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Memo: The Budget No One Wants

  By Memos, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget

To: Editorial boards, columnists, political reporters, and other interested parties From: Marc Stier, Director, PA Budget and Policy Center Re: 2021-22 Pennsylvania Budget Date: June 22, 2021 We may not know the details of the Pennsylvania General Fund budget that the General Assembly will adopt until sometime tomorrow. But the overall shape of the budget is becoming clear. And it is profoundly disappointing. The General Assembly has roughly $10 billion that could—and should—be used to help those whose lives have been most disrupted by the pandemic and to take major steps towards creating a more just and inclusive economy. The urgent need for more public investment could not be clearer: Pennsylvania has the most unequal K-12 school funding in the country. Our analysis shows that the average school district has a severe funding gap when measured by state standards. But the gap is ten times as big for school districts… Continue reading

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The PA Budget: A Disgrace and Dereliction of Duty

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Statements

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 25, 2021 Contact: Adrienne Standley standley@pennbpc.org 717-805-8466 Statement by Marc Stier, Director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center The General Fund budget being presented today is a disgrace and a dereliction of duty. The state is flush with more than $10 billion in our federal and state tax dollars which could be spent both to help those who have been left behind by the pandemic and to take a first step toward addressing the deep inequities that long preceded it. But the Republican leaders of the PA General Assembly plan to leave that money in the bank. About $7.5 billion of the funds available will be reserved to provide one more temporary fix to budget deficits created not by the pandemic but by ten years of Republican-led fiscal mismanagement that includes deep cuts to corporate taxes which now cost the state $4 billion per year in new… Continue reading

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PBPC-State Innovation Exchange Poll on Budget and Democracy Issues

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Polling

The poll we are releasing today was commissioned by the State Innovation Exchange and the PA Budget and Policy Center. It is the third poll on tax, budget, and democracy issues sponsored by the two organizations. The poll is also part of a six-state public opinion survey effort by the State Innovation Exchange. Topline Findings: American Rescue Plan and PA Budget As the Pennsylvania economy continues to reverse course from the pandemic, this poll shows clearly that PA voters have a big appetite for public investment and little appetite for austerity. The poll shows that by a 3-1 margin Pennsylvanians prefer investing American Rescue Plan funds in people and businesses over using the money to pay down structural budget deficits. It shows overwhelming support for a range of public investments with ARP funds, including: Low-interest small business loans Combating homelessness, lack of affordable housing, and food insecurity Hazard pay for… Continue reading

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This Year We Need to Pass A Budget for the People not the Powerful

  By Pennsylvania Budget, Published Op-Eds

Originally published by the PA Capital-Star on June 16, 2021 The General Assembly has two more weeks to pass a budget for next year.  This year, the budget can be—and must be—different than recent budgets. This year we are coming out of a pandemic that created vast suffering for workers, local businesses, and our communities. Millions of Pennsylvanians took on hazardous work during the pandemic at very low wages. They deserve just compensation. They deserve a reward.  Thousands of small businesses remain on the brink of closing. They deserve help. Communities all over the state are trying to return to normal. They need assistance.  And all of the suffering has revealed deep inequities in our society. Before the pandemic, some of us were already aware that … millions of Pennsylvanians are not paid wages that lift them or their families out of poverty. educational opportunities are not distributed fairly to kids who live in low- or moderate-income communities, or who are Black or Hispanic.  the state invests less in higher… Continue reading

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Why House Bill 1300 is a Clear Attempt to Restrict Voting

  By Democracy, Statements, Voting

  “The vast majority of us care about democratic government and want secure and free elections. We want to go to the polls and know that our vote is being counted. We want it to be easy to vote. We want all eligible voters—not ineligible ones—to cast their ballots. We want our votes to be counted fairly, and we want to know who won relatively quickly. And, ultimately, we want everyone to acknowledge the legitimate results of free and fair elections. We can have modern free, fair, and secure elections. We can use technology to ensure that people are able to vote conveniently and without sacrificing security. Yet on Tuesday, the House State Government Committee, in a purely partisan vote, moved a bill that makes voting harder. It would make the election process more confusing, change deadlines for no reason, and would roll back alternative and easy ways to vote… Continue reading

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Betty Gottlieb 1927-2021

  By Uncategorized

By Diane Gottlieb and Katja Gottlieb-Stier Betty Allanoff Gottlieb, who was thought to be intellectually disabled in kindergarten because she spoke only Yiddish, graduated high school at fifteen, and attained a PhD in Biochemistry at 61, died on the thirtieth of March 2021, twenty-four years and three weeks after the death of her beloved husband Harry Gottlieb MD.  Betty had unparalleled joie de vivre. A passionate learner, her interests were perpetually expanding. A first generation American born to Jewish immigrants from what was then the Russian/Polish border, Betty lived with her parents and extended family on South 4th Street in Philadelphia in the building that became Southwark and, most recently, Ambra restaurant. She studied Biochemistry at Temple University and continued this focus pursuing a PhD at Indiana University. As the only woman in the department she was often discouraged by her male supervisors.  Following a chance reacquaintance with Harry Gottlieb… Continue reading

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Vote for Amendment 3

  By Uncategorized

This is an update of the remarks I gave at a press conference led by Senator Vince Hughes and the Urban League and attended by Liz Randol of the ACLU, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, District Attorney Larry Krasner and many others last week. A proposed constitutional amendment stating that equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged because of an individual’s race or ethnicity is on the Pennsylvania ballot next week. The amendment would bring rights protected under the U.S. Constitution into the PA Constitution. Racial and ethnic prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination are totally antithetical to the basic rights of human beings. The protection of these rights is so central to a decent and just political community that at the federal level we have embedded it in our Constitution, thereby creating a way to appeal to the Courts if and when Congress, the presidency, and state and local… Continue reading

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Krasner leads us towards justice

  By 2021 DA Race, Politics

This is a response to Wilfredo Rojas, a critic of Larry Krasner who complains about Krasner’s efforts to pursue justice in the loss of his son, a Temple student who was murdered. Wilfredo, first, let me say that I’m very sorry for your loss. I was talking with a friend yesterday about families, like my own, where parents have had to see their children die about how this is the most devastating that can happen to a person. Nothing the criminal justice system can do will stop the ache in your heart. And that is not its purpose. Its purpose is to provide justice for our communities. As I said to others, human civilization is based on recognizing that injuries to individuals have to be answered by the community not by individual or family revenge. That idea is the most enduring legacy of Greek thought and practice and was immortalized… Continue reading