Common Sense Weekly
Here's Commonwealth Foundation's weekly news roundup of policy issues being debated in Harrisburg and across Pennsylvania.
We hope you have a great weekend!
Pennsylvania Avoided Tax Hikes—But Only for Now
Twelve days behind schedule—but still 110 days earlier than last year—Pennsylvania lawmakers finally passed a $52.2 billion state budget. The deal, rushed through during a rare Sunday session, avoided tax hikes and protected the state’s Rainy Day Fund.
But taxpayers shouldn’t celebrate just yet.
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Pennsylvania Stopped Costly Energy Taxes. But Government Mandates are Still Driving Up Electricity Bills
Pennsylvania families, already struggling to afford the rising cost of living, avoided even more expensive utility bills with the recently passed state budget.
But one state mandate remains, and it's costing Pennsylvania taxpayers billions on their electricity bills.
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Government Intervention—Not Free Markets—Made Your Housing and Healthcare Unaffordable
Are socialists having their moment? Recent elections and polling suggest Democrats are increasingly favorable toward socialism.
But recent polling reveals what we already know: Americans favor free markets because they make life more affordable.
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Pennsylvania Supreme Court Delivers Unanimous Win for Private Property Rights
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently issued a landmark unanimous 7–0 decision that fundamentally reshapes how far the Fourth Amendment’s protections extend across the commonwealth—and the Commonwealth Foundation helped shape that decision.
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Pennsylvania’s Welfare Error Rate Is High. But New Numbers Provide Hope.
Pennsylvania is wasting millions of dollars on overpayments from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. If nothing changes, the state faces hefty penalties next year.
Thankfully, new numbers suggest that—thanks to newly added work requirements—more people are going back to work rather than collecting a government check.
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