Taxes & Economy

School Board Transparency Recognized

  • April 21, 2009

Carlisle School Board member Fred Baldwin wins award for Commonwealth Foundation project promoting open school district labor negotiations HARRISBURG, PA — Fred Baldwin, manager of the Commonwealth Foundation’s School Board…

Press Release

Read More: School Board Transparency Recognized

State Budget

Even more reasons to oppose the stimulus

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 3, 2009

NTU’s blog has a long list (via Tom Coburn) of wasteful spending and bad policy in the federal “stimulus” bill, including: $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen,…

Media

Read More: Even more reasons to oppose the stimulus

Taxes & Economy

Residents Still “Movin Out” of Pennsylvania

  • Nathan Benefield
  • December 23, 2008

The Census Bureau released the latest annual population estimates. The trends for Pennsylvania remain much the same: Pennsylvania grew by 0.2% between July 2007 and July 2008 – ranking…

Media

Read More: Residents Still “Movin Out” of Pennsylvania

Government Accountability

Constitutional Convention in IL gets a boost

  • Nathan Benefield
  • October 2, 2008

The Illinois Constitutional Convention ballot question, discussed in a previous post, got a couple of boosts in the last week. First came news that the Cook County Assessor…

Media

Read More: Constitutional Convention in IL gets a boost

Government Accountability

Pennsylvania not only state looking at Constitutional Convention

  • Nathan Benefield
  • August 19, 2008

Today’s Policies and Principles Luncheon will focus discuss whether Pennsylvania needs to hold a Constitutional Convention (see also Sen. Piccola’s commentary on the need for a Convention on…

Media

Read More: Pennsylvania not only state looking at Constitutional Convention

Education

School Choice Tax Credit Saves Money in IL

  • Nathan Benefield
  • March 28, 2008

An analysis by the Illinois Policy Institute of the Illinois Education Expense Tax Credit finds that an increase on the cap for that credit to $4,000 per child would…

Media

Read More: School Choice Tax Credit Saves Money in IL

Health Care

Stateline: Socialized Medicine = Fiscally Conservative

  • Nathan Benefield
  • March 17, 2008

Stateline.org has an interesting article on health care funding in the states. The headline reads “On health care, govs are tightening belts.” Here are some examples of “belt-tightening”:…

Media

Read More: Stateline: Socialized Medicine = Fiscally Conservative

Education

The School Choice Gold Standard

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 15, 2008

The Friedman Foundation has a new report grading the various scholarship, voucher, and tax credit programs across the US on three categories – student restrictions (how many students can…

Media

Read More: The School Choice Gold Standard

Turnpike leasing gets another look

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 5, 2008

Editorial in the Lancaster New Era on a Turnpike lease takes to task the fearmongers opposing the idea: Are opponents skeptical, or fearful, of turning the turnpike over…

Media

Read More: Turnpike leasing gets another look