CDA legislative challenges and opportunities

The foundations of the major federal policies that govern today's workplace were put in place during the 1930s, when most families had a stay-at-home caregiver who could tend to the needs of children, the aged, and the sick. Seven decades later, many of the nation's workplace policies are in need of major updates to reflect the realities of the modern workforce. American workers, for example, typically have little or no control over their work hours and schedules; few have a right to job-protected access to paid leave to care for a family member. Heather Boushey examines three types of work-family policies that affect work-family conflict and that are in serious need of repair--those that govern hours worked and workplace equity, those that affect the ability of workers to take time off from work because their families need care, and those that govern the outsourcing of family care when necessary. In each case Boushey surveys new programs currently on the policy agenda, assesses their effectiveness, and considers the extent to which they can be used as models for a broader federal program. Boushey looks, for example, at a variety of pilot and experimental programs that have been implemented both by private employers and by federal, state, and local governments to provide workers with flexible working hours. Careful evaluations of these programs show that several can increase scheduling flexibility without adversely affecting employers. Although few Americans have access to paid family and medical leave to attend to family needs, most believe that businesses should be required to provide paid leave to all workers. Boushey notes that several states are moving in that direction. Again, careful evaluations show that these experimental programs are successful for both employers and employees. National programs to address child and elder care do not yet exist. The most comprehensive solution on the horizon is the universal prekindergarten programs offered by a few states, most often free of charge, for children aged three and four.

The possibility of trade-offs in road tunnel design incorporating suppression has been evaluated. Different tunnel configurations and ventilation conditions is considered to identify potential trade-offs, offering options of design alternatives for future substantial cost-benefit savings. Suppression systems are regularly used in Australia and Japan, and the interest regarding suppression systems in tunnels are growing in the rest of the world and slowly getting implemented in tunnels in Europe and other continents. Due to changes for instance in research regarding the acceptable design fire size and the growing focus on the fire safety in tunnels in general around the world, there is an opportunity of introducing trade-offs in tunnel design incorporating suppression systems. Possible trade-offs has been identified and outlined using risk based comparison approach as part of an evaluative process considering relevant safety objectives. Reliability of suppression systems is shown to be an important aspect, as well as the behavior of tunnel users. One may argue that suppression systems should always be considered as a primary option in tunnel design to achieve a desirable level of safety, enable fire brigade intervention and limit any costs associated with a tunnel fire. As an additional benefit to suppression systems offer the opportunity of potential trade-offs, opening a window of more innovative solutions and cost-benefit approaches compared to traditional prescriptive tunnel safety design. Residual value of this evaluative work and its conclusions shows that, when incorporating trade-offs, aspects like ‘point of no return’, visibility and consequences of trade-offs in the event of suppression system failure must be addressed from a fire engineering and risk management point of view.

Incorporating ecologically sustainable development policy goals within fisheries management: An assessment of integration and coherence in an Australian context

The Architecture of Compromise: Why CFOs Might Endorse a 100% Corporate Profit Tax, Repatriate Overseas Profits, Increase Dividends, and Reinvigorate U.S. Equity Capital Market Activity

It is essential to incorporate a racial perspective into the study of public finance and tax policy. This research, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, shows that minority taxpayers face a disproportionately higher income tax burden. Nonwhite families pay an average of $3,304 more in federal taxes and $1,465 more in state taxes compared to white families. Specifically, African American families pay $3,536 more in federal taxes and $1,288 more in state taxes. This disproportionate tax burden can be attributed to the higher proportion of income minority taxpayers derive from salaries and wages. Although federal programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit have reduced these disparities, there is still a pressing need for more targeted policies to eliminate and potentially reverse the longstanding racial disparities in the U.S. tax system.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBOOK REVIEWSDefense without Inflation. By Albert G. Hart. Financing Defense: Federal Tax and Expenditure Policies. By Albert G. Hart, E. Cary Brown, and H. F. Rasmussen.John LintnerJohn Lintner Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by National Tax Journal Volume 4, Number 4December 1951 Published for: The National Tax Association Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/NTJ41790597 Views: 1Total views on this site © 1951 National Tax Association. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

