VIEW FULL BRIEF:
Brief of Amici Curiae The James Madison Institute, et al.

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT:

“Federalism is one of the cornerstones of our constitutional system.  By reserving broad powers to the States and to the people, federalism protects liberty, enhances accountability, and fosters innovation.  The Act, however, undermines the essence of federalism by denying States a meaningful choice on whether to expand their state Medicaid programs.  States depend heavily on the hundreds of billions of dollars dispersed by the federal government through Medicaid.  Because the federal government funds at least half of each State’s Medicaid costs, no State could operate a comparable program without federal dollars, and no State could realistically decline to offer basic medical care to its neediest citizens.  Nevertheless, the Act requires States to spend tens of billions of additional dollars to expand Medicaid coverage, and threatens States with the loss of all Medicaid funding unless they comply.  Accordingly, the Act leaves States with no realistic choice but to continue to participate in Medicaid, in violation of the Tenth Amendment and the principles of federalism articulated in South Dakota v. Dole.

“Moreover, because of Medicaid’s size and the Act’s all-or-nothing penalty provisions, the Act is uniquely suited for scrutiny under the coercion doctrine.  Medicaid represents far and away the largest source of federal outlays to the States, and the largest component of spending by the States.  The Act, in turn, requires States to spend tens of billions of additional dollars to expand coverage, on penalty of losing every dollar of federal Medicaid support.  These and other provisions suggest that Congress designed the Act to preclude the States from exercising a meaningful choice.  For these reasons, if the coercion doctrine is ever to have any role in protecting the principles of constitutional federalism, the Act must be deemed invalid.”

CONCLUSION:

“For these reasons, States have no meaningful choice other than to comply with the ACA.  Accordingly, the ACA is invalid under the Tenth Amendment and the principles of federalism articulated in South Dakota v. Dole.“

Florida Faces Dual Crises in Insurance Markets
JMI releases white paper on homeowners and vehicle insurance reform

TALLAHASSEE – For three years, state leaders have not effectively addressed Florida’s dysfunctional property insurance system despite bipartisan support for reform.  Add to that the long term questionable sustainability of Florida’s vehicle insurance system, and the state now faces dual crises in its insurance markets.

“Florida cannot afford a repeat of the 2011 Legislative Session. Nothing has improved in the past year; indeed, many aspects of the insurance environment have gotten worse.” –Eli Lehrer, JMI Adjunct Scholar and Heartland Institute Vice President and Director of the Center on Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate

In a newly released Backgrounder, “Workable Solutions for Florida’s Challenging Insurance Problems,” James Madison Institute Adjunct Scholars Eli Lehrer and R. J. Lehmann outline the cases for reform and propose a series of recommendations that could be reasonably implemented in the 2012 Legislative Session.

Regarding vehicle insurance reform:

• Goal 1: Retain and enhance the no-fault nature of Florida’s vehicle insurance system.
• Goal 2: Make commonsense reforms to limit legal and medical costs.
• Goal 3: Crack down on fraud in all contexts.

Regarding property insurance reform:

• Goal 1: Retain the Cat Fund as a buffer for Katrina-sized events but shrink it to remove the dangers it poses to the state.
• Goal 2: Pursue more aggressive depopulation of Citizens by granting it greater freedom to raise rates and to deny or non-renew policyholders.
• Goal 3: Harden Florida’s built environment against hurricanes, and end subsidies for development in hurricane-prone areas.

“During the 2012 Session, legislators have an opportunity to make reasonable reforms in Florida’s vehicle and property insurance systems that will make an immediate difference in the lives of the people they represent and in the economic health and financial stability of the state they serve.” –Dr. Robert McClure, JMI President and CEO

All JMI publications are available on-line at www.jamesmadison.org.  To comment or request a copy, contact Tanja Clendinen at 850.383.4633 (toll free 1.866.340.3131) or Tanja@jamesmadison.org.

