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Why We Should Raise the Minimum Wage in Pennsylvania to $15 Per Hour

  By Minimum Wage, Talking points

Click here to print or read full screen.   A high minimum wage ensures we have an economy that works for all of us. It protects workers and provides a dignified life. The minimum wage is a critical protection for workers—like the right to form unions, the social safety net, and a tax system that asks the rich to pay at a higher rate than the poor. These policies ensure that our economy works for all of us, not just the wealthy owners of huge corporations. We show respect for the dignity of work by ensuring all full-time workers are paid a decent wage that allows them to support themselves and their families. Opponents of a higher minimum wage want the work but won’t provide the dignity. Since 1947, workers’ share of the benefits of the United States economy has shrunk drastically. But our economy is more productive than ever.… Continue reading

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PA House Passes Proposals to Reduce Taxes for Working People

  By Blog post, Budget, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Budget, Taxation

Four Major Proposals Will Make Pennsylvania Taxes Fairer The Pennsylvania House today passed the second and third of four major tax proposals: an expansion of the Child and Dependent Care Enhancement Tax Credit (HB 1259) and the creation of a state Earned Income Tax (HB 1272). These actions follow on House passage of an expansion of the Property Tax / Rent Rebate Program (HB 1110) on January 6. The House is expected to act soon to pass the repeal of the gross receipts tax and sales and use tax on wireless cell phone services (HB 1138). Taken together, the four bills that have been, or will soon be, passed by the House of Representatives will reduce taxes for working people in Pennsylvania and make our state’s tax system fairer. While there is more to be done to fix our upside-down tax system in which the wealthiest Pennsylvania families pay taxes… Continue reading

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Learning from our bodies and failure

  By Language, Love and Sex, Philosophy

One of the endlessly appealing profoundly mistaken ideas found in science fiction is that idea that we human beings could take a pill or have a capsule or micro-chip inserted into our brains and then immediately have all kinds of faculties and capacities we previously did not have. This idea was prominent in The Matrix films, for example. But it certainly didn’t start there. I’m going to argue here that this idea is based on a particular kind of mind-body dualism that is ultimately rooted in ideas put forward by Socrates in some of the Platonic dialogues (although the extent to which Plato embraced these ideas is very much questionable). And I’m going to conclude that is a profoundly problematic idea that encourages us to think of our lives in ways that leads us to (1) misunderstand and become despondent about our bodies and (2) fail to understand how important… Continue reading

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Pennsylvania Policy Center Statement on General Fund Budget Passed by PA House

  By Budget, Penn Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Statement

For Immediate Release Contact: Kirstin Snow, Communications Director, snow@pennpolicy.org; 215-510-9336 Harrisburg, PA–Marc Stier, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Policy Center, today released the following statement after the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed HB 611, a 2023-24 General Fund Budget, on party line vote. “In March, Governor Shapiro proposed a budget that had the right priorities but proposed too little spending in certain key areas, including K-12 education, workforce development, and housing. The budget passed by the House of Representatives today follows the governor’s priorities but adds spending in areas we believe deserved additional support. That spending is supported by additional revenue expected in both the current fiscal year and in years 2023-24. Going beyond the governor’s budget proposal, the House budget includes: ·      An additional $100 million in basic education funding ·      A $225 million Level Up supplement to the 108 most underfunded school districts in the state. ·      An… Continue reading

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The Cruelty of Our Times

  By Philosophy, Politics, Public Policy

The worst part of our times is that cruelty, which has always come too easily to human beings, has now become the accepted mode of too much of our lives. And for so many reasons. Because we are so divided politically and so threatened by the other side we want to obliterate them. Because we are so threatened by the other side that we can’t abide anyone on our side who doesn’t think and talk exactly as we do, or who fails to rise to the same level of indignation at some offense that we do. Because we talk to so many people at a mediated distance, which makes it impossible to see the immediate harm we do to others with our words. Because political conflict, economic struggles, and endless choices make us so uncertain of ourselves and our future that we seek the constant affirmation that comes with showing… Continue reading

