Pennsylvania has become a pro-growth state by cutting taxes seven times, dramatically speeding up permitting, and creating a money-back guarantee on permits, making it the only growing economy in the northeastern US.
Shapiro details his pro-growth blueprint for Pennsylvania: seven tax cuts, a transformed permitting process with a money-back guarantee that issued 40 million permits with only 5 refunds, and workforce investments. He frames this as making Pennsylvania the sole growing economy in the Northeast. ✦ AI generated
Josh Shapiro · All-In Podcast · 2026-04-08 · original ↗
plays this moment only · 2:41 — 4:04
“There's so much for us to talk about, but I thought I would start with your track record in Pennsylvania. And the reason I wanted to start there is because there's a bit of a collision course happening right now between you and Gavin. Gavin's got what I would describe as a variable tenure here in California. I left California for Texas because I just thought it was a bit of a disaster. But you're doing great in your state. And that's in the face of New York, my hometown, New Jersey, Boston, like losing a lot of business leaders. And you've been scoring some big wins. So when you look at your track record, maybe you could just educate the audience on what you've gotten done. And maybe in comparison to what's happening in those other states with other Democratic leaders, because you seem to be maybe the exception to this rule that Democrats aren't getting it done on a business level.”
We are a pro-growth state. We want businesses to come here and grow. I'm proud of the fact that we've created more jobs in all but two states in the entire country. We've cut taxes seven different times to be more competitive, cut taxes for small businesses, also for families trying to afford childcare for seniors, for working Pennsylvanians. We've taken our permitting process. That's usually the ticket you need, say, to build your building, right? If you're trying to build something here in Pennsylvania, we were bottom five in the country. I think we're now a national model, easily top five in terms of speed. We've got a money back guarantee on all of our permits. If we don't get you your permit in time, we'll give you your money back. And fun fact, we've issued 40 million permits during my time as governor. We've only had to issue 5 refunds, meaning only five of those permits were late. We are now the only growing economy in the northeastern part of the United States. At the same time, we're investing in workforce development, especially if you don't have a college degree, tripling funding for vo-tech and apprenticeship programs and understanding the need to take the workforce we have today and prepare them for jobs here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
verbatim transcript · starts at 2:41
- ·Seven tax cuts for businesses, families, and workers
- ·Permitting process went from bottom 5 to top 5 in speed
- ·Money-back guarantee: 40M permits issued, only 5 refunds
- ·Job creation ranked #3 among all 50 states
- ·Tripled funding for vo-tech and apprenticeship programs
- ·Workforce development targets non-college workers