Category: Public Policy

No comments

The GOP showed us who they are with challenge to Pa. House map

  By Elections and Voting, Legislative Districts, Published Op-Eds

Originally published by the Pennsylvania Capital-Star on February 24, 2022 Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre, recently filed suit against the House district map produced by the Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Commission (LRC). Marc Stier (Twitter)  Most advocates of fair districting think the new district lines are an enormous improvement over those currently in place for two reasons: they reflect the changing demographics of our commonwealth and they unwind two decades of extreme partisan gerrymandering, which I documented in a recent paper.  Predictably, they have been harshly attacked by Republicans. The background for their criticism is fairly obvious—while the new districts are, by standard metrics, still somewhat tilted in favor of Republicans, they are far less gerrymandered in their favor than the districts Republicans drew for themselves in the last two decades. It is hard not to conclude that when it comes to legislative districts, like presidential races, Republicans are not willing to accept any rules that do not guarantee they win elections.  Benninghoff’s suit raises two substantive arguments that deserve attention—not least because they show us where the Republicans stand on critical… Continue reading

No comments

The GOP Challenge to Legislative and Congressional District Maps Shows Us Who They Are

  By Redistricting

This is a revised version of an op-ed published in the PA Capital-Starr on February 24, 2022 Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court released its ­congressional district map. It meets two of the critical requirements of a congressional redistricting plan: it does not favor one party or another, and it allows shifts in voters’ choices to be reflected in who is elected to Congress. In a state with a small Democratic edge in registration, seven of the 17 districts lean Democratic, while six lean Republican. And four districts—1, 7, 8, and 17—are competitive. If voters in the state tilt toward the Democrats, Democrats are likely to hold a majority of the Pennsylvania seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. If the voters tilt Republican, Republicans are likely to do so. In addition to allowing shifts in political opinion to change the composition of Congress, competitive districts also help ensure that representatives… Continue reading

No comments

STATEMENT: On PA Supreme Court’s Congressional Maps Decision

  By Congressional redistricting, Pennsylvania, Redistricting, Statements

For Immediate Release February 23, 2022 Contact: Kirstin Snow Statement of PA Budget and Policy Center on PA Supreme Court Decision on Congressional Maps by Marc Stier There are two critical requirements of a congressional redistricting plan: it does not favor one party or another, and it allows shifts in voters’ choices to be reflected in who is elected to Congress. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s choice of a congressional map meets both standards. In a state with a small Democratic edge in registration, seven of the 17 districts lean Democratic, while six lean Republican. And four districts—1, 7, 8, and 17—are competitive. If voters in the state tilt toward the Democrats, Democrats are likely to hold a majority of the Pennsylvania seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. If the voters tilt Republican, Republicans are likely to do so. In addition to allowing shifts in political opinion to change the… Continue reading

No comments

The GOP Design

  By Congressional redistricting, Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties, Democracy, Elections, Fascism, Judicial Gerrymandering, Judicial Gerrymandering, Jurisprudence, Legislative Districts, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania

“When people show you who they are, believe them.” It’s time to believe what Pennsylvania Republicans have shown us they are. Begin with what they have shown us they don’t care about: Public health: They have opposed efforts to encourage—not mandate–people to wear masks and be vaccinated. They have not funded programs to make COVID tests available to all of us. Relief from the burdens of the pandemic: Despite having huge sums of our tax money in the bank, they have provided insufficient housing assistance that was distributed unfairly. They have provided too little relief to small businesses and blocked a proposal to help the restaurant industry. Unlike other states, Pennsylvania has not used ARP money to provide paid family and medical leave or support for those with low incomes. Wages: Pennsylvania’s minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 for 14 years, keeps falling farther and farther behind neighboring… Continue reading

No comments

Statement: The Democratic Education Funding Plan

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

By Marc Stier and Eugene Henninger-Voss Senator Vince Hughes, Democratic chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Lindsey Williams, Democratic chair of the Senate Ed Committee; Sen. Tim Kearney, member of the Senate Education Committee, and Democratic vice-chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Rep. Matt Bradford. Democratic chair of the House Appropriations Committee and Rep. Michael Schlossberg, House Democratic Caucus Administrator today put forward a bold proposal for new funding for Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts. Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center strongly supports this proposal. It goes far towards eliminating the inequitable, inadequate funding that keeps 89% of the school districts in the state from meeting their responsibilities to our children. For years, we have pointed to Pennsylvania’s failure to provide adequate and equitably distributed funding to our school districts. The pandemic has made that failure even more evident. And the federal provision of ARP funds, as well as budget surpluses… Continue reading

