March 2001
Editor: K. Lloyd Billingsley

PRI continues to impact public policy in California, the nation, and abroad. The following is just a sample of PRI's recent contributions.

From Pacific to the Atlantic-PRI Impacts Election 2000, and Beyond

SAN FRANCISCO - During "Election 2000," PRI's leadership and research helped steer the debate on critical election issues, including the environment, health care, and education reform. And PRI continued to emerge as a leading voice on two issues captivating everyone's imagination: how the Internet is changing the world and how California will address its energy crisis.

Setting the Environmental Record Straight

The environmental records of the presidential candidates played a major role in the election, as did the fight over "urban sprawl." PRI's Steven Hayward, director of the Center for Environmental and Regulatory Reform (CERR), was a high-profile contributor to the debate.

The Weekly Standard featured "Smoke and Smearers: The Gore Campaign has Maligned the Bush Environmental Record," co-authored by Hayward, which revealed that the Texas record improved dramatically under Gov. Bush, as shown in PRI's Index of Leading Environmental Indicators 2000. September's Atlantic Monthly, one of the nation's most respected publications, extensively cited Hayward and the Index in "Green Surprise," an article by Gregg Easterbrook, that found the Texas record to be not one of environmental calamity, "but of positive trends that need to be accelerated."

In September, PRI released "Too Easy to Be Good," a study that showed that a local anti-sprawl initiative would have led to greater traffic congestion throughout San Luis Obispo County. The study and Dr. Hayward were featured on several local television news programs, and made headlines in the San Luis Obispo Tribune, as well as several other local dailies.

High-Tech Impact

PRI's study "Internet Taxes: What California Legislators Should Know" caused quite a stir with its findings that further taxing the Internet in California would lead to 45,207 jobs lost in 2001, and possibly 100,000 by 2002. The study, by PRI's Sonia Arrison and Naomi Lopez Bauman, landed on the front page of the San Francisco Examiner's business section, and was featured on TechTV, ZDTV, CNET Radio, Wired.com, Yahoo!news, CNNfn, and dozens of business dailies.

Governor Gray Davis proceeded to veto an Internet tax bill by San Francisco Democrat Carol Migden, who was sharply critical of the PRI study's findings. Arrison, director of PRI's Center for Freedom and Technology (CFT), returned to the Examiner's front page, commenting that the Migden bill "would have put California on the road to further extension of sales taxes on the Internet, which would be very bad for the economy."

CFT articles on Internet privacy, visas for technology workers, and the political influence of Silicon Valley appeared in the Washington Times, Sacramento Bee, San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle, and San Francisco Examiner.

Monitoring Meltdown in Education

California's voucher initiative, Proposition 38, captured national attention in 2000. Throughout the debate, PRI was a leading voice in the continuing fight for school choice. Center for School Reform (CSR) Director Lance Izumi was interviewed on the initiative by Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal, and was quoted along with PRI's Tom Dawson in news articles and editorials in the Orange County Register, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, San Jose Mercury News, and The Christian Science Monitor. Dawson was a talk radio guest statewide, and Izumi continued the drumbeat on KQED, the local National Public Radio affiliate. Izumi's article on legal challenges to vouchers appeared in California's legal newspapers, Los Angeles Daily Journal and San Francisco Daily Journal.

In September, PRI co-sponsored a school-choice conference in Oakland, CA, a city with one of the worst public school systems nationwide. Keynote speaker Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown attracted heavy news coverage, including a front-page story in the Oakland Tribune, and the event was featured on the Bay Area's ABC, NBC, and PBS television affiliates.

Free Health Care vs. Free Enterprise

Naomi Lopez Bauman, director of PRI's Center for Enterprise and Opportunity (CEO), spearheaded PRI's free-market health care message during the campaign season. Lopez Bauman led a national press tour to promote "What Americans Should Know Before Letting Government Control Medicare's Medicine Cabinet," a briefing published by the Hispanic Business Research Center. She met with editorial boards in San Diego, Albuquerque, Miami, Las Vegas, and Washington, DC. Lopez Bauman's health-care opinion editorials ran in newspapers nationwide, including the Washington Times and San Diego Union-Tribune. Lopez Bauman also appeared on the local National Public Radio affiliate and NBC's Bay Area television affiliate to discuss presidential election issues.

Alan Greenspan Weighs In

Following the election, PRI hosted its 8th Annual Privatization Dinner with Milton and Rose Friedman, William F. Buckley, Jr., and former Secretary of State George Shultz, with a special taped message from Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan. PRI's privatization competition was reported in the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, and Ventura County Star. Articles profiling the competition winners, by CEO fellow Laura Dykes, were featured in the Daily News (L.A.), Orange County Register, Ventura County Star, Santa Maria Times, and San Francisco Business Times.

Energizing California and a New Century

PRI is working overtime to shine a light on the real cause of California's power crisis-California lawmakers. PRI President Sally Pipes's January column in Investor's Business Daily took The New York Times's Paul Krugman to task for writing that a "blind faith in markets" is to blame for California's energy woes. "If there is blind faith at work, it is in regulation, not the market," wrote Pipes. "Until reformers adopt true free-market principles, there will be shortages and high prices." Articles by Ms. Pipes and PRI's Lance Izumi also ran nationally on Knight-Ridder News Service, appeared in the San Francisco Examiner and Los Angeles Business Journal, and were distributed to California lawmakers and policymakers nationwide.

These highlights are but a small part of PRI's impact in 2000 and the New Year. We have an exciting program ahead that promises even greater impact in 2001 and beyond.