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Considering Vulnerability

  By About me, Life Stories, Philosophy, Published Op-Eds

Originally published in the Jewish Exponent, May 31, 2019 I’ve been thinking a lot about vulnerability since I hurt my back last summer. Since then, aside from three-week periods after I got two spinal injections a few months apart, I’ve stood and walked with pain and have had trouble moving around. And that’s left me feeling vulnerable. Feeling vulnerable in ways I never have before has made me think more about the role the sense of vulnerability and invulnerability plays in our lives. I’ve especially thought about those who are a lot more vulnerable than I was either because of physical limitations or because they face more challenges than I do — women, people of color, those who are disabled, those whose sexual identity and presentation is not traditional. It has occurred to me that my current sense of vulnerability, like the confidence I once had, is a bit of… Continue reading

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Judicial Districts and Judicial Independence

  By Memos, PA Budget and Policy Center

To: Legislators, legislative staff, editorial board members, columnists, other interested parties From: Marc Stier, Director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center Subject: Judicial Districts and Judicial Independence This week the Republican leadership of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives plan to take up an HB 196, a constitutional amendment proposed by Representative Russ Diamond to elect the appellate court judges who sit on the Supreme Court and the two second-level courts, the Commonwealth Court and Superior Court, by districts rather than in statewide elections. This proposal is similar to the Aument amendment to SB22, a redistricting reform proposal that passed the Senate but stalled in the House last year. HB 196 is deeply problematic for three reasons. First, given the role judges play in our constitutional government, district election is unnecessary. We elect legislators by district because it is important that regional interests be accounted for in the process of enacting legislation.… Continue reading

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How the ‘Fair Share Tax’ will restore fairness to our tax system

  By Pennsylvania Budget, Public Policy, Published op-eds

Originally published in the Pennsylvania Capitol-Star, April 24, 2019 Pennsylvania politics remains divided. One side, composed of mostly conservatives, believes that the key to prosperity is to cut taxes for the rich, cut spending for everyone else and—although they don’t say it too loudly—keep wages low. The other side, composed of mostly liberals, believe that a prosperous Pennsylvania needs to close our public investment deficit. They point out that state spending as a share of gross state product has fallen by 12 percent compared to the years 1997-2011. That has left us with: With a Democratic governor and a Republican-controlled General Assembly, neither side is getting what they want this year. And thanks to robust revenues, the governor’s austere budget—but not as austere as Republicans want—may be settled without too much stress. But that means that partisan gridlock is making it impossible for our government to make a real choice between the two visions of Pennsylvania’s… Continue reading

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How the ‘Fair Share Tax’ will restore fairness to our tax system

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania State Taxes, Published Op-Eds

Originally published by the PA Capital-Star on April 24, 2019 Pennsylvania politics remains divided. One side, composed of mostly conservatives, believes that the key to prosperity is to cut taxes for the rich, cut spending for everyone else and—although they don’t say it too loudly—keep wages low. The other side, composed of mostly liberals, believe that a prosperous Pennsylvania needs to close our public investment deficit. They point out that state spending as a share of gross state product has fallen by 12 percent compared to the years 1997-2011. That has left us with: K-12 schools that remain among the most unequal in the country, leaving too many of our children to receive an inadequate education; state spending on higher education that is half of what it was in 1983-84, leaving us fourth from the bottom among all states in per capita spending and 40th of 50 states in the percentage of adults with more than… Continue reading

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Pizza and the Minimum Wage

  By Minimum Wage, Pennsylvania, Public Policy, Published Op-Eds

Originally posted at Penn-Live on April 09, 2019 Spend a little time talking to Republican (and some Democratic) legislators about raising the minimum wage, and they will eventually tell you about their friend who owns a pizza shop and opposes an increase. This is the story the pizza shop owners appear to tell our legislators: If the minimum wage goes up by 2/3rds from $7.25 to $12.00 an hour, I’d have to raise the price of my 12-inch pizza by 2/3rds from $9.49 to $15.75. No one will buy a pizza for $15.74 and I’ll go out of business.” We decided to test this claim in two ways. Every state surrounding Pennsylvania has raised its minimum wage, and two have raised it substantially. The minimum wage in New York is $11.10, 53% more than in Pennsylvania. In Maryland it is $10.10, 39% more. If the pizza shop owners who talk… Continue reading

