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What is the Beacon Hill Institute?

The Beacon Hill Institute (BHI) has described itself as “the research arm of the Department of Economics at Suffolk University.” The university and the institute announced in December 2015, however, that the affiliation will end and BHI will become an independent entity when current research contracts through the university end in late 2016. The university had been subsidizing the institute in the past.

Founded in 1991 by Ray Shamie, a businessman and Republican politician, BHI’s research focuses on tax policy, education, economic development, energy, government regulation, and labor issues. They have ties to a number of conservative, free-market, small government organizations and funders, including the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Koch Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, and the Coors family. Their reports attacking clean energy initiatives have drawn widespread criticism.

Additional information on the institute and its funding sources can be found on SourceWatch, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Beacon_Hill_Institute