POLICY FOUNDATION RUNNER-UP IN

NATIONAL BETTER GOVERNMENT COMPETITION

(June 11, 2012) A Policy Foundation proposal to increase government transparency is one of four runners-up in the 21st annual Better Government Competition (BGC) sponsored by the Pioneer Institute, a think tank in Boston, Massachusetts.

The winning proposal, “Coordinating Medicare and Medicaid to Improve Care,” was submitted by Grace-Marie Turner (Galen Institute), and Robert Helms, Ph.D. (American Enterprise Institute). Other runners-up were Devolving Responses to Natural Disasters (Matt A. Mayer, Heritage Foundation); Reducing Congestion through Focusing on Performance (Wendell Cox, Alan E. Pisarski, and Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D); and Devolving U.S.A.I.D. Training to State Colleges and Universities (Matthew Auer, Professor, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University).

The Policy Foundation proposal, “Increasing Transparency in Government Use of Financial Derivatives,” proposes “requiring state and local governments” to “disclose information concerning transactions in their (taxpayer-supported) pension funds, so that they are at least as regulated as derivatives transactions in the private sector.”

Pioneer Institute's Better Government Competition, founded in 1991, is “an annual citizens’ idea contest that rewards the most innovative public policy proposals in the country.” The 2012 competition “focused on devolving federal programs back to the states, to bring about cost savings, more effective delivery of services, and innovation.” The winner and runners-up receive monetary awards.

“The hundreds of entries received this year demonstrate a live interest in exploiting the strengths of the nation’s federalist system. We are thrilled by the quality of the entries, and Pioneer is grateful to the many individuals and organizations that took the time to submit,” said Shawni Littlehale, director of the Better Government Competition.

More information is available at: http://pioneerinstitute.org/programs_bge.php