Erik Telford
Senior Vice President of Public Affairs
Erik Telford is the Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at the Commonwealth Foundation.
Erik is a senior public affairs and communications executive with more than 15 years of diverse experience across public policy, advocacy, and public affairs institutions. Before joining the Commonwealth Foundation, Erik served as the senior vice president at Stand Together Communications, the Koch network’s marketing and communications capability. Erik has also served as the president of the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity, a state-based watchdog journalism organization. And at Americans for Prosperity, he was the executive director of RightOnline (an initiative he founded) and the director of membership and online strategy. He is currently on the board of the American Commitment Foundation.
In 2013, Campaigns & Elections Magazine honored Erik as an “Advocacy Innovator” and in 2011 as a “Rising Star in American Politics.” Politics Online named him one of the “Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics.”
Taxes & Economy
Meet the New Pennsylvania: Same as the Old Pennsylvania
April 15 marks the first Tax Day on which Pennsylvanians will fully feel the impact of the roughly $1 billion tax increase passed in December 2003 by the General Assembly…
Commentary
Read More: Meet the New Pennsylvania: Same as the Old PennsylvaniaEducation
The Union Behind the Curtain
California’s Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is giving his 49 colleagues across the country a quick tutorial in political courage. And Gov. Ed Rendell would be wise to sit up in class…
Commentary
Read More: The Union Behind the CurtainState Budget
Spending Limits: If Gov. Rendell Doesnt Like Them, They Must Be a Good Idea
Well, that didn’t take long. Within a week of Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader David “Chip” Brightbill’s announcement that he would introduce a bill and/or constitutional amendment to bring state government…
Commentary
Read More: Spending Limits: If Gov. Rendell Doesnt Like Them, They Must Be a Good IdeaPublic Union Democracy
The Teachers Menace: Compulsory Unionism
“I want to urge devotion to the fundamental of human liberty—to the principles of voluntarism. No lasting gain has ever come from compulsion. … [T]he workers of America adhere to…
Commentary
Read More: The Teachers Menace: Compulsory UnionismTaxes & Economy
An Overdue Diet for an Overweight Government
Working Pennsylvanians received wage or salary increases averaging just slightly more than 6 percent over the last two years—yet state government spending during the first half of the Rendell Administration…
Commentary
Read More: An Overdue Diet for an Overweight GovernmentTaxes & Economy
Air Quality False Alarm: An Analysis of the Natural Resource Defense Councils Heat Advisory Report
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
Read More: Air Quality False Alarm: An Analysis of the Natural Resource Defense Councils Heat Advisory ReportEducation
School Choice Works!
A Quick Guide to the Scholarly Literature on School Choice During a recent round of visits with print journalists, I spoke to a newspaper editor who told me that she…
Commentary
Read More: School Choice Works!Education
The Somerset Nine: Pennsylvanias Magnificent Seven
What does it take for school board members to be fiscally responsible with taxpayers’ money? For the nine members of the Somerset Area School District (SASD) board of directors, the…
Commentary
Read More: The Somerset Nine: Pennsylvanias Magnificent SevenTaxes & Economy
NutraSweet Candidates
In the summer of 1999, then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton launched a “listening tour” throughout New York State to vet a potential candidacy for the U.S. Senate. Some variation…
Commentary
Read More: NutraSweet CandidatesEnergy
For Pennsylvania Taxpayers, It’s Not Easy Being “Green”
When it comes to being “green,” Kermit the Frog has nothing on Gov. Ed Rendell and the Pennsylvania House Republicans. The two sides are promoting dueling environmental plans, both of…
Commentary
Read More: For Pennsylvania Taxpayers, It’s Not Easy Being “Green”Taxes & Economy
Taking Us BackBut Not to Prosperity
Few people are against preserving and protecting Pennsylvania’s farmland and open space. And fortunately for us, between 86 and 94 percent of our state is undeveloped, depending on who you…
Commentary
Read More: Taking Us BackBut Not to ProsperityRegulation
Internet Taxes
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
Read More: Internet TaxesWelfare
“From Poverty to Self-Sufficiency”
Matt Brouillette talked about true charity care for our poor at the Community Action Association of Pennsylvania's annual convention in Harrisburg.
Commentary
Read More: “From Poverty to Self-Sufficiency”State Budget
Total Cost of Pennsylvania Government: 2005 and Beyond
The total cost of state and local government in Pennsylvania is projected to exceed $102 billion in FY 2004-05, and will likely reach more than $115 billion by the 2008-09…
Fact Sheet
Read More: Total Cost of Pennsylvania Government: 2005 and BeyondTaxes & Economy
House Democrats Star in “Groundhog Day”
This week marks Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania—the day that the world’s most famous groundhog emerges from his hole to tell us whether or not we can expect an early…
Commentary
Read More: House Democrats Star in “Groundhog Day”Taxes & Economy
No “Free Lunch” for Pennsylvania
"Nobody spends somebody else's money as carefully as he spends his own," the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once remarked. For decades, Pennsylvania's state government has spent billions of taxpayer…
Commentary
Read More: No “Free Lunch” for PennsylvaniaTaxes & Economy
Competition: The Real Solution to Public Transit’s “Crisis”
Pennsylvania's two major public transit agencies--the Philadelphia-based Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and the Pittsburgh-based Port Authority Transit (PAT)--are facing a financial crisis. But it's not due to a lack…
Commentary
Read More: Competition: The Real Solution to Public Transit’s “Crisis”Taxes & Economy
“Strike the Root” of Pennsylvania’s Competitive Disadvantage
Henry David Thoreau once wrote that "For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root"--meaning that when confronted with a problem, most people…
Commentary
Read More: “Strike the Root” of Pennsylvania’s Competitive DisadvantageTaxes & Economy
PA Political Math: Higher Taxes = Taxpayer “Savings”
A recent news release from Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Alan Novak congratulated "Republican leaders and lawmakers ... for stopping Gov. Ed Rendell yet again from raising taxes on hard-working Pennsylvania…
Commentary
Read More: PA Political Math: Higher Taxes = Taxpayer “Savings”Taxes & Economy
A Lack of Economic Freedom Threatens Our Political Freedom
One of the primary purposes of the United States and Pennsylvania Constitutions is to protect and preserve citizens' political freedom. The Founders realized that the American experiment could not succeed…
Commentary
Read More: A Lack of Economic Freedom Threatens Our Political FreedomTaxes & Economy
Economic Freedom: Endangered in Pennsylvania
Only 5 states perform worse than Pennsylvania in a national ranking of "economic freedom," according to a new study released today (in association with Forbes magazine) by the San Francisco-based…
Commentary
Read More: Economic Freedom: Endangered in Pennsylvania