This paper explores the role of macroeconomic factors and structural policies in shaping the distribution of labour income. Technological change and globalisation play at least some role in driving inequality patterns, but structural policy can also have an important influence on inequality outcomes, in particular through education and labour market policies. Drawing on empirical analysis of the links between structural policies and the distribution of labour income, the paper looks at potential policy trade-offs and complementarities with respect to the two policy objectives of lowering income inequality and raising economic growth. It concludes that many policies yield a double dividend in the sense that they contribute to achieving both goals simultaneously. This relates in particular to policies that facilitate the accumulation of human capital, that make educational achievement less dependent on personal and social circumstances, that reduce labour market dualism and that promote the labour market integration of immigrants and women.

The European Commission Pharmaceuticals Unit is currently developing a legal proposal to increase the public provision of information about prescription medicines. Their preliminary proposal would achieve this by permitting pharmaceutical companies to provide unsolicited information about their prescription-only products directly to the public via the mass-media.1 The permitted channels of dissemination would include television, radio and print media, as well as standalone products distributed directly or via healthcare professionals. The stated intention of this controversial proposal is to meet a public need for high quality, reliable information about medications. Legislative debate in this area is not new. In 2002, the European Parliament debated a proposed five-year pilot scheme of mass-media advertising limited to drugs for diabetes, asthma and AIDS. The proposal was rejected by 494 votes to 42.2 Currently, the USA and New Zealand are the only developed countries that permit direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription-only medications; it is a contentious issue in both.3,4 The preliminary proposal insists that our ban on advertising should be maintained, instead forwarding a suggestion that the pharmaceutical industry be able to disseminate ‘non-promotional information’. Herein lies the conundrum, as the distinction between ‘advertising’ and mass-provision of unsolicited information by industry is not immediately obvious. Indeed, despite widespread agreement that such a distinction is absolutely crucial to the current proposal, neither the proposer nor any stakeholder has yet offered a clear means to achieve this.5 Opponents therefore fear that permitting such legislation would be tantamount to allowing advertising in all but name.6 The importance of this debate cannot be underestimated: widespread information dissemination has the potential to significantly impact the public's understanding of health, disease and medications, and to alter the nature of the doctor-patient relationship. Whilst this debate may be relatively new to Europeans, it is both long-standing and familiar in North America and Australasia. We are therefore fortunate to have the benefit of others' experiences. Indeed, we are urged to learn from these experiences by physicians in New Zealand. They fear that Europe's current trajectory represents a ‘slippery slope’ to their own situation in which drug advertising is omnipresent, though unpopular with doctors and with patient groups.7 Within this article we draw on international experience to contextualize and consider the potential European policy. We summarize the discourse that surrounds DTCA in the USA and New Zealand and present a taxonomic framework. Starting from a discussion of Canada's experience, we discuss the distinction between information and advertising. We consider how Europe could draw all of this together to carve its own path towards world-class provision of patient-centred information.

The purpose of this text is to examine how federal and Quebec provincial income tax policies have affected real disposable income of taxpayers in the context of the rapid inflation of the last five years. It finds that the net effect of federal fiscal reform since 1970 has been to make the tax structure more progressive. Low-income taxpayers have benefitted from lower tax rates in real terms but real tax rates have risen for those with incomes above approximately $14,000. On the provincial level, on the other hand, there has been virtually no change in the tax structure except for an increase in the threshold level below which no tax is paid. All, except the very poorest taxpayers (single persons earning less than $2,578 in 1970 or $3,200 in 1974 and married couples with two children earning less than $5,200 in 1970 or $6,300 in 1974), have paid higher taxes in real terms every year from 1970 to 1974. This is true even when provincial family allowances (which the province considers as a tax credit and as a substitute for personal exemptions for children under 16) are deducted from provincial income tax. The net result of federal and provincial tax policies, family allowance payments and deductions for various social security programs is as follows: real disposable income increased for single persons earning less than $4,000 in 1970 ($5,000 in 1974) and for two-children families earning less than $8,000 ($10,000 in 1974); it stayed about the same for single persons earning between $4,000 and $6,000 ($5,000 to $7,500 in 1974) and families earning $8,000 to $10,000 ($10,000 to $12,500 in 1974) in 1970; it fell for those with higher levels of income.

