Prescription for Prosperity
Our policy recommendations will emphasize opportunity, value in government, innovation and a full appreciation for the job-creating power entrepreneurs. If there is one concept that drives the Blueprint, it is high quality jobs.
Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) June 05, 2014
The Center of the American Experiment today launched The Minnesota Policy Blueprint: Prescription for Prosperity at an event on the University of St. Thomas’s Minneapolis campus. The event featured special guest speaker Stephen Moore, Chief Economist for the Heritage Foundation. A comprehensive package of policy recommendations, the Minnesota Policy Blueprint will be aimed at delivering the widespread and durable prosperity all Minnesotans require to thrive. We’re calling it a Prosperity Agenda — an agenda driven largely by Ronald Reagan’s simple yet powerful insight that “the best social program is a job.
“We think there is an urgent need for this. The 2013 and 2014 legislative sessions exposed a legislature and governor trapped in the priorities of the past,” said Chuck Spevacek, Past President & Current Board Member, Center of the American Experiment. “Which is why we’re creating the Policy Blueprint. We’ve identified 10 areas where we think that thoughtful, common sense policy proposals can help put Minnesota back on a path to achieve its full potential.”
Far from a set of “academic” white papers, these recommendations will appeal to broad public sensibilities. Most important, they will not merely “admire” problems, but will drive practical, deliverable policy solutions. The Center will release these proposals individually by topic over the summer through highly visible events. The agenda includes:
Job Creation - Fueling the job-creating engine of Minnesota’s economy
Education - Educating Minnesota students for tomorrow’s jobs
Budget - Delivering higher value to taxpayers
Taxes - Aligning taxes to promote economic growth
Pensions - Securing retirement benefits for current and future public employees
Health Care - Promoting affordable, high quality health care
Families - Strengthening families by strengthening marriage
Energy - Supplying competitive energy rates
Transportation - Moving people and commerce where they want and need to go
Met Council - Redesigning the Met Council for growth in the Twin Cities region
“Our policy recommendations will emphasize opportunity, value in government, innovation and a full appreciation for the job-creating power entrepreneurs,” added Spevacek. “If there is one concept that drives the Blueprint, it is high quality jobs. High quality jobs, because Minnesotans believe in work. Quality jobs are the foundation that sustains our culture and our economy. If people are forced to work ungodly hours at multiple jobs with low pay, with no benefits, and no time for their families, we aren’t adding to Minnesota’s culture of prosperity.”
The Center of the American Experiment will release these proposals individually by topic over the summer and fall. In addition, Public Opinion Strategies has been engaged – the same pollster that conducts the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll -- to conduct a two polls which will be made public. In December, a book will be published that combines all the Prosperity Agenda proposals – and the Center will personally circulate the book to legislators, staff, and to members of the Administration. And finally, by January 2015, the staff at the Center will help draft these recommendations into legislation and build the coalitions necessary enact them.
