Marijuana Money Can't Fix the Budget
The dollars involved are small and legalization would create new expenses.
Probation Reform Proposals Prioritize Public Safety and Cost Savings
The next step toward smart justice? Probation reform to reduce caseloads, prevent reoffending, produce savings, and break down unnecessary roadblocks to success.
Competition, Not Corporate Welfare: 3 Ways to Help All Businesses Flourish
To effectively promote economic growth and job creation, policymakers need to stop investing tax dollars in failed programs and start enacting policies that benefit a wide range of job creators. By implementing these changes, Pennsylvania can give all businesses a needed hand up.
Pa. Can Energize Its Energy Sector by Cutting Red Tape--Not with Industry Subsidies
This week the state legislature passed House Bill 732. The bill—designed to exempt volunteer service providers from a 1 percent realty transfer tax— now offers tax credits to the natural gas industry. The language for the tax credits was pulled from HB 1100, which attempts to boost the natural gas industry through government incentives. Combined, this unlikely pairing turns a somewhat harmless tax change into a mixed bag of government favoritism and corporate welfare.
Lawmakers Move Two Key Criminal Justice Reforms
Pennsylvania General lawmakers moved two key criminal justice reform bills aimed at improving Pennsylvania’s onerous probation system and limiting the excessive burdens of a criminal record.
Strange Budget for Strange Times: 2020-2021 State Budget Overview
State assembly funds the government through November with a budget chock full of federal aid.
Solutions to Preventing Tax Increases in 2021
Lawmakers can respect the Pennsylvania constitution’s balanced budget amendment and act to prevent tax increases that will drive more families and businesses out of the state, further shrinking the revenue base. Here are our suggestions to balance the budget without raising taxes.
Persistent Leadership Will Safely Reopen Pa.
Governor Wolf continues to take positive steps toward a safe and gradual opening of the Pennsylvania economy because lawmakers continue to advance good policy that protects lives and livelihoods.
Emergency Education Scholarship Accounts
Educational impacts from COVID-19 will reverberate for years—particularly for students who are already struggling. Emergency ESAs can help stem learning losses and keep kids on a path to success.
The Broken Promise of Flexible Liquor Pricing
The Liquor Control Board told the public it would use its expanded pricing powers for consumer benefit. Instead it has used them to benefit only itself.
