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.[1][2][3] The network serves as a public policy clearinghouse and advises its member think tanks on fundraising, running a nonprofit, and communicating ideas.[4] Founded in 1992, it is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with member groups located in all fifty states.
Overview
SPN describes itself as a "professional service organization" for a network of state-level think tanks across the United States.[5][6][7] The president of SPN is Tracie Sharp, formerly the executive director of the Cascade Policy Institute, SPN's Oregon affiliate.[8] She has described her organizing philosophy as "the IKEA model", because like a ready-to-assemble furniture retailer, the network offers a catalog of policy projects that state-level groups can build.[9]
SPN was an outgrowth of the Madison Group, a collection of state-level think tanks in states including South Carolina, Colorado, Illinois, and Michigan that had been meeting periodically at the Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C. Roe was chairman of the board of directors of SPN from its founding until his death in 2000.[14]Gary Palmer, co-founder and president of the conservative think tank the Alabama Policy Institute from 1989 until 2014, helped found SPN and served as its president.[15]
Initially, SPN's network consisted of fewer than 20 member organizations.[15]Lawrence Reed, the first president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Michigan-based free marketthink tank, fostered new state-level regular member organizations through delivery of his think tank training course.[16] By the mid-1990s, SPN had a network of 37 think tanks in 30 states.[13] By 2014, there were 65 member organizations, including at least one in each state.[14][15]
Starting in 1993, the SPN has held an annual meeting in various U.S. cities. These meetings serve as a chance for members to discuss and analyze policy priorities, train and build members, and refine operations, among other topics.[17]
Policy positions
Policy initiatives supported by SPN members have included reductions in state health and welfare programs, state constitutional amendments to limit state government spending, expanded access to charter schools, and school vouchers.[16][18] Another area of activity has been opposition to public-sector trade unions.[11] Tracie Sharp, SPN's president, has said the organization focuses on issues such as "workplace freedom, education reform, and individual choice in healthcare."[19]
The liberal magazine Mother Jones stated that in 2011 SPN and its member organizations were backing a "war on organized labor" by Republican state lawmakers.[11] Legislative actions taken by the GOP included the introduction and enactment of bills reducing or eliminating collective bargaining for teachers and other government workers and reducing the authority of unions to collect dues from government employees.[11] In Iowa, Governor Terry Branstad cited research by the Public Interest Institute, an SPN affiliate in Iowa, when asking to amend laws to limit collective bargaining by public employees.[11]
In December 2013, The Guardian, in collaboration with The Texas Observer and the Portland Press Herald, obtained, published and analyzed 40 grant proposals from SPN regular member organizations. The grant proposals sought funding through SPN from the Searle Freedom Trust. According to The Guardian, the proposals documented a coordinated strategy across 34 states, "a blueprint for the conservative agenda in 2014." The reports described the grant proposals in six states as suggesting campaigns designed to cut pay to state government employees; oppose public sector collective bargaining; reduce public sector services in education and healthcare; promote school vouchers; oppose efforts to combat greenhouse gas emissions; reduce or eliminate income and sales taxes; and study a proposed block grant reform to Medicare.[19][20][21][22][23]
SPN introduced model legislation for state legislators to implement on the state level to undermine the Affordable Care Act.[24] The organization also pushed for states not to expand Medicaid.[24]
Finances for fiscal year 2021 (latest available) consist of: revenue of $24,770,462; expenses of $18,730,675; and donations of $24,340,115.[31]
Activities
SPN provides grant funding to its member organizations for start-up costs and program operating expenses.[11][19][26][30] In 2011, SPN granted $60,000 in start-up funds to the Foundation for Government Accountability, a free market think tank based in Naples, Florida.[32] SPN also provides practical support to its members, who meet each year at SPN conferences. SPN member organizations exchange ideas and provide training and other support for each other.[16] A spokesperson for the progressive advocacy group People for the American Way said in 2008 that SPN trained its member organizations to run like business franchises.[33] In a 2013 statement to The New Yorker, SPN president Sharp denied that SPN was a franchise and said that member organizations were free to select their own staff and priorities.[9]
SPN is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization that drafts and shares state-level model legislation for conservative causes,[34] and ALEC is an associate member of SPN.[27] SPN is among the sponsors of ALEC.[30]
A 2009 article in an SPN newsletter encouraged SPN members to join ALEC,[35] and many SPN members are also members of ALEC.[36] ALEC is "SPN's sister organisation," according to The Guardian.[19]
SPN member think tanks aided the Tea Party movement by supplying rally speakers and intellectual ammunition.[37]
Member organizations
As of 2015, SPN had a membership of 65 think tanks and hundreds of affiliated organizations in all 50 states.[38] Membership in SPN is by invitation only and is limited to independently incorporated 501(c)(3) organizations that are "dedicated to advancing market-oriented public policy solutions."[39] The SPN membership program consists of affiliate and associate organizations. While affiliate members are state-based, associate members are national in scope and are not necessarily focused on a single state.[40] According to Politico, SPN's associate members include a "who’s who of conservative organizations," including the Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity Foundation, FreedomWorks, Americans for Tax Reform, and American Legislative Exchange Council.[27] In 2011, SPN and its regular member organizations received combined total revenues of $83.2 million, according to a 2013 analysis of their federal tax filings by the liberal watchdog groupCenter for Media and Democracy.[27][20]
Affiliates
Regular members are described as "full-service think tanks" operating independently within their respective states.[39][41]
The Roe Award, first presented in 1992, is named after SPN founder Thomas A. Roe. It honors individuals who have successfully promoted free market philosophy while displaying innovation and accomplishment in public policy. The physical statue is an eagle, "a symbol of liberty with courage and conviction necessary for its preservation".[42]
Overton Award
The Overton Award was created in 2003 after the death of Joseph P. Overton at age 43. Overton is known for the idea, posthumously called the Overton window, about the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream at a given time.[43]
The award is given to chief operating officers or executive vice presidents of non-profit free market organizations who demonstrate the personal qualities that Overton possessed. These include humility in supporting their peers, leadership that builds a team, and developing strategies that magnify the ideas and influence of their organization. As of 2022, the award had been given five times.[44][45]
^Caldwell, Patrick (7 March 2013). "Outmatched". The American Prospect. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
^Matthew Medvetz, Thomas (2007). Think Tanks and Production of Policy-knowledge in America. University of California, Berkeley. p. 168. ISBN978-0549529002.
^Marley, Patrick; Stein, Jason (2013). More Than They Bargained For: Scott Walker, Unions, and the Fight for Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 37. ISBN978-0299293833.
^ abMiller, John J. (19 November 2007). "Fifty flowers bloom: Conservative think tanks—mini-Heritage Foundations—at the state level". National Review. Vol. 59, no. 21. pp. 42–44.
