State Budget
Higher Taxes to Buy More Nintendo Wii’s?
A PA House GOP staffer dug up this little item of pork barrel spending, courtesy State Representative Jesse White: The Wii challenge came about after I helped…
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Will Lawmakers Put Hollywood Before School Children?
Governor Rendell and three legislative caucuses are kicking low-income children out of their classrooms to fund handout to Big Hollywood studios. This is beyond bad policy – it’s blatant…
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More Health Care Lessons from Massachusetts
My colleague Joe Sterns sent me an article, in which Mitt Romney again declares Massachusetts health care reform a success, claiming the increase in taxpayer spending was “only” $700…
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The Continuing Saga of Corruption and Patronage in Pennsylvania
Another of former Senator Fumo’s aides was indicted yesterday, for taking contracts from the Pennsylvania Senate, but doing no work – except favors to Sen. Fumo. Of course, Palermo…
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How did the PA Budget Process Get So Broken?
Dale Davenport had an excellent editorial in the Patriot over the weekend, noting how annual budgeting and the move to a full-time, professional legislature altereed Pennsylvania’s state budget forever: …
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Understanding the Single Sales Factor
Philly.com Blogger Ben Waxman has a post about moving Pennsylvania to a single-sales factor on corporate income taxes, calling it a “big tax break for corporations”, based on…
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Stupid Quote of the Day
Sen. Jake Corman tells the Associated Press that a proposal to charge the sales tax to performing arts and museums is a “user fee”: A plan to extend…
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Historical Follies Set the Stage for Out-of-Control Debt
A new commentary in American Enterprise Institute’s journal, The American, highlights a seemingly “perfect storm” of historical events that have facilitated the out-of-control spending of…
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Government Takeover: The Student Loan Industry
Last week the US House voted to prohibit private lenders from issuing government backed loans. The bill amounts to a government takeover of the student loan industry complete with…
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