Commonwealth Foundation Archives

Shapiro’s Planned Spending Increase Alarms Pennsylvania Budget Hawks

March 8, 2023March 8, 2023 Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro asked the state General Assembly members on Tuesday to support his requested $45.9 billion budget, which would increase spending by approximately 4 percent over current outlays.

The governor insisted he based his plan for Fiscal Year 2023-24 on “conservative” revenue estimates. And he did include some provisions appealing to anti-taxers and free-marketers including nixing the state cell-phone tax, a move he estimates would save Pennsylvanians $124 million annually.

Pennsylvania House Republicans Prepare to Fight for Fiscal Reforms

February 15, 2023February 15, 2023 Bradley Vasoli

Republicans lost their majority in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives last year, but on Tuesday GOP members voiced their hope that the state might still curb state spending and lighten the tax burden with which the commonwealth saddles residents and businesses.

With that goal in mind, House Appropriations Committee Minority Chairman Seth Grove (R-York) led a roundtable discussion with several state fiscal-policy experts.

With New Majority, Pennsylvania House Democrats Prioritize Abortion and Stopping Voter ID

February 9, 2023February 8, 2023 Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania Democrats in the House of Representatives are seizing their new majority in the state House of Representatives — secured this week with three special-election victories — to advance abortion and lose voting security.

Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman Sharif Street, who represents part of Philadelphia in the state Senate, issued a statement congratulating Joe McAndrew, Abigail Salisbury and Matt Gergely, all of whom won Allegheny County-based House seats. The chair said he looks forward to the work he believes House leadership wants to do to keep abortion widely available and ensure Pennsylvanians need not submit identification to vote at the polls.

Policy Constraints Force Electric Bills Up in Pennsylvania

December 5, 2022December 4, 2022 Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvanians’ electric bills rose by an average of nearly three-quarters over the last two years and policymakers have only made the problem worse, according to the Harrisburg-based Commonwealth Foundation (CF).

State residents served by Pennsylvania Power and Light (PPL) have seen their rates go up by just over half since December 2020. Customers of the Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO) have meanwhile experienced a doubling of their power costs during that time. All other providers have also risen their rates considerably.

Report: Pennsylvania Lags in Health Care Due to Restrictions on Nurse Authority

November 21, 2022November 21, 2022 The Center Square

Pennsylvania is out of step with its neighbors and deregulating some health care services could give residents of the commonwealth better access to treatment, a new analysis argues.

The Commonwealth Foundation released a report arguing that Maryland’s effort to grant nurse practitioners full practice authority is a model for Pennsylvania.

Taxpayers Have Tab for Estimated $2 Billion After ‘Reckless Policy Changes’ in Pennsylvania Medicaid

October 31, 2022October 30, 2022 The Center Square

In Pennsylvania, Medicaid eligibility has expanded at the same time that officials have suspended verification. The result is that costs have gone up — along with the number of people getting benefits while not legally qualifying for them.

So explains a new report from the Commonwealth Foundation on Pennsylvania’s “Wayward Welfare State.”

Analysis: New Pennsylvania Budget Boosts Corporate Welfare to $1.3B

August 22, 2022August 21, 2022 Admin

Pennsylvania’s latest budget deal increased spending, and a good chunk favored private businesses, according to critics.

A new analysis from the Commonwealth Foundation says the budget carried $1.3 billion in corporate welfare spending.

Pennsylvania Governor and Business Leaders Celebrate Corporate Tax Reduction

August 9, 2022August 8, 2022 Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania business advocates joined Governor Tom Wolf (D) at the York County Economic Alliance on Monday to welcome an upcoming change in tax policy championed by entrepreneurs across the commonwealth.

Via the new budget agreed to this summer by Wolf and the Republican-controlled General Assembly, Pennsylvania will begin a decade-long phased halving of its corporate net income tax (CNIT). Of the forty-four states with a business income tax, the size of the Keystone State’s current 9.99-percent rate is second only to New Jersey’s 11.5-percent tax. Besides these two states, only four others levy top business income tax rates that exceed nine percent.

Pennsylvania Governor Signs Budget

July 11, 2022July 10, 2022 Bradley Vasoli

Gov. Tom Wolf (D) on Friday signed Pennsylvania’s $45 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2022-23.

