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State Budget

Tax Foundation Analysis of Rendell’s Tax Proposals

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 26, 2010

Joe Henchman of the Tax Foundation has put together a Fical Fact looking at Gov. Rendell’s tax increases in the proposed Pennsylvania state budget. Here is the quick overview:…

Media

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Taxes & Economy

NTU Congressional Ratings for Pennsylvania

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 26, 2010

The National Taxpayers Union released their annual Congressional report card (for votes in 2009). Here are the votes they rated. NTU’s rating is based on “every roll call…

Media

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Taxes & Economy

Debunking the Green Job Myth

  • Elizabeth Stelle
  • February 25, 2010

US News and World Report has an excellent piece from AEI’s Kenneth Green debunking the green job myth. Government can create jobs: Green explains how governments cannot create…

Media

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Government Accountability

Who’s Blogging About CF?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 25, 2010

Here are some recent updates from various blogs mentioning Commonwealth Foundation, or giving us some good linkage: Redstate notes our call for an independent investigation into Penn State professor…

Media

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Regulation

Property Tax Relief Not as Awesome as Rendell Says

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 25, 2010

Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner put out another report that should embarrass the Rendell administration, this one one the claimed benefits of property tax relief. (Full report in…

Media

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Education

Who’s to Blame for the Rising Costs of Higher Ed?

  • Elizabeth Stelle
  • February 24, 2010

Rendell’s FY 2010-11 budget funds state related universities at the same level as FY 2009-10 budget. University officials claim they need an increase in state funding to keep tuition…

Media

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Taxes & Economy

Pennsylvania Bottom-of-the Pack in State Competitiveness

  • February 24, 2010

A recent report by the Beacon Hill Institute, a free-market think-tank out of Suffolk University in Massachusetts, provided even more dismal news on Pennsylvania’s economic climate. According to the…

Media

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Taxes & Economy

How Do Pennsylvania’s Highways Rank

  • February 24, 2010

The Reason Foundation has been analyzing state highway systems since 1984. This month they released their 18th Annual Highway Report. Overall the Commonwealth ranked 38th for the most efficient…

Media

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Taxes & Economy

How Dumb is the Jobs Bill?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 23, 2010

So the logic behind Stimulus 3, or the so-called “jobs bill” is that the first stimulus (the Bush stimulus of 2008, predicated largely on tax rebates) worked so well the…

Media

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Regulation

The Trillion Dollar (and then some) Pension Gap

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 23, 2010

The Pew Report on state pensions, finding a $1 trillion unfunded liability nationally, has already received a great deal of attention, so here are just some brief highlights for…

Media

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Government Accountability

Whistle-Blower Protection

  • February 23, 2010

Good morning. I’m Katrina Currie, a Research Fellow for the Commonwealth Foundation.  I am joined by my colleague Elizabeth Bryan. The…

Testimony

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Taxes & Economy

Rendell Lured to Stimulus Like a Moth to a Flame

  • February 23, 2010

The lure of federal stimulus funds is encouraging Pennsylvania to spend more of state taxpayers’ money as well. Here are three examples: The Commonwealth was awarded $35 million through the…

Media

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Government Accountability

PA Lawmakers Use Per Diems to Buy Houses

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 22, 2010

I have often remarked that the exorbitant costs of Pennsylvania legislators’ per diems (see Tribune Review and ABC 27 stories) – that they receive to pay for food…

Media

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Government Accountability

Lower Legislative Pay = Better Government

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 22, 2010

A new study of state legislative pay and party competition in the American Political Science Review, finds that, in addition to greater party competition, modest pay for legislators leads…

Media

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Taxes & Economy

Did the Stimulus Raise Unemployment?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 22, 2010

Alan Reynolds takes a nuanced approach to where stimulus funding went, and why it didn’t “create jobs” or increase GDP, and probably increased unemployment: [T]he GDP report clearly…

Media

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