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Championships and the Necessary Fictions of Life

  By Philosophy, Sports

As some of you have seen, Since Giannis’s post-game interview the other day, I’ve been looking at how we talk about sports in a new light. One of the necessary fictions of life is that success and failure in our lives are at least to some extent under our control. It’s a necessary fiction because if we don’t believe that to some extent, we will be discouraged, downhearted, despondent, and at the very least not put forward the effort we need to succeed. Or we wouldn’t be able to face the injustice of a world in which some people grow up in deep poverty and others grow up wealthy. Or we wouldn’t be able to deal with knowing that some of us are going to die young from an accident or disease, and others won’t. But it is a fiction because so much of our lives are not under our… Continue reading

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“James Harden Sucks”

  By Philosophy, Sports

“James Harden sucks.” We’ve heard a lot of that in the week after he scored a career-high 45 points in a playoff game. I have some thoughts on that accusation. Those who don’t do work that involves some kind of public performance—or who do it but are not honest with themselves—don’t realize how varied our performance can be from one day or even one moment to another. Bill Russell wrote about this in his wonderful (second) auto-biography, Second Wind, which I read in my early twenties and has influenced me in many ways since. Russell said that after every game he gave himself a grade based on how well he performed, and reviewed things he did well and did not do well. IIRC he said that he averaged about a B. When I started teaching, I did the same thing. My teaching was almost done in a seminar format. if… Continue reading

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The Real Cost of Opening a Window for Sexual Abuse Lawsuits in Pennsylvania

  By Sexual and gender equality, Sexual harassment, Testimony

I was asked to testify about the claims made in a paper by the Susquehanna Valley Center for Public Policy that opening a two-year window for childhood victims of sexual abuse to bring lawsuits against their abusers might cost public schools in Pennsylvania between $10 billion and $32 billion. On its face, the claim sounds utterly absurd. (Not to mention irrelevant; if that is the cost of doing justice for those who have suffered from sexual abuse, then that is what we should be prepared to pay.) But as I delved into the details of the paper, I discovered that it was based on what, frankly, was a horror show of faulty research methods and statistical analyses. I was tempted to say—but in the setting of an official hearing in the Capitol, did not say—that this paper would have received no better than a D grade in the research methods… Continue reading

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Pennsylvania Policy Center Announces Leadership Team

  By Blog post

For Immediate Release June 8, 2023 Contact: Kirstin Snow, snow@pennpolicy.org Pennsylvania Policy Center Announces Leadership Team PA’s State Affiliate to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Harrisburg, PA—Today, Pennsylvania Policy Center’s (PPC) executive director, Marc Stier, announced five progressive politics and organizing professionals joined the state’s affiliate to the national Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In addressing the recent hires, Stier said, “The Pennsylvania Policy Center aims, through its research and policy development, to create the tools that political officials, opinion leaders, grassroots organizations, and the people of PA need to expand our vibrant democracy, secure our freedom, and seek economic justice in Pennsylvania. I am confident the team we have built, and are continuing to build, will see that to fruition.” New team members include: Levana Layendecker, Deputy Director / Chief Operating Officer – Levana comes to the Pennsylvania Policy Center with more than twenty years of… Continue reading

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Why We Need a Property Tax Circuit Breaker

  By Pennsylvania, Property Taxes, Taxation

Statement of Marc Stier at Senator Jimmy Dillon / Representative Robert Freeman press conference on establishing a property tax circuit breaker in Pennsylvania on April 25, 2023 I’m very pleased to stand with Senator Jimmy Dillon and Representative Robert Freeman in support of establishing a property tax circuit breaker in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center first proposed such a plan in 2015 and our new organization, the Pennsylvania Policy Center, continues to support it. Representative Freeman has long championed it, and we are glad to see Senator Dillion become a champion of it as well. Pennsylvania has long had a serious problem: our tax system is unfair. State and local taxes in our commonwealth place a much greater burden on families with low incomes and moderate incomes than those with high incomes. Just to give you an idea of how unfair our tax system is, consider this: The… Continue reading