“Committing to Prosperity,” an update of Metropolitan Policy Program’s 2003 report “Back to Prosperity: A Competitive Agenda to Renew Pennsylvania,” revisits the state of the Commonwealth and reviews policy reform activity to date.   Overall, the report concludes that while Pennsylvania’s major trends—slow population growth, “hollowing” rural and metropolitan areas, and economic struggles—by and large persist, major policy reform is underway. Ultimately, “Committing to Prosperity” urges Pennsylvania to go beyond incremental adjustments to enact deep, systemic change.

 

In 2003, The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy released a report titled Back to Prosperity: A Competitive Agenda for Pennsylvania, which identified the most important trends and challenges facing the Commonwealth. Back to Prosperity focused heavily on the plight of Pennsylvania’s older towns and boroughs.

 

A team of researchers from the Pennsylvania State University conducted five listening sessions with citizens in rural communities across the Commonwealth to shed light on the problems and opportunities confronting the more rural parts of the state. This policy brief details five common themes that emerged in the listening sessions that will help rural residents strengthen their communities, and describes a new rural policy framework that can be used to foster sustained growth and development.

“Structuring Healthy Communities,” conducted by the Pennsylvania Economy League, provides an assessment of fiscal trends affecting nearly all of Pennsylvania’s 2,500 municipalities over the past 30 years. The analysis of municipal revenue from 1970 through 2003 found a systemic decline in the fiscal health of communities statewide, which cuts across all types of municipalities, in rural, suburban and urban areas, and in all regions of the state. The best fiscal management and programs of economic and community development are not enough to turn the tide within municipal boundaries, evidence suggests. It already impacts more than half of Pennsylvanians where they live, and without new tools for community leaders, it's only a matter of time for the rest of the state.