circuit-breaker law
n.— «The circuit-breaker law calls for 75 percent state reimbursement of the amount of money it costs to educate a student minus the $29,320. For example, subtracting the $29,320 from a total cost of $100,000 means the town should receive 75 percent reimbursement for the $70,680 difference between the two figures.» —“‘Circuit-breaker law’ worries schools” by Bill Fortier Worcester Telegram & Gazette (Massachusetts) Oct. 28, 2003. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Meg in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, gets why the state highway department encourages drivers to use their blinkers when changing lanes, but placing a digital sign at the Sagamore Bridge that reads Use Ya Blinkah is, well, a lexical bridge too far. Meg’s...