No comments

The Outrageous Decision on Vote by Mail

  By Elections, Elections and Voting, Voting

The party-line Commonwealth Court decision declaring mail-in ballots unconstitutional is immediately outrageous and portends a deepening crisis in our democracy. The PA Supreme Court must—and we believe will—move quickly to overturn it. The decision is outrageous for two reasons. As Judge Wojcik’s dissenting opinion clearly demonstrates, it is based on a one-sided analysis of the Pennsylvania Constitution and case law.  The majority opinion contains a close and highly textured reading of the Constitution and case law that leaves out of consideration a critical amendment to Article VII section 6 of the Constitution. Taking that amendment into account undermines the reasoning of the majority opinion. Second, the majority opinion outrageously disregards the non-severability clause in Act 77 that would require it to declare the entire Act unconstitutional if any part of it is so declared.  Act 77 was a compromise in which Republicans accepted vote by mail in return for Democrats… Continue reading

No comments

The Fair Share Tax Proposal is Uniform Under the PA Constitution

  By Fair Share Tax, PA Budget and Policy Center, Policy reports, Richard Feder, Taxation

By Richard Feder, J.D. For a number of years, the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has been proposing a replacement for Pennsylvania’s Personal Income Tax, which we call the Fair Share Tax. This plan is one of a number of ideas that include corporate tax reform and a natural gas severance tax and are designed to reverse the horrible inequities in our tax system that result in families with low and middle incomes paying taxes to state and local governments at about twice the rate of families in the top 1% of incomes. One of the questions raised about the Fair Share Tax is whether it meets the uniformity clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution. PBPC asked a noted Philadelphia lawyer with expertise in tax matters to do a thorough review of case law and other taxes in the state to answer that question. This is his answer in the form… Continue reading

No comments

The Ten Worst PA Legislative Initiatives of 2021

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania, Public Policy, Talking points

The year coming to an end will go down as among the worst in the long history of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. At a time when so many Pennsylvanians are struggling to keep body and soul together against the continuing threat of COVID-19 and the economic difficulties created by the pandemic, the Republican-dominated General Assembly has embarrassed itself and our state. It has done nothing to help Pennsylvanians with health and economic problems. It has passed legislation—vetoed by the governor—that would have led to more COVID-19 deaths. And instead of dealing with the real problems of the people of the state, it has spent most of the year advancing constitutional amendments and legislation that would undermine our representative democracy and carrying out unnecessary “investigations” in support of the Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election—the same one that elected every member of the House and half of the Senate. There… Continue reading

No comments

Statement in Response to the Arbery Case Verdicts

  By Criminal Justice, PA Budget and Policy Center, Statements, White Supremacy and Structural Racism

Statement by Marc Stier on behalf of the Keystone Research Center and the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center. “The verdicts in the Ahmaud Arbery case show that the criminal justice system in America can respond appropriately to the most extreme examples of racial injustice. Our task as Americans is to ensure that it does so in all cases.” Continue reading

No comments

Pa. can build a clean electric vehicle future. Wolf, lawmakers must embrace it

  By Climate Change, Published Op-Eds

Originally published by  the Pennsylvania Capital-Star on November 18, 2021 To protect our economy and lives from devastating climate change, the future of transportation on our roads must be based on electric power. Twenty-nine percent of greenhouse gases nationwide are generated by transportation—the largest percentage of any sector of the economy. The federal government is thus strengthening its commitment to electric vehicle adoption, and multiple vehicle manufacturers have committed to full electrification, with auto manufacturers such as Volvo, Ford and GM investing tens of billions to scale up domestic EV production over the coming decade. These companies are reimagining their vehicle portfolios, releasing new electric models, and investing in electric vehicle manufacturing and the required supply chains in the United States, including right here in Pennsylvania. This transformation has to happen not just with the cars we drive but with what is known as medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHD), that is… Continue reading