





































COMMONWEAL
A Journal of Pennsylvania Politics and P

TH
olicy

 
EDITOR-  IN-  CHIEF J. Wesley Leckrone, Widener University

MANAGING EDITOR Michelle J. Atherton, Temple University

ASSOCIATE EDITORS Christopher Borick, Muhlenberg College
 Paula A. Duda Holoviak, Kutztown University
 Joseph P. McLaughlin, Jr., Temple University

EDITORIAL ADVISORY 

BOARD Bruce Caswell, Rowan University
 Beverly A. Cigler, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg
 Richardson Dilworth, Drexel University
 John J. Kennedy, West Chester University
 John Kincaid, Lafayette College
 Joseph Marbach, Georgian Court University
 David Y. Miller, University of Pittsburgh
 Megan Mullin, Duke University
 Richard A. Stafford, Carnegie Mellon University

FOUNDING EDITOR

EMERITUS  Donald G. Tannenbaum, Gettysburg College

EDITORS EMERITUS Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes University
 Gerard J. Fitzpatrick, Ursinus College

Published by Temple University Press on behalf of  
The Pennsylvania Political Science Association



The Pennsylvania Political Science 
Association

Founded in 1939, the Pennsylvania Political Science Association (PPSA) 
is the nation’s oldest state political science association. Its mission has 
always been to promote scholarship, research, and the exchange of 

ideas within the Pennsylvania community of political scientists. PPSA draws 
its membership principally from the political science and public administra-
tion faculties of Pennsylvania’s public and private colleges and universities 
but also includes government professionals and faculty members from sur-
rounding states.

PPSA’s annual conference includes dozens of panelists covering a wide vari-
ety of subjects. While university faculty compose the vast majority of partici-
pants, legislators, legislative staff, executive officials, and undergraduates also 
have participated. For more information on the activities of PPSA and mem-
bership rates, please visit the association’s website at http://www.papolisci.org/.

http://www.papolisci.org/%7bCOMP


Pennsylvania Policy Forum

C OMMONWEALTH collaborates with the Pennsylvania Policy Forum 
to plan special issues and attract high-quality content to the journal. 
The Forum is a consortium of faculty members and academic and 

policy institute leaders from Pennsylvania colleges and universities who share 
an interest in generating ideas, analyses, and symposiums that might prove 
useful to citizens, elected officials, and civic leaders in addressing major issues 
confronting the Commonwealth and its local governments. As educators who 
have helped train students for careers in public policy, members also share an 
interest in helping to improve the skills, knowledge, and tools of leaders in the 
public and civic sectors.

Members of the Forum have expertise in public policy analysis as well 
as a wide range of substantive issues, including but not limited to education, 
transportation and public infrastructure, economic development, agriculture, 
energy, elections, water policy and the environment, health care, social policy, 
urban development, emergency management, information technology, public 
finance, and constitutional law. Members also share an interest in improving 
both the policy process itself and the institutional structures through which 
issues and problems are addressed.

Forum members have contributed to public policy debates in Pennsyl-
vania, and a number have also served in state and local government and in 
nonprofit and civic organizations that engage in policy development and 
implementation. Some members of the Forum are associated with other 
academic and public policy–related organizations, but the Forum itself is 
independent of these relationships and has no formal connections to any gov-
ernment entity. Members obviously benefit from the intellectual resources 
and environments of their universities, but unless otherwise indicated, they 
do not act on behalf of their institutions when they sponsor Forum projects. 
The premise of the Forum is that through the consortium, members can 
jointly develop and sponsor nonpartisan research, symposiums, and educa-
tion and training programs of value to elected officials, civic leaders, and the 
public and thereby enhance their ability to contribute to more intelligent and 
informed policy making.



Contents
Virtual Issue Number 1 | 2020 

Editor's Note

 Matters: Introduction to Virtual Issue on Controversial 
Issues in Pennsylvania Politics and Policy 

J. Wesley Leckrone, Editor-in-Chief

State Government 

 Forum: Should Pennsylvania Adopt Direct Democracy?

Commonwealth Forum: Does pennsylvania need a large, Full-time 
legislature? 

Forum: Do Businesspeople Make Good  Chief 
Executives? 

Elections 

Commonwealth Forum: should pennsylvania Adopt a Citizens’ 
redistricting Commission to Draw Congressional Districts? 

 Forum: Should Pennsylvania Adopt Early Voting? 

Budgeting and Taxes 

Commonwealth Forum: Addressing pennsylvania’s structural 
Budget Deficit

revitalizing Pennsylvania Through Government Reform 
Bob Dick

the Continuing Pennsylvania Crisis in Perspective 
Marc Stier 

 Forum: Should Pennsylvania Abolish the Property Tax? 
Part I

Forum: Should Pennsylvania Rely on Sin Taxes for 
Revenue? 

 Forum: Should Pennsylvania Tax Retirement Income? 
Forum: Should Pennsylvania Enact a Natural Gas 

Severance Tax? 



ii Contents

Public Policy Issues

Forum: Would Mandated Paid Leave Be  a Competitive 
Disadvantage for Pennsylvania? 

 Forum: Should Pennsylvania Allow Safe Injection Sites?

 Forum: Should the State Provide Support to Rural 
Hospitals? 

Forum: Should Pennsylvania End the Practice of Hold-
Harmless Funding? 

Forum: Should State Government Subsidizee the 
Economic Development of Natural Gas Facilities? 

Forum: Should Pennsylvania Enact Work Requirements 
for Medicaid Recipients? 

 Forum: Should Pennsylvania Abolish the Property Tax? 
Part II 

Yes, Abolish the Property Tax:   
David G. Argall and John Hopcraft 

No, Keep the Property Tax:   
William A. Fischel 


	VI-2020 Table of Contents in Commonwealth Format
	VI-2020 Table of Contents
	VI-2020 TOC 2




