The Commonwealth Foundation: 80 Ideas for a Prosperous Pennsylvania

Tuesday, January 25, 2011 9:00 AM

by Elise Tollefson

Last week, our friends at the Commonwealth Foundation hosted a Policy Summit at which the Center for Fiscal Accountability’s Executive Director was a speaker. We made sure our readers could watch the summit live, and are happy to share the launch of the Commonwealth Foundation’s “80 Ideas for a Prosperous Pennsylvania: A Blueprint for Transforming the Commonwealth.” CF, which has been a strong champion of Pennsylvania taxpayers in fighting proposed tax increases over the past few years, launched this report to shape and inform the debate on government reform in Harrisburg.

On the spending transparency front, the report cites an alarming increase in state spending, noting that “the $66 billion state operating budget represents a 64 percent increase in per-capita, inflation-adjusted spending since 1990—a $2,083 real increase in state spending for every person in Pennsylvania.” This tax-borrow-and-spend approach has failed to bring about the economic revival Pennsylvania taxpayers were promised by state lawmakers. The Foundation argues that it is time to prioritize state spending in order to shrink the size of government and improve efficiency. The report lists six recommendations for balancing the state budget and cutting government spending, including a proposed Pennsylvania state spending online transparency portal, of which we have long been supporters.

Limit the growth of government spending to population growth plus inflation.
Maintain a balanced budget throughout the fiscal year as required by our state Constitution by adjusting spending on a quarterly basis to match revenues.
Eliminate “corporate welfare” by prohibiting the state from giving tax dollars to private companies.
End self-service government programs, like advertising, that promote bigger government, rather than serve the public.
Eliminate fraud, abuse, inefficiency, and mismanagement in the delivery of government programs, particularly in the Department of Public Welfare.
Create an online state spending database to track all government expenditures.

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