Projects on legislative and regulatory change

• Treasurer, National Taxpayers Union; cofounder (with Lawrence J. Siskind) of the Libertarian Task Force.  Project produced a comprehensive fiscal impact study that ranked U.S. Senators by the total impact of their proposed spending bills. Articles about the profligacy of ostensible fiscal conservatives contributed to the defeat of Senator Pete Dominici (R-Colorado).

• Cofounder (with Robert W. Poole) of the Local Government Center, the first research and consulting group focusing on privatization of public services (the LGC later became Reason Foundation’s Privatization Center). Also publisher of the Center’s Cut Local Taxes guidebook and editor of its More for Less tax-saving manual. The Center’s studies coincided with passage of Proposition 13 tax limitations and led to consultancies with municipalities in California and other states on implementing cost-saving strategies.

• Director, Sabre Foundation Earthport Project.   Founder of nonprofit initiative supported by Arthur C Clarke, Buckminster Fuller, and Robert Heinlein to establish a free economic zone near the equator, as a means of lowering satellite launching costs by commercial space launch organizations.  Twelve countries responded favorably to the proposal. Liberia introduced a UN Resolution in favor of an international Freeport for space, and offered a 200 sq. km site near Port Harcourt. Project ended after U.S. State Department concerns over competition with Space Shuttle and potential global spread of launch capabilities.

• Editor and coauthor, Sourcebook on Enterprise Zones.  Project manager of Sabre Foundation project funded by Scaife and Carthage Foundations. Architect of model state reforms including conveyance in enterprise zones of idle municipal lands to local self-help organizations. Model enacted in full by Kentucky.  Recommended local reforms regarding community crime watches and cleanup-fixups adopted in Norwalk, Connecticut.  Project coverage included “City Plan Pearl” by Thomas W. Hazlett in the NY Times. 

• Author, “Privatizing the City” (Lehrman Institute and Heritage Foundation Policy Review); lead author, Stimulating Community Enterprise (study for Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress); author, “Seeding Grassroots Recovery” (U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations). Studies recommended keying tax relief for members of contractual homeowners associations to the extent of their taking on responsibility for local government services. Recommendations led to drafting of a model state reform for the American Legislative Exchange Council on reducing double payment problems for association members (once through local taxes, and again through self-assessed fees). The State of New Jersey subsequently passed legislation to ease double payment burdens for homeowner association members.

• Lead author, Montego Bay Free Zone market study and implementation plan (US Agency for International Development). Proposed first-of-kind free economic zone with demonopolized telecommunications. In response, the Jamaican government allowed AT&T to invest and operate a private teleport offering a 50% reduction in international telecommunications prices in the free zone, leading to creation of 2000+ offshore data processing and teleservices jobs.

• President of Teleport International, a joint venture between American Satellite Co./NTT and C. Itoh Trading Company.  TI was the first venture to obtain Intelsat as well as FCC clearance for extending US domestic satellite reach for links to Caribbean countries (to a closed user group in the Montego Bay, Jamaica Free Zone).

• Advisor to the Government of Costa Rica on divestiture of government-owned free zones in Limon and Puntarenas. These zones were subsequently divested to private sector operators.

• Project manager and strategist for a continent-wide competition to liberalize free zone policies in Africa, backed by the U.S. Agency for International Development and Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Secured substantial regulatory and tax reforms by Governments of Togo and Cameroon, resulting in concession bids to operate the zone by Trammell Crow and Rouse & Company. 

• Advisor on telecommunications and information industry export market opportunities for private developers of Zonamerica technology park in Montevideo, Uruguay, now the leading free economic zone for software and data centers in the Mercosur region. 

• President, Gateway Ventures Ltd (a free zone partner with Israel Export Development Co.)  Documented interest of dozens of international software and data processing firms in locating in a proposed Israeli zone, contingent upon full demonopolization and deregulation of telecommunications in the zone. A free zone act with these provisions was subsequently passed in the Knesset and signed by Prime Minister Rabin (key provisions of the free zone act, however, were later reversed by Prime Minister Shimon Peres).

• Principal author and advisor on regulatory reforms for Sao Tome and Principle free zones. Adopted regulations stipulated that civil service pay would be linked to the zone regime’s success, and proceeds from spectrum auctions would fund a national voucher fund for skills diffusion. 

• Lead strategist for competition to establish entrepreneurial learning centers in Kyrgyzstan. Designed national competition offering prizes of $100,000 in microvouchers for online learning. Five communities were chosen from 25 applicants, based upon land grant and local reform commitments to awaken assets and provide lease revenues for ongoing scholarship support.  The number of ‘eCenters” later expanded to 16, with 9000 Kyrgyz receiving microvouchers to date.

• Chairman of arts-led volunteer group working to catalyze investor bids for a municipally-owned site in Dayton, Virginia.  Signed lease agreement specifying that with proceeds from an open tender would go to fund microscholarships for arts-related skills and community beautification initiatives, without need for taxpayer funding.