Big Ideas for Pennsylvania

The Patriot News has a series of “Big Ideas for Pennsylvania”, including a couple we have championed –  privatizing the state-owned liquor stores and reforming the state pension systems.  Another idea is tolling interstates, an idea we might support, if such toll roads were privately operated, rather than the debacle of the Turnpike Commission and the proposed tolling of I-80.

Resources on Liquor Stores Privatization:

• Testimony on the Privatization of State Stores
• Public Benefits from Private Liquor
• Sen. Wonderling’s commentary on privatizing the state stores from 2007. 
• Privatization of Liquor Stores: No Threat to Public Safety
• Report from the Liquor Control Board on underage drinking, which concludes that Pennsylvania has similar rates of college-age drinking as the national average, and higher rates of high school age drinking.

Resources on Pension Reform:

• Beneath the Surface: Pennsylvania’s Looming Pension & Healthcare Benefits Crisis
• Public Pension Reform Introduced  
• Getting Out of the Pension Dilemma
• More on the PA Pension “Spike”
• Philadelphia’s “Pension Reform” is Generational Theft
• A Tale of Three Cities: Pennsylvania’s Retiree and Medical Liability Challenges