This article describes the government experimental program PRIMUS (PRogram of Intelligent Mobile Unmanned Systems) and the achieved results of phase C demonstrated in summer 1999 on a military prooving ground. In this program there shall be shown the autonomous driving on an unmanned robot in open terrain. The most possible degree of autonomy shall be reached with today's technology to get a platform for different missions. The goal is to release the soldier from high dangerous tasks, to increase the performance and to come to a reduction of personnel and costs with unmanned systems. In phase C of the program two small tracked vehicles (Digitized Wiesel 2, airtransportable by CH53) are used. One as a robot vehicle the other as a command & control system. The Wiesel 2 is configured as a drive by wire-system and therefore well suited for the adaption of control computers. The autonomous detection and avoidance of obstacles in unknown, not cooperative environment is the main task. For navigation and orientation a sensor package is integrated. To detect obstacles the scene in the driving corridor of the robot is scanned 4 times per second by a 3D- Range image camera (LADAR). The measured 3D-range image is converted into a 2D-obstacle map and used as input for calculation of an obstacle free path. The combination of local navigation (obstacle avoidance) and global navigation leads to a collission free driving in open terrain to a predefined goal point with a velocity of up to 25km/h. A contour tracker with a TV-camera as sensor is also implemented which allows to follow contours (e.g. edge of a meadow) or to drive on paved or unpaved roads with a velocity up to 50km/h. In addition to these autonomous driving modes the operator in the command & control station can drive the robot by remote control. All the functions were successfully demonstrated in the summer 1999 on a military prooving ground. During a mission example the robot vehicle covered a distance of several kilometers in open terrain and on unpaved roads and performed a reconnaissance operation with the built-in RSTA- sensors. PRIMUS-C meets the requirements to drive autonomously and teleoperated in open terrain and on roads. The realized functions can be transfered to any vehicle and adapted to different mission requirements. This means that PRIMUS-C is a universal, modular and vehicle-independent platform for different military applications.

This article examines how neoliberal ideas, investor interests, and institutional design converged in the creation of Opportunity Zones (OZs), a federal tax incentive program marketed as a tool for equitable development but structured to advance capital-friendly outcomes. While many critiques of OZs focus on implementation failures or unintended consequences, this article contends that the program reflects a case of policy capture by design. Neoliberal ideas played a legitimating role, framing deregulatory features such as generous capital gains tax deferrals, investor anonymity, and the absence of reporting or community benefit requirements as necessary for market-led revitalization. These ideas served as “coalition magnets,” helping to secure bipartisan support by reimagining private capital as a vehicle for public good. Drawing on legislative histories, planning documents, and secondary analysis, the article shows how the institutional architecture of OZs steered investment toward already improving areas, sidelining more deeply disinvested communities. Once implemented, ideational commitments to equity and local empowerment quickly faded while core market logic endured, exposing the durable imprint of elite economic interests embedded in federal tax policy. OZs illustrate how neoliberal discourse can operate as an instrumental and ultimately disposable device for legitimizing investor-oriented policy. This case contributes to theories of policy design, neoliberal urban governance, and policy capture by demonstrating how ideas, interests, and institutions align to reproduce inequality under the guise of reform.

