Founder | George Pearson |
---|---|
Established | 1996 |
Chair | David Gibson |
President | James Franko |
Budget | Revenue: $1.47 million Expenses: $1.37 million (FYE December 2021) [1] |
Address | 250 N. Water St. Wichita, KS 67202 |
Location | |
Coordinates | 37°41′22″N97°20′21″W / 37.6894°N 97.3391°W |
Website | kansaspolicy |
The Kansas Policy Institute (KPI) is a free market American think tank based in Wichita, Kansas. [2] [3] A member of the State Policy Network, it primarily focuses on state and local policy issues in Kansas, including education, budget and spending, health care, and property taxes. [4] KPI is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Founded in 1996 as the Kansas Public Policy Institute, the think tank changed its name to the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy, then back to Kansas Policy Institute in 2009. It was founded by a group of Kansans who supported the Cato Institute and wanted to apply that model to Kansas state government. KPI hosts events across the state; publishes studies geared toward policy makers, the general public, and community leaders; and uses traditional and social media to discuss state and local government through the free market perspective. [5]
In addition to its policy studies, KPI maintains a site titled KansasOpenGov, [5] it established an online newspaper, The Sentinel, in 2016. [6]
KPI is affiliated with two national conservative and libertarian political organizations: the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the State Policy Network.[ citation needed ]
KPI was founded by George Pearson, who had worked for nearly three decades as an executive of Koch Industries. [7] [8] He is also affiliated with the Cato Institute and the Atlas Network. [7] [8]
KPI's chairman is David Gibson, while Dave Trabert is the CEO and the president is James Franko. [7]
In 2010, KPI called attention to the State Unencumbered Fund balances, concluding that state school districts had over $699 million in carryover operating funds. [9] The institute concluded that schools were not spending all of the money they were being given and were instead putting money in the bank. This claim drew both positive and negative attention from the media and school boards and the issue became a topic of conversation in the K-12 finance debate. [10] SB 111 passed the Kansas Legislature in the 2011 session, allowing Kansas school districts to more easily access that money to offset declines in base per-pupil aid from the state. [11] KPI has argued for expanding school choice with charter schools. [8]
A 2013 report by two liberal-leaning groups, the Center for Media and Democracy and ProgressNow, claimed that KPI was "part of a network of state-based think tanks whose purpose is to push right-wing legislation that benefits corporate donors." [8] Dave Trabert of KPI said the accusation was "a lot of hooey to distract people from the issues." [8]
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives who draft and share model legislation for distribution among state governments in the United States.
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries. Cato was established to focus on public advocacy, media exposure, and societal influence.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a free market think tank headquartered in Midland, Michigan. Through policy research and educational programs, the Mackinac Center advocates for free market policies such as lower taxes, reduced regulatory authority for state agencies, right-to-work laws, school choice, and enhanced protection of individual property rights. They generally avoid socially conservative issues such as reproductive or marriage rights.
Samuel Dale Brownback is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as a United States senator from Kansas from 1996 to 2011 and as the 46th governor of Kansas from 2011 to 2018. A member of the Republican Party, Brownback also served as the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom during the administration of President Donald Trump and was a candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 2008.
The Koch family foundations are a group of charitable foundations in the United States associated with the family of Fred C. Koch. The most prominent of these are the Charles Koch Foundation and the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, created by Charles Koch and David Koch, two sons of Fred C. Koch who own the majority of Koch Industries, an oil, gas, paper, and chemical conglomerate which is the US's second-largest privately held company. Charles' and David's foundations have provided millions of dollars to a variety of organizations, including libertarian and conservative think tanks. Areas of funding include think tanks, political advocacy, climate change denial, higher education scholarships, cancer research, arts, and science.
The Fraser Institute is a libertarian-conservative Canadian public policy think tank and registered charity. It is headquartered in Vancouver, with additional offices in Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. It has links to think tanks worldwide through the Economic Freedom Network and is a member of the free-market Atlas Network.
Edward Harrison Crane is an American libertarian and co-founder of the Cato Institute. He served as its president until October 1, 2012.
Atlas Network, formerly known as Atlas Economic Research Foundation, is a non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization based in the United States that provides training, networking, and grants for libertarian, free-market, and conservative groups around the world.
William Arthur Niskanen was an American economist. He was one of the architects of President Ronald Reagan's economic program and contributed to public choice theory. He was also a long-time chairman of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank.
