This document contains a final report and a handbook from a project to develop a comprehensive text on Pennsylvania government structure and taxes written on a lower (fourth- to eighth-grade) reading level for adult basic education students. The report describes how available government publications were researched, and a five-unit handbook that included a glossary and unit review exercises was developed. The handbook's 21 chapters are divided into five units: (1) Early Pennsylvania--Beginnings of the Commonwealth; (2) The State Government; (3) Local Governments of the Commonwealth; (4) Commonwealth Tax Structure; and (5) Legal Structure of the Commonwealth. Each unit begins with a general overview and ends with unit review exercises. Appendixes are as follows: a glossary, answers to exercises, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and a 1993 supplement that contains the additions to and changes in the provisions of the Constitution. (YLB)