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Key Takeaways from Governor’s 2024 Budget Proposal
Key Points Gov. Josh Shapiro’s startling spending increases and myriad of new initiatives would explode the budget deficit and invite massive tax hikes on working families in the coming years.
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Public Union Democracy
Shapiro’s Project Labor Agreement Mandate
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Regulation
Regulatory Reforms Stalled in State House
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Education
Higher Education Spending & Performance
Gov. Tom Corbett's FY 2011-12 budget proposal includes $63.6 billion in total operating spending—$27.3 billion in General Fund spending—a reduction of $3.3 billion from FY 2010-11. This budget restores overall…
Fact Sheet
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Pennsylvania State Budget Resources 2011
Gov. Tom Corbett's FY 2011-12 budget proposal includes $63.6 billion in total operating spending—$27.3 billion in General Fund spending—a reduction of $3.3 billion from FY 2010-11. This budget restores overall…
Fact Sheet
Read More: Pennsylvania State Budget Resources 2011Public Union Democracy
Streamlining State Government
Pennsylvania businesses must navigate a complex web of regulations from more than 340 independent state agencies, offices, state departments, boards, commissions, and committees stemming from the executive branch. Several other…
Report
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Understanding the Pennsylvania State Budget
Pennsylvania's total state operating budget for FY 2010-11 is approximately $65.4 billion-or $5,193 for every man, woman and child in the commonwealth. This policy brief looks at the entire state…
Fact Sheet
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Reality-Based Budgeting
Pennsylvania state government will tax and spend more than $65 billion this fiscal year. With the loss of federal stimulus money and the exhaustion of all one-time expenditures, the legislature…
Fact Sheet
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School Choice: Questions & Answers
The Pennsylvania School Board Association is circulating "Questions about vouchers your legislator should be asking." Others have legitimate questions and concerns. This Policy Brief answers them all.
Fact Sheet
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15 School Choice Myths
In an attempt to thwart efforts to give children better educational opportunities, the public school establishment is trying to divert the attention of policymakers through a series of oft-repeated myths…
Fact Sheet
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Pennsylvania School Choice Resources
Senate Bill 1, The Opportunity Scholarship Act sponsored by Sen. Jeff Piccola (R) and Sen. Tony Williams (D), would expand scholarships available to children in lower- and middle-income families through…
Fact Sheet
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School Choice: Why, What, and How
Nine of the 10 "gold standard" evaluations of voucher programs reported statistically significant gains in achievement for all or some voucher recipients. In 18 out of 19 academically rigorous studies,…
Fact Sheet
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Senate Bill 1: Analysis & Recommendations
Senate Bill 1, The Opportunity Scholarship Act sponsored by Sen. Jeff Piccola (R) and Sen. Tony Williams (D), would expand scholarships available to children in lower- and middle-income families through…
Fact Sheet
Read More: Senate Bill 1: Analysis & RecommendationsEnergy
Citizen’s Guide to Electric Choice & Competition 2011
In the late 1990s, Pennsylvania's electricity rates were 15% above the national average, despite the abundance of low-cost coal generation in the Commonwealth. At that time, electricity was sold by…
Fact Sheet
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80 Ideas for a Prosperous Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania must undergo a rapid transformation to reverse the poor policy decisions that have eroded economic freedoms and brought the state to its present condition. To provide a roadmap for…
Report
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Five Ways to Cut $5 Billion
Tom Corbett campaigned for Governor of Pennsylvania on a pledge not to raise taxes or fees to balance the state's $66 billion budget. With the loss of nearly $3 billion…
Fact Sheet
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Long-Term Care Reform
Long-term care is very expensive whether provided in a nursing home, an assisted living facility, or in someone's home. Medicaid pays for most professional long-term care (LTC) in Pennsylvania. LTC…
Report
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13 Reasons to Oppose HB 2497
Pennsylvania's largest public pension plans—Public School Employees Retirement System (PSERS) and State Employees Retirement System (SERS)—are severely underfunded. But instead of reforming the defined-benefit pension system and paying down these…
Fact Sheet
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Union Pension Bailout & Generational Theft
Pennsylvania's largest public pension plans—Public School Employees Retirement System (PSERS) and State Employees Retirement System (SERS)—are severely underfunded. But instead of reforming the defined-benefit pension system and paying down these…
Fact Sheet
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Health Care Reform: An Update
Before enacting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Congress had to pass the bill before we'd find out what's in…
Fact Sheet
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Growing Money on Trees
In December 2009, the Pennsylvania Climate Change Advisory Committee (PCCAC), in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Center for Climate Strategies (CCS), released its report,…
Report
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PennFuture’s Lobbying
PennFuture (a.k.a. Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future), the organization founded by Pennsylvania Secretary of Environmental Protection John Hanger over 10 years ago, frequently criticizes the lobbying by traditional energy industries. But…
Fact Sheet
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Pennsylvania Budget Facts 2010: Corporate Taxes
The Commonwealth has the second highest state corporate income tax (behind Iowa, which has more generous deductions and exemptions). When compounding state and federal corporate taxes, Pennsylvania's corporate income tax…
Fact Sheet
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Pennsylvania Education Spending
Pennsylvania's education spending increased from $4 billion in 1980 to over $25 billion in 2009-a 133% increase in per-pupil spending, after adjusting for inflation. School construction and debt spending has…
Fact Sheet
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