Media

Regulation

EXPOSED: PLCB Wine Shrine Uncovered

• May 9, 2012

Nothing to see here, folks, move along and remain quiet, we are busy protecting your palettes. That’s the dismissive reaction to taxpayers from Pennsylvania Liquor Control boss Joe Conti whose defense…

Media

Should States Be in the Liquor Business?

• May 9, 2012

Media Hit

Taxpayers fund LCB wine tasters, tasting room

• May 9, 2012

Media Hit

State Budget

CF Applauds Pa. Senate Budget Use of TPA Index

• May 8, 2012

HARRISBURG, PA (05.08.12) – The Commonwealth Foundation applauded Pennsylvania Senate leadership today for using the Taxpayer Protection Act index – inflation plus population growth – to compose their fiscal year 2012-13…

Press Release

State Budget

Why Pennsylvania Needs Spending Limits

• Nathan Benefield
• May 8, 2012

In a Capitolwire story (subscription), Senate Appropriations Chair Jake Corman notes that the proposed version of the state budget the Senate will take up this week increases spending by…

Media

Criminal Justice Reform

Correcting Corrections Correctly

• May 8, 2012

Over the last 30 years, Pennsylvania’s incarceration rate has increased by 500 percent and corrections spending has skyrocketed 1,700 percent. The unprecedented prison population growth at unsustainable costs…

Media

State Budget

This is the Change You’ve Been Looking For

• Nathan Benefield
• May 7, 2012

I had the opportunity to hear Scott Rasmussen speak last week. The theme of his speech was “change”—as in how policy change happens. The lesson he gave was that policy…

Media

Government Accountability

Liquor’s Lap of Luxury a Laughingstock

• May 7, 2012

With grand style on your dime, the ponderous Princes of Pinot are noses and palms up choosing what wine and liquor you will and will not consume in the Keystone…

Media

Criminal Justice Reform

HOPE for PA Corrections Reform

• May 4, 2012

Launched in 2004, Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) is an innovative supervision strategy that provides swift, predictable sanctions on substance-abusing probationers. Research shows the program has reduced probationers’ positive…

Media

Regulation

Reform Bills Would Begin to Reduce Fiscal Fire

• Elizabeth Stelle
• May 3, 2012

While the fiscal fire is raging across Pennsylvania, Rep. Eli Evankovich’s pension reform proposal begins to extinguish the flames that threaten to consume the commonwealth. We’ve been on record…

Media

State Budget

Good April Tax Collections, but State is Spending More Than Revenue

• Nathan Benefield
• May 2, 2012

Two new reports show that Pennsylvania’s fiscal crunch for the current year is not a dire as previously thought. Pa. Department of Revenue monthly reports on tax collections shows…

Media

Education

The Patriot Can Do Better Than This…

• Charles Mitchell
• May 2, 2012

Our friends at The Patriot-News here in Harrisburg just posted an online poll that asks the following question: The state Senate has passed a school voucher bill that…

Media

Welfare

Fighting Fraud is the Beginning of True Welfare Reform

• Elizabeth Stelle
• May 2, 2012

Monday the Pennsylvania House continued its efforts to reform the state’s welfare system by passing HB 1948 out of committee. The legislation, sponsored by Tim Krieger, would establish the…

Media

Education

Philadelphia School District Faces the Budgetary Music

• Priya Brannick
• May 1, 2012

It doesn’t take an advanced degree to figure out that something’s rotten in the school district of Philadelphia—or that school choice is the antidote. More than half of…

Media

Education

Big Government and the Higher Education Bubble

• Elizabeth Stelle
• April 30, 2012

This past weekend I participated with some middleschoolers in a 30 hour famine to raise money for starving families. As we discussed poverty and debt the leader motioned to me…

Media

Regulation

The Fight for Liquor Liberty Continues

• April 27, 2012

The fight to free Pennsylvanians’ drinks from government control is far from over, according to House Majority Leader Mike Turzai. Rep. Turzai is expected to give a much needed…

Media

Regulation

States Tap Public-Private Partnerships in 2011

• Elizabeth Stelle
• April 27, 2012

Public-private partnerships aren’t just for roads anymore. Reason’s Annual Privatization Report, released this week, is packed with diverse examples of states leveraging the private sector to stretch tax dollars.  In California,…

Media

State Budget

GAO Sounds the Fiscal Alarm on State Medicaid Costs

• Nathan Benefield
• April 26, 2012

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has a new report on state and local government finances. Of greatest concern are the expected increases in Medicaid spending and health care for…

Media

Public Union Democracy

Prevailing Wage Pummels Another School District

• Priya Brannick
• April 25, 2012

We’ve reported before about how Pennsylvania’s outdated prevailing wage law imposes needless extra construction costs on local governments and school districts across the commonwealth, hurting taxpayers. The law requires…

Media

Taxes & Economy

Feds Tackling Long-Term Unemployment Georgia Style

• Elizabeth Stelle
• April 25, 2012

The Federal Government is taking a page from the Peach State and looking for 10 states to participate in a new unemployment program modeled off of “Georgia Works.” The program…

Media

Taxes & Economy

What Does the Primary Earthquake Mean?

• Charles Mitchell
• April 25, 2012

I’m writing to you from Pittsburgh, which was, in a certain sense, ground zero of last night’s primary earthquake. Last night, I watched Tom Smith—who has made it a matter…

Media