This week's day-late edition of Think Tank Round-Up examines Latino public opinion, state-level tax shelters, growing union membership and the transit component of economic stimulus legislation the House of Representatives will vote on today. Check it out:
- Slip-sliding away. Even when immigration reform boiled over in 2007 after Congress and the Bush administration failed to pass a comprehensive bill, only 38 percent of Latinos cared enough about the issue that summer to rank it “extremely important” in a Pew Hispanic Center poll. Now, a year and a half later, 7 percent fewer Latinos hold immigration reform in such high regard. Pew released this data in a recent report that examines immigrant and native-born Latinos’ opinions on policy priorities; their hopes for Obama and judgments of Bush; and their attention to and involvement in politics. When ranking policy priorities, immigration came in sixth out of seven, with the likes of the economy, education, and health care lording over the top of the list. The phenomenon of so few Latinos caring about immigration reform surprises -- more than half of adult Latinos are immigrants.-- CP
- Tax shelters aren't helping [PDF]. Michael Mazerov at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that North Carolina legislators’ concerns about the negative impact of instituting “combined reporting” on the state’s already hobbled manufacturing sector are unwarranted. North Carolina is one of a few states that does not practice combined reporting: treating all of a large corporation’s subsidiaries as a single entity for state income tax purposes. Companies have historically used the state as a tax shelter, burdening taxpayers with the cost of litigation. This study reveals that 80 percent of the largest manufacturers operating in North Carolina also maintain facilities in states with combined reporting.-- MK
- Union rates rising. The Center for Economic and Policy Research reports that union rates rose in 2008, from 12.1 percent to 12.4, a gain of some 420,000 new members. This news comes in spite of the declining economy. Much of the increase came in the public sector, although private sector unionization went up one tenth of a percentage point last year. The report notes that despite small upticks this year and last, union membership has stagnated or sunk every year since a high of 20.1 percent of workers in 1983. Union membership strongly correlated with increases in income equality and productivity in the post-World War II economic boom, and with the Obama administration's commitment to making organizing easier at least through Labor Department policies and perhaps with the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, there is hope that membership may increase again in 2009.-- TF
- Shovel-ready projects. Transit for America has compiled a map of various transit agencies which, in the face of the current economic situation, are either cutting service or raising fares. The goal of the project is building grass-roots support behind amendments that would change the current economic stimulus legislation to have more focus on public transit investments, which are more energy-efficient than investments in highways and roads. Currently, the stimulus has been disappointing transit advocates who would like to see a more balanced funding program between different kinds of transportation infrastructure.-- TF
-- TAP Staff
Past Round-Ups:
