Governor Rendell’s proposed “Cover All Pennsylvanians” claims to provide health insurance for an Administration-estimated 800,000 currently uninsured Pennsylvania adults at a cost of $1 billion dollars in just four years. However, “Cover All Pennsylvanians” falls short of reducing the number of uninsured, if at all.

What Voters Need To Know On May 15, 2007, voters across the Commonwealth will be asked to vote on a property-to-income tax shift to pay for public education expenditures. The Property Tax Relief Act of 2006 (Act 1 of the Special Session) requires every school district—except Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Scranton—to ask voters if they want to increase taxes on income earners in order to pay for property tax rebates for homeowners. Such a shift will result in a higher tax burden on some, and a lower tax burden on others.

In July 2007, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed and Governor Ed Rendell signed Act 44. This legislation authorized the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) to increase tolls on the Turnpike; to take control of Interstate 80 by entering into a lease agreement with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT); to begin tolling Interstate 80; and to issue billions of dollars in bonded debt. Following are some answers to frequently asked questions about Act 44 of 2007 and transportation funding.

Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering legislation that would limit campaign contributions and would allow for taxpayer financing of gubernatorial campaigns. This legislation is based on the “Clean Election” model passed by Arizona in 1998, New Jersey in 2005, and the Federal laws passed in the mid 1970s. While appealing at first blush, these laws fail to lead to the benefits touted by proponents and, in the process, curtail citizens’ free speech.

ISN’T THERE TOO MUCH MONEY IN POLITICS?

Hearings are being held across the state on legislation for limits on spending by public cyber schools The proposed legislation is a response to criticism that cyber schools are not accountable, do not serve students well, and are a drain on school districts, and receive more money than they “need”.

Q: Are cyber schools unaccountable?

A: No. Cyber schools must meet every public school accountability standard—and more.

Across the United States, state and local governments are locked in a constant competition to attract and retain businesses. Public subsidies, in the form of grants, loans, tax incentives, and other blandishments, have become a large part of the “development toolbox,” as termed by former Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Sam McCullough, that officials use to win these bidding contests.

Governor Ed Rendell has proposed issuing $850 million in new debt to subsidize select “alternative energy” companies and energy conservation efforts, along with a mandate that every gallon of gasoline contain 10% ethanol.

Principles to Guide Energy Policy

While Pennsylvanians obviously want an environmentally safe and economically prosperous state, the $625 million debt plan known as “Growing Greener II” guarantees neither. FOUR BASIC FLAWS OF GROWING GREENER II

Reform in health care should follow a few key principles:

Give individuals and employers more choices in health care. Give them more freedom in choosing health care options.

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 known as the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP). There are a number of significant problems with the SSTP.

The most critical reforms of the General Assembly include:

Mass transit in Pennsylvania does not have a funding problem—it has a cost problem. One alternative to higher taxpayer subsidies, service cuts, or fare increases is “competitive contracting” of transit services. Competitive contracting is not privatization. It is a public-private partnership that draws upon the strengths of each sector and minimizes weaknesses.

Proponents of artificial increases in the government-mandated minimum wage argue, among other things, that raising the hourly minimum wage will help to lift families with children out of poverty and have little to no negative impact on employment. The economic evidence and demographic data, however, contradict those claims and show how raising the minimum wage will harm the very people it is intended to help.

MOST PENNSYLVANIA WORKERS DO NOT EARN THE MINIMUM WAGE, AND THE VAST MAJORITY OF THOSE WHO DO ARE NOT POOR.

WHO ARE MINIMUM WAGE WORKERS IN PENNSYLVANIA?

Act 44 of 2007 dramatically expanded the scope and power of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) to increase tolls on the 537-mile Turnpike; enter into a lease agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to take control of the 311-mile Interstate 80; begin tolling Interstate 80; and issue $13.8 billion in bonded debt.

Taxpayer contributions to Pennsylvania state and school employee’s retirement plans are expected to escalate dramatically beginning in 2011-12. Retiree healthcare will also place enormous burdens on future taxpayers. Specific actions to be considered should include:

Governor Ed Rendell has proposed a Medicaid “Preferred Drug List” (PDL) as a means to address Pennsylvania’s welfare spending problem. PDLs limit the availability of drugs to Medicaid recipients and force companies to pay “rebates” to states using them if they wish to have drugs included on state-approved lists. Although such “pay-to-play fees” provide state government with new tax revenues in the short term, they cause long-term harm to both job creation and pharmaceutical development.

The Pennsylvania General Assembly is in the midst of discussing what to do about school property taxes. The discussion is an old one in Harrisburg. The complexity of this issue and the variety of legislative proposals (from carving out exemptions for certain classes of citizens to using future gambling money for rebates to eliminating school property taxes entirely by increasing the sales or income taxes) suggest that lawmakers are no closer to a resolution today than they were decades ago.

Although everyone agrees that traffic congestion and air pollution are neither good nor desirable for Central Pennsylvania, regional rail transit—otherwise known as “Corridor One”—is not the solution to these problems. In fact, while the benefits of rail transit are touted as intuitive, the empirical evidence suggests that the taxpayers of Dauphin, Lancaster and Cumberland counties are being taken down a dead-end track.

Is rail transit cost effective?

Pennsylvania homeowners lack the right to vote on school property tax increases, while citizens in 44 other states enjoy some form of taxpayer protection. As Pennsylvania legislators debate whether or not to empower citizens with the right to vote on school tax increases, the following are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about school tax referendum. Are school district tax increases "out of control"?