Common Sense Weekly
Welcome to Common Sense Weekly! This is the Commonwealth Foundation's weekly news roundup of policy issues being debated in Harrisburg and across Pennsylvania.
Give Shapiro the Election Reform He Wants and PA Needs
The 2024 election is finally over. On December 4th, the Pennsylvania Department of State certified the results
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– almost one month after Election Day. And though this election was relatively uneventful (especially by 2020 standards), the lawfare over Pennsylvania’s vague election laws continues to rage.
Several groups, such as the ACLU and the Pennsylvania Republican Party, filed countless lawsuits since the 2020 election for different reasons. Some want to clarify election law, while others outright reject procedures to protect mail-in voting from fraud.
This lack of legal clarity resurfaced in the 2024 election. The law’s omissions drove the recent controversy over misdated ballots in the contentious U.S. Senate race between the incumbent, Sen. Bob Casey, and David McCormick. This dispute inspired the now-infamous declaration
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by Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia: “Precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country. And people violate laws anytime they want.”
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A Monopoly Is Coming—Steel Yourself for It
On U.S. Steel’s proposed merger with Nippon Steel
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, President Biden and President-elect Trump have listened to national union executives, not local union workers. At the company’s Irvin Works plant in the Pittsburgh area, 95% of union members support the deal
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. They know that Nippon Steel will make the necessary investments in the plant to save their jobs. Support for the merger is also widespread at U.S. Steel’s other plants across Pennsylvania.
Messrs. Biden and Trump both claim to look out for union members, but on this issue, they aren’t. Union leaders have convinced them the deal is bad for America’s steel industry, but it’s only a threat for union control. Union members are smart enough to realize that the opinion of union executives won’t matter if steelmaking disappears in the Steel City, a likely scenario if the deal falls apart. The president and president-elect need to realize it, too—before it’s too late for steelworkers.
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Beware of Consultants Promising Broadband
In the wake of COVID-19, universal broadband access emerged as a rare bipartisan priority. The 2021 infrastructure bill, with its $65 billion commitment to “internet for all,” seemed to herald a new era of digital equity. Yet this influx of federal funding has created a double-edged sword.
While it offers hope for bridging the digital divide, it has also spawned a cottage industry of consultants eager to capitalize on the broadband boom. As communities across America wrestle with how to best utilize these funds, they face a seductive but potentially perilous option: government-owned networks, or GONs.
GONs promise universal access, affordable rates, and local control — an alluring trifecta for any community. But as a recent Taxpayers Protection Alliance report reveals, the reality often falls dismally short. Many GON projects have become cautionary tales, leaving taxpayers and ratepayers burdened with the costs of underperforming or abandoned networks.
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Corporate Welfare Doesn’t Work. Cutting Red Tape Does.
In 2021, Pennsylvania lawmakers created the Local Resource Manufacturing (LRM) tax credit to attract businesses to the Keystone State. Shortly after, Nacero, a fuel-development company, announced its plan to build a natural gas-to-gasoline plant in Luzerne County. At the time, politicians boasted
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the project would lead to thousands of construction jobs and 450 long-term, high-paying jobs.
Three years later, Nacero has yet to begin construction. Moreover, Nacero never claimed the LRM tax credit.
Nacero wasn’t alone. No company claimed an LRM tax credit despite Harrisburg upping the cap
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from $26.6 billion to $56.6 billion in 2023. Notably, four different Pennsylvania tax credit programs
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recorded no applicants in 2023 and 2024.
Clearly, these handouts aren’t working.
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Learn why Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is bad for Pennsylvania here
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.
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