Experiment: 10 Random Policy Points

Often times when debating or discussing politics and policy, facts are tossed aside in favor of more emotional arguments.

Even worse, when one side of a legitimate but spirited debate falters, it has somehow become acceptable to either refuse to accept the facts as accurate or point out some comparable flaw in an effort to make two wrongs make a right.

By way of experimentation, here are 10 totally unrelated facts about issues we deal with in Pennsylvania government. Let’s see what happens…

1. The Bureau of Economic Analysis found that property tax collections rose nationally only 1.2 percent, but declined .9 percent when adjusted for inflation. This marks the first time these collections have fallen below inflation since 1995 and only the third time in 40 years.

2. Gallup recently found that Pennsylvania has the lowest percentage of federal, state, and local government workers, at 11.8 percent and Hawaii has the most at 29.7 percent. The overall U.S. total is 16.3 percent , down from 17.2 percent in 2010. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a decline of 280,000 government jobs for 2011.

3. More than 70 percent of multi-state corporations doing business in Pennsylvania pay nothing in corporate net income taxes. Also, 85 percent of corporations in the state pay less income tax than a family earning about $36,000 a year.

4. More than 1.7 million American children have a parent in prison with 58 percent being younger than 10 years old. According to federal data, two-thirds of incarcerated mothers were the sole custodial parent before incarceration.

5. Pennsylvania is home to 63,200 farms, totaling 7,750,000 acres. Milk production is the state’s top agricultural commodity, with a value of $1.9 billion. The estimated value of crops, including fruits and vegetables is $3.4 billion and livestock, poultry and products is $3.7 billion. 

6. The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that states in 2008 lost $18 billion in uncollected taxes from out-of-state sales, including $7.7 billion from online sales. This total is expected to rise to $23 billion in 2012 with almost half coming from Internet transactions.

7. The Alliance for Excellent Education estimates that if half (17,150) of Pennsylvania’s high school dropouts had graduated, they would have earned $173 million more in an average year, spent an additional $128 million and invested $45 million more, which would have supported 1,400 new jobs and increased the gross state product by $217 million by the time they reached their career midpoints.

8. In 2011, Pennsylvania had 3.4 million workers, or 5.7 percent of all hourly-paid workers, making at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25. This percentage ranked Pennsylvania 19^th nationally with Georgia having the most workers at 9.6 percent.

9. According to recent studies, nearly 60 percent of boys who are classified as bullies in grades six to nine were convicted of at least one crime by the age of 24 and 40 percent of them had three or more convictions by age 24.

10. A new feasibility report estimates that a change to all-electronic tolling could increase the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s bottom line by $5.2 million in the first year and by over $21 million annually by 2023-24. The current spread between fares for E-ZPass users and non-E-ZPass users is 17 percent, but it could widen to 76 percent by 2023-24.