Category: Public Policy

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On SB48, a Bill to Eliminate Straight-Party Ticket Voting

  By Elections and Voting, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center director Marc Stier made the following statement on SB48, a bill to eliminate straight-party ticket voting, among other election reforms: “SB48 started out as a bill to help Pennsylvania Counties secure funds to procure new, secure voting machines. “Republicans decided to add a provision to eliminate straight ticket voting from the Pennsylvania ballot. “As my colleague Kadida Kenner points out in a powerful op-ed today (http://bit.ly/2LpnYnH), this action will diminish the vote of people of color and low-income voters, who are often ignored by political campaigns, especially in down-ballot races—including those to the General Assembly. “Like the unnecessary Voter ID laws and partisan redistricting plans they have adopted in the past, this is another shameful attempt by the Republican Party to rig our political system in their favor. “We strongly urge Governor Wolf to veto this bill and find an alternative means of helping… 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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How the ‘Fair Share Tax’ will restore fairness to our tax system

  By Pennsylvania Budget, Public Policy, Published Op-Eds

Originally published in the Pennsylvania Capitol-Star, 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: With a Democratic governor and a Republican-controlled General Assembly, neither side is getting what they want this year. And thanks to robust revenues, the governor’s austere budget—but not as austere as Republicans want—may be settled without too much stress. But that means that partisan gridlock is making it impossible for our government to make a real choice between the two visions of Pennsylvania’s… 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

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Pizza and the Minimum Wage

  By Minimum Wage, Pennsylvania, Public Policy, Published Op-Eds

Originally posted at Penn-Live on April 09, 2019 Spend a little time talking to Republican (and some Democratic) legislators about raising the minimum wage, and they will eventually tell you about their friend who owns a pizza shop and opposes an increase. This is the story the pizza shop owners appear to tell our legislators: If the minimum wage goes up by 2/3rds from $7.25 to $12.00 an hour, I’d have to raise the price of my 12-inch pizza by 2/3rds from $9.49 to $15.75. No one will buy a pizza for $15.74 and I’ll go out of business.” We decided to test this claim in two ways. Every state surrounding Pennsylvania has raised its minimum wage, and two have raised it substantially. The minimum wage in New York is $11.10, 53% more than in Pennsylvania. In Maryland it is $10.10, 39% more. If the pizza shop owners who talk… Continue reading

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A Fair Share Tax Plan for Pennsylvania–2019 Update

  By Diana Polson, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania State Taxes, Policy reports

By Marc Stier and Diana Polson Originally publish by KRC-PBPC This paper puts forward the Fair Share Tax plan, a major step toward fixing Pennsylvania’s broken tax system and raising the revenues we need to invest in the public goods that are critical to creating thriving communities and individual opportunity in our state: education, infrastructure, protection for our air and water, and human services. The calculations included in this plan are an update to similar proposal put forward by the PA Budget and Policy Center in 2017. The proposal that would raise $2.2 billion annually, while cutting taxes or leaving them level for 82% of Pennsylvanians. Click here to read or download the full proposal.  See how Pennsylvanians in each state House and Senate district would fare under the Fair Share Tax Plan here. Continue reading

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This Isn’t the Redistricting Reform We Need

  By Legislative Districts, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Redistricting

HARRISBURG—Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center director Marc Stier made the following statement regarding the resurfacing of SB22, a bill intended to change the way legislative redistricting is done in Pennsylvania: Senator Mike Folmer announced this week that he will be resurrecting last year’s failed SB22, a bill to change the way district lines are drawn in Pennsylvania. Senator Folmer is preparing to bring the bill back up for a vote in the State Government Committee as early as tomorrow. While eliminating gerrymandering is critically important, Senator Folmer is hoping to catch Pennsylvanians unawares as he attempts to bring a failed bill to a committee vote without holding debate and hearings and without gathering input from the communities that will be most impacted by SB22. Governor Wolf established a redistricting commission earlier this year and Senator Folmer should not attempt to rush SB22 through committee without giving Pennsylvanians a chance to… Continue reading

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Analysis of Governor Wolf’s Proposed 2019-20 State Budget

  By Budget analysis, Diana Polson, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Public Policy, Stephen Herzenberg

INTRODUCTION Some important things have changed in Pennsylvania politics as a result of the 2018 election. But the basic political dynamic that constrains our budget politics remains. We have a Democratic governor and a Republican-controlled General Assembly. And more importantly, we face an ideological division that partly maps onto the partisan one. On one side are those who believe that the only path to prosperity for our state is to cut taxes for the rich and for businesses, cut spending, and hold wages down. On the other side—where the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center stands—are those who believe that prosperity for everyone requires us to raise wages and expand the safety net that protects those who need our help, invest in people through new educational initiatives at all levels and in workforce training, and invest in building our public infrastructure and protecting our environment. The priorities for spending found in… Continue reading