Research

State Budget

State Government Spending

• February 1, 2007

Over the last several decades, the growth in state government spending has exceeded both the rate of inflation and increases in the income of citizens. Unlimited government spending growth has…

Fact Sheet

Taxes & Economy

Taxpayers Guide to the Rendell Property Tax Relief Act of 2006

• February 1, 2007

For more than three decades, Pennsylvania policymakers have repeatedly attempted to devise a mechanism to reduce school district property taxes on homeowners. Such a mechanism has been elusive. A number…

Fact Sheet

Regulation

Pension Reform

• October 6, 2006

Taxpayer contributions to Pennsylvania state and school employee’s retirement plans are expected to escalate dramatically beginning in 2011-12. Retiree healthcare will also place enormous burdens on future taxpayers. Specific actions…

Fact Sheet

Taxes & Economy

The Estimated Impact of the Swann Tax Cuts

• Nathan Benefield
• September 25, 2006

Executive Summary Republican gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann has proposed a number of changes to state tax rates. This analysis focuses on four major components of that proposal—namely reductions in the…

Fact Sheet

Taxes & Economy

Total Cost of Pennsylvania State & Local Government

• September 13, 2006

The total cost of state and local government in Pennsylvania reached an estimated $108.3 billion in FY 2005-06, and will likely exceed $130 billion by FY 2010-11 (by conservative projections).

Fact Sheet

Government Accountability

Potential Effects of Reducing the Size of the Pennsylvania General Assembly

• Nathan Benefield
• August 23, 2006

One of the most discussed legislative reforms in Harrisburg is a reduction in the size of the General Assembly. One version of this proposal, SB 890, sponsored by Sen. John…

Fact Sheet

Regulation

The Merits of a Judicial Pay Raise in Pennsylvania

• June 30, 2006

On July 7, 2005, a political firestorm was ignited in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the form of a controversial pay raise for legislators, members of the executive branch, and…

Fact Sheet

State Budget

Pennsylvania Piglet Book 2006

• Nathan Benefield
• May 30, 2006

The Pennsylvania Piglet Book 2006 is the joint effort of the Commonwealth Foundation and Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) to make the citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania aware of…

Report

The Property Tax Relief Scholarship Act

• Matthew Brouillette, Nathan Benefield
• April 12, 2006

To date, the school property tax discussion in Pennsylvania has narrowly focused on the revenue side of the equation, without addressing the spending side of the ledger. This has led…

Fact Sheet

Regulation

Beneath the Surface: Pennsylvania’s Looming Pension and Healthcare Benefits Crisis

• Richard Dreyfuss
• February 23, 2006

Pennsylvania government employee-benefit plans operate in a vacuum. In a world where private-sector benefit cutbacks and cost reductions occur on a daily basis, state government in Harrisburg has not responded…

Report

Taxes & Economy

Minimum Wage: Q & A

• December 15, 2005

WHO ARE MINIMUM WAGE WORKERS IN PENNSYLVANIA?…

Fact Sheet

Public Union Democracy

Property Taxpayer Protections: Tax Referendum & Prevailing Wage

• December 14, 2005

The Pennsylvania General Assembly is in the midst of discussing what to do about school property taxes. The discussion is an old one in Harrisburg. The complexity of this issue…

Fact Sheet

State Budget

Pennsylvania’s Spending Limitation Bills

• Matthew Brouillette
• November 8, 2005

Pennsylvania is Exhibit #1 proving the axiom: “You can have government growth, or you can have economic growth, but you can’t have both!” For years, Pennsylvania public policy has increased…

Fact Sheet

Taxes & Economy

Minimum Wage: Facts

• October 18, 2005

Proponents of artificial increases in the government-mandated minimum wage argue, among other things, that raising the hourly minimum wage will help to lift families with children out of poverty and…

Fact Sheet

Taxes & Economy

The Effects of the Proposed Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Increase

• September 13, 2005

In recent years, the movement to enact “living wages” or increases in the minimum wage has been active in states and cities across the country. Advocates of these wage hikes…

Report

Taxes & Economy

Rail Disasters 2005

• June 29, 2005

This paper reviews ridership and other transit data published by the Federal Transit Administration from 1982 through 2003, plus 2004 ridership data published by the American Public Transportation Association, to…

Report

Health Care

Preferred Drug Lists (PDLs)

• June 21, 2005

Governor Ed Rendell has proposed a Medicaid “Preferred Drug List” (PDL) as a means to address Pennsylvania’s welfare spending problem. PDLs limit the availability of drugs to Medicaid recipients and…

Fact Sheet

Regulation

Growing Greener II

• May 13, 2005

While Pennsylvanians obviously want an environmentally safe and economically prosperous state, the $625 million debt plan known as “Growing Greener II” guarantees neither.

Fact Sheet

Taxes & Economy

Tax Cuts & Economic Growth

• May 11, 2005

The paramount economic lesson of the past several decades is that tax cuts stimulate growth and increased government spending chokes it off. DIDN’T PENNSYLVANIA TRY THE TAX-CUT APPROACH IN THE…

Fact Sheet

Taxes & Economy

Air Quality False Alarm: An Analysis of the Natural Resource Defense Councils Heat Advisory Report

• March 23, 2005

This report shows that air pollution will decline in the future, regardless of whether there is global warming, and that NRDC exaggerates likely future temperature increases in any case. Section…

Report

Regulation

Internet Taxes

• February 10, 2005

A number of bills in the General Assembly represent the essential first step in extending the Commonwealth’s sales tax to out-of-state purchases—including those made over the Internet—through the national initiative…

Fact Sheet