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State Budget

Easiest Way to Cut Pork

• Nathan Benefield
• March 10, 2006

Five US Senators, in a letter to President Bush, ask him to cut down on earmarked spending (i.e. pork barrel projects) simply by not spending the money. They claim…

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Education

School Vouchers are Improving Education in Milwaukee

• Nathan Benefield
• March 10, 2006

Summary by National Center for Policy Analysis of a article in the New York Times.

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Taxes & Economy

Raising Pennsylvania’s Minimum Wage Will Result in Job Loss

• Nathan Benefield
• March 9, 2006

News release from Employment Policies Institute on PA minimum wage. Raising Pennsylvania’s Minimum Wage Will Result in Job Loss for Low-SkilledEarned Income Tax Credit a Better Way…

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Taxes & Economy

What do you do when the facts aren’t on your side?

• March 8, 2006

Well, if you are Bill George, president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, you hurl insults and yell them loudly. It works really well…so he thinks. This clip is from today’s…

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Government Accountability

Sound Policy IS Sound Politics!

• March 7, 2006

We are encouraged by the very familiar-sounding policy stance of these candidates for office. Sound policy IS sound poilitics! ______________ Text of March 7 news release…. Coalition of GOP challengers…

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State Budget

Say you want a revolution?

• March 7, 2006

Editorial from the Chambersburg Public Opinion on how our Supreme Court judges are spending YOUR money.

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Public Union Democracy

Gettin’ out while the gettin’s good

• March 7, 2006

The Hempfield Area School District is expecting nearly 90 employees (mostly teachers) to retire this year, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. This is a district where the average salary…

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Education

Cyberschools have districts edgy

• Nathan Benefield
• March 6, 2006

Times-Tribune article on the growth of Pennsylvanias’ Cyberschools. The bottom line: students do better when parents are able to choose which school is best for them.

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Rendell’s pay not “real money”

• Nathan Benefield
• March 6, 2006

From CapitolWire: Rendell’s pay not “real money”…For those of you who haven’t heard just how much Gov. Ed Rendell travels in upper-bracket circles these days, he was…

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Taxes & Economy

Seductive snake oil

• March 6, 2006

Interesting commentary that goes to show you that the battle for free-markets is happening all over the world…including Israel. And the opponents of freedom are the same… ______________Seductive…

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Regulation

State employees’ pensions might carry big price tag

• March 6, 2006

“Might”? Whoever wrote the headline for this Patriot-News story on the looming pension crisis should have read the story. Even the plan administrators at PSERS and SERS don’t see…

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Taxes & Economy

State Revenue Boom Paves Way for Tax Cuts

• Nathan Benefield
• March 3, 2006

An analysis by the Cato Institute of tax revenue and rates for all 50 states ranks Pennsylvania as a “state in need of tax cuts.” This is based on…

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Taxes & Economy

Artificial costs

• March 3, 2006

Prevailing wage issue in the Patriot-News.

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Regulation

Capitolwire.com thoughts on AFSCME’s reponse to the pension study

• March 2, 2006

No problem with state pensions …that’s what David R. Fillman, Executive Director, Council 13, The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), said in a news…

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Public Union Democracy

Teachers set strike date

• March 2, 2006

Penn-Trafford’s teachers may be on the picket line…again, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. More fodder for Simon Campbell’s www.StopTeacherStrikes.com.

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Education

Black Flight

• March 2, 2006

Excellent Wall Street Journal article on what is happening in Minneaopolis where African-American families in the city’s poorest neighborhoods are choosing to leave their assigned public schools in large…

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Regulation

Pay no attention to the coming crisis.

• Nathan Benefield
• March 1, 2006

In an Alfred E Neuman-esque “What, me worry?” Council 13 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees claims there is no future pension problem in Pennsylvania. “…

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR | Hogging at the trough

• March 1, 2006

…in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

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Regulation

EDITORIAL | Pension padding

• February 28, 2006

“Getting elected to the state’s freewheeling Legislature isn’t nearly as sweet as leaving the public body after several terms.” Read more from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

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Regulation

Raw Deal for the People of Pennsylvania

• Nathan Benefield
• February 28, 2006

More coverage of our pension study in the Beaver County Times/Allegheny Times.

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Regulation

The Real War on Wal-Mart is to Expand Government

• February 28, 2006

Brendan Miniter in today’s Wall Street Journal… “Let’s first understand that the drive to enact anti-Wal-Mart legislation has very little to do with the retail giant except in two…

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