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Government Accountability
Pa. Supreme Court Protects Private Property in New Ruling
Harrisburg, Pa., July 22, 2026 — In a 7–0 unanimous decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in Punxsutawney Hunting Club v. Pennsylvania Game Commission, sided with Pennsylvania landowners and ruled against warrantless searches on open fields. Under previous case law, the open…
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Education
Commonwealth Foundation Releases Analysis on 2026-27 Budget Deal
Read More: Commonwealth Foundation Releases Analysis on 2026-27 Budget Deal
Education
Pa. Lawmakers Pass 2026-27 State Budget, Blocking Shapiro’s Tax Hikes and Preserving Emergency Savings
Read More: Pa. Lawmakers Pass 2026-27 State Budget, Blocking Shapiro’s Tax Hikes and Preserving Emergency Savings
Education
Commonwealth Foundation Applauds Senate Republicans for Advancing Tax Relief and Expanding Educational Opportunity
Read More: Commonwealth Foundation Applauds Senate Republicans for Advancing Tax Relief and Expanding Educational OpportunityGovernment Accountability
Recaps of 9/12 March on DC
Here is some coverage of 9/12 protest in Washington DC from Pennsylvania (and some national) bloggers and attendeed: PA WaterCooler has a photo essay from John Lewandowski, who went…
Media
Read More: Recaps of 9/12 March on DCGovernment Accountability
CF Blog Roundup
Here are some of the most recent Commonwealth Foundation citations from Pennsylvania blogs: Capitol Ideas gives us some linkage on health care reform and on flying cars. GrassrootsPA…
Media
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Budget plan gets chilly reception from governor
Media Hit
Read More: Budget plan gets chilly reception from governor
Veto threat clouds budget deal’s prospects
Media Hit
Read More: Veto threat clouds budget deal’s prospectsGovernment Accountability
Follow PA Lawmakers and Politics on Twitter
I recenlty learned of a tool – not sure if it is new or not – to compile lists of Twitter users that anyone can follow with a single click. …
Media
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Another Rickety Bridge to PA’s Future
Budget deal will result in job losses, additional tax hikes in future years HARRISBURG, PA – Commonwealth Foundation president and CEO Matthew Brouillette released the following statement in response to…
Press Release
Read More: Another Rickety Bridge to PA’s FutureEducation
The Right Direction
A colleague of mine suggests that the budget deal (see our grade of the budget agreement) is better than we say it is,…
Media
Read More: The Right DirectionState Budget
Which New Taxes are Coming for Pennsylvania?
The new Pennsylvania state budget “deal”, which House Democrats, Senate Republicans, and Senate Democrats have agreed to – but which House Republicans have disavowed and Gov. Rendell has not signed…
Media
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Republican solutions to the health care problem
Media Hit
Read More: Republican solutions to the health care problemState Budget
PA Senate GOP Caving on Tax Hikes?
John Micek reports that there may be a compromise coming in the Pennsylvania state budget, but surprisingly (to me) it is not the $27.5 billion plan outlined by…
Media
Read More: PA Senate GOP Caving on Tax Hikes?Taxes & Economy
A Failure of Government
The Institute of Economic Affairs in Britain has a new paper on the role of government in economic contractions in the United States, noting the interventions policies of Hoover…
Media
Read More: A Failure of GovernmentHealth Care
More Thoughts on Obama’s Health Care Speech
Here are some poignant comments on Obama’s latest health care speech: Greg Scandlen notes that in Obama’s “29th speech devoted exclusively to health care since he became president” he…
Media
Read More: More Thoughts on Obama’s Health Care SpeechGovernment Accountability
Legislative Staff and Term Limits
Following up on our blog post and Brad Bumsted’s article about Pennsylvania having the most legislative staff, I took another look at the…
Media
Read More: Legislative Staff and Term LimitsHealth Care
Obama’s Pants are on Fire
Obama’s health care speech, in which he denounces misinformation and scare tactics, he offered quite a bit of misinformation and scare tactics (e.g “more will die as a result”). The…
Media
Read More: Obama’s Pants are on FireHealth Care
ObamaCare Live Blog
President Barack Obama will address Congress at 8pm tonight in an effort to push through his health care agenda. Cato Institute policy experts Michael D. Tanner and…
Media
Read More: ObamaCare Live BlogTaxes & Economy
Pennsylvania is Among “The Biggest Losers” on Cap & Trade
ALEC has compiled data from the Heritage Foundation to produce rankings of which states have the most to lose from Cap and Trade, i.e. the Waxman-Markey bill.
Media
Read More: Pennsylvania is Among “The Biggest Losers” on Cap & TradeEducation
What the Public Thinks of Public Schools
Paul Peterson has a good column in today’s Wall Street Journal about the public’s perception of public schools — they are (correctly in Peterson’s judgment) unerwhelmed by school’s performance,…
Media
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Let’s Just Buy Everyone Flying Cars
The Patriot News reports on an insanely bad idea – taxpayer funded buses, then trains, from Lebanon to Hershey to Harrisburg. First the study, funded by the transportation industry…
Media
Read More: Let’s Just Buy Everyone Flying CarsGovernment Accountability
Pennsylvania Has Most Legislative Staff
Brad Bumsted had an article over the weekend on Pennsylvania’s largest in the nation legislative staff and, of course, the high cost of keeping that staff. The number of…
Media
Read More: Pennsylvania Has Most Legislative StaffRegulation
Making a Bad Bill Worse
Following protests by policy and firefighter unions, the Pennsylvania House will delay a vote on HB 1828, the so-called municipal pension reform bill, likely until Thursday. House…
Media
Read More: Making a Bad Bill Worse