State Budget

Deficit Watch: May 2025

• May 2, 2025

Pennsylvania cannot afford more mass transit bailouts. Background Pennsylvania faces serious fiscal challenges. The enacted 2024–25 General Fund budget created a $3.6 billion structural deficit. Gov.

Deficit Watch

No Reason to Worry

• Common Sense Weekly
• April 2, 2025

Welcome to Common Sense Weekly! This is the Commonwealth Foundation’s weekly news roundup of policy issues debated in Harrisburg and across Pennsylvania.We have a new X handle! Follow @MyCommonwealth…

Blog

Government Accountability

Fiscal Earmarks Reduce State Budget Transparency

• Jessica Barnett
• August 19, 2021

The 2021–2022 Fiscal Code contains at least $5.5 billion in federal and state funds earmarked for special projects across the state, up from $120 million last year. Most of this…

Backgrounder

Op-Ed: Vote yes in the May 18 referendum

• May 17, 2021

In the case of the term-limited Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, voters won’t have that opportunity. And after a year of his decisions leaving our state in disarray— with unemployed workers, struggling families, students locked out of the classroom, and entire industries trying to recover…

Commentary

Op-Ed: Four Places to Watch in Pennsylvania on Election Day

• Charles F. McElwee
• November 3, 2020

From upscale suburbs to blue-collar villages, Pennsylvanians will likely determine the presidential victor. Many consider this election a referendum on Trump’s pandemic-era leadership -- especially in a state where COVID-19…

Commentary

Education

Charter Schools Senate Hearing: Giving Parents Options Should Not Be Optional

• Colleen Hroncich
• October 22, 2019

Do charter schools work? That was the focus of a Pennsylvania Senate Education Committee hearing today. The 3-hour meeting featured five different panels discussing various aspects of charter schools…

Media

Education

Fact Sheet: HB 1897 Eliminating Cyber Charter Schools

• Marc LeBlond
• October 16, 2019

Today 34,000 Pennsylvania kids choose cyber charter schools. HB 1897 would eliminate all Pa. cyber charter schools by fall 2021. It also issues a top-down mandate that each school district…

Fact Sheet

Public Union Democracy

Are Unions Preparing to Charge Fair Share Fees Once Again?

• Jessica Barnett
• July 30, 2019

It’s been one year since Janus v. AFSCME overturned 40 years of government labor precedent. Now, public employees who decide not to join their workplace union are no longer forced…

Media

Government Accountability

Budget Earmarks: Sneaky and Unconstitutional

• Andrew Abramczyk, Jessica Barnett
• July 12, 2019

A wise buyer should always read the fine print, but it isn’t easy. Documents like cell phone contracts and software user agreements can be hard to read, often by design. The dense language…

Media