The governor and Republican-controlled legislature were only able to agree to the fiscal blueprint a week after the June 30 deadline. Revenues covering budget items include $42.8 billion in state taxpayer dollars and $2 billion in federal money.

Pennsylvania Heads into New Fiscal Year Without a Budget

July 4, 2022July 3, 2022 Bradley Vasoli

As July begins, Pennsylvania enters into Fiscal Year 2022-23 without an FY 22-23 budget.

Republicans who control the General Assembly and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf have yet to agree on all facets of the spending plan. Altogether, the governor has proposed allotting $43.7 billion in taxpayer money in the next budget cycle, a figure that Republicans have said is too high.

Latest Pennsylvania Budget Estimate Has Modest Economic Growth, Dip in Tax Revenue

June 28, 2022June 27, 2022 The Center Square

Pennsylvania’s economy will have modest real economic growth but also a dip in tax revenues in the next fiscal year as one-time boosts fade away, according to the latest revenue estimates from the Independent Fiscal Office.

The estimate for fiscal year 2022-23 does not assume a recession will hit, but does assume inflation will still be a problem, which cuts away at real gains in areas such as wages and salaries.

Education Voucher Program Works Its Way Through the Pennsylvania Senate

June 26, 2022June 25, 2022 The Center Square

The Pennsylvania General Assembly has moved another step closer in creating a scholarship program for students in underperforming schools to transfer elsewhere.

HB2169, narrowly passed in the House in April, would grant a $6,800 Lifeline Scholarship to students in the bottom 15% of the lowest-performing schools and allow them to use the money on tuition, tutoring, and other educational expenses.

Survey Suggests Pennsylvanians Back Free-Market Reforms, Believe State Economy Needs Improvement

June 3, 2022June 2, 2022 Bradley Vasoli

A new survey released Thursday by the Commonwealth Foundation (CF), a Harrisburg-based think tank, suggests Pennsylvanians broadly support free-market reforms the institute urges policymakers to embrace.

CF publicized its Better Pennsylvania 2023 Plan, a list of 23 such recommendations, in conjunction with the poll. Executive vice president Jennifer Stefano said the foundation plans to distribute the agenda to state lawmakers and candidates for public office. She believes the ideas’ implementation will “restore hope to our citizens across the commonwealth and set us on a better path that allows all Pennsylvanians to flourish.”

Tax Reform May Be Needed to Reverse Pennsylvania Population Decline

April 10, 2022April 9, 2022 The Center Square

Before the pandemic hit, Pennsylvania’s economy had been steadily growing for a decade – but not its population. The population loss has both political and economic consequences.

Federally, Pennsylvania’s influence will lag. The state lost a Congressional district thanks to net emigration from the state. The future of economic growth, too, may fall off as natives and would-be migrants from other states look to growing areas of the South and West.

New Report: Pennsylvania’s Government Spending Damaging Economy

February 2, 2022February 1, 2022 Bradley Vasoli

A report released this week by the Commonwealth Foundation (CF), a Harrisburg-based think tank, underscores the drawbacks of lavish government spending for ordinary Pennsylvanians.

Inflation and the economic policies that fuel it have already weighed on the minds of Americans for months. Federal spending during the COVID-19 pandemic has skyrocketed to create a debt nearing $30 trillion, equating to 133 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product and amounting to $239,000 per taxpayer.

Pennsylvania Senate Democrats Push for Public-School Funding Increase

February 1, 2022January 31, 2022 Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania Senate Minority Appropriations Chairman Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia) announced Monday he aims to achieve the largest public-school funding boost in state history this year.

Basic education funding has already seen a record-setting four-percent spending increase for the current fiscal year, with $7.07 billion in state-taxpayer dollars now going to public schools. (About twice that amount also gets allotted to schools annually from local property-tax revenues.)

While Pennsylvania Democrats Want to Increase Welfare Payments, Some Experts Urge Focus on Bigger Picture

August 25, 2021August 26, 2021 Bradley Vasoli

Democrats in the Pennsylvania General Assembly hope to increase monthly welfare benefits in Pennsylvania, reasoning that payments under the federally funded Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program have stayed flat since the 1990s, falling well behind inflation.

Legislation being drafted by state Sen. Katie Muth (D-PA-Royersford) and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-PA-Philadelphia) would increase Pennsylvania’s TANF benefits, which average $403 per month for a family of three in most counties.