Research You Can Use
Prescriptions for Prosperity
The Keystone Research Center recently releases a report that details a plan for our state’s future. The report entitled The Prescription for Prosperity: An Economic Agenda for Pennsylvania’s Future, and it outlines steps we can take as a Commonwealth to guarantee the future of our economy.
The agenda was created to develop a long-term economic plan that meets two goals: 1) to enable Pennsylvania to have a strong and globally competitive economy that delivers an expanding economic pie and 2) ensure that the benefits of an expanding economic pie are more broadly distributed. Although Pennsylvania is already ahead of the nation in areas such as health care, pension benefits, poverty rates, and early childhood education, the report suggests that it is time to build on this progress and extend the benefits to all Pennsylvanians.
The agenda focuses on these five goals:
- Ensure that Pennsylvania makes the transition to the global economy through investment in education and skills development and in good jobs.
- Support the long-term security of the middle class and strengthen our economy through comprehensive health care reform and retirement security for all.
- Bring more Pennsylvanians into the middle class by indexing the minimum wage to inflation, by improving jobs and career advancement in low-wage industries, and by providing a refundable income tax credit for low-wage workers.
- Reform Pennsylvania’s taxes for the 21st century by lowering taxes on the middle class and raising revenues to invest in the future from those who can most afford to pay.
- Develop a “Business Plan for Pennsylvania’s Future” – and plans for rural Pennsylvania and for each metropolitan area – so that Pennsylvania has a long-term road map for achieving growth and opportunity.
Mechanisms for accomplishing these goals are detailed in the report.
The research in The Prescription for Prosperity: An Economic Agenda for Pennsylvania’s Future is made available by the Keystone Research Center and can be found at http://www.keystoneresearch.org/agenda/.
Submitted by Sarah Caldwell, Research Assistant to Dr. Theodore Alter.