Staff

State Budget

Is Rendell Lying About State Police Layoffs?

• Nathan Benefield
• July 1, 2009

Gov. Rendell has been quoted on numerous occasions claiming the budget passed by the Pennsylvania Senate last month would result in the layoff of 800 state police.  We pointed out…

Media

Taxes & Economy

How Legislators Are Increasing Your Electricity Bill

• Elizabeth Stelle
• July 1, 2009

Pennsylvania electricity consumers are in danger of a triple whammy. Three separate energy policies are likely to increase your electric bill (not even counting federal Cap and Trade legislation, which…

Media

State Budget

Where does your legislator stand on raising taxes?

• Matthew Brouillette
• June 30, 2009

This email was just sent to your state Senators and Representatives… Stay tuned!_______ June 30, 2009 Dear Senator/Representative: President Barack Obama said, “In an economy…

Media

Health Care

Response to ObamaCare Infomercial

• Nathan Benefield
• June 30, 2009

The Cato Institute has a video, point-by-point response to Obama’s informercial on his health care reform plan. Topics on this pageBarack Obama…

Media

CF Launches “Yes, We Can!” and “We Agree!”

• June 30, 2009

Harrisburg, PA — The Commonwealth Foundation today launched the “Yes, We Can!” and “We Agree!” education effort to inform citizens about where their state legislators stand in the current budget…

Press Release

Citizens to Lawmakers: Please, No More Taxes!

• June 30, 2009

M e m o r a n d u m______________________________________________________________ Date:        June 30, 2009To:           Gov. Rendell and Members of the Pennsylvania General AssemblyFrom:       The UndersignedRE:          Please,…

Press Release

Taxes & Economy

The Real Effect of Rendell’s Taxes on Small Business

• Nathan Benefield
• June 30, 2009

While Gov. Rendell continues his propaganda campaign for higher taxes (see WGAL for a related news story on the thousands Rendell has spent in taxpayer funds lobbying for more…

Media

Education

More Dollars is Not Producing More Scholars

• Nathan Benefield
• June 30, 2009

A new report from the Math Science Partnership of Greater Philadelphia on Pennsylvania school performance (specifically the 11th grade PSSAs) across school districts finds that: Demographic factors (residents with…

Media

Taxes & Economy

Cap and Trade is a Rip-off

• June 29, 2009

The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clearâ€?, said President Obama, speaking definitively on the issue of climate change, as he usually does with other issues he wants…

Media

Regulation

Has Gambling Reduced Property Taxes?

• Nathan Benefield
• June 29, 2009

In a press conference last week, Gov. Rendell patted himself on the back for all the property tax relief he has provided via gambling.  But John Delano of KDKA-TV in…

Media

Health Care

Residents: RomneyCare a Failure

• Nathan Benefield
• June 29, 2009

Rasmussen polling finds that only 26% of Massachusetts residents think the health care reform in that state was a “success”, compared with 37% calling in a failure. The…

Media

State Budget

Will Pennsylvania Budget Lead to Dogs and Cats Living Together?

• Nathan Benefield
• June 27, 2009

After weeks of new releases, press conferences, and taxpayer-funded bus tours about the horrors that will ensue if the Pennsylvania state budget is $27.3 billion instead of…

Media

Taxes & Economy

The Road Less Travelled in Pennsylvania

• Matthew Brouillette
• June 26, 2009

Editor's note: This is the second in a series of occasional commentaries on how Pennsylvania can turn around its economic fortune.  In their first installment, “Reviving Pennsylvania,” Brouillette and…

Commentary

State Budget

Rendell’s “Pay the Inmates, not the Guards” Strategy

• Matthew Brouillette
• June 26, 2009

The Morning Call’s John Micek has a follow-up article to yesterday’s revelation that inmates would be getting paid while the guards would not during the current budget impasse.

Media

Taxes & Economy

Cap and Trade Will Squeeze State Budgets, Raise Energy Prices, and Cost Jobs

• Nathan Benefield
• June 26, 2009

The Heritage Foundation has a number of new facts on the impact of Cap and Trade, which the US House is supposed to vote on today. Under Cap and…

Media

Time for Open Government is Now

• June 25, 2009

“Pennsylvanians need greater transparency in how state government is spending their hard-earned money.  An online database of state spending would allow every citizen to become a government watchdog. Particularly in…

Press Release

Taxes & Economy

More Mandates=More Expensive Electricity

• Elizabeth Stelle
• June 25, 2009

On Wednesday the Housed passed a bill to reestablish the State Energy Office, terminated in 1995. HB 287 would resurrect the office to preform vague duties like: Promote…

Media

State Budget

Rebutting Rendell’s Rhetoric

• Nathan Benefield
• June 25, 2009

Rendell’s propaganda campaign continues today, with another press conference (his sixty-first, in support of legislation that does not yet exist) with tax eaters asking for more tax dollars. Rendell latest…

Media

Taxes & Economy

Taxpayers Guide to the Stimulus

• Nathan Benefield
• June 25, 2009

Reason Foundation put a new “Taxpayers Guide to the Stimulus” last week that is informative, and an easy-to-digest guide to where all the stimulus money is going.  They also…

Media

Taxes & Economy

Rendell calls CF’s job loss numbers “BS”

• Matthew Brouillette
• June 25, 2009

Last night, Gov. Rendell defended his tax increase proposals on WITF’s state-wide broadcast. Lt. Gov. Joe Scarnati also challenged the Governor’s efforts to sell “snake oil”. But when Nell…

Media

Health Care

Helping the Uninsured

• Nathan Benefield
• June 25, 2009

I had a brief debate via Twitter (I guess it is impossible to have anything but a brief debate on Twitter) with a staffer for the Pennsylvania House…

Media