Prosperity
New Year, New Taxes in Pennsylvania
Originally published at RealClearPennsylvania The new year is always a great opportunity to shed vices like smoking and binge eating. For state and local lawmakers, their guilty pleasure tends…
Read More: New Year, New Taxes in PennsylvaniaHigh taxes make for a slow-growing economy. And communities feel the pinch of high taxes as more and more native Pennsylvanians leave the Keystone State to prosper elsewhere. To remain economically competitive, Pennsylvania must lower state taxes and ensure businesses have the opportunity to succeed. Lower taxes will incentivize more individuals to call Pennsylvania their home, ultimately spurring our statewide economy forward.
Taxes & Economy
Feulner blast stimulus process
Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner has a scathing open letter to Congress on the stimulus bill: In addition to being the single most expensive bill ever proposed,…
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Read More: Feulner blast stimulus processTaxes & Economy
The Burden of PA Business Taxes
The Tribune Review has a story featuring Tax Foundation president Scott Hodge discussing Pennsylvania’s business tax climate at an appearance in Pittsburgh: The state needs…
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Read More: The Burden of PA Business TaxesGovernment Accountability
Government on a Diet: Spending Tips 2009
Government on a Diet: Spending Tips 2009 identifies $5 billion in unhealthy state spending in FY 2008-09 and offers a series of recommendations to both resolve the current revenue shortfall…
Report
Read More: Government on a Diet: Spending Tips 2009Regulation
CF Report Finds $5 billion in Gov’t Waste
State gov’t overspending is impeding prosperity and burdening taxpayers HARRISBURG, PA — The Commonwealth Foundation today released Government on a Diet: Spending Tips 2009, a report that spotlights how the…
Press Release
Read More: CF Report Finds $5 billion in Gov’t WasteTaxes & Economy
State Budget Shortfalls: Opportunity for Reform
The Tax Foundation has a new report (released yesterday) on state budget shortfalls. Their report concludes that overspending is largely the explanation for state shortfalls today. (Full report…
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Read More: State Budget Shortfalls: Opportunity for ReformGovernment Accountability
An end to cronyism in state government?
The Pennsylvania House GOP has unveiled several proposals to end “pay to play” – including cracking down on the ability of the administration to award of no-bid contracts. In…
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Read More: An end to cronyism in state government?Taxes & Economy
CF Budget Forum on PCN
If you missed todays lunch discussion with Sens. Jake Corman and Jay Costa on the Pennsylvania budget, it is set to air tomorrow at 1 pm on PCN, with…
Media
Read More: CF Budget Forum on PCNTaxes & Economy
CF Budget Forum on PCN
If you missed todays lunch discussion with Sens. Jake Corman and Jay Costa on the Pennsylvania budget, it is set to air tomorrow at 1 pm on PCN, with…
Media
Read More: CF Budget Forum on PCNTaxes & Economy
Tax and Spend Polices are Recipe for Disaster
My letter to the editor in the Post-Gazette: The state’s tax-and-spend policies are a recipe for disasterSharon Ward’s Jan. 28 Perspectives piece (“Keep…
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Read More: Tax and Spend Polices are Recipe for DisasterTaxes & Economy
The need to “do something”
Matt Lewis has an entertaining post on the need to “do something” with regard to the federal “stimulus” – comparing it to a 19th century doctor pressed to “do…
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Read More: The need to “do something”Taxes & Economy
More waste, no-bid contracts, in PA budget
Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner has a draft of an audit blasting the Rendell adminstration for its technology contracts, specifically with Deloitte, the Patriot News Reports.
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Read More: More waste, no-bid contracts, in PA budgetTaxes & Economy
Please, No More Taxes! Video Contest
$4,000 in cash prizes for citizens to help raise awareness of PA’s painful tax burden HARRISBURG, PA — The Commonwealth Foundation today announced its Please, No More Taxes!…
Press Release
Read More: Please, No More Taxes! Video ContestTaxes & Economy
How well has more spending worked up until now?
The Morning Call’s John Micek makes a joke on his blog about the effectiveness of tax cuts in stimulating the economy: Hardcore GOPers, asked for their alternative,…
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Read More: How well has more spending worked up until now?Taxes & Economy
With All Due Respect, Mr. Specter
“The country cannot afford not to take action,” Senator Arlen Specter writes in the Washington Post justifying support for the “stimulus” package, mimicking the statement by President Obama “There…
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Read More: With All Due Respect, Mr. SpecterTaxes & Economy
How Government Created the Financial Crisis
John Taylor in the Wall Street Journal on how Government created the financial crisis: Monetary excesses were the main cause of the boom. The Fed held its…
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Read More: How Government Created the Financial CrisisTaxes & Economy
Libertarian ideas to stimulate economy
Jeffrey A. Miron has a list of libertarian proposals to stimulate the economy (I would expect most self-described “conservatives” would agree with 8 of the 9 proposals): Repeal the…
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Read More: Libertarian ideas to stimulate economyTaxes & Economy
The GOP Has a Dumb Mortgage Idea
In the Wall Street Journal, Ed Glaeser rips the US Senate GOP’s plans to underwrite mortgages and offer an additional tax credit for home-buyers More criticism of this…
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Read More: The GOP Has a Dumb Mortgage IdeaTaxes & Economy
Commonwealth Foundation Launches Please, No More Taxes! Campaign
HARRISBURG, PA — The Commonwealth Foundation today announced the launch of the Please, No More Taxes! campaign, a public education effort aimed at the elimination of wasteful state spending and…
Press Release
Read More: Commonwealth Foundation Launches Please, No More Taxes! CampaignEducation
Special Needs Scholarship Could Replace School for the Deaf
There has been a lot of public outcry against Governor Rendell’s proposal to close the Scranton School for the Deaf, as well as the Scotland School…
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Read More: Special Needs Scholarship Could Replace School for the DeafEducation
Economists Against Governor Rendell
In his budget address, Governor Rendell cited “conservative” economists who support the stimulus package and his spending proposals, even though they don’t. Here is Rendell: Economists from…
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Read More: Economists Against Governor RendellState Budget
PA Budget by the Numbers
The 2009-10 budget is $28.97 billion, rather than the $26.6 billion as is being reported. The difference being that it relies on $2.4 billion in one-time federal “stimulus” money. That…
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