Threading the Needle

By Torie Ludwin, communications manager

This case has been brewing in the news since the summer. Moore v. United States, purportedly over a $15,000 tax bill from an overseas investment, has implications to upend a third of the federal tax code. The Moores claim they are being unfairly taxed.

What's Happening: Arnold Ventures' Executive Vice President for Public Finance George Callas, who worked on the 2017 tax code pivotal to the case, has been sounding the alarm about the ramifications should the court rule in favor of the Moores. New details on the Moores' involvement with the company in which they invested were published this week in The Washington Post. (free link)

Why It Matters: Some see the case as a vehicle to stave off a wealth tax. However, as Callas has pointed out, this would be an incorrect understanding of income and wealth. “The Moores aren’t being taxed on the change in the value of their shares,” said Callas in The Washington Post. “They’re not being taxed on the price of their shares, which would be like a wealth tax. … What’s being taxed is actual earnings and profit.”

What’s Next: The Supreme Court will hear the case on Tuesday. 

Read our news round-up>

By Evan Mintz, communications director

The new Gainful Employment rule, which is designed to hold career education programs accountable for student outcomes, is set to take effect on July 1, 2024. But more work remains to ensure that postsecondary education truly pays off for all students in all programs.
 

What’s Happening: The Department of Education recently reinstated and strengthened federal regulations that will require career education programs to meet basic labor market outcomes standards for their graduates or risk losing access to federal financial aid. However, the Higher Education Act (HEA) limits the rules to the for-profit and certificate sectors. 
 

Why It Matters: Public or nonprofit degree programs are not required by the HEA to demonstrate they prepare students for “gainful employment in a recognized occupation” in order to qualify for federal financial aid dollars. The protection extended to students in for-profit and certificate programs because of the Gainful Employment rule should be extended to all students, regardless of their program.
 

What’s Next: As lawmakers consider updates to the HEA, further reforms will be necessary to ensure that programs deliver value for students and taxpayers.  
 

Read our policy focus> 

The amount of money the American Hospital Association (AHA) spent on lobbying in 2023, more than Facebook parent company Meta. 

Earlier this month, STAT News reporter Rachel Cohrs pointed out this breathtaking sum in the context of the AHA formally asking congressional leaders to “oppose bipartisan, incremental site-neutral payment proposals.” 

At a time when 89 percent of the public is on board with proposals to lower hospital prices, site-neutral policies currently being considered by a bipartisan coalition in Congress should be an obvious first step.  

Learn more about site-neutral billing, and why the same service should mean the same price.  

Criminal Justice

• In an op-ed for Law360, Matt Alsdorf, associate director and co-director of advancing pretrial policy and research at the Center for Effective Public Policy, discusses how the concept of bail has changed over time and originally did not usually include monetary conditions.
   
• Based on a roundtable supported by AV, a new policy brief from the Center for Justice Innovation identifies areas where public defenders and jurisdictions are testing out new initiatives to improve public defense and fulfil the promise of the Supreme Court’s Gideon decision.
   
• AP reports on how Missouri’s Republican Governor Mike Parson, a former sheriff, has pardoned more people than any other Missouri governor has in the past 80 years. In an interview, the Governor expressed his belief that law and order and second chances go hand in hand.

Health Care

• When it comes to the challenge of complex care, the headline for this op-ed in STAT News says it all: “I worked for CMS. Even I struggle to help family navigate dual eligibility.”
   
• A new op-ed in RealClearHealth lays out the case for site-neural billing as a way to prevent consolidation in the health care industry and help lower prices.
   
• AV grantee the Washington Center for Equitable Growth released a new report that found hospital consolidation reduces competition, often leading to lower wages for nurses and pharmacy workers, economic harm for local communities, and higher prices for patients.

Public Finance

• AV grantee the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released a report comparing the 2024 appropriations levels in the recently passed continuing resolution with the deficit-reduction deal struck earlier this year. 
   
• Elaine Maag of AV grantee the Tax Policy Center provided updated options for improving the Child Tax Credit for low-income families.
   
• Naomi Feldman and Kevin Corinth released a report for the American Enterprise Institute concluding there is no evidence of a private investment response to Opportunity Zones beyond modest impacts on investments in multi-family housing.

Higher Education

• The Department of Education has fined Union Institute and University, a private Ohio college, and cut off Title IV aid for illegally taking more financial aid than it was owed, Higher Ed Dive reports.

Infrastructure

• Did you know that the nation of Portugal ran on 100 percent renewables for six days in a row? Canary Media has the story.
   
• Major environmental groups have ended up on the wrong side of California’s housing crisis, Mother Jones reports.
   
• The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof looks at how Houston has successfully taken on homelessness by prioritizing housing first and getting nonprofits to work together. (free link)
   
• The Northern Virginia city of Alexandria has ended single-family-only zoning, The Washington Post reports. (free link)
   
• Want to see how electricity is changing around the world? A new interactive story in The New York Times shows where clean energy is on the rise – and where coal use is still growing. (free link)
   

• Sandra Day O'Connor, a trailblazer as the first woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice, passed away this morning. From 1981 to her retirement in 2006, she was known for her independence, her well-written opinions (read several excerpts here), and her often-pivotal votes. Less known is her commitment to civic education; in 2009, she founded iCivics, a set of free, nonpartisan online games and resources to teach students about social studies.
  
  “If we want our democracy to thrive, we must commit to educating our youth about civics, and to helping young people understand their crucial role as informed, active citizens in their communities and in our nation,” Justice O’Connor said in her final remarks to the public in 2018.
   
• A crane operator in the U.K. rescued a worker from a burning high-rise.
   
• Nova, a dog lost in the Colorado mountains for two months, was found and brought home.
   
• Iowa high schooler Lauren Schroeder is a food philanthropist: she has grown and given away over 7,000 pounds of produce.