The Nonprogressive Federal Income Tax Herbert Hovenkamp (bio) Robert Stanley. Dimensions of Law in the Service of Order: Origins of the Federal Income Tax, 1861–1913. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. xiii 329 pp. Appendixes, notes, and index. $45.00. Robert Stanley’s engaging book is a revisionist history of federal tax policy from the federal income tax statute of the Civil War Era until the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment. That amendment, which effectively ended any struggle over the constitutionality of a graduated federal income tax, gave Congress the power to lay taxes, including an income tax, without apportioning it among the several states. In an argument somewhat reminiscent of Gabriel Kolko’s The Triumph of Conservatism (1964). Stanley argues that the progressive historical account of the income tax, first developed by Sidney Ratner and Arnold Paul, 1 greatly exaggerates the “Progressive” element in the income tax, and thus misrepresents the controversies that resulted as great battles between old conservative and the new liberals emerging into power during the Gilded Age. Rather, he argues, from its inception in the Civil War all the way through the controversy surrounding the Supreme Court’s Pollock decision, which struck down the tax, and then through the subsequent passage of the Sixteenth Amendment, the federal income tax was in fact an important part of the agenda of the political center. Stanley finds the following propositions, all of which are relatively noncontroversial, to be inconsistent with the progressive historiography of federal income tax policy and Supreme Court interpretation: (1) early federal income tax statutes, including the one struck down by the Supreme Court in Pollock, 2 were nonprogressive in the extreme, certainly by any post-World War II standard; (2) for most of the period, federal income tax statutes enjoyed broad support from the moderate center — a fact that Stanley demonstrates forcefully with numerous demographic analyses of congressional votes on the various income tax bills of the period; (3) conservatives, even Social Darwinists such as William Graham Sumner, generally supported a federal income tax; (4) nineteenth-century federal income taxes never produced significant revenue in comparison with the tariff; (5) no nineteenth-century federal [End Page 256] income tax statute ever threatened substantially to redistribute American wealth. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the federal income tax was supported most enthusiastically by protectionists — representatives of the entrepreneurial classes who also favored high and generally regressive tariffs. For example, Senator John Sherman from Ohio was an enthusiastic supporter of both the federal income tax and high tariffs. This latter point indicates that the federal income tax was not generally seen as an alternative and more progressive way of raising federal revenues; rather, it was intended to defuse opposition to the tariff by throwing a very small bone to its victims — namely consumers of high cost foreign inputs. Mainly, Stanley argues, the federal income tax served a rhetorical function. None of the tax statutes of this period produced more than a relatively small percentage of the federal government’s revenues. The federal income tax was an assurance to the lower classes that the State was hearing their needs, and was subjecting even the very wealthy to the rule of law. At the same time, however, the tax rate was so low and the exempt class so large that for most of those who had to pay it the tax obligation was little more than a minor annoyance. For most of the nineteenth century, Stanley notes, the federal income tax contained such a high exemption that it reached only a minuscule section of the population. During 1866, its broadest year of coverage, 1.3 percent of Americans paid the Civil War income tax. In no other year did as many as one percent pay it. During the same period the revenues from the federal tariff were roughly five times as great as those from the federal income tax. Stanley concludes: “To the centrist lawmakers whose creation it was, income taxation represented not an expression of real economic democracy through a reduced burden on the poor and middle classes, but a rejection of the far more fundamental institutional change advocated by intellectuals and street dissidents of both left...

