Michael Allegretti, Manhattan Institute
is the Director of the Manhattan Institute's Center for State & Local Leadership. He recently ran for the U.S. Congress in New York's 13th District, and previously served as Senior Advisor for US Policy at The Climate Group, advising former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, managing relationships with dozens of city and state governments around the world, and developing comprehensive partnerships between Fortune 500 companies and governments towards sensible energy development. Prior to this role, he served as a Director the Partnership for New York City and was a professional consultant to clients including the World Economic Forum and the Presidential Forum on Renewable Energy.
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Stephen Eide, Manhattan Institute
is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute's Center for State and Local Leadership. Steve received his doctorate in political science in Boston College and previously was a Senior Research Associate at the Worcester Regional Research Bureau. His research focuses on public employee unions, retirement benefits, public finance, and urban policy.
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National

Andrew Biggs, American Enterprise Institute
was the principal deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), where he oversaw SSA's policy research efforts and led the agency's participation in the Social Security Trustees working group. He has investigated the trade-offs involved in meeting Social Security's projected budgetary shortfalls. In 2005, he worked on Social Security reform at the National Economic Council and, in 2001, was on the staff of the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security. He draws on micro and macroeconomic analysis, financial and behavioral economics, and research into public opinion and political institutions to analyze reforms to improve the effectiveness and long-range solvency of the Social Security program.
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Ben Boychuk, City Journal
is associate editor of City Journal, where he writes on education and California politics. Previously, he served as managing editor of the Heartland Institute's School Reform News and the Claremont Review of Books. He is also a former editorial writer for Investor's Business Daily and the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California. Boychuk writes a weekly column for the Sacramento Bee and Scripps-Howard News Service. His work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the New York Post, National Review Online, the Korea Times and newspapers across the United States.
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Daniel DiSalvo, Manhattan Institute
is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the City College of New York—CUNY. He received his doctorate in politics from the University of Virginia and was previously Andrew W. Mellon Visiting Professor at Amherst College. His scholarly work focuses on public sector unions, political parties, elections, and public policy. He has written on these topics for a variety of publications, including The Tocqueville Review, Congress & the Presidency, The American Interest, The Weekly Standard, The Forum, and The Journal of Policy History.
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Nicole Gelinas, Manhattan Institute
is the Searle Freedom Trust Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Gelinas writes on urban economics and finance, municipal and corporate finance, business issues, and crime. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder and a member of the New York Society of Securities Analysts. Her new book, After the Fall: Saving Capitalism from Wall Street—and Washington was published on November 2009 by Encounter Books.
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Steven Malanga, Manhattan Institute
is City Journal's senior editor, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow, and a RealClearMarkets.com columnist. He is author of the recently published Shakedown: The Continuing Conspiracy Against the American Taxpayer, about the bankrupting of state and local governments by a new political powerhouse led by public-sector unions. He writes about the intersection of urban economies, business communities, and public policy. He was recently cited as one of Governor Chris Christie's intellectual influences (BusinessWeek, August 2010).
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Terry M. Moe, Stanford University
is the William Bennett Munro Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has written extensively on the politics and reform of American education. His newest book, Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools (2011), provides the first comprehensive study of this nation's teachers unions: exploring their historical rise to prominence, their exercise of power in collective bargaining and politics, and the vast and troubling consequences for kids, schools, and genuine reform. His past work includes Politics, Markets, and America's Schools (1990) and Liberating Learning (2009), both with John Chubb.
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Eileen Norcross, Mercatus Center at George Mason University
is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and the lead researcher for the State and Local Policy Project. Her areas of research include public finance, fiscal federalism and institutions, state and local government, and economic development.She is the author of several studies on state fiscal institutions including Fiscal Evasion in State Budgeting, and The Crisis in Public Sector Pension Plans with Andrew Biggs. Her work has been cited in numerous publications including The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and The New York Times. She blogs on issues of local governance and finance at Neighborhood Effects.
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Troy Senik, Center for Individual Freedom
is a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush. Prior to his tenure at the White House, he served as a writer for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Troy is currently a Senior Fellow at the Center for Individual Freedom and a contributor at Ricochet.com, where he hosts the "Law Talk" podcast with Richard Epstein and John Yoo. He lives in Los Angeles.
