Category: Politics

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Bipartisan: the Word of the Year

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania, Politics

PBPC director Marc Stier made these remarks to the Press Club of Pennsylvania on Monday, March 13, 2023. “Bipartisan” is the word of the year in Pennsylvania. Leaders such as Governor Shapiro, President Pro Tem Ward, and Speaker McClinton are extolling bipartisanship. And how could they not do so? The extreme and growing partisan division we have seen in this country since 2016 is scary. Journalists like you and policy wonks like me have a personal stake in bipartisanship. I’d love to run what you call a left of center policy shop that can hand a 20-page, carefully researched report to a Republican legislator without him or her immediately dismissing it unread because it contains “liberal facts.” I’m sure many reporters want to go back to the days when it is possible to do Democrats said / Republicans said reporting without worrying about whether you have an ethical responsibility to… Continue reading

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STATEMENT on Rep. Joanna McClinton’s New Role as Speaker of the PA House of Representatives

  By Legislative Politics and Rules, Pennsylvania, Politics

We at the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center are thrilled by the vote to elect Representative Joanna McClinton to be Pennsylvania’s speaker of the House of Representatives. Rep. McClinton is not only a dynamic leader but has been a long-time supporter of many of the policies we have put forward. She is also one of the first leaders in the House of Representatives to have endorsed the agenda of our advocacy campaign, We The People–PA. The election of the first Black woman speaker of the House is also a breakthrough moment that, we hope, is another sign of our state’s commitment to overcoming its legacy of white supremacy. We also want to acknowledge the important role Representative Mark Rozzi has played as speaker. His skillful leadership in his first term made this moment possible and led to the passage last week of bills containing a proposed statute and a constitutional… Continue reading

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STATEMENT: On the Murder of Tyre Nichols

  By White Supremacy and Structural Racism

The murder of Tyre Nichols by five Memphis police officers took place in another state far from Pennsylvania. But it reveals a basic truth about structural racism in policing that sadly characterizes every state in the entire country, including Pennsylvania. Black people are not the only ones who are unjustly attacked and murdered by police officers. But the evidence is clear that they are disproportionately the victims of unjustified police violence. That violence is a product of a deeply flawed approach to public safety, one that asks police forces to maintain order in communities that are afflicted by social ills and economic distress that are beyond their capacity to address. A product of police forces is that, in response to the impossible task placed on them, they can adopt procedures and policies that too often create a toxic relationship between them and the communities they have pledged to serve—one that… Continue reading

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Testimony to Speaker Rozzi’s Workgroup on House Rules

  By Legislative Politics and Rules, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania, Politics

Testimony by Marc Stier, director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, to Speaker Rozzi’s Workgroup on House Rules. St. Joseph’s University, Friday, January 27, 2023 My name is Marc Stier. I’m the director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, and I live in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. I want to thank you, Speaker Rozzi, and the members of the workgroup for creating this opportunity for the people of Pennsylvania to speak out about the rules of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. This process has been criticized by those who say that it is delaying the start of the legislative session. But what is more important for the House of Representatives to undertake now than to fix the rules that have too often led to undemocratic results in Harrisburg? Our organization believes that there are two fundamental problems with the way the House has operated in the… Continue reading

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STATEMENT: PA Senate Hijacks Justice for Sexual Abuse Survivors With Passage of Constitutional Amendments Package

  By Pennsylvania, Republicans, Statements

In passing SB 1, the Pennsylvania Senate has hijacked the issue of providing relief to victims of sexual abuse to pass other constitutional amendments. It used a noncontroversial, bipartisan proposal to help pass controversial and partisan amendments that are bad policy and the subject of litigation. The proposal to provide a window for sexual abuse survivors to sue their abusers is an important step toward justice. We strongly support it. The other amendments do not serve the people of Pennsylvania but the political goals of one party. One of the partisan amendments would require voters to submit a government-issued ID every time they vote, even mandating that they provide copies of their IDs along with their mail ballots. We know that requiring a government-issued ID would make it impossible for some people to vote. This would disproportionately affect seniors and Black voters. Requiring voters to include a copy of their… Continue reading

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Hoist Meet Petard

  By Congress, Politics

In order to secure support from the 20 craziest  members of the Republican (as opposed to the crazy members who support him), Kevin McCarthy has been agreeing to various proposals that will weaken the power of the party leadership. While we don’t know the details, it appears he has been supporting rules that would limit the use of closed rules in the consideration of some (or perhaps) all legislation on the floor of the House. Before any legislation can be considered on the floor of the US House, the House has to adopt a “rule” that has first been adopted by the House Rules Committee which, since the mid 1970s, has been an arm of the party leader,  that is the Speaker of the House. A closed rule prohibits any amendments from being considered on the floor. An open rule allows any amendment to be propose. And a modified closed… Continue reading

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PBPC Statement on PA House Elections 2022

  By 2022, Elections, Pennsylvania

While we are still waiting for final election results in a number of districts, all indications point to the Democrats taking control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. If they do, Rep. Joanna McClinton will become the Speaker of the House, the first Black woman to do so. For the last twenty years, gerrymandered legislative districts have enabled the Republicans to control the PA House of Representatives even though, in most of those years, a majority of votes for state representative went to Democrats. Republican control of the PA House of Representatives has stood in the way of enacting a great deal of legislation that has broad, and in many cases, bipartisan support, including raising the minimum wage, fixing an unfair tax system in which families in the top 1% pay taxes at half the rate as families in the middle, fully and fairly funding pre-K and K-12 education, making… Continue reading

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Memo: Another Blue Shift Coming

  By 2022

TO: Editorial Board Writers, Columnists, and Other Interested Parties FROM: Marc Stier, Director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center SUBJECT: Another blue shift coming in PA election returns DATE: November 7, 2022   In late October of 2020, we released a paper titled, “2020 Election Expectations: High Numbers of Mail-Votes and the Blue Shift.” We explained that due to Democrats being far more likely than Republicans to vote by mail, the initial count of the votes on Election Day would show Republicans ahead in many state-wide and local races—but that as mail ballots were counted, there would be a “blue shift” as vote tallies showed Democrats’ number of votes catching up to, and in many cases surpassing, the Republicans’. We warned that Donald Trump and his followers would use the blue shift to buttress their claims that the 2020 election was rigged—claims that began long before Election Day. Our predictions about… Continue reading

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If you do your part, things are looking good for Tuesday

  By 2022

I’m not at all certain about what is doing to happen on Tuesday. But I’m becoming more confident that IF YOU ALL DO YOUR PART–knocking on doors and getting out to vote yourself–the results will be good. Two strong pieces of evidence. First, a recent poll of people 19-29 , shows that people that age (1) say the will turn out at rates equal to 2018 and, in battlegrounds states like PA, at rates 5 points higher than 2018. And they support Democrats for Congress by a 2-1 margin. Second, to judge by who are the new voters, and who sought and are returning mail ballots in PA (and elsewhere) women are coming out to vote very heavily to save abortion. I know the polls are close everywhere. But the results of polling in close elections at this stage of the game are heavily dependent on estimates of who is going… Continue reading