Author: Marc Stier

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Only Wealthy Immigrants Need Apply: The Chilling Effects of “Public Charge”

  By Immigration, Pennsylvania

By David Dyssegaard Kallick, Cyierra Roldan and Marc Stier Originally published at by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center of the Keystone Research Center. The day the new public charge rule goes into effect, the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center and the New York Fiscal Policy Institute are releasing a report demonstrating the harm it will create for Pennsylvania families, the Pennsylvania economy and state revenues. The “public charge” inadmissability test has been part of federal immigration law for more than one hundred years. Federal law allows the government to deny permanent residence (a “green card”) to a person “likely at any time to become a public charge.” The Trump administration’s new regulations significantly stiffen this forward-looking test. The public charge rule will make it much more difficult for low- and moderate-income families to make their lives in the United States if they are considered likely to use public benefits… Continue reading

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Corporate Tax Cuts Since 2002 Cost PA $4.2B Annually

  By Corporate Taxes, Diana Polson, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Budget, Pennsylvania State Taxes, Stephen Herzenberg, Taxation

By Stephen Herzenberg, Diana Polson, and Marc Stier Closing Delaware loophole, instituting worldwide combined reporting would level the playing field for small businesses and generate over $700 million a year to invest in PA communities This paper focuses on the details of one part of this story: the cuts in corporate taxes in Pennsylvania since 2002 that have reduced revenues by what is now $4.2 billion per year and have created a tax system that is among the most unfair in the country.   Pennsylvania’s tax–cutting, shaped by the corporate-sponsored narrative, has taken a variety of forms. Under both Republican and Democratic governors, we have entirely eliminated one of our two major taxes on corporations, the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax (CSFT). We have also allowed businesses to lower their reported profits subject to the largest remaining corporate tax—the Corporate Net Income (CNI) tax. And we have continued to give multi-state corporations free rein to cook their books and exploit corporate tax loopholes to their reported income subject to the CNI. The result is that 73% of corporations that do business in Pennsylvania… Continue reading

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Yes, the U.S. Constitution could be improved. The process in this Pa. House resolution isn’t a path forward

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, Published Op-Eds, US Constitution

Originally published by the PA Capital-Star on December 18, 2019. On Monday, the House State Government Committee passed a resolution asking Congress to call a constitutional convention, pursuant to Article V of the U.S. Constitution. It’s not hard to understand the temptation to support this resolution. We live at a time of political division in Pennsylvania and in our country as a whole. We are all tempted to think about whether some change in our constitution might help us resolve our difficulties. It’s useful to start thinking about these issues. However, as a political scientist who has thought long and hard about our constitution, my own ideas on the matter are not terribly fixed, simply because the question is so difficult and the considerations that should weigh on us in examining changes in a constitution that has served us so well require the time for serious thought and substantial debate. But… Continue reading

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Five myths about raising the minimum wage — debunked

  By Minimum Wage, Published Op-Eds

Originally published by the PA Capital-Star on October 3, 2019. By Marc Stier While raising the minimum wage has been a conversation that continues to reverberate around the capitol, it’s clear that many legislators are apprehensive about raising the wage for the first time in over a decade. Some legislators have told advocates they don’t believe there should even be a minimum wage. But raising the minimum wage isn’t just about a few more dollars a month in the pockets of working people. It’s not a hand-out to low-wage workers. It’s part of an effort to change the rules of our economy so that working people do better, reversing the trends of the last 40 years in which a greater share of our income and wealth has gone to the very rich. Raising the minimum wage will help benefit all working people and help expand the middle class. In our advocacy… Continue reading

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Please No Entry Level Politicians

  By Politics

The most foolish idea in politics: an utterly inexperienced person can be effective in high office because he or she can hire “talented, experienced people to guide them.” Here’s the problem: There are always “talented, experienced” people willing to give advice. But (1) half of them aren’t really all that talented and their experience comes from working with and following others who are genuinely talented and experienced. And (2) all those folks disagree in the advice they give. So if you are going to be president or some other high level position you better have some capacity to choose between different advisors and the advice they give. And you can’t do that if you don’t, yourself, have sufficient talent and experience in poiltics. And you need both. The examples are legion, starting with the current occumpant of the White House. But they are all around us and include two of… Continue reading

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PA House Democrats Clarify the Minimum Wage Debate

  By Minimum Wage

Originally published by KRC-PBPC.  Yesterday, Pennsylvania House Democrats, under minority leader Frank Dermody (D-Allegheny), stepped up in a big way for raising the minimum wage in Pennsylvania. And in doing so they made it obvious who is responsible for blocking a path to raising the minimum wage. During the debate on the state budget, one Democrat after another stood up to complain that the Republicans had refused to raise the minimum wage as part of the budget. Republican Speaker of the House Mike Turzai tried to cut off debate, bizarrely ruling that raising the minimum wage was not part of the budget. This is nonsense. Raising the minimum wage would both increase taxes and reduce spending (mostly on Medicaid) and obviously has budgetary implications. If it is legitimate to discuss the lack of funding for education or for General Assistance or infrastructure in the budget—and no one denies that—it’s certainly… Continue reading

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On The PA Budget Spending Plan Passed by the House Appropriations Committee

  By Pennsylvania Budget, Statements

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center director Marc Stier made the following statement after the PA House Appropriations Committee passed a budget spending plan: “The House Republicans’ budget proposal released today is sadly, but not surprisingly, a disappointment for working-class and middle-class families. “It includes no increase in the minimum wage even though every state around Pennsylvania has raised its minimum wage and found that the result has been not only higher wages but higher employment in low-wage occupations. “It provides less funding for Basic Education than Governor Wolf proposed and diverts some of that request from public schools to the EITC program that supports unaccountable private schools that often cater to the richest Pennsylvanians. “It does not fund the General Assistance program, which provides a minimal level of support to some of the most vulnerable Pennsylvanians, many of whom are waiting to receive Social Security disability payments. “In… Continue reading

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

With John Neurohr Originally published by KRC-PBPC. HARRISBURG—PA Budget and Policy Center director Marc Stier made the following statement in response to a press release sent out today by the Pennsylvania Republican Party criticizing a Budget Day of Action and rally/press conference in Harrisburg today in support of raising the state minimum wage: “The PA Republican Party is criticizing the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center and the We The People campaign for offering citizens a bus trip or a gift card to pay for their gas to make the trip to Harrisburg to advocate for a raise in the minimum wage. “Somehow in their effort to criticize us for helping Pennsylvanians who are taking a day off—in many cases from minimum wage jobs—to exercise their rights as citizens, they have forgotten that the business community that opposes raising the minimum wage has paid lobbyists who no doubt get their mileage… Continue reading

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Dave Davies: On His Retirement from Print

  By People

Like a lot of folks who are deeply engaged in Philly and PA politics my initial reaction upon hearing that Dave Davies is retiring from reporting on politics on a regular basis was dismay and sadness. He is really the best political reporter in the state and one of the best I’ve ever read. My second reaction was to stop and think about why Dave is so good and what we could all learn from him. The first two things that come to mind is that Dave is a decent man who tries to see good in people. Unlike a lot of political reporters, he is not snarky about politicians; does not think that he’s better than them; and ins’t ways trying to play gotcha with them. Now you might think s not a good quality in a reporter who might be better at his or her job if he… 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