Subscribe to the Latest from PA
The LATEST from PA
-
- Stateline Story
Budget Progress in Several States
TODAY'S TAKE: Forty-six states face budget deadlines today (June 30). Unlike last year, when 10 states approached the new fiscal year without spending plans in place, there has been considerable progress this week in states without budgets. Even in Pennsylvania- where Governor Ed Rendell hasn't signed a budget on time in his more than seven years in office - lawmakers appear close to an agreement.more -
- Stateline Story
Congress Making States Nervous
TODAY'S TAKE: States are anxiously watching Congress wrangle over a series of measures they are counting on to help pay for health care, education and unemployment benefits for millions of their residents. But the federal government's well-documented financial problems - and the growing attention paid to them on the campaign trail - are threatening those measures. Critics say the government can't afford them.more -
- Stateline Story
Arizona Vote Muddies Anti-tax Narrative
TODAY'S TAKE: Voters in Oregon and Pennsylvania chose their major-party candidates for governor on Tuesday (May 18), while Arizona's electorate handed Governor Jan Brewer a significant victory by approving a temporary hike in the state sales tax. Paradoxically, the outcome in Arizona marked the second time this year - a year in which the Tea Party has become a potent political force - that a state's voters have opted for higher taxes.more -
- Stateline Story
States Limit Sweeping Tax Hikes — So Far
TODAY'S TAKE: While much of the nation may be focusing today (May 18) on key U.S. Senate primaries in Arkansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, a special statewide election in Arizona could gauge voters' temperature on the question of whether or not to raise taxes. Arizona voters will decide whether to endorse Republican Governor Jan Brewer's proposal to raise the state sales tax by a penny to 6.6 percent.more -
- Stateline Story
Transportation Woes Prompt Pennsylvania Session
TODAY'S TAKE: Pennsylvania's aging infrastructure has some dubious claims to fame. The state has 7,000 miles of roads that need to be fixed, along with 5,600 structurally deficient bridges - easily the most in the nation. Meanwhile, starting today (May 4), legislators will meet in a special session to address a $472 million shortfall in transportation funding caused by the federal government's refusal last month to allow the state to place tolls on Interstate 80. Everything from a higher gas tax to new public-private partnerships is on the table.more -
- Stateline Story
Seven States Lead in Budget Transparency
TODAY'S TAKE: A report released Tuesday (April 13) finds that seven states - Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Texas - lead the nation in budget transparency, providing the public with comprehensive and easily searchable information about government spending. Eighteen states flunked the scorecard created by U.S. PIRG, a Boston-based research and public-interest advocacy group.more -
- Stateline Story
Pennsylvania's 8-year Itch
PHILADELPHIA - For the past 56 years, the curious electoral patterns of this sprawling political battleground have been absolutely regular. Every eight years since 1954, the governorship has switched between Democrats and Republicans. That portends a Republican victory this fall. 2010, however, is emerging as more than the inevitable extension of a trend. It is shaping up as a test of whether anti-Washington and anti-Harrisburg sentiment can overcome what has been a rising Democratic tide in the state, particularly in the populous Philadelphia suburbs. more
-
April 1, 2010
Prison Count 2010
For the first time in nearly 40 years, the number of state prisoners in the United States has declined, according to Prison Count 2010, a survey by the Pew Center on the States. more
-
- Stateline Story
The Squeeze on Big Bird
Idaho Reports is a weekly news program about politics that appears all over the state on public television. Normally it's quite civil. But one recent show took an awkward turn when the host asked about Governor Butch Otter's proposal to eliminate the program's funding. "Can you give us an update," moderator Thanh Tan asked, "on where we stand in terms of the agencies that face a possible phase-out…which includes the agency that produces this program?" Guest Wayne Hammon, the state budget director, replied that "the governor felt he had no other choice." The challenges that Idaho Public Television is facing are emblematic of the decisions that public television agencies and stations around the country will have to make if states decide that public television is no longer a business they can afford to be in. According to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), state and local funding for public television stations nationwide declined by $36 million between 2008 and 2009. CPB forecasts an additional $45 to $49 million in state and local cuts for the upcoming fiscal year.more -
- Stateline Story
Do You Want a Tax With That?
The funeral home director in Pennsylvania and hair dresser in Michigan may soon have something in common with the yoga instructor in Missouri and limo driver in New York. Their customers may have to pay a state sales tax. With tax revenues at a historic low and federal stimulus dollars drying up, states are eying adding a sales tax to some of the 180 services that states could be taxing but most don't, ranging from pet grooming and dating services to dental and legal services. The change would be a fundamental shift in states' tax systems, but the proposals are running into stiff opposition from the business community.more
