State Policy Network

ALEC Publishes 'Essential Policy Solutions 2025' Playbook - State-Level Corporate and Income Tax Elimination Agenda, Coordination with Federal Project 2025

| Importance: 8/10

In February 2025, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) published its ‘Essential Policy Solutions’ playbook for 2025, doubling down on its decades-long campaign to eliminate state corporate and individual income taxes and replace them with higher sales taxes—a regressive shift …

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Lisa Nelson Arthur Laffer State Policy Network Heritage Foundation +4 more alec tax-policy state-legislation corporate-corruption regressive-taxation +6 more
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440 Voter Restriction Bills Introduced in 49 States - ALEC's Largest Suppression Wave

| Importance: 10/10

Throughout 2021, at least 440 bills containing voter restriction provisions were introduced across 49 states, representing the largest coordinated assault on voting rights since Jim Crow and demonstrating ALEC’s systematic model legislation deployment at unprecedented scale. The Brennan Center …

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Heritage Foundation Heritage Action Republican state legislators State Policy Network alec voter-suppression electoral-manipulation big-lie voting-rights +3 more
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Janus v. AFSCME - Supreme Court Strikes Down Public Sector Union Fees, Targeting Teachers' Unions

| Importance: 9/10

On June 27, 2018, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Janus v. AFSCME that public-sector unions cannot collect “fair share” fees from non-members to cover the costs of collective bargaining, overturning the Court’s 1977 precedent in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education. The decision, …

Justice Samuel Alito Justice Neil Gorsuch National Right to Work Foundation State Policy Network Bradley Foundation +3 more education labor supreme-court teachers-unions right-to-work +2 more
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West Virginia Becomes 26th Right-to-Work State, Overriding Governor Veto with ALEC Model

| Importance: 8/10

The West Virginia Legislature overrides Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s veto of the “Workplace Freedom Act,” making West Virginia the 26th state to enact right-to-work legislation prohibiting mandatory union membership or fees. The override follows the coordinated Koch-backed playbook …

West Virginia Legislature Earl Ray Tomblin American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Koch Network State Policy Network +1 more labor-suppression right-to-work alec west-virginia union-busting +2 more
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Richard Mellon Scaife Dies After Investing $620 Million in Conservative Movement Infrastructure

| Importance: 9/10

Richard Mellon Scaife, the billionaire heir to the Mellon banking and aluminum fortune who became the most important financial architect of the modern conservative movement, died on July 4, 2014, one day after his 82nd birthday, after a battle with cancer. Scaife’s death marked the end of a …

Richard Scaife Sarah Scaife Foundation Carthage Foundation Allegheny Foundation Heritage Foundation +5 more dark-money conservative-movement heritage-foundation federalist-society state-policy-network +5 more
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Edwin Feulner Retires as Heritage Foundation President After 36 Years Building Conservative Movement Infrastructure

| Importance: 9/10

Edwin J. Feulner Jr. retired as president of the Heritage Foundation on April 3, 2013, after an extraordinary 36-year tenure that transformed Heritage from a small Capitol Hill operation with 9 staff members and a $1 million budget into the most influential conservative think tank in Washington, …

Edwin Feulner Heritage Foundation Jim DeMint Richard Scaife Newt Gingrich +3 more heritage-foundation conservative-movement think-tank-influence institutional-capture dark-money +4 more
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DonorsTrust Organizational Profile: Dark Money ATM Enabling Anonymous Billionaire Political Spending

| Importance: 9/10

Comprehensive organizational analysis reveals DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund as the central infrastructure for conservative dark money operations, earning designation as ‘Dark Money ATM of The Right.’ Founded in 1999 by Whitney Lynn Ball and Kimberly Dennis (both from Philanthropy …

DonorsTrust Donors Capital Fund Whitney Lynn Ball Kimberly Dennis Lawson Bader +5 more organizational-profile dark-money donor-advised-fund anonymity-infrastructure koch-network +4 more
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Heritage Foundation Expands to 100+ Staff with $10 Million Budget During Reagan Administration Peak Influence

| Importance: 8/10

The Heritage Foundation reached over 100 staff members and a $10 million annual budget by 1983, representing explosive growth during the Reagan administration’s implementation of Heritage policy recommendations. In just six years since Ed Feulner became president in 1977, Heritage had grown …

Heritage Foundation Edwin Feulner Ronald Reagan Richard Scaife State Policy Network +1 more heritage-foundation conservative-movement think-tank-influence institutional-capture dark-money +3 more
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