Criminal Justice Reform

Chart of the Day: Corrections Spending

  • March 12, 2012

Today’s chart highlights the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections’ skyrocketing spending since 1980. This unsustainable growth is part of the four-alarm fire that threatens Pennsylvania’s fiscal house. For more…

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War on Welfare Fraud Raging

  • March 12, 2012

Look out welfare swindlers, there’s a new sheriff in town and he aims to take you off the street and protect taxpayer money.  And that’s not just tough talk; he’s…

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PLCB Smells Like Teen Spirit

  • March 9, 2012

Smell that, PLCB?  No, it’s not what the Rock’s been cookin’ or teen spirit, it’s the sweet smell of freedom wafting from places like Seattle today where Washington state begins the…

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Education

Does Underfunding Pensions “Help the Kids”?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • March 9, 2012

A letter I recently submitted to the Allentown Morning Call on state education subsidies and pension funding: The Morning Call’s article on state subsidies to school districts has…

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Public Union Democracy

Big Bucks for Government Union Bosses

  • Priya Brannick
  • March 8, 2012

Union bosses frequently criticize corporate CEOs and government leaders for supposedly taking home hefty pay at workers’ expense. Just this week, protesters picketed House Majority Whip Stan Saylor’s office…

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Of Mice, Barbie and Prevailing Wage

  • March 8, 2012

In March of 1961, the Soviet Union shot a dog, some mice and a guinea pig into space.  Meanwhile, back in the U.S., nine black students from Mississippi…

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Criminal Justice Reform

Nurses’ Union Opposes Corrections Reform

  • March 7, 2012

At yesterday’s House Appropriations Committee, Department of Corrections Sec. John Wetzel explained his roadmap to reducing corrections spending, now the third-largest department in the General Fund Budget. What was…

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Public Union Democracy

Construction Workers Picket Rep. Saylor

  • Priya Brannick
  • March 6, 2012

No sooner did we release research documenting the iron grip of Pennsylvania’s labor unions on the commonwealth’s taxpayers than they obliged us with a case-in-point on union bullying tactics.

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Taxes & Economy

Who Wants to Pay More for Electricity?

  • March 6, 2012

A new study by the Manhattan Institute confirms that forcing states to purchase renewable energy hurts taxpayers. Pennsylvania is one of the 29 states (as well as the…

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