Executive Summary
 

State government consumption and spending of taxpayer money has grown rapidly over the years. Since 1970, Pennsylvania’s operating budget increased from $4.2 billion to $59 billion in FY 2007-2008, an inflation-adjusted increase of over 168%. As a share of personal income, the state’s operating budget rose from 8.8% in FY 1970-1971 to an estimated 12.2% in FY 2007-2008—an increase of more than 39%.

Executive Summary

From the 1986-87 to 2005-06 school years, taxpayer spending on Pennsylvania’s government-run K-12 schools increased from $6.6 billion to almost $22 billion—a 72% increase after adjusting for inflation. Between 1996-97 and 2005-2006, Pennsylvania’s public schools added over 43,000 staff—teachers, administrators, and support staff—while enrollment increased by only 26,000. Thus, for every new student, schools added 1.6 staff.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In November 2006, Governor Ed Rendell’s Pennsylvania Transportation Funding and Reform Commission identified a $1.7 billion annual shortfall in funding for the Commonwealth’s transportation infrastructure and mass transit services. The Commission suggested an additional $900 million for state highways and bridges, $65 million for local highways and bridges, and $700 million for mass transit is needed on an annual basis to sufficiently meet Pennsylvania’s transportation funding needs.

Executive Summary

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Pennsylvania government employee-benefit plans operate in a vacuum. In a world where private-sector benefit cutbacks and cost reductions occur on a daily basis, state government in Harrisburg has not responded in similar fashion. In fact, instead of reducing the potential for financial disaster, actions in recent years have served to accelerate the coming crisis.

Executive Summary

In recent years, the movement to enact “living wages” or increases in the minimum wage has been active in states and cities across the country. Advocates of these wage hikes argue that the increases will help low-income families escape poverty. While emotionally compelling, this argument ignores the unintended consequences the proposed increase would create. Worse, the mandated increase confers its benefits overwhelmingly on employees who aren’t poor, while those who are bear a disproportionate share of the costs.

The Impact of Rail Transit on Transit Ridership

Abstract

This paper reviews ridership and other transit data published by the Federal Transit Administration from 1982 through 2003, plus 2004 ridership data published by the American Public Transportation Association, to determine the long-term eff ects of rail transit on transit ridership. Th e report also uses 1982–2003 data on miles of driving in each urban area published by the Federal Highway Administration to determine changes in transit’s share of egional travel. The report shows that:

Introduction

Abstract

This paper grades rail transit in twenty-three urban areas on thirteen different criteria:

For more than 250 years, Pennsylvanians have striven to bring academic excellence within reach of their children. In the mid 1700s, when Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and William & Mary colleges were still chiefly seminaries for training clergymen, Benjamin Franklin led a campaign to found an academy of literary, commercial, and scientific studies. That precedent-setting academy went on to become the University of Pennsylvania.

Executive Summary

With increasing global competition taking a toll on U.S. manufacturing jobs, and state governments and municipalities struggling to achieve greater operating efficiencies in the face of declining revenues and increasing costs, it is time for Pennsylvania policymakers to reassess the costs and benefits of compulsory unionism on the state’s economic development. The evidence suggests that the Keystone State and its citizens would greatly benefit if Pennsylvania became a “right-to-work” state.