By Stephen Herzenberg, Third and State   A story in Monday’s New York Times explores the use of state tax credit programs to pay for “scholarships” for students who attend private schools. The story suggests that many of the students who receive such scholarships already attend private school and are not low-income. To the extent that this is true, [...]

By Chris Lilienthal, Third and State More than a year ago, the Corbett administration decided to end the state’s adultBasic program, which provided affordable health insurance to about 40,000 low-income Pennsylvanians who were unable to obtain coverage from an employer or through other programs. We worried at the time that many of those newly uninsured would delay treatments [...]

By Mark Price, Third and State Happy Sunny Friday, people! Now for the not so good news. The job numbers for Pennsylvania came out Thursday, and the overall picture was somewhat disappointing. The unemployment rate edged down slightly to 7.4% and nonfarm payrolls declined by 600 jobs. Focusing on the jobs data, the biggest loser in April was [...]

By Mark Price, Third and State On Tuesday Marty Moss-Coane, the host of WHYY’s Radio Times, moderated a question-and-answer session with Governor Tom Corbett at an event sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. The Governor ran wild with analogies. Bob Fernandez, The Philadelphia Inquirer — With protesters nearby, Corbett sticks to message for Phila. Chamber :

Corbett repeated a folksy [...]

By Mark Price, Third and State Room 148 of the State Capitol might as well double as a Capitol broom closet. That’s where the House Consumer Affairs Committee this morning rushed out amendments to House Bill 2191 , which legalizes predatory payday lending in Pennsylvania. The amendments to HB 2191 were misleadingly pitched as adding more consumer protections to the [...]

By Sharon Ward, Third and State Action on the state budget began in earnest Monday with state Senator Jake Corman, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, releasing important details on the Senate budget plan that will be advanced this week. The proposal would increase Governor Tom Corbett’s budget proposal by $500 million, with total spending rising from $27.15 [...]

By Sharon Ward, Third and State Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released its revenue estimate this week, offering a more upbeat view of the economy moving forward. The official revenue estimate predicts a smaller revenue shortfall for the current year and more robust revenue collections for 2012-13. The IFO estimate leaves the General Assembly with as much as [...]

By Sharon Ward, Third and State Deep state cuts have already put health care at risk for kids and denied help to families struggling in this economy. They have put thousands out of work in schools, colleges, nursing care facilities and hospitals. Think that’s bad? You ain’t seen nothing yet. The Pennsylvania House may vote as soon [...]

By Chris Lilienthal, Third and State U.S. funding of infrastructure has declined dramatically since the 1960s, and Congress appears to be moving in the direction of even more cutbacks in the years ahead. There is a bit of irony to this. With borrowing costs still very low and the market still somewhat depressed, now would be an ideal time [...]

By Mark Price, Third and State The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry released new data for March on Pennsylvania’s employment situation. According to the household survey, the unemployment rate edged down slightly to 7.5%, and the survey of employers showed healthy growth in nonfarm payrolls of 7,800 jobs. As always, caution should be exercised in interpreting a month [...]

By Michael Wood, Third and State In the news today, a couple of instances of CEOs being taken to task by shareholders over excessive pay. USA Today reports that at Citigroup, 55% of shareholders rejected or abstained from rubberstamping a $25 million payday for their CEO Vikrom Pandit. The vote is only advisory, unfortunely, but is still described [...]

By Jheanelle Chambers, Intern, Third and State While many middle-class Americans are still struggling in a down economy, the 1% is doing quite well. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has an eye-popping chart (right) showing that in 2009, despite the weak economy, the top 1% of households captured $1.32 trillion in gross income while the [...]

  By Mark Price, Third and State The New York Times reports this morning that a labor organizer and advocate for a higher minimum wage in Bangladesh has been brutally murdered. Julfikar Ali Manik and Vikas Bajaj, The New York Times — Killing of Bangladeshi Labor Organizer Signals an Escalation in Violence :

The killing of the activist, Aminul Islam, marks a morbid turn [...]

By Michael Wood, Third and State Pennsylvania tax collections came in better than expected in March, lowering the state’s total revenue shortfall for the current fiscal year. It was also the first March ever in which tax collections exceeded the $4 billion mark. With three months left in the 2011-12 fiscal year, the revenue shortfall stands at [...]

By Chris Lilienthal, Third and State Right now in Harrisburg, there is a debate going on over whether the state should make more cuts to schools, universities and protections for our children and grandparents. Unfortunately, the Governor has put forth a budget that would do just that. The chart below from  Better Choices for Pennsylvania compares existing tax loopholes [...]

By Stephen Herzenberg, Third and State I’ve got an idea: let’s employ low-wage, low-skill, and sometime out-of-state workers on small and medium-sized state-funded construction projects, with no benefit to taxpayers and negative impacts on local economies. Sound like a stupid idea? That’s because it is. Here’s the backdrop: Pennsylvania’s prevailing wage law requires that workers on state-funded [...]

The Final Part of a Three-part Series on Prevailing Wage by Mark Price and originally published at Third and State . Read Part 1 . Read Part 2 .In the first two posts of this series, I explained why the numbers being tossed around by advocates of repealing prevailing wage don’t add up. I explained that the claims of cost-savings are not based [...]

Part Two of a Three-part Series on Prevailing Wage by Mark Price, originally published at Third and State . Read Part 1. The overwhelming weight of evidence based on the actual cost of public construction projects shows that prevailing wage laws do not raise costs. Therefore, advocates of repealing the law in Pennsylvania ignore this evidence. Instead of “evidence-based [...]

Part One of a Three-part Series on Prevailing Wage by Mark Price and originally published at Third and State . Prevailing wage laws have long operated nationally and in states as a check against the tendency of the construction industry to degenerate into destructive wage and price competition. Such competition can drive skilled and experienced workers from the [...]