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Pennsylvania Independent is a public interest journalism project dedicated to promoting open, transparent, and accountable state government by reporting on the activities of agencies, bureaucracies, and politicians in Pennsylvania. Our mission is to promote greater civic engagement and encourage discussion about public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide importance.
Pennsylvania Independent is a project of the Commonwealth Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan public policy education and research institute in Harrisburg. Our reporters adhere to the highest standards of professional journalism and follow the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics.
PennsylvaniaVotes.org is the state's first and only web site that provides—at no cost—a nonpartisan, layman's description of every bill introduced in the General Assembly.
The site empowers users with several other important capabilities, including:
- Building a customized watch list of bills and issues.
- Receiving automatic updates when legislation of interest is introduced or voted on.
- Viewing a breakdown of roll call votes by party or individuals legislators.
- Creating a customized scorecard for legislators.
- Interfacing with each other to share thoughts on issues and legislation.
PennsylvaniaVotes.org will also allow citizens to find and organize the complete voting records of legislators and use search tools to find currently pending and passed legislation.
Tweet Pennsylvania allows you to follow all the updates from Pennsylvania state legislators on Twitter at one source. For more updates from Pennsylvania lawmakers on Twitter, check out the full list.
PleaseNoMoreTaxes.org is a public education effort aimed at the elimination of wasteful state spending and making Pennsylvania's state and local tax burden -- the 11th heaviest in the nation -- tolerable.
The campaign features PleaseNoMoreTaxes.org -- a cutting-edge Web site where taxpayers can:
- Learn the facts about Pennsylvania's fiscal mismanagement.
- Email their legislators.
- Send a video message to the Governor.
- Sign an e-petition to Gov. Rendell and the Legislature to eliminate waste and cut taxes.
- Receive a bumper sticker bearing the rallying cry Please, No More Taxes!
- Watch videos from contest winners
A Ten-Minute Citizen recognizes the need to invest 10 minutes a day, six days a week to protect freedom.
You don’t have to quit your job; you don’t even have to leave your home. You just have to commit to becoming a Ten-Minute Citizen!
What must a Ten-Minute Citizen do to make a difference?
As part of a year-long campaign to provide greater transparency in school district labor negotiations, the Commonwealth Foundation has unveiled a new website and blog, SchoolBoardTransparency.org.
SchoolBoardTransparency.org will offer insight and advice in the labor negotiations process for school boards and citizens. The site will provide regular posts on issues, news, and best practices in school district labor negotiations, and allows users to comment and create posts on a moderated blog.
SchoolChoiceSaves.org, a project of the Commonwealth Foundation, is dedicated to revealing the benefits of parental choice in education -- how school choice saves children from poor-performing schools and saves taxpayers' money.
SchoolChoiceSaves.org provides the facts about school choice in Pennsylvania, profiles the educational options available to families, cites the critical research on school choice, provides the latest news and commentary on education reform, and features audio and video on school choice events and beneficiaries.
In an effort to promote greater transparency in government, the Commonwealth Foundation is a frequent contributor to the Pennsylvania Project at SunshineReview.org.
As part of our School Board Transparency project, the Commonwealth Foundation is using the Sunshine Review wiki to provide a guide to school labor negotions and evaluations of individual Pennsylvania school disticts.
In conjuction with the Show Me the Spending project, the Commonwealth Foundation has been utilizing our unique resources and expertise to post information on the Pennsylvania state budget.
THE BOX: Inside • Outside • On with Matt Brouillette -- Saturday mornings from 8-9am on WHP 580AM in Harrisburg and from 10-11am on The LION in State College.
Hear from the headliners, thinkers, and agitators as Matt tackles the hottest political and cultural issues of the day, gets answers directly from the source, and delivers a viewpoint you won't get anywhere else in talk radio.
In addition to more than 10,000 listeners tuning in every Saturday morning, hundreds of listeners download THE BOX each week online at www.theBOXprogram.com and iTunes. The Commonwealth Foundation also disseminates highlights of THE BOX on CD every month to friends and supporters of the Foundation, as well as elected officials across Pennsylvania.
