The American Legislative Exchange Council recently issued a response to our November study Selling Snake Oil to the States. But as Dr. Peter Fisher, primary author of our study, says in a retort published by the Iowa Fiscal Partnership, ALEC scored no points.
In a press conference we held this week with five other groups, Fisher said ALEC only dug itself deeper in a hole—none of its claims altered our findings that ALEC policies failed to deliver stronger state economies. He concludes:
In fact the authors’ misinterpretation of our use of economic structure variables and misuse of the state coincident indices serve only to further confirm the shoddiness of the research sponsored by ALEC.
The press conference was staged to also feature two more terrific studies:
ALEC Tax and Budget Proposals Would Slash Public Services and Jeopardize Economic Growth, by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, concludes that deep tax cuts for corporations, investors, and the wealthy, and a corresponding shift of taxes to middle- and low-income households would hurt state budgets, families and communities.
Profiting from Public Dollars: How ALEC and Its Members Promote Privatization of Government Services and Assets, by In the Public Interest, identifies ALEC model bills that promote privatization, matches the bills with related state legislation, and discusses the benefits that ALEC’s corporate members received from the passage of the laws.