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Rethinking Philadelphia Taxes to Fund Education

  By Education, K-12 Education in PA, Philadelphia

Last year, Mayor Jim Kenney boldly called for the School Reform Commission (SRC) to be disbanded and for control over our schools to be returned to the city. In doing so, he took on the responsibility to pay for schools at a time when growing deficits are expected over the next five years. We at PBPC have long argued that the education of Philadelphians shouldn’t be a responsibility of the city alone. Not just Philadelphia but the entire commonwealth suffers because the state share of education funding has fallen from almost 50% to less than 35% of total funding. But while we struggle to encourage Harrisburg to meet its responsibilities to the children of this state, Mayor Kenney is right to prepare the city to increase its spending on education. Indeed, we are so far from providing an adequate education to so many of our kids that even if state… Continue reading

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On President Trump’s Infrastructure Proposal

  By Infrastructure

From Third and State, February 13, 2018 The president has put forward a “plan” for infrastructure spending that identifies no new source of funding, that makes unbelievable assumptions about how much state and private spending can be leveraged by a limited amount of new federal spending and that proposes an end-around of environmental regulations in the guise of streamlining those regulations.  In response to deep and long ignored needs in Pennsylvania and throughout the country for upgrading our roads, bridges, transit systems, airports and water and sewer works – needs that should be met by new investments that could create tens of thousands good jobs – the president has offered a glittering fantasy with little of the substance necessary to meet those needs.  The basic problem with the president’s approach is that he offers a new means of financing infrastructure projects – public private partnerships – when it is funding,… Continue reading

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On Governor Wolf’s Proposed 2018-19 Budget

  By Budget, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Statements

PBPC director Marc Stier made the following statement following Governor’s Wolf budget address and the press release of his proposed 2018-19 state budget: “Governor Wolf today offered a responsible budget that takes major steps towards reducing Pennsylvania’s public investment deficit without raising taxes on working people and the middle class. His budget embraces the idea that broadly shared prosperity comes from both individual initiative and public investment. His proposals for new investments in pre-k, K-12, and higher education and workforce training will help generate good jobs at good wages as will his proposal to raise the minimum wage immediately to $12 an hour. His call for new investment for human services for children, women, and families; for earned sick days; and for a bold new family leave plan will strengthen the social safety net on which so many of our fellow Pennsylvanians depend. While the budget he proposes is balanced,… Continue reading

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Fact Check: Undocumented Immigrants Like the Dreamers Are Not a Drag on State and Local Government

  By Immigration

From Third and State, January 27, 2018 A political movement that is based on demonizing a group of people needs a demon. So the efforts of the Trump administration to generate anger and hatred toward immigrants, both documented and undocumented, has been combined with repeated claims by the administration and its supporters about the terrible burden immigration creates on the United States. Immigrants have been called rapists and murders and terrorists and have been said to be dragging down our economy and burdening citizens with higher taxes. That rhetoric has heated up as Congress struggles to pass legislation to restore the DACA program, which protects the Dreamers — undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children — from deportation. It has reached even higher levels as the Trump administration uses the debate over DACA as a bargaining chip to win Congressional support for a border wall with Mexico and radical changes… Continue reading

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The Unnecessary Federal Budget Impasse

  By Federal Budget

From Third and State, January 20, 2018 Let’s be straight about the politics of the federal budget. The Republicans control the House, Senate and Presidency, but partly because they are not united and partly because they are short of the 60 votes needed under current practices to move most legislation in the Senate, they are unable to pass a budget without Democratic support. So to pass a full-year budget, Republicans and Democrats must compromise. The federal government is shut down today because too many Republicans in Congress won’t compromise and because President Trump doesn’t appear to know what he really wants. Democrats are demanding that their key priorities be included in the budget: restoration of DACA protections for the children of undocumented immigrants who have spent almost all of their lives in the United States; reauthorization of the CHIP program that provides health care for millions of American kids (including… Continue reading

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A Temporary Setback on the Way to a Just America

  By Federal Taxes, Taxation, US

The Trump-GOP tax cut bill passed the House on a party-line vote with twelve Republicans voting against it this afternoon. It  is likely to pass the Senate tonight. This process reminds us that history does not move in a straight line. There are moments, like this one, in which America takes a step away from its promise of equality and justice for all. A combination of ideological zealotry, partisan extremism, and financial power has given us legislation that will cut taxes for the richest Americans while ultimately raising taxes and insurance premiums for working people and the middle-class and taking health insurance away from 13 million people. Wall Street will benefit, but the rest of us will be harmed by higher taxes, insurance premiums, deficits, and interest rates, and, if the Republicans have their way, deep cuts to the social safety net. This legislation will ultimately rank in the same… Continue reading

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It redistributes from working people and the middle class to the rich. And that’s just wrong.

  By Federal Taxes, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Social Justice, Tump, US

Originally published at KRC-PBPC. With all the controversy over the details of the tax cut bill that is moving towards a final vote in the House and Senate this week it is easy to forget about the basic features of the bill. As they did during the debate over repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the Republicans put forward noxious proposals—to radically reduce the state and local tax deduction, to tax graduate student stipends, to eliminate the deduction for teachers who use their own funds in classrooms, and to eliminate the deduction for extremely high medical expenses among others—and then removed them from the final proposal. But we shouldn’t be gratified that these horrible elements of the bill are gone when the basic framework of the bill, which has remained constant in every version considered by the House and Senate, remains so awful. The legislation is basically a huge and… Continue reading

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On the Passage of the US Senate GOP Tax Bill

  By Federal Taxes, PA Budget and Policy Center, Statements, US

Marc Stier, director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, released the following statement on the passage of the U.S. Senate GOP tax bill: “Budgets are, it is frequently said, moral documents. If that is true, and we believe it is, then the tax plan adopted by the Senate today represents an extreme moral failure on the part of the Republican Party. At a time when incomes are becoming ever more unequal, the Republican tax plan will ultimately make the rich richer and the poor and middle class poorer. It will benefit corporations at the expense of families. And, because of the repeal of the individual mandate, it will cost 13 million people nationwide — and 500,000 in Pennsylvania — health insurance leading to 1000 to 2000 premature deaths in our state alone. Continue reading

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The GOP Tax Bill: An Assault on Economic Equality and Democracy

  By Federal Taxes, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Taxation, US

Budgets, it is frequently said, are an embodiment of our moral ideals and commitments. If so, the tax plan adopted by the Senate on Friday represents an extreme moral failure on the part of the senators from the Republican Party who voted for it. At a time when incomes are becoming ever more unequal, the Republican tax plan will ultimately make the rich richer and the poor and middle class poorer. Not only will working people and the middle class suffer, but so will our whole country. And not only that: one has to wonder what kind of democracy America has, when our government acts in such utter disregard of a majority of the country and the common good. Many of the features of this bill that work to help the rich and harm everyone else are now well known. So let’s quickly review them with links to the hard… Continue reading

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On Joint Resolution 1, The Constitutional Amendment on Property Taxes

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania, Property Taxes, Taxation

We are getting a lot of questions about what the constitutional amendment on the ballot this year means and where the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center stands on it. We haven’t rushed to judgment on it for a couple of reasons. First, we are not convinced that this amendment will, by itself, have much impact on policy in the state. And second, given that any amendment to the Constitution is important, we wanted to make sure we understood all the implications of it before reaching a conclusion. We have reached a conclusion — that the amendment won’t make much difference. And that’s why we aren’t going to offer any recommendation about how to vote. So let’s begin by explaining what the amendment does and, as importantly, does not do. The background: our uniformity clause The key piece of background information one must know to understand this amendment is that the… Continue reading