Category: Politics

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We The People – PA Statement on Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee Actions

  By Democracy, Elections and Voting, We The People–PA

Harrisburg, PA — the following is a statement from Marc Stier, director of the PA Budget and Policy Center and chair of the We The People PA campaign. Pennsylvania Senate Republicans are unwilling to address the problems of working people while small businesses and families all over the Commonwealth are still suffering from the effects of a COVID-19 pandemic that has recently become more serious due to the Delta variant of the virus. They have no plans to spend the $7.5 billion of our tax dollars in state bank accounts to help citizens, yet they do have time to continue to spread Donald Trump’s lies and misstatements about the 2020 election under the guise of conducting an utterly unnecessary and duplicative “forensic audit” of it. The latest example of this effort was a decision today, on a 7-4 party-line vote, to issue subpoenas to secure more information about which Pennsylvanians voted and how they voted in recent… Continue reading

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On the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee Hearing on the 2020 Election

  By Democracy, Elections and Voting, PA Budget and Policy Center, Statements

Rather than address the needs of Pennsylvania workers, small business owners, and families still suffering from the effect of the pandemic, the Republican-led Pennsylvania Senate begins yet another round of hearings about the 2020 election today—an election that most Pennsylvanians believe was settled in January. It is important to put this hearing in its proper context. We offer six observations. First, Senator Dush, the chair of the committee, and Senator Corman, the Senate president pro-tempore, have repeatedly said that these hearings are a response to doubts about the probity of the 2020 election. They fail to add is that those doubts have been stirred up again and again by Republican leaders, starting with former President Trump and his disgraced lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, and continuing with Republican members of the U.S. House and Pennsylvania House and Senate who have repeated falsehoods that have been discredited by fact-checkers and by both state… Continue reading

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PA Republican Logic: Reject The Needs of Pennsylvanians and Democracy As Well

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

Flush with $10 billion in $7.3 billion in federal funds and a $3-billion, current-year surplus—all of which comes from our taxes—the Republican majority enacted a budget that neither provides much relief from the pandemic nor includes public investments to reduce our state’s glaring economic and racial inequity. And while ignoring those problems, the Republican majority passed legislation to make voting more difficult. The inaction on the budget and the actions taken to make it harder for people to vote are connected. An overwhelming majority of the public, including a substantial number of Republicans, want American Rescue Plan funds to be invested in the people of Pennsylvania. There are many opportunities for such investment: One-tenth of the funds available this year could have been used to fund Governor Wolf’s bold $1.3-billion proposal to take a major step toward reducing our worst-in-the-nation inequality in K-12 school funding. (The $300 million in new education… Continue reading

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On Juneteenth: White Supremacy Survives in Pennsylvania

  By Pennsylvania, White Supremacy and Structural Racism

Juneteenth, the newest federal holiday, is a day to remember. It’s a day to remember the end of slavery in the United States. It’s a day to remember the stain of the enslavement of Black people in the United States. And it should also be a day to remember that we haven’t overcome the white supremacy that was an integral part of slavery; that was maintained by segregation, the terror of lynchings, and the all too frequent destruction of middle-class Black communities; and that is found in too many of our public policies. Pennsylvania officially recognized Juneteenth in 2019, proclaiming it a state holiday, but those anti-Black policies continue in Harrisburg today. Here are three examples: First: The Federal CARES Act gave states funds to provide emergency rental assistance. Our recent report shows that counties with a higher percentage of Black people were severely shortchanged in the distribution of those… 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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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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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

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Mass Incarceration is on the Ballot in Philadlephia in May

  By Criminal Justice, Elections, Public Policy

Almost every time someone is arrested for murder in Philadelphia, he has a criminal record of some kind. In many cases it is for minor drug dealing or for possession of a gun. So, the tough on crime crowd that supports Carlos Vega for DA crowd blames the criminal justice system in general and the DA, Larry Krasner, in particular for the murder saying that if only the guy arrested for murder were in jail, the crime would not have been committed.  What people who advance this idea forget is how many people in this city are involved in minor drug dealing and are carrying illegal guns. Most of them will not murder anyone. We can’t just arrest the corner drug dealers with guns who are likely to commit murder in the future. We don’t know who they are. If we throw the book at every one corner drug dealer… Continue reading