Welcome to Common Sense Weekly! This is the Commonwealth Foundation's weekly news roundup of policy issues being debated in Harrisburg and across Pennsylvania.
Commonwealth Foundation Names Former GOP Lawmaker Andrew Lewis as Incoming CEO
The Commonwealth Foundation announced Wednesday that former state legislator Andrew Lewis has been named the conservative advocacy group’s new president and CEO.
Lewis will take over on Sept. 19 from outgoing CEO Charles Mitchell, who announced earlier this year that he would be stepping down to pursue other work in conservative policy.
“As I step into this role, I am both humbled and inspired by the opportunity to lead us into the next chapter of our mission—to transform free market ideas into actionable public policies that benefit the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Lewis said in a prepared announcement.
Florida vs. Michigan on Public Unions
States are drifting apart on issues like taxes and school choice, and a big reason is the relative power of public unions. A new report shows which states have managed to curb their government-employee lobby, and which have entrenched it. On Labor Day weekend, it also shows which states believe in worker freedom and which support the forced collection of union dues.
The Commonwealth Foundation ranks states by how much pressure public workers face to join and fund unions. The award for most improved goes to Florida, where recent laws took it to an A from a C in two years. The biggest drop came in Michigan, which fell to D from B as legislators undo hard-won reforms.
The contrast between the two states is clearest on a policy known as paycheck protection. Many states help unions by withholding dues from public employees’ checks, obscuring how much workers are actually paying. Paycheck protection bars that practice and lets members pay on their own each month.
‘An ‘All-of-the-Above’ Energy Plan Is No Plan At All
When it comes to energy policy, our political zeitgeist is rather, shall we say, energized.
During the Democratic National Convention, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro — who presides over one of the nation’s largest energy-producing states — twice called himself an “all-of-the-above energy governor.” Even Republicans sometimes echo this all-of-the-above rhetoric. During a recent press conference, Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) celebrated Texas as the
“energy capital of the world” because of its all-of-the-above approach to energy policy.
“All-of-the-above” is a favored term among some lawmakers and energy wonks: a politically friendly phrase that seemingly encompasses all energy sources, offering feel-good, pro-market vibes in a space overcrowded by radical climate progressives. Indeed, we need market-oriented strategies to combat industrial policies brought about by Green New Dealism. However, rhetoric in policy advocacy matters. Saying “all-of-the-above” may sound good, but it resembles the collegiate agnosticism one might hold before reading C. S. Lewis: Its ambivalence opens the door for progressive overreach.
Government Unions are Down — But Not Out
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court humbled public sector union officials accustomed to taking advantage of the public employees they were supposed to serve. In Janus v. AFSCME, the court overturned a decades-old precedent that once forced public employees to pay union dues as a condition of employment.
After Janus, more public sector employees exercised their constitutional right to associate freely. Since 2018, the four largest government unions — the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the National Education Association (NEA), and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — have lost more than 380,000 fee payers and 320,000 members.
Be sure to check out the latest episode of our labor podcast Disunion: The Government Union Report where our policy experts discuss their new report on labor regulations across the country. Give it a listen!