GOV. SCOTT WALKER

UPDATE:
The James Madison Institute invites you to join our Board Chairman Allan G. Bense and our Naples Board Member Glen T. Blauch for a luncheon featuring
The Honorable Scott Walker
Governor of Wisconsin

Wednesday, February 8, 2012
12:00 Noon
The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, Naples
Tiburon Ballroom
2600 Tiburon Drive
Naples, Florida

Individual Tickets Now Available:
$75 JMI Members
$100 Non-Members
$500 VIP Package – call for details
$2500 Table Sponsorships – call for details
For further information or to RSVP, please contact Jenny Stone by Friday, February 3 at 1-866-340-3131 or jstone@jamesmadison.org
Advance Payment Required to Secure Seating

For Media Inquiries:
Contact Tanja Clendinen at tanja@jamesmadison.org

Gov. Scott Walker Biography (PDF)
Facebook Event Page

Tuesday, January 17
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater will present an official Proclamation designating Jan. 17-23 as “Thrift Week” in Florida to Bob McClure, president of the James Madison Institute.  Signed by Gov. Rick Scott and the entire Florida cabinet, this proclamation calls thrift “the antidote to the high levels of debt and economic uncertainty currently plaguing our nation.”    

Tuesday, January 17
Students all over Florida will begin using the James Madison Institute’s supplemental curriculum, All About the Benjamins: Understanding the Value of Thrift.  Made possible by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation, this curriculum is being produced in association with News-in-Education programs at newspapers around the state. 

Tuesday, January 17
Since Thrift Week historically begins on Ben Franklin’s Jan. 17 birthday, the Franklin County Public School (K-12) will hold a special celebration to kick off Thrift Week in Florida.  Following a birthday party and Jeopardy-like game with the 5^th graders, Ben Franklin re-enactor Lloyd Wheeler will give a presentation about “the wise use of one’s time, talent, and treasure” to more than 200 middle and high school students.   

January 17-23
JMI will tweet “daily benjamins” (wise sayings on thrift made popular by Benjamin Franklin) to commemorate Thrift Week.  Be sure to follow JMI on twitter so that you can receive your “daily benjamin” (and retweet it to all your friends and associates).

Wednesday, January 18
JMI Resident Fellow William Mattox will participate in a Thrift Week celebration in Philadelphia, PA, where the new report, Why Thrift Matters, will be formally presented by scholars from the Institute for American Values. Mattox is a signer of the report. Copies of All About the Benjamins will be presented and distributed.         

Thursday, January 19
To commemorate Thrift Week, Congressman Steve Southerland will give a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives about spending carefully, drawing upon Thursday’s daily benjamin: “Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.”

Friday, January 20
JMI President Bob McClure will make an appearance on WFLA’s popular Preston Scott Show to discuss the importance of personal responsibility, economic freedom, long-term growth, and other thrift-related themes.

Monday, January 23
JMI will post information at its web site (www.jamesmadison.org) about ways that groups and individuals can sustain Thrift Week’s momentum throughout the year, such as participating in “Teach Your Children to Save Day” at the Florida Capitol in May.

The Institute will be closed Friday afternoon, December 23 through Monday, December 26 and Friday afternoon, December 30 through Monday, January 2. If you wish to make a year end gift during that time, donations may be made online at http://www.jamesmadison.org/join.

“Calculating teachers’ pay and concluding that they’re “overpaid” or “underpaid” as compared to other professions is too simplistic an approach. Many dedicated teachers spend countless hours “off the clock” handling duties ranging from grading papers to sponsoring extracurricular activities in addition to their classroom duties. Other merely go through the motions, trying to hang on until retirement.

Moreover, in a true market-based system, the question of whether the compensation is adequate, too much, or too little would relate to whether the compensation results in an adequate supply of good teachers.

If the beginning pay is too low to attract the kind of bright people who presumably could choose from among any number of other career options, then the result may be an insufficient supply of good applicants for teaching vacancies. That would mean that the schools are stuck with hiring anyone who’s alive and breathing, regardless of their qualifications. If you have 100 vacancies and only 90 applicants, you have a problem that also complicates any effort to get rid of bad teachers.

Conversely, if the salaries are sufficient to attract (and retain) an adequate supply of excellent teachers, that’s a good thing. After all, if you have 100 vacancies and 500 applicants, you have an opportunity to pick and choose the best of the lot.

Then again, if the total compensation – salaries plus pensions, health insurance, and other benefits — is significantly higher than the levels sufficient to attract an adequate supply of good teachers, then the schools arguably are needlessly spending taxpayers’ money that might be better used for other public purposes or else retained by the taxpayers.