Pressure transient analysis is routinely used to determine insitu reservoir parameters and the deliverability of vertical gas wells. It can also be used to determine these same parameters in a horizontal gas well using techniques similar to vertical well test analysis. The interpretation of the data can be substantiated using other sources of information such as production logging, gas production while drilling, and geological and numerical simulation models. Data obtained from an experimental vertical and horizontal underbalanced drilling program conducted in the Westerose Field in 1994 and 1995 is used to demonstrate the power of this reservoir management tool. The results indicate that the vertical permeability is too small to economically produce from unstimulated horizontal wells in the tighter interbar sands, and consequently fracture stimulation will be required. Introduction The Westerose Gas Field is located in central Alberta, Canada, approximately 75 km south of the city of Edmonton (Figure 1). Rich gas, containing up to 300 m3 of liquids per 1 × 106 m3 of gas (46 bbls per mmscf), is produced from the tight sandstone of the lower Cretaceous Glauconitic Formation at an average depth of 1850 m (6050 feet) and an average reservoir pressure of 15.5 MPa (2550 PSI). The original gas in place for this field is estimated to be 30 × 109 m3 (1.2 Tcf). The Glauconitic Formation in this area was deposited as part of the Hoadley Barrier Bar-Barrier Island Complex. The sands are typically 20 to 30 m thick (60 to 90 feet) and can be subdivided into an upper, permeable sand (1 to 10 mD in core at benchtop conditions) and a lower tight sand (generally less than 0.5 mD in core at benchtop conditions). The upper and lower sands are separated by an impermeable shaley siltstone, informally referred to as the Middle Glauc Shale (Figure 2). The reservoir quality of the lower sand is relatively uniform throughout the area, but the upper sand is highly variable. In some cases the upper sand forms permeable barrier bars that trend NE-SW. In other cases the upper sands are similar in reservoir quality to the lower sands. These sands are referred to in this paper as interbar sands. There are at least five bar sand trends in the area of the pilot that are separated by tighter interbar sands. Measurements of the regional stress orientation from recent ultrasonic borehole images of an open hole fracture stimulation treatment indicate that the maximum principle stress orientation runs parallel to the main bar trends. An experimental drilling pilot project was conducted in this field in September 1994 to test the feasibility of accessing rich gas reserves in a tight sandstone reservoir using underbalanced drilling technology. The results from a lab study indicated that a carefully designed underbalanced drilling fluid would result in a substantial reduction in the formation damage and would likely dramatically improve the productivity of these damage-prone sands. The first phase of this project involved drilling four vertical wells and setting casing to the top of the sand. The pay zone was then drilled out underbalanced using coiled tubing. The results of this program are documented elsewhere. Both pre and post-frac pressure transient analysis were conducted on two of these wells. Some of these data have been used in this paper to support the interpretations made using the horizontal pressure transient data. The success of the vertical well pilot led to the implementation of a horizontal underbalanced pilot program in December of 1994. The first well drilled in this program, 3-33-44-2WS, targeted both the upper and lower sands. Although no full flow and build-up data was gathered for this well, a partial build-up analysis conducted on the lower sand in the heel of the well during drilling showed that the Middle Glauc Shale likely represents a regional permeability barrier. P. 761

Global competitiveness is affecting U.S Companies in a variety of ways. One is tax policy. U.S. federal tax policy in a global environment causes many U.S.-based companies to operate at a disadvantage to some foreign competitors. Current U.S. tax laws require domestic residents to pay income taxes on worldwide income. However, many countries have tax systems that exempt from domestic taxation profits earned by foreign subsidiaries. In addition, U.S. corporations with foreign-source income may be subject to tax by the country in which the income is earned. In an effort to eliminate this competitive burden, a growing number of U.S.-based companies have engaged in corporate inversion transactions. U.S.-based companies need to reconcile their fiduciary duty to shareholders with fundamental ethical issues as well as federal tax policy in justifying moving to another country solely for its beneficial tax system.

A new approach is evaluated for the design of turbomachinery components using existing analysis codes coupled to a generic Artificial Intelligence (AI) software framework called ENGINEOUS. This AI framework uses intelligent search techniques with a small set of basic component design rules to iterate to an optimized solution and to quantify parameter trade-offs. Initial experience with ENGINEOUS indicates that it is a powerful design tool which quickly identifies non-obvious solutions balanced for conflicting multiple goals in a small number of iterations which vary linearly with the number of variables. The solution path and driving logic are easily visible to the designer and a parameter study option can rapidly quantify potential design trade-offs which together allow a critique of the selected design to balance performance against development risks. Because this AI design approach fosters intelligent interface with the designer and is generic, the potential application areas and productivity benefits appear enormous.