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In PA, Worker Protections Ruled “Out of Order”

  By COVID-19

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. As the Pennsylvania House of Representatives moves toward consideration of legislation that would allow most businesses in the Commonwealth to reopen—legislation we believe is dangerous to the public’s lives and health—House Democrats have proposed amendments that would protect workers who would be forced back to work. They would require that:  the minimum wage for employees be $15 an hour;  employees at risk receive additional hazard pay;  businesses use social distancing and physical barriers to protect workers;  employees have breaks and places with adequate soap and water to wash their hands;  employees have access to hand sanitizer at all times;  employees be granted leave for sickness with compensation at the same rate;  employees be informed by their employer if a coworker has been tested for COVID-19. Yet, astonishingly, Speaker Turzai has ruled these amendments out of order! He is pushing bills to open businesses yet somehow… Continue reading

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Declaring Victory Too Soon Will Cost Too Many Lives

  By COVID-19

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. All over the Commonwealth today, people are dying in terrible ways from COVID-19—struggling for breath without the comfort of their loved ones by their side. Yet, just as we are slowly reducing the impact of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania, Republicans in the PA House of Representatives are seeking to overturn Governor Wolf’s order to close non-essential businesses. That order, as well as the governor’s order to Pennsylvanians to stay at home, is working. On March 23, when the governor closed non-essential businesses, there were 644 COVID-19 infections in the state and they were increasing at a rate of 34% a day. By April 1, when the stay-at-home order was issued, the rate of increase had come down to 20%. It has since dropped to about 7% a day. And so far in Pennsylvania, 22,833 people have tested positive for the disease, 2,097 are hospitalized, and 507… Continue reading

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Race and COVID-19

  By COVID-19, PBPC Blog posts

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. Originally published by KRC-PBPC here By Marc Stier and Erica Freeman COVID-19 is like a chemical in which one dips a photographic print—it gradually reveals things you couldn’t see before. It is showing us deeply disturbing and unjust patterns of inequality in the life of our nation and state that too many of us ignore from day today. We have said from the beginning of the pandemic that we’re concerned that the impact of COVID-19 on our health, as well as the impact of the necessary steps to fight the spread of the virus on our economic well-being, would be borne disproportionately by those who have lower incomes, who are Black and brown, who are immigrants, who are seniors, and who are disabled. It’s becoming increasingly clear that COVID-19 is hitting Black and brown people harder than white people. We haven’t found good data for… Continue reading

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Choose Lives Not Money: On a Proposed Amendment A04895 to SB 327, PN 1436

  By COVID-19, PA Economy

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. Governor Wolf has ordered all Pennsylvanians to stay at home except when necessary to engage in “tasks essential to maintain…the health and safety of their family and household members;” to get “necessary services or supplies for themselves or their family or household members….or to those in need;” to engage in ”outdoor activities” or to “perform work providing essential products and services at life-sustaining businesses….” This order has required the closure of most businesses in the Commonwealth. And that has placed a great burden on the owners of businesses large and small as well as on the employees of those businesses. The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has recommended, along with many others, that the Commonwealth and the federal government take many steps to help sustain businesses and their employees during this time. Both the federal and state governments have taken such steps. We will be making… Continue reading

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Tears and Rage

  By Politics

I go back and forth between tears and rage. We are witnessing the greatest failure of political leadership by one person in the history of this country and one of the greatest failures in human history. Tens of thousands of people are going to die. Our economy will suffer immensely, and the burden will fall most heavily on the most vulnerable among us. And why? Because the narcissistic moron who sits in the chair of Washington, Lincoln, and FDR has not, and still will not, prepare for the crisis and take charge of meeting it. The virus was going to affect us. But it did not have to be nearly this bad and in so many ways. Continue reading

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The Likely Impact of COVID-19 on Pennsylvania

  By COVID-19, PBPC Blog posts

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. A recent study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington projects the impact of the COVID-19 virus on the state between now and August 1, 2020. The study concludes that by then the virus will have killed more than 3,000 Pennsylvanians, and it will heavily stress our health care system in mid-April. But thanks to the social distancing and business closures required by the Wolf administration, our state will avoid the devastation that might occur if current COVID-19 trends—which are a product of our interaction before the policies went into effect—were to continue. The study projects that the peak need for hospital resources will occur in Pennsylvania on April 17 when 9,745 hospital beds will be required. That number is below the 14,395 hospital beds in the state. However, it also predicts that 1,417 beds will be needed… Continue reading

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What Not to Do in the Face of a COVID-19 Driven Recession: Lessons from the Corbett Years

  By COVID-19, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Budget

Originally published by KCR-PBPC here. By Marc Stier and Diana Polson As COVID-19 hurtles us towards a global recession, Pennsylvania will need to make difficult decisions about how to handle a possibly huge shortfall in state revenues as well as a mandated increase in state costs for such things as Medicaid. We are working to estimate how much state revenues will suffer due to the recession but there are many unknowns, especially because this is an unusual recession, one that is a product of deliberate and necessary policy choice. With no models for this kind of recession, we do not know how deep the recession will be, how long it will last, or how quickly the economy can recover. At this point, we can only give a wide range of possibilities. It is likely that state revenues will drop between $4.5 and $9 billion in the current fiscal year and… Continue reading

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Funds for Pennsylvania in the Senate Coronavirus Relief Act

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. By Marc Stier and Maisum Murtaza Update April 1: Two additional funding streams are not yet included in the table below. 1. The state should receive about $800 million in additional support for Medicaid / Medical Assistance through December, 2020. 2. The state will receive about $523 million  in funding for Education from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency School Relief Fund and $104 million from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund. This brings the total funds that will be received by the  state to roughly $5.5 billion. Updated March 30, 2020. The Senate Coronavirus Relief bill contains many parts. It will direct federal funds to flow to state and municipal governments through numerous funding streams. The largest one is the $150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund which will bring Pennsylvania $4.96 billion with about 21% going to county and municipal governments with a population of… Continue reading

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Here Is What We Know About the COVID-19 Stimulus Bill

  By COVID-19, Economic Development, PBPC Blog posts, Politics

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. Here is what we think we know about the bipartisan COVID-19 stimulus / relief bill that we expect the Senate to pass today. Let me be clear that lawmakers reached a deal—but the legislative text is not yet complete. Legislative staff members are working to fill in all the blanks on the agreements in order to have a full bill to move to the floor today. Some of these details may change in the final version. We will be updating this blog post throughout the day as we receive more details. Cash payments: The bill provides a one-time stipend of about $1,200 per individual making up to $75,000, $2,400 for couples making $150,000 or less, and $500 per child. The payment will be reduced gradually as incomes rise. Individuals who make up to $99,000 and couples making up to $198,000 would receive less. Though still unsure, we believe… Continue reading

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Calm Before the Storm: An Analysis of Governor Wolf’s Proposed Budget for 2020-21

  By Budget analysis, Diana Polson, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Stephen Herzenberg

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here, By Diana Polson, Marc Stier, and Stephen Herzenberg We were in the last two weeks of work on this analysis of the governor’s proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2020, when the political and economic world in which we’d been living tilted on its axis. The coronavirus that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic was creating havoc in China, both to the health of the population and to the economy of the country. It is now clear that the United States is heading into a recession. We should expect that our economy, and indeed the whole world, will suffer for some time. A recession will have a severe impact on the budget of Pennsylvania with regard to both revenues and expenditure. Revenues will certainly decline. And expenditures for human services—especially for Medical Assistance (Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program), Unemployment Compensation, SNAP (formerly called… Continue reading