Unfortunately, because of teacher union pressure, teacher-compensation systems are often distorted in ways that defeat the goal of attracting the best and the brightest. That’s because most teacher union locals are dominated by veteran teachers who have played union politics to move up through the ranks.

During the collective bargaining process, these union leaders push for rewarding seniority – sticking around for years, regardless of effectiveness — rather than boosting the pay of beginning teachers, the pay grade that might attract prospective teachers who are comparing a teaching career with other career options. In addition, these veteran union officials – especially those nearing retirement – often negotiate lavish pension deals to the detriment of offering more pay to beginning teachers.

As a result, in comparisons of beginning salaries, potential teachers often drift off into other fields because they are dismayed when they discover that they wouldn’t be making any “real money” until they’d been teaching for 20+ years.

This – plus the teachers union’s stubborn resistance to linking compensation with classroom effectiveness as measured in student achievement — is just one of the ways in which the teachers unions undermine efforts to improve the quality of instruction.”

CLICK ON IMAGE TO VIEW PDF

In 2011, The James Madison Institute’s research and education efforts led to the following 11 results advancing liberty in Florida:

1. Reformed Florida’s Medicaid program by shifting Florida’s outdated fee-for-service model to a new, statewide, free-market managed care system.
2. Advanced Public Employee Pension Reform by laying the groundwork for state government employees to contribute 3% of their salary to their pension plan. Florida had previously been the only state where government employees didn’t contribute something.
3. Cosponsored the first ever Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Florida, with more than 3,500 paid attendees and every Presidential candidate running for the Republican nomination. JMI President Bob McClure welcomed conference participants to Florida and introduced Governor Rick Scott for his keynote address.
4. Protected health care by providing the intellectual ammunition for the Health Care Freedom Act, which will be on the Florida ballot in November 2012.
5. Expanded school choice inFlorida by laying the foundation for the “Digital Learning Now Act,” which makes it easier for virtual schools to set up inFlorida and for students to take online courses.
6. Brought attention to “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” in government transparency in cities and counties across Florida, through a report released at the media-heavy First Amendment Forum in Tampa during Sunshine Week.
7. Provided educational experiences for college students with a 3-part Civics Education seminar series at Florida Atlantic University, a “Madison Movie Night” liberty film series for students at Florida State University and the University of Central Florida, and a quality internship for 12 college interns, representing FSU, UF, FAMU, and Penn.
8. Won the State Policy Network’s SPNovation award for the civics booklet, “Celebrate Freedom,” which was distributed to more than 130,000 high school students in more than 20 Florida counties during Celebrate Freedom Week in September; and provided civics education events throughout Florida on President’s Day, Madison Day, Constitution Day and at the Florida History Fair.
9. Started a fifth regional board of advisor group, in Panama City, adding to the ones in Jacksonville, Orlando, Palm Beach, and Tampa Bay. 120 Floridians are now part of one of JMI’s five regional advisory groups, meeting formally twice per year in their community.
10. Earned widespread national media attention, including in The Wall Street Journal and on 60 Minutes and continued to make an impact in Florida’s social media space with more than 1,150 Facebook fans and 1,125 followers on Twitter. Thousands of Floridians self-subscribe to JMI’s e-newsletter, the Madison Policy Digest, and there are several thousand unique hits to JMI’s website each month.
11. Purchased one of Tallahassee’s oldest and most historic buildings as the Institute’s new headquarters. Renovations are underway at the Columns. JMI is poised to move into our strategic new headquarters in early 2012.

“The James Madison Institute is one of the top three think tanks in America.”
–John Fund, The Wall Street Journal

“The James Madison Institute is Florida’s leading voice for liberty through limited  government. JMI consistently produces sound, independent research on the issues affecting all Floridians.”
–Jeb Bush, Former Florida Governor

“The James Madison Institute is the North Star – it’s the beacon light of fixed principles.”
–Don Gaetz, Florida Senate President Designate

“The James Madison Institute is one of the hottest state think tanks in America. It’s an island of free enterprise sanity in a sea of big government thinking in Tallahassee.”
–Stephen Moore, The Wall Street Journal

“Top 11 Results in 2011″ (PDF)