Category: Public Policy

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Pennsylvanians From Across The CommonwealthJoined We The People – PA Campaign & Partners to Call for Fair Budget for All Pennsylvanians

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Budget, Press release

By Kirstin Snow and Marc Stier  Harrisburg, PA – For the first time in years, the Commonwealth will have a surplus of more than $15 billion from state budget surpluses and unspent federal pandemic relief funding at the end of this fiscal year. If this is not the moment to enact a budget that works to help hard-working Pennsylvanians and their communities, when will that time come? Earlier today, the We The People – PA campaign and its partners gathered alongside legislative leaders on the capitol steps to demand a just budget for all Pennsylvanians. During this rally, activists called on legislators to stop hoarding and to spend Pennsylvania’s accumulated surplus the way it’s intended to be spent—meeting the state’s responsibilities to our families and communities and to our democracy. The state has the money to do big things this year, and even a bold, inclusive spending bill would leave a… Continue reading

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Pennsylvania’s Financial Outlook Just Got Better…Again

  By Budget, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Policy briefs

by Diana Polson and Marc Stier Pennsylvania’s financial outlook for 2022/23 just got better… again! In April 2022, state revenues came in even higher than expected. In March 2022, total revenues were 8.5% higher than they were expected to be at this time of the year, and by the end of April 2022 they rose to 12.4% higher. Our previous estimate, after the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue’s March report, was that Pennsylvania will have a surplus of between $11.2 billion and $12 billion by the end of June 2022. But, as table 2 shows, after April’s rosy financial picture, our updated projection is $13 billion to $15.3 billion. Table 1 Fiscal year collections to date for 2021-22 are now $4.5 billion, or 12.4%, above estimates. If in the last two months of this fiscal year, revenues come in according to the estimates of last June, the state budget surplus will… Continue reading

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STATEMENT: The Right to Have an Abortion Is Critical to the Well-Being of PA and Pennsylvanians

  By Abortion, PA Budget and Policy Center, Statements

Among the rights that are critical to all human beings is the right to personal autonomy—that is the right to make fundamental choices about our bodies and the course of our lives. There is no choice as life-defining as that of whether to bring a new child into the world. Without the right to have an abortion and access to the procedure, pregnant people are denied the autonomy and freedom to make decisions about their own health, well-being, and the course of their lives. Banning abortion would limit the rights of half the population: women, transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming people, undermining their ability to be full participants in our political, social, economic, and cultural life. If those who oppose the right to abortion were seriously concerned about the well-being of fetuses and their potential to become children, they would focus their attention on ensuring that all families, including those… Continue reading

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The modern transformation of asceticism and the origins of the culture war

  By Abortion, Feminism, Love and Sex, Philosophy

Many of us have responded to the new threat to Roe v. Wade by reminding people that the aim of the right is not to protect unborn children but to control women. However, for some people, accustomed to living in a world in which they expect women to be treated as full participants in our political, social, and cultural lives,  that notion is odd. They don’t understand that control of women means and why it is so important in right wing thought. There are a number of answers but one is that policing abortion is part of the right-wing project of policing sexuality as a whole. And policing sexuality, especially female sexuality, is, for the  right wing mind, critical to ensuring that men carry out their responsibilities to have and take care of children and hold down a job. As is common in political and social life these claims rest… Continue reading

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Alito’s Jurisprudence Aims to Bring Back the Bad Old Days

  By Abortion, Feminism, Jurisprudence, Philosophy

Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is an exemplary piece of judicial writing. His argument is clear, powerful and straightforward. With one small exception, he doesn’t shrink from explaining both how he reads the constitution and the consequences of reading it that way. Again with that one exception, he doesn’t sugarcoat his views to avoid political controversy. And that exception is so glaring that we can easily see through his reticence. Indeed, I think he wants us to see through it because Alioto is not trying to avoid controversy. He believes that a substantial body of Constitutional law was wrongly decided, has a strong argument to defend his conclusion, and wants to see his views triumph not just in this case but in others. His views are also deeply wrong and profoundly dangerous. They are based on a theory of constitutional interpretation that we… Continue reading

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Philadelphia Needs to Create Jobs and Reduce Poverty: Tax Cuts Won’t Do It

  By Philadelphia, Philadelphia Taxes, Poverty, Wealth Tax

For the last twenty years, discussion about ways to improve the economy of Philadelphia and create jobs has far too often focused on both the wrong goal and the wrong means. The goal has not been to reduce poverty and income inequality and create economic opportunity for those with low incomes, especially Black and brown people. Instead, it has been to pursue economic growth and jobs without regard for the impact on poverty. The means have been cuts in business and wage taxes even though the evidence showing that this is an effective and efficient way of pursuing economic growth and creating more jobs has always been questionable. And there has been good reason to fear that tax cuts and the spending cuts or restraint they require would fail to reduce poverty and income inequality and possibly make them worse. Meanwhile, we have too often ignored alternatives to tax cuts… Continue reading

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STATEMENT: It’s Not the Time or Way to Cut Corporate Taxes

  By Corporate Taxes, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania State Taxes, Statements

Originally published by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, April 26, 2022.  Statement on HB 1960, which passed the PA House of Representatives today When the American Rescue Plan (ARP) was enacted, we warned that Republicans in Pennsylvania would use these funds—and the state surplus generated by the faster economic recovery the ARP created—to cut corporate taxes instead of helping Pennsylvanians deal with the effects of the pandemic. Sadly, today that is exactly what happened. The PA General Assembly has repeatedly failed to help Pennsylvanians who are still hurting from both the loss of income caused by business decline and the current inflation created by a rapid recovery and Russia’s war against Ukraine. The General Assembly has doggedly rejected Governor Wolf’s proposals to provide assistance to Pennsylvanians with low incomes or those who are having trouble affording child care or housing or who are struggling to pay back student loans.… Continue reading