Nevada Policy, formerly the Nevada Policy Research Institute, is a private, non-profit, conservative and libertarian‑leaning think tank based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Nevada Policy seeks to promote libertarian causes in Nevada and western United States politics.
The Independence Institute (II) is a libertarian think tank based in Denver, Colorado. The group's stated mission "is to empower individuals and to educate citizens, legislators and opinion makers about public policies that enhance personal and economic freedom."
The Koch family is an American family engaged in business, best known for their political activities and their control of Koch Industries, the 2nd largest privately owned company in the United States. The family business was started by Fred C. Koch, who developed a new cracking method for the refinement of heavy crude oil into gasoline. Fred's four sons litigated against each other over their interests in the business during the 1980s and 1990s.
The State Policy Network (SPN) is a nonprofit organization that serves as a network for conservative and libertarian think tanks focusing on state-level policy in the United States. The network serves as a public policy clearinghouse and advises its member think tanks on fundraising, running a nonprofit, and communicating ideas. Founded in 1992, it is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with member groups located in all fifty states.
Charles G. and David H. Koch (1940–2019), sometimes referred to as the Koch brothers, have become famous for their financial and political influence in United States politics with a libertarian, more specifically, right-libertarian or American-style libertarian political stance. From around 2004 to 2019, with "foresight and perseverance", the brothers organized like-minded wealthy libertarian-oriented conservatives, spent hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money to build an "integrated" and "stealth" network of think tanks, foundations, "grassroots" movements, academic programs, advocacy and legal groups to "destroy the prevalent statist paradigm" and reshape public opinion to favor minimal government. As of mid 2018, the media has been encouraged to refer to the "Koch network" rather than the "Koch brothers".
The Yankee Institute for Public Policy is a conservative American think tank based in Hartford, Connecticut, that researches Connecticut public policy questions. Organized as a 501(c)(3), the group's stated mission is to "develop and advocate for free market, limited government public policy solutions in Connecticut." Yankee was founded in 1984 by Bernard Zimmern, a French entrepreneur who was living in Norwalk, Connecticut, and professor Gerald Gunderson of Trinity College. The organization is a member of the State Policy Network.
Charles de Ganahl Koch is an American billionaire businessman. As of February 2024, he was ranked as the 23rd richest man in the world on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with an estimated net worth of $64.9 billion. Koch has been co-owner, chairman, and chief executive officer of Koch Industries since 1967, while his late brother David Koch served as executive vice president. Charles and David each owned 42% of the conglomerate. The brothers inherited the business from their father, Fred C. Koch, then expanded the business. Koch Industries is the largest privately held company by revenue in the United States, according to Forbes.
DonorsTrust is an American nonprofit donor-advised fund. It was founded in 1999 with the goal of "safeguarding the intent of libertarian and conservative donors". As a donor advised fund, DonorsTrust is not legally required to disclose the identity of its donors, and most of its donors remain anonymous. It distributes funds to various conservative and libertarian organizations, and has been characterized as the "dark money ATM" of the political right.
Kevin Gentry is a conservative political activist and fundraiser who serves as vice president of the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. A top aide to Charles Koch and David H. Koch, Gentry serves as vice president of special projects at Koch Industries.
The Kansas experiment was a name given to a controversial and widely noted tax-cutting policy/agenda of Kansas Governor Sam Brownback that began with Brownback signing a bill cutting state taxes, in May 2012, and ended with the Kansas legislature's repeal of the bill in June 2017. It was one of the largest income tax cuts in the state's history. The Kansas experiment has also been called the "Great Kansas Tax Cut Experiment", the "Red-state experiment", "the tax experiment in Kansas", and "one of the cleanest experiments for how tax cuts affect economic growth in the U.S." The cuts were based on model legislation published by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), supported by supply-side economist Arthur Laffer, anti-tax leader Grover Norquist, and the influential industrialists Charles and David Koch. The law cut taxes by US$231 million in its first year, and cuts were projected to total US$934 million annually after six years, by eliminating taxes on business income for the owners of almost 200,000 businesses and cutting individual income tax rates.
The Niskanen Center is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. that advocates environmentalism, immigration reform, civil liberties, and strengthening social insurance around market-oriented principles. Named after William A. Niskanen, an economic adviser to Ronald Reagan, it states that its "main audience is Washington insiders", and characterizes itself as moderate. The organization has been credited with fostering bipartisan dialogue and promoting pragmatic solutions to contemporary political challenges on issues such as family benefits, climate change, and criminal justice reform.