Jon Sanders

Director of Regulatory Studies
Jon Sanders studies regulatory policy, a veritable kudzu of invasive government and unintended consequences. As director of regulatory studies at the John Locke Foundation, Jon gets into the weeds in all kinds of policy areas, including electricity, occupational licensing, hydraulic fracturing, the minimum wage, poverty and opportunity, state rulemaking, film and other incentives programs, certificates of need, and cronyism.

Posts by Jon Sanders (page 1)

  • Coal ash amounts from the settlement agreement

    How much coal ash is contained at each of the six facilities involved in the coal-ash cleanup settlement agreement between Gov. Roy Cooper’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), several “Community Groups,” Duke Energy, and not electricity consumers? How much coal ash does this agreement obligate Duke to remove? Also, how much does this agreement allow to remain?
    Jon Sanders, January 24, 2020

  • Did Appalachian Voices not read the settlement agreement?

    Despite whatever they might say, the signatory "Community Groups" deliberately chose to have you, your neighbors, the poor, the elderly, people living check to check, etc. pay for the additional coal-ash cleanup, not Duke. 
    Jon Sanders, January 21, 2020

  • Corporate taxation and corporate welfare — is Cooper’s combo the right one for NC?

    Of the four possible combinations, we at the John Locke Foundation have always favored the Freedom & Growth combination of low corporate taxation with low corporate welfare. Gov. Roy Cooper's choice is the cardinal opposite.
    Jon Sanders, January 20, 2020

  • Another reason why the economic impact from Georgia’s film incentives is still overstated

    The audit's accounting for the lost government use of the tax credits doesn't ask what economic activities would have occurred if the money was directed by individual taxpayers to whom it originally belonged. It assumes that their money is directed by government at no cost to the state economy.
    Jon Sanders, January 16, 2020

  • Audit highly critical of Georgia’s film tax credit still overstates its impact

    The audit provides a much lower economic impact of Georgia's film tax credit than the Georgia Film, Music and Digital Entertainment Office does. But because of certain assumptions used in its model, the audit still manages to overestimate Georgia's film incentives' impact.
    Jon Sanders, January 15, 2020

  • Public-choice problems explained in one sentence

    Public-choice problems are very difficult problems to overcome, even when there is broad agreement across political parties and society that they need to be fixed
    Jon Sanders, January 15, 2020

  • Audit: Georgia’s return on investment for its film tax credit was … 10 cents on the dollar

    In 2016 Georgia granted $667 million in tax credits for film productions. In return, Georgia realized only $65 million in net new revenue, meaning the state self-inflicted a net revenue loss of $602 million.
    Jon Sanders, January 14, 2020

  • Audit wallops Georgia’s film tax credits

    Performance audits of the administration and economic impact of Georgia's Film Tax Credit ought to put the kibosh on any Tar Heel envy of it. To call it disastrous is insufficient.
    Jon Sanders, January 13, 2020