From the Executive Director

from NewsLink, Volume 1, No. 1, Fall 1996

One of the unintended consequences of the electronic age is "information overload" -- more information than any of us can hope to discover and process. For those of us in the information business, fax machines, web sites, e-mail and all the rest present a challenge, as much as they do an opportunity.How can we contribute effectively to the abundance of information already available to our readers?

It is with this challenge in mind that the Beacon Hill Institute launches its newsletter. With NewsLink, we aim to present only information of the kind that is of critical importance to current issues and, therefore, to our readers. We aim to dig out important facts about the issues that might otherwise be buried in the avalanche of not-so-relevant information.

One of our most immediate rewards is knowing that BHI has a printed vehicle to communicate with its primary audience of donors, policy makers, opinion leaders, electedofficials, scholars and citizens.

Thanks to NewsLink, our free market voice can now rise above the chatter of the conventional wisdom. And judging from how busy we've been over the last year, we think that voice can carry.

Whether it's welfare reform, federal and state tax policy, unemployment insurance or the Central Artery/Tunnel project, we've been doing the hard thinking. And we're proud of the results.

BHI's seminal work on the compassion tax credit drew the attention of U.S News & World Report in September. Since the release of Giving Credit Where Credit is Due, we've refined the concept and proposed a state-based "Family Advocate Pilot Program." The compassion tax credit, based on a dollar-for-dollar taxpayer incentive, has the support of several prominent Members of Congress. This comes at an opportune time particularly in light of the newly implemented welfare reform law that shifts power back to the states.

Thanks to NewsLink, our free market voice can now rise above the chatter of the conventional wisdom. And judging from how busy we've been over the last year, we think that voice can carry.

This December, BHI will sponsor "Compassionate Welfare Reform: Empowering Charities and Private Citizens" in Washington, DC.

On another front, our State Tax Analysis Modeling Program (STAMP) has gone south -- literally. STAMP examines how changes in state personal or corporate income tax law affect employment, wage rates, investment, production and tax revenues. BHI enhanced STAMP for the great state of Oklahoma, enabling it to identify the economic effects of its tax-policy decisions.

In the current euphoria about the U.S. economy, we've noticed that U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich's income inequality tables have been deftly moved offstage. One can see why. In the frontal assault on the seven fat Reagan years, many trotted out the graphs to illustrate the increasing gap between rich and poor. However, as we demonstrate, the gap has grown faster under Presidents Bush and Clinton.

"Targeted tax cuts" were a mantra of the 1996 presidential campaign. Should this set the tax policy agenda for the next Congress, many people will discover, to their disappointment, that there is less to this idea than meets the eye. That's because such time-limited cuts for college education and first time homeownership will do little more than raise college tuition and nothing in terms of increasing productivity.

And speaking of targets, BHI is mastering the World Wide Web. We've upgraded our web site (http://www.beaconhill.org) to include search capabilities. We've also established a mailing list digest, the BHI-netLetter which you will shortly be able to receive via e-mail. You'll also be able to review NewsLink in its own archive on the Web.

In sum, NewsLink is our effort to uphold our end of the conversation and to give you the information without the overload. We'd love to hear what you think of NewsLink.

- David G. Tuerck

NewsLink is the quarterly newsletter of the Beacon Hill Institute for Public Policy Research at Suffolk University. © 1996-2002. All rights reserved.

HTML format revised on 9/13/02 2:26 PM


Thanks to NewsLink, our free market voice can now rise above the chatter of the conventional wisdom. And judging from how busy we've been over the last year, we think that voice can carry.