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A Fair Share Tax Plan for Pennsylvania–2019 Update

  By Diana Polson, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania State Taxes, Policy reports

By Marc Stier and Diana Polson Originally publish by KRC-PBPC This paper puts forward the Fair Share Tax plan, a major step toward fixing Pennsylvania’s broken tax system and raising the revenues we need to invest in the public goods that are critical to creating thriving communities and individual opportunity in our state: education, infrastructure, protection for our air and water, and human services. The calculations included in this plan are an update to similar proposal put forward by the PA Budget and Policy Center in 2017. The proposal that would raise $2.2 billion annually, while cutting taxes or leaving them level for 82% of Pennsylvanians. Click here to read or download the full proposal.  See how Pennsylvanians in each state House and Senate district would fare under the Fair Share Tax Plan here. Continue reading

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This Isn’t the Redistricting Reform We Need

  By Legislative Districts, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Redistricting

HARRISBURG—Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center director Marc Stier made the following statement regarding the resurfacing of SB22, a bill intended to change the way legislative redistricting is done in Pennsylvania: Senator Mike Folmer announced this week that he will be resurrecting last year’s failed SB22, a bill to change the way district lines are drawn in Pennsylvania. Senator Folmer is preparing to bring the bill back up for a vote in the State Government Committee as early as tomorrow. While eliminating gerrymandering is critically important, Senator Folmer is hoping to catch Pennsylvanians unawares as he attempts to bring a failed bill to a committee vote without holding debate and hearings and without gathering input from the communities that will be most impacted by SB22. Governor Wolf established a redistricting commission earlier this year and Senator Folmer should not attempt to rush SB22 through committee without giving Pennsylvanians a chance to… Continue reading

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Backaches and Vulnerability

  By Life Stories, Philosophy

I’m having surgery on Tuesday which, I’m fairly confident, will remove the pain I’ve have had for the last eight months. Before I do, a word about what this experience has taught me. I’ve been thinking a lot about vulnerability since I hurt my back on July 23. Since then, aside from the three-week periods after I got two spinal injections a few months apart, I’ve stood and walked with pain and have had trouble moving around. And that’s left me feeling more vulnerable than usual. That feeling comes most often when I’m near cars. I’m much more careful crossing streets because once in a while the pain gets so bad that I just have to stop for a moment. And while I can pick up the pace for a brief burst, I don’t respond as quickly as I usually do. So I’m afraid of cars coming around a corner… Continue reading

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Analysis of Governor Wolf’s Proposed 2019-20 State Budget

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

INTRODUCTION Some important things have changed in Pennsylvania politics as a result of the 2018 election. But the basic political dynamic that constrains our budget politics remains. We have a Democratic governor and a Republican-controlled General Assembly. And more importantly, we face an ideological division that partly maps onto the partisan one. On one side are those who believe that the only path to prosperity for our state is to cut taxes for the rich and for businesses, cut spending, and hold wages down. On the other side—where the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center stands—are those who believe that prosperity for everyone requires us to raise wages and expand the safety net that protects those who need our help, invest in people through new educational initiatives at all levels and in workforce training, and invest in building our public infrastructure and protecting our environment. The priorities for spending found in… Continue reading

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Is Barr’s Letter a Whitewash of the Obstruction of Justice Charge?

  By Resisting Trump

After reading Attorney General Barr’s letter summarizing the principal conclusions of the Mueller report, it seems to me even more imperative that the full report be released as soon as possible. For there is some real reason to think that Barr is whitewashing Mueller’s conclusions, especially when it comes to the question of Trump’s obstruction of justice. According to Barr, Mueller does not reach a conclusion about whether Trump should be charged with that crime but, instead, sets out reasons for and against doing so. But then Barr concludes, with only 48 hours of considering the issue, that he should not be charged—and presumably should not be investigated by the House of Representatives—for obstructing justice. Barr says that no actions taken by Trump “had a nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding, and were done with corrupt intent.” That is a plain restatement of what appears to be the law… Continue reading