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State

NEW JERSEY
Jerry Cantrell, Common Sense Institute of New Jersey
has served as president/founder of The New Jersey Taxpayers Association since 2004. Jerry has also served as community activist for a local property tax organization (Sanely Tax Our Properties – STOP), Randolph Parents for Gifted and Talented Education and is a past president of the Randolph, NJ, Board of Education. Cantrell has more than 30 years of business experience in the information technology and aerospace fields, including the founding and operating of a healthcare information systems venture.
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COLORADO
Ben DeGrow, Independence Institute
is senior education policy analyst for the Independence Institute, a free-market think tank. His research focuses on collective bargaining, teacher unionism and employment, and school finance. Providing regular commentary on education and labor reform issues for radio and television programs, his writings also have been featured in major Colorado publications. He holds an M.A. in history from Penn State, and has experience in classroom teaching and journalism. The Michigan native now lives near Denver with his wife and three children.
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PENNSYLVANIA
Richard C. Dreyfuss, The Commonwealth Foundation
 is an actuary and business consultant and a senior fellow with The Commonwealth Foundation, a free-market think tank in Pennsylvania. He is also a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute. Prior to his retirement in 2002, Dreyfuss worked for The Hershey Company, formerly Hershey Foods Corporation, for 21 years, and he held numerous positions, including director of compensation and benefits. He is currently active in public policy matters, having testified in Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, Penn., and having served as chair of the Pennsylvania Healthcare Cost Containment Council in 2001-2002.
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CALIFORNIA
Steven Greenhut, Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity
is Vice President of Journalism for the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. He assisted with the Pacific Research Institute's launch of CalWatchdog.com in 2010 to provide in-depth news coverage of California government, with a focus on uncovering waste, fraud, and misuse of taxpayer dollars. Greenhut writes a weekly column for the Orange County Register, North County Times, and San Francisco Examiner. His columns have been published in newspapers across the country including The Wall Street Journal and the online New York Times. Greenhut is author of "Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation."
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ILLINOIS
Paul Kersey, Illinois Policy Institute
is director of labor policy at the Illinois Policy Institute. Kersey began his public policy work at the National Right to Work Committee as director of state legislation. Paul then went on to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, where he served first as Labor Research Associate under former NLRB member Bob Hunter, and then, after a fellowship at the Heritage Foundation, Kersey returned to Mackinac as director of labor policy. He received a degree in economics from the University of Michigan-Dearborn in 1988 and in 1993 he received his Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois. Kersey's articles have appeared in the Detroit News, National Review Online, and The Wall Street Journal.
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MICHIGAN
James Hohman, Mackinac Center for Public Policy
is assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a state policy free market think tank in Michigan. He holds a degree in economics from Northwood University in Midland, Michigan and is a frequent commentator to local media about developments in Michigan state politics.
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CONNECTICUT
Zachary Janowski, Yankee Institute for Public Policy
is an investigative reporter for the Yankee Institute, Connecticut's free-market think tank, where he runs the news site Raising Hale. In 2011, Connecticut's government employee unions baselessly accused him of hacking into the state computer system after he wrote this article. He is a 2012 Phillips Foundation Robert Novak Fellow. He tweets @RaisingHaleCT and you can also connect with him on his Facebook page.
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OHIO
Greg Lawson, Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions
is the Statehouse Liaison and Policy Analyst at the Buckeye Institute. His interest in the intersection of public policy and politics began while in college and took him to the Ohio Council for Home Care, where he focused on Medicaid issues. Lawson has also served as a Legislative Liaison with the Ohio Department of Commerce and as a public relations strategist with a local PR company, TRIAD Inc.
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NEW YORK
Edmund J. McMahon, Empire Center for New York Policy
is a senior fellow with the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a project of the Manhattan Institute. He also is senior fellow for Tax and Budgetary Studies at the Institute's Center for State and Local Leadership. McMahon focuses on state, city and local issues, recommending policy changes and reforms to increase economic growth. His recent work has included studies focused on public pension reform, competitive contracting of public services, and the fiscal record of the Pataki administration. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Barron's, the Public Interest, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, Newsday and the New York Sun, among other publications.
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WISCONSIN
Christian Schneider, Wisconsin Policy Research Institute
is a senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. Schneider spent eight years working for the Wisconsin State Legislature. He holds a Master's degree from Marquette University and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Utah, both in political science. Schneider is a frequent contributor to the National Review Online, and his columns have been featured in the New York Times, New York Post, Washington Times, and City Journal quarterly magazine. He is also co-author of the Campaign Manager Survey, scheduled for release in Mid-2012.
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