Author: Marc Stier

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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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The FY2021-22 PA State Budget: The People’s Budget & Tracking ARP Funds in PA

  By American Rescue Plan, Federal Budget, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Video

This is a recording of a Zoom meeting hosted by the PA Budget & Policy Center on Thursday, April 15, 2021, to provide updates related to PA’s state budget and the allocation of the $7.3 billion in assistance that the American Rescue Plan delivered to PA’s state government. PBPC director Marc Stier talks about the fiscal challenges facing the Commonwealth and discusses the “People’s Budget,” an effort by several legislators to propose a way to raise the revenue necessary to make long-overdue investments in important programs and priorities. The video also features PBPC’s senior policy analyst Diana Polson presenting recently updated information about how American Rescue Act funds will be distributed in PA, highlighting an online spreadsheet for tracking these allocations: Tracking American Rescue Plan Funding Distribution in PA.    Continue reading

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PRESENTATION – A Necessary First Step: Governor Wolf’s Proposal to Provide Adequate & Equitable Funding in PA Schools

  By K-12 Education in PA, Pennsylvania, Presentation

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A Necessary First Step:Governor Wolf’s Proposal to Provide Adequate and Equitable Funding of Pennsylvania Schools

  By Budget analysis, K-12 Education in PA, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania

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ANALYSIS: Governor Wolf’s Proposed 2020-21 State Budget

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania Budget, Video

The Pennsylvania Budget & Policy Center’s analysis of Governor Tom Wolf’s proposed state budget for FY2020-21 will be presented as a webinar at 9 am this Monday, March 23. The presenters will be PBPC director, Marc Stier, and PBPC’s senior policy analyst, Diana Polson, along with Stephen Herzenberg, the executive director of the Keystone Research Center. In addition to providing an overview of the governor’s budget proposal, the webinar will also include some of PBPC’s ideas about how PA should be responding to the coronavirus pandemic and how the state budget may need to be adjusted in light of a recession that seems imminent. You can read PBPC’s COVID-19 proposed action plan “The Moral Equivalent of Wartime Equality: Public Policies in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Pennsylvania.”   Continue reading

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A minimum wage hike would reverse 40-year pay stagnation for working people

  By Minimum Wage, Published Op-Eds

Originally published in The Morning Call on March 11, 2021 Raising the minimum wage is about helping low-income workers do better — but not just that. It is about changing the rules of our economy so that we all do better, now and in the future. To all do better we must reverse the 40-year trend that has seen skyrocketing incomes and wealth for the owners and executives of the largest corporations while income for working people and the middle class has been stagnant. This transformation was not the necessary result of a free market economy. The economy is a human creation subject to the rules we choose. Political and legal changes made at the behest of the corporate elite deliberately tilted the economy to their advantage and against the working and middle classes, as well as small businesses.Activists near the Capitol in Washington on Feb. 25 appeal for a… Continue reading