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Education
Public Schools Increased Spending to $23,000 Per Student, Ballooned Reserves While Enrollment Declined
Harrisburg, Pa., May 15, 2025 — Pennsylvania school districts increased overall revenue collected in 2023–24 to $23,000 per student, while expanding general fund reserves to $7.4 billion, according to new…
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Energy
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments on RGGI
Read More: Pennsylvania Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments on RGGI
Education
Senate Education Committee Approves Bipartisan PASS Scholarships, Offering Lifeline to Students in Need
Read More: Senate Education Committee Approves Bipartisan PASS Scholarships, Offering Lifeline to Students in Need
Prosperity
New Report: Gig-Workers Prefer Flexibility of Portable Benefits
Read More: New Report: Gig-Workers Prefer Flexibility of Portable Benefits
Taxpayer Protection Act Introduced
Senator Regola news release on the introduction of the Taxpayer Protection Act in legislation. Read the Commonwealth Foundation’s news release on protecting the taxpayer.
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Mass Transit P3s
A new example of how competitive contracting for mass transit services can work is the recent Houston partnership for four bus lines. More examples can be found in…
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Underpaid Public Servants?
Jan Murphy of the Patriot News provides an analysis of the highest paying jobs in state government. A total of 3,042 employees on the state payroll earn over $100,000…
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Why are people uninsured?
CAHI brief looks at why people are uninsured and what policies can reduce the number of uninsured. These include individual tax credits, limited benefit plans, eliminating mandatory benefits, allowing…
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Pork Goes to War
New York Times editorial by Tom Schatz of CAGW on the pork included in the “emergency” bill for troop funding. Included in the list of pork is…
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Later Tax Freedom Day
The Tax Foundation released their annual Tax Freedom Day® Report yesterday. The bad news: it will take Pennsylvanians 117 days to pay off their taxes, making our Tax Freedom…
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Perzel v. Benefield on Turnpike
Speaker Emeritus Perzel thinks we should add more taxpayer-backed debt to fund road repairs, while I argue that a Turnpike lease is better than the bevy of tolls and debt…
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Exception turns into rule for property tax increases
So much for protecting property taxpayers. The Patriot-News looks at the numbe of districts applying for exemptions to Act 1. Turns out 210 of the 501 school districts have…
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Duquesne law professor under fire
Duquesne law professor Bruce Ledewitz (website) has been a harsh critic of the PA court system, including criticizing the Supreme Court ruling to reinstate their own pay-raise, and…
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Cost of Insurance Mandates
A new report from CAHI for 2007 lists the health insurance mandates by state and the estimated cost of each mandate. PA has a43 identified mandates, each of which…
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Who Pays America’s Tax Burden
Tax Foundation Report breaking down both who pays taxes by income quintile and who recieves the most from government spending. This includes both federal taxes and spending along with…
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The Cost of Tort
A new study from the Pacific Research Institute estimates the US tort system imposes wasteful cost of $865 billion. In terms non-billionaires can understand, this equates to almost $10,000…
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Farm Subsidies for the Rich
Wall Street Journal article on opposition to reducing the cap on farm subisidies for those earning between $200,000 and $2.5 million a year, including those “farming” in Washington DC.
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Reformers Everywhere
Yesterday should illustrate how “reform” in Harrisburg has become more popular than the Beatles. First, the Senate State Government committee held a hearing on a possible state Constitutional Convention, at…
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Free-Market Approaches to Fiscal Policy
Good morning. My name is Nathan Benefield; I am the Director of Policy Research for the Commonwealth Foundation, a research and policy institute in Harrisburg. I want to thank the…
Testimony
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Time for ’pike commission to hit the road
Bill Keisling editorial in the Tribune Democrat on the need to privatize the Turnpike and get rid of the corruption of the Turnpike Commission.
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Turnpike plan makes leasing look good
The Post-Gazette has caught on to the benefits of a Turnpike Lease, at least contrasted with the Turnpike Commissions counter-proposal of more tolls on the Turnpike and on…
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Just who gets this check?
Morning Call article on semi-anonymous corporate welfare. After questioning the Rendell Adminstration about the recipients of an announced handout, the Morning Call was told they don’t give out that…
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Rendell pressing to lease turnpike
Governor Rendell almost sounds like Milton Friedman is his arguments for a Turnpike Lease in the Philadelphia Inquirer (well, not quite, but at least he recognizes the folly of…
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Republican RX
Wall Street Journal article on Sen. Tom Coburn’s free-market healthcare reform proposals. Mr. Coburn, like the White House, would remove the subsidy corporations get for health care, and…
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Pay-hike leaders’ hefty pensions
Brad Bumsted in the Tribune Review on the oversized pensions (after lump-sum payouts) of Bob Jubelirer and Chip Brightbill.
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