Nathan Benefield
Senior Vice President
An Ohio native, Nate holds an undergraduate degree in political science and economics and a master’s degree in public service management from DePaul University in Chicago. He also completed his doctoral studies (ABD) in political science at Loyola University, also in Chicago.
Nate joined the Commonwealth Foundation in 2005. Now as senior vice president, he provides strategic leadership as well as operational oversight spanning policy analysis, government relations, marketing, and communications.
Nate has researched and written extensively on public policy issues including the state budget, public sector labor reform, government spending and taxes, liquor privatization, education, and economic development. Under Nate’s policy leadership, the Commonwealth Foundation’s work on public sector pension law helped drive the bipartisan pension reform of 2017, heralded by the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post as an example for other states to follow.
Nate has testified numerous times before state legislative committees and is often called upon by legislators and members of the media to provide expertise. He is a frequent commentator on both television and radio, and his writings have appeared across the state and nationally in outlets including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Patriot-News, and Weekly Standard.
Nate’s favorite rock song and personal motto are both “Don’t Stop Believin.”
‘Prescription for Pa.’ blasted for overregulation
Lancaster New Era with coverage of Michael Cannon’s take on RendellCare. Video of Cannon’s presentation today at the Commonwealth Foundation will be available on our website soon…
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Toast to progress
Post-Gazette editorial on the need to privatize state-run liquor stores.
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Most school districts to limit tax increases
Martha Raffaele on the tax increases for school districts, noting most will be “limiting” increases within the index. The index allows districts to increase taxes by 3.4 to 5.5…
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Some People Probably Shouldn’t Have Health Insurance
Michael Cannon blogs on why health care, not health insurance, is a priority at Cato-at-liberty. Cannon will be taking on the rhetoric of health care reform and offerign free-market…
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Rebutal to Keystone Rebutal
The union-backed Keystone Research Center issued a reply to my income vs wage commentary on their blog. I will add a couple more thoughts: Jobs:The job growth…
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Anti-oil Demagoguery
In a news release, Governor Rendell Calls on Bush Administration to Investigate Exorbitant Gas Prices. Governor Rendell is simply using demagoguery about the “profiteering oil companies” to justify his…
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Turnpike Xenophobia?
From Capitolwire (subscription): Will opponents dub turnpike-leasing plan “Dubai, Chapter II?” Some political analysts believe they have found the silver bullet to kill off Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposed turnpike-leasing…
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State budget battle looms
Brad Bumsted in the Tribune-Review on the upcoming budget battle. Bumsted also touches on yesterday’s hearing on privatizing the state liquor stores (see related post here): On…
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Privatize liquor sales
Patriot News coverage of yesterday’s hearing on privatizion of the state stores. Read our News Release on the hearing and get the full testimony of Reason Foundation experts…
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Eliminate the turnpike commission
Sen. Jane Orie in the Post-Gazette on the waste in the Turnpike Commission and why it would be more efficient to run the turnpike – or oversee a lease…
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Ethanol Vehicles A Health Hazard
Summary of a research report by Mark Jacoboson: “We found that E85 vehicles reduce atmospheric levels of two carcinogens, benzene and butadiene, but increase two others – formaldehyde…
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Health Care Reform Debate
New Republic (registration) has a back and forth between Johnathan Cohn, who argues the US needs a single-payer system in the model of France and Germany, and David Gratzer…
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A Tax on Height?
Greg Mankiw and Matthew Weinzierl propose a tax on height (get the full study here). It has more advanced statistics and a longer literature review than most satire.
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More tax money to ethanol
Central Penn Business Journal on the announcement of $31 million in taxpayer-financed state grants for “clean energy projects,” primarily going to ethanol and biodiesel companies. Appearing yesterday on the…
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How much for PHEAA?
If Sallie Mae is worth $25 Billion, PHEAA (which has about 1/10th the assets as Sallie Mae and about 1/20th the gross revenue) could be worth between $1.7 billion…
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Nepotism at Turnpike Commission
Tom Barnes in the Post-Gazette with a great story on nepotism and patronage at the Turnpike Commission. Rather than deny political favoritism in hiring (as they did last…
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Tax subsidies needed to pay min. wage?
I missed this story in the Philadelphia Inquirer last week. State Rep. (and Philadelphia mayoral candidate) Dwight Evans is working to get $820 million in state subsidy for the…
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More “whoops” with RomneyCare
Massachusetts will now exempt about 60,000 people from the “mandate” to buy health insurance, The Boston Globe reports. Those people earn too much to qualify for state subsidy, but…
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HSA Guide for Legislators
A Guide for State Legislators: Creating an HSA State from the Center for Health Transformation. Also, Greg Scandlen of Consumers for Health Care Choices offers these suggested additions:…
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Privately Managed Schools in Philly Gain
A new report by Paul Peterson at Harvard indicates that privately managed schools in Philadelphia had greater gains in PSSA scores than overall public schools and than “restructured” schools…
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The Act 1 farce
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial on the Act 1, the so-called property tax relief law. Also the Patriot News has coverage of districts joining with the Pennsylvania Taxpayers Cyber…
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