine ways that governments can mitigate the economic damage caused by the drug war. They detail four specific legal reforms enacted in Colorado, which aim to reduce the problems of over-criminalization: Requiring a fiscal note for the creation of new statutory crimes; reducing drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor; narrowing the scope of 'three strikes' laws, and; adjusting old sentences in light of new laws.

Governments at all levels are facing severe fiscal stress, and Medicaid is the largest and fastest growing publicly-funded health program in the United States. State and federal authorities have had little success in controlling Medicaid expenditures with conventional reforms. In this Issue Paper Linda Gorman explores how we can tackle the Medicaid spending problem.

Independence Institute president Jon Caldara has a blog! The Cauldron is where Jon takes on life, liberty, and libations everyday. In addition, guest authors like Professor Rob Natelson, Mike Krause, and Dave Kopel are featured occasionally to spice things up when Jon is too hung over to write. Check out The Cauldron to keep up with Jon and the whole Independence Institute gang.