Opinions

The word “pain” and the degree to which it’s being felt and by whom is the subject of the latest debate between Dauphin County and the city of Harrisburg.

Congress must take action this autumn to extend or make permanent the 15 percent tax rate on qualified dividend and capital gains income.

Drilling using the fracking method (hydrofracturing process drillers use to extract natural gas) at best has a 50/50 chance of destroying and poisoning the piece of land that has been here for thousands and thousands of years.

Last week’s question: Are you in favor of the Healthy Families, Healthy Workplaces Act (HB1830), which would require companies to offer paid sick leave to employees?

Yes – 55 percent
No – 45 percent

During the past 60 years, we have been witness to many complex socio-cultural, economic, political and technological milestones and challenges. Extraordinary entrepreneurial innovation and increasingly frequent technological advances in the U.S. and around the globe have changed the way we think, plan, act and function.

A fierce battle again is being waged in Gettysburg. But this time, it’s not over secession; it’s about whether the state Gaming Control Board should issue its 14th and final permit to a proposed casino nearly a mile from the hallowed Civil War grounds.

Time magazine this year featured Thomas Edison, whose inventive mind and the devices he created changed the course of a still young America. From the light bulb to the phonograph, Edison’s inventions lead the nation from the 19th century well into the 20th century through technological revolutions that created what our nation is today — a global economic powerhouse.

That 89 percent of respondents to the CPBJ survey (“Do you think a severance tax on Marcellus Shale drillers will drive jobs and investment elsewhere?” Business Journal, Aug. 13, 2010) believe a tax on Marcellus Shale would not drive investment elsewhere is irrelevant to the needs of our economy.

Last week’s question: Do you think the $42 billion Small Business Jobs Act (HB5297) that’s stalled in the U.S. Senate would improve credit conditions in the midstate?

Yes – 100 percent

For those politicians who haven’t noticed, this country’s in a recession. And despite a smattering of occasional positive economic indicators, we’re teetering perilously on a double-dip and buried in a $13 trillion deficit.