Welcome to Common Sense Weekly! This is the Commonwealth Foundation's weekly news roundup of policy issues being debated in Harrisburg and across Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Workers Cannot Afford to Lose U.S. Steel
For 123 years, U.S. Steel (USS) has operated in Pennsylvania and has been synonymous with the Keystone State. Pittsburgh, aptly named the “Steel City,” has long served as the headquarters of USS.
Yet, that legacy could be near an end.
After decades of decline, USS, once the largest producer of steel in the world and the largest U.S. employer, has struggled financially in recent years, with expectations the company will leave Pennsylvania entirely in the next few years.
Education Tax Credits Work
Students are learning. Parents are grateful. Donors are seeing the benefits.
And Pennsylvania taxpayers are saving money today — and tomorrow. (Over $1 billion in this school year alone.) Since 2001, Pennsylvania students, parents, donors, and taxpayers all have been reaping the countless benefits of the Education Improvement Tax Credit (“EITC”).
Each year, Pennsylvania individuals and businesses can donate to state registered non-profit scholarship organizations. The donation is eligible for a 90 percent tax credit against your state taxes. In other words, if you donate $1,000, you get $900 credited to your Pennsylvania taxes — and if you’ve overpaid your taxes, you get that refunded to you. For example, your $1,000 donation to a scholarship organization — helping them award scholarships to income eligible students — only costs you $100 out of pocket!
If Elected, Harris Will Carry Biden’s Torch as ‘Most Pro-Union President’
Remember when then-candidate Joe Biden promised to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen”?
It’s been a go-to line during his presidency. And as his term draws to a close, he claims to have delivered.
True, under Biden’s leadership, the National Labor Relations Board went after some of the unions’ biggest enemies: Amazon, Starbucks, and American auto manufacturers, for example. But those efforts were less about helping workers—who weren’t showing much love for “Union Joe” before he dropped out—and more about helping union officials.
Instead of a 'Public Option', We Need a 'Personal Option'
Health care is a mess—and our political leaders aren’t helping.
Presidential candidates only offer vague ideas to address our health care problems. From former President Donald Trump’s “concepts of a plan” to Vice President Kamala Harris’s flip-flopping between “Medicare for All” (i.e., abolishing private health insurance) and “expanding and strengthening the Affordable Care Act (ACA),” no candidate has articulated a clear path to more personalized, affordable care.
Meanwhile, soaring health insurance prices continue to plague families. Polls show nearly half of U.S. adults say it’s difficult to afford health care. One in four say they or a family member have had problems paying for medical expenses during the past year.
Swing State’s School Choice Programs Are Helping Thousands Of Families — Dems Want To End Them
Pennsylvania’s school choice programs have opened a door for thousands of low and middle income families to get their children out of the state’s flagging public schools, according to a new report. Yet, Democrats are pushing a platform that opposes school choice programs like the one in Pennsylvania.
Over 77,000 K-12 scholarships have been awarded under the state’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program and the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC), according to a September report from the Commonwealth Foundation. Pennsylvania Democrats attempted to strip additional funding for the initiatives, and the party’s national platform declares that school choice programs are “schemes.”
