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The FY2021-22 PA State Budget: The People’s Budget & Tracking ARP Funds in PA

  By American Rescue Plan, Federal Budget, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Video

This is a recording of a Zoom meeting hosted by the PA Budget & Policy Center on Thursday, April 15, 2021, to provide updates related to PA’s state budget and the allocation of the $7.3 billion in assistance that the American Rescue Plan delivered to PA’s state government. PBPC director Marc Stier talks about the fiscal challenges facing the Commonwealth and discusses the “People’s Budget,” an effort by several legislators to propose a way to raise the revenue necessary to make long-overdue investments in important programs and priorities. The video also features PBPC’s senior policy analyst Diana Polson presenting recently updated information about how American Rescue Act funds will be distributed in PA, highlighting an online spreadsheet for tracking these allocations: Tracking American Rescue Plan Funding Distribution in PA.    Continue reading

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Mass Incarceration is on the Ballot in Philadlephia in May

  By Criminal Justice, Elections, Public Policy

Almost every time someone is arrested for murder in Philadelphia, he has a criminal record of some kind. In many cases it is for minor drug dealing or for possession of a gun. So, the tough on crime crowd that supports Carlos Vega for DA crowd blames the criminal justice system in general and the DA, Larry Krasner, in particular for the murder saying that if only the guy arrested for murder were in jail, the crime would not have been committed.  What people who advance this idea forget is how many people in this city are involved in minor drug dealing and are carrying illegal guns. Most of them will not murder anyone. We can’t just arrest the corner drug dealers with guns who are likely to commit murder in the future. We don’t know who they are. If we throw the book at every one corner drug dealer… Continue reading

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Cancel Culture or Course Correction?

  By Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties, Philosophy, Uncategorized

For pretty much all of American history Black people have had to be very careful about what they said in front of white people, out of fear that they might be hurt for what they said. The wrong remark at the wrong time could lead to them being ridiculed or denigrated or excluded from something important to them at work or in their community. Or it could lead to them losing their job. Or their life. For pretty much all of American history women have had to be very careful about what they said in front of men, out of fear that they might be hurt for what they said. The wrong remark at the wrong time could lead to them being ridiculed or denigrated or excluded from something important to them at work or in their community. Or it could lead to them losing their job. Or to being… Continue reading

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ANALYSIS: Governor Wolf’s Proposed 2020-21 State Budget

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania Budget, Video

The Pennsylvania Budget & Policy Center’s analysis of Governor Tom Wolf’s proposed state budget for FY2020-21 will be presented as a webinar at 9 am this Monday, March 23. The presenters will be PBPC director, Marc Stier, and PBPC’s senior policy analyst, Diana Polson, along with Stephen Herzenberg, the executive director of the Keystone Research Center. In addition to providing an overview of the governor’s budget proposal, the webinar will also include some of PBPC’s ideas about how PA should be responding to the coronavirus pandemic and how the state budget may need to be adjusted in light of a recession that seems imminent. You can read PBPC’s COVID-19 proposed action plan “The Moral Equivalent of Wartime Equality: Public Policies in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Pennsylvania.”   Continue reading

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A minimum wage hike would reverse 40-year pay stagnation for working people

  By Minimum Wage, PBPC Blog posts, Published op-eds

Originally published in The Morning Call on March 11, 2021 Raising the minimum wage is about helping low-income workers do better — but not just that. It is about changing the rules of our economy so that we all do better, now and in the future. To all do better we must reverse the 40-year trend that has seen skyrocketing incomes and wealth for the owners and executives of the largest corporations while income for working people and the middle class has been stagnant. This transformation was not the necessary result of a free market economy. The economy is a human creation subject to the rules we choose. Political and legal changes made at the behest of the corporate elite deliberately tilted the economy to their advantage and against the working and middle classes, as well as small businesses. What were those changes? First, lawmakers allowed the value of the… Continue reading

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A Guide to the $1.9 Trillion American Rescue Plan: UPDATE with PA-Specific Data

  By American Rescue Plan, Federal Budget

  The American Rescue Plan, as put forward by President Biden and about to be approved by the U.S. Congress, is a bold and necessary action—not just to restore the American economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic but to make it far more just. Here we point to some of the leading features of the plan with estimates of how many people in Pennsylvania will benefit from it. (PA estimates are from the Senate version of the legislation. Links are to the sources of our information.) Most notably, the legislation takes a major step forward in making health insurance through the ACA more affordable and includes a welcome expansion of child tax credits, which for the first time would give low- and moderate-income families in our country the kind of support that can be found in many other countries. And, at one stroke, the legislation would ensure that… Continue reading