Media

Regulation

PLCB’s Consumer Ca$htastrophe Continues

• May 2, 2011

In another blinding flash of the obvious, the PLCB, Pennsylvania’s purveyors of perestroika, revealed in a Harrisburg Patriot News article today what we already knew:  The supermarket wine kiosks…

Media

Education

Has Penn State “bin Laden” with Speech-Squelching Policies?

• Charles Mitchell
• May 2, 2011

Our friends at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) say yes: The announcement late last evening that U.S. forces had killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan…

Media

Education

Property Taxpayer Referendum

• Nathan Benefield
• May 2, 2011

Good afternoon.  I am Nathan Benefield, Director of Policy Research for the Commonwealth Foundation.  We are a nonprofit, independent public policy research and educational institute based in Harrisburg.  I would…

Testimony

Letters: Drilling companies pay quite their fair share

• May 2, 2011

Media Hit

Privatizing Liquor

• May 2, 2011

Media Hit

State senator proposes ‘impact fee’ on gas drillers

• May 1, 2011

Media Hit

Think tanks battle on Marcellus Shale tax policy

• May 1, 2011

Media Hit

Corbett education plan takes proper approach

• May 1, 2011

Media Hit

Education

PSU: Progress Seems Underway

• Charles Mitchell
• April 29, 2011

On March 8, Gov. Tom Corbett started a statewide conversation about higher education through his budget address, in which he proposed significant cuts in the subsidies Pennsylvania public universities receive…

Media

Voice for School Choice finds New Site

• April 29, 2011

HARRISBURG, PA  | The Commonwealth Foundation launched today the Stand Strong Senator project in response to the wave of aggressive and special interest lobbying led by the Pennsylvania State Education…

Press Release

Taxes & Economy

Orwellian Tax Speak: Call It a “Fee”

• Matthew Brouillette
• April 28, 2011

Call it a “fee” or call it “knockwurst” if you like, but the latest proposal for a “local impact fee” on natural gas drillers is not only still a…

Media

Education

When Bell Bottoms Were Cool…And PSU Charged $675

• Charles Mitchell
• April 28, 2011

I just sent the following to a student at Penn State who is writing a paper on Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed cuts to the subsidies our public universities receive from…

Media

Taxes & Economy

The Natural Gas Not-A-Tax

• Elizabeth Stelle
• April 28, 2011

Yesterday, the Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati released his much anticipated Marcellus shale Not-A-Tax “local impact fee.” The proposal would require drillers to pay a “Base Fee”…

Media

Report on gas industry’s taxes flawed

• April 28, 2011

Media Hit

Taxes & Economy

Fact-Checking on Natural Gas Taxes in PA

• Nathan Benefield
• April 27, 2011

Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center’s new report alleging the natural gas industry doesn’t pay taxes goes beyond misleading readers to using inaccurate information in order to jeer support for a…

Media

Pennsylvania undercut pensions, study finds

• April 27, 2011

Media Hit

Taxes & Economy

Marcellus Shale 101 Presentation

• April 26, 2011

Last week, I presented the case against a natural gas severance tax to a Penn State journalism class. Below is my presentation providing an overview of Marcellus Shale development…

Media

Fear of status quo I

• April 26, 2011

Media Hit

Some Pa. wine kiosks now will sell hard liquor

• April 26, 2011

Media Hit

Education

Understanding Real vs. “Sticker Price” Tuition

• Nathan Benefield
• April 25, 2011

A common misconception in debating higher education funding is that the posted rate of tuition, or “sticker price,” is what students actually pay. This is exemplified in a commentary…

Media

Education

School Choice Advancing in Indiana, Tennessee

• Nathan Benefield
• April 25, 2011

While the Pennsylvania Senate continues to deliberate on Senate Bill 1, school choice is moving along in several other states as well. Last…

Media