Morning Economic News

Morning Must Read: PA's Low Tax Rate on Shale Drilling

Posted by Chris Lilienthal on May 14, 2013 10:50 am
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The Associated Press has a good story highlighting just how much Pennsylvania is giving up over time by enacting a Marcellus Shale impact fee that assesses one of the lowest tax rates on natural gas drilling among the nation's major energy-producing states.

How About Some Real Solutions to Problems that Do Exist?

With Governor Tom Corbett's first term approaching the halfway point, the editorial pages are settling in on a theme for their assessments of the administration's performance over the last year: not a lot of action on important issues.

Morning Must Reads: Different Priorities For Different Senators

Proposals to avert the fiscal cliff shouldn't increase poverty or inequality or slow the economic recovery. Those simple common-sense principles appear to be gaining increasing visibility and support, which is the best news this morning.

Morning Must Reads: One Bidder? What Could Go Wrong?

The Keystone Research Center does not oppose the use of private contractors to provide services to federal, state and local governments as a matter of philosophy.

On pragmatic grounds, we DO support good governance, including carefully assessing the costs and benefits of privatization. Too often privatization is a goal in and of itself and good governance — careful weighing of pros and cons — isn't even in the vocabulary of privatization advocates.

Morning Must Reads: Oh Boy, 2013 Here We Come!

Posted by Mark Price on November 20, 2012 9:29 am
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I bet many of you miss the last two years a little. Governor Tom Corbett is hoping to capitalize on that nostalgia by promising to focus over the next year on liquor privatization and transportation. That's right, it is time to party like it's November 2010. (Who doesn't fondly remember that era's hits? I still don't know what a G6 is?)

Morning Must Reads: October's Job Numbers and Now Is The Time To Fix Stuff!

Late in the day Friday, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry reported that the state's unemployment rate ticked down slightly to 8.1% (the U.S. rate is 7.9%) and nonfarm payrolls grew by 7,500 jobs.

Third and State This Week: The Manufacturing Jobs Score, Charter School Bill Dies & a Win Against Corporate Welfare

This week at Third and State, we blogged about a new report on manufacturing job growth by presidential administration, the stalling of a charter school bill in the House, a rare victory in the endless fight against corporate welfare, the latest Pennsylvania jobs report, and much more!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

  • On manufacturing jobs, Stephen Herzenberg highlighted a report he co-authored with Colin Gordon of the Iowa Policy Project on state-level manufacturing job growth and loss across 16 post-World War II presidential administrations.
  • On jobs and the economy, Mark Price offered his quick take on Friday's report showing the commonwealth's jobs picture in September remains headed in the wrong direction. Mark Price also blogged about a new report finding that skills shortages in manufacturing are a local, not a national, problem.
  • On economic development, Mark Price wrote about a food corporation's withdrawal of a request for a property tax abatement a day after Michael Wood of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center raised questions about it in an op-ed in the Harrisburg Patriot-News.
  • On education, Jamar Thrasher wrote about a charter school reform bill that stalled this week in the state House.
  • On income inequality, Mark Price blogged about a piece in The New York Times that drew parallels between income inequality practices in old Venice and present day America. Mark also wrote that the biggest challenge facing the next President of the United States will be runaway inequality.

More blog posts next week. Keep us bookmarked and join the conversation!

Morning Must Reads: A Rare Victory In The Endless Fight Against Corporate Welfare

In a rare victory against corporate welfare, Ahold USA has withdrawn its request for property tax breaks for a meat-packaging facility it is building in Lower Allen Township, Cumberland County.

Morning Must Reads: Inequality Bad

Posted by Mark Price on October 17, 2012 8:57 am
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The biggest challenge facing the next President of the United States is runaway inequality.

The State of Working America lays out the trends:

Between 1983 and 2010, nearly three-fourths (74.2 percent) of the total growth in household wealth accrued to the top 5 percent of households in the wealth distribution. For the bottom 60 percent of households, wealth declined from 1983 to 2010.

Morning Must Reads: Got Manufacturing Skill Shortage?

Posted by Mark Price on October 16, 2012 8:29 am
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The for-profit economic consultants Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has released a new study that combines analysis of wage trends by metropolitan area with surveys of the CEOs of manufacturing companies on the topic of manufacturing skill shortages.

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