Overview and Comparison of the Value Added Tax and the Retail Sales Tax - Brief

This brief summarizes the similarities and differences between a value added tax and the much recognized general sales tax, or retail sales tax.This brief is one in a series of briefs and reports that relate to tax policy options for Georgia. FRC Brief 15

Going to Work with a Criminal Record: Lessons from the Fathers at Work Initiative

Many of the 650,000 adults released from American prisons each year find their way to One-Stops or community-based, faith-based and other organizations that provide employment services. Yet relatively few of these organizations specifically target former prisoners. Workforce development practitioners have experience with a wide range of job seekers, but a great number of them are looking for additional guidance about the complexities of connecting formerly incarcerated people to the labor market and helping them stay on the job.Going to Work with a Criminal Record was developed to help meet this need. It is based on lessons from the Fathers at Work initiative, a three-year, six-site demonstration funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to help young, noncustodial fathers achieve increased employment and earnings, involvement in their childrens lives, and more consistent financial support of their children. The report describes seven fundamental lessons workforce organizations should consider as they help formerly incarcerated people move toward stable employment, along with a more detailed discussion of how program staff can put these lessons into practice. It outlines how to avoid mistakes and how to develop important relationships, including with employers, parole officers and the local child support enforcement agency

Navigating the Child Support System: Lessons from the Fathers at Work Initiative

Research shows that nearly half of all children born in the US today will be eligible for child support before they reach the age of 18. Many low-income, noncustodial fathers -- who often struggle to make these payments -- will seek services from workforce development organizations. Yet, understanding the child support enforcement system can be challenging -- not only for noncustodial fathers but also for the workforce organizations that want to assist them.Navigating the Child Support System aims to help meet this challenge by providing information, resources and tools to use at the intersection of workforce development and child support enforcement. The guide is based on lessons from the Fathers at Work initiative, a three-year, six-site demonstration funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, which was designed to help young, noncustodial fathers achieve increased employment and earnings, involvement in their children's lives, and more consistent financial support of their children.The guide describes child support enforcement regulations, policies and actions that can affect fathers' willingness to seek formal employment and participate in the system, and provides examples of four services that organizations might offer to benefit fathers and their families. Navigating the Child Support System offers concrete suggestions for incorporating child support services into workforce organizations' assistance to low-income, male participants, including developing partnerships with local child support enforcement agencies. It includes seven tools for learning about child support and setting goals for enhancing services to noncustodial fathers

Slow slip near the trench at the Hikurangi subduction zone, New Zealand

The range of fault slip behaviors near the trench at subduction plate boundaries is critical to know, as this is where the world’s largest, most damaging tsunamis are generated. Our knowledge of these behaviors has remained largely incomplete, partially due to the challenging nature of crustal deformation measurements at offshore plate boundaries. Here we present detailed seafloor deformation observations made during an offshore slow-slip event (SSE) in September and October 2014, using a network of absolute pressure gauges deployed at the Hikurangi subduction margin offshore New Zealand. These data show the distribution of vertical seafloor deformation during the SSE and reveal direct evidence for SSEs occurring close to the trench (within 2 kilometers of the seafloor), where very low temperatures and pressures exist

Working on What Works (WOWW) : Classroom-Level Impact on Teacher and Student Outcomes

The Working on What Works (WOWW) school-based intervention applies solution-focused theory and techniques to improve learning at the classroom level. This study evaluated WOWW\u27s impact on student and teacher outcomes. Thirty classrooms were randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions, then compared on teacher-completed measures. Students who received WOWW experienced lower levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors, including lower anxiety (p=0.000), sense of irrelevance (p=0.002), inattention (p=0.049), hyperactivity (p=0.044), impulsivity (p=0.044), and need for behavior correction (p=0.000). Overall externalizing behavior was also lower in students who had received WOWW (p=0.018). However, students in the treatment condition also scored lower on the closeness scale of the STRS-SF (p=0.000). These conflicting findings suggest that the WOWW intervention warrants further investigation

Financing an Increased State Role in Funding K-12 Education: An Analysis of Issues and Options

This report presents an analysis of replacing school property tax with alternative state revenue sources. FRC Report 11

The Fair Tax and Its Effect on Georgia - Brief

This brief analyzes the impacts of a national retail sales tax on Georgians. FRC Brief 11

A test of vaccine endorsement by political in- versus out-group sources: Effect on vaccination likelihood and exploration of mediation through perceived bias and liking

This study investigated whether political endorsements from in- versus out-group political elites would influence likelihood of COVID-19 vaccination. In March 2021, we ran an experiment with Democrats and Republicans in the United States to examine whether they would be more likely to get vaccinated following endorsements by former Presidents Obama or Trump. Participants reported greater likelihood of getting vaccinated if the vaccine was endorsed by an elite from their own rather than the opposing party. This effect was driven by Trump, who increased vaccination likelihood among Republicans but decreased it among Democrats. We also investigated the mechanisms underlying this persuasion effect and found that perceived bias and liking were plausible mediators, whereas perceived trustworthiness and expertise were not. This study highlights the potential of having endorsements from both Democrat and Republican political elites to increase support for health behaviors in a politically charged climate

Olanzapine Attenuates Cue-elicited Craving for Tobacco

Rationale: Recent biological conceptualizations of craving and addiction have implicated mesolimbic dopamine activity as a central feature of the process of addiction. Imaging, and pharmacological studies have supported a role for dopaminergic structures in cue-elicited craving for tobacco. Objective: If mesolimbic dopamine activity is associated with cue-elicited craving for tobacco, a dopamine antagonist should attenuate cueelicited craving for tobacco. Thus, the aim of the present study was to determine whether an atypical antipsychotic (olanzapine, 5 mg) decreased cue-elicited craving for tobacco. Method: Participants were randomly assigned to 5 days of pretreatment with olanzapine (5 mg; n=31) or were randomly assigned to 5 days of a matching placebo (n=28). Approximately 8 h after the last dose, participants were exposed to a control cue (pencil) followed by exposure to smoking cues. Participants subsequently smoked either nicotine cigarettes or de-nicotinized cigarettes. Results: Olanzapine attenuated cue-elicited craving for tobacco but did not moderate the subjective effects of smoking. Discussion: This study represents one of the first investigations of the effect of atypical antipsychotics on cue-elicited craving for tobacco. The results suggest that medications with similar profiles may reduce cue-elicited craving, which in turn, may partially explain recent observations that atypical antipsychotics may reduce substance use

Overview and Comparison of the Value Added Tax and The Retail Sales Tax

With the introduction of HR 900, there has been renewed interest in the Value Added Tax (VAT) as a revenue tool for Georgia. While the VAT does not appear to be under consideration in the revised version of HR 900, it does remain an interesting and innovative policy option for state tax revenues in Georgia. However, since only two states in the U.S. use a type of VAT, the tax is not familiar to many policymakers and constituents in Georgia. This policy brief provides an overview of the VAT and specifically summarizes the similarities and differences between a VAT and the much recognized general sales tax, or Retail Sales Tax (RST). Future briefs and reports will provide more detailed information regarding VAT experiences and choices. This brief is one in a series of briefs and reports that relate to tax policy options for Georgia