Category: PA Budget and Policy Center

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Here Is What We Know About the COVID-19 Stimulus Bill

  By COVID-19, Economic Development, PBPC Blog posts, Politics

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. Here is what we think we know about the bipartisan COVID-19 stimulus / relief bill that we expect the Senate to pass today. Let me be clear that lawmakers reached a deal—but the legislative text is not yet complete. Legislative staff members are working to fill in all the blanks on the agreements in order to have a full bill to move to the floor today. Some of these details may change in the final version. We will be updating this blog post throughout the day as we receive more details. Cash payments: The bill provides a one-time stipend of about $1,200 per individual making up to $75,000, $2,400 for couples making $150,000 or less, and $500 per child. The payment will be reduced gradually as incomes rise. Individuals who make up to $99,000 and couples making up to $198,000 would receive less. Though still unsure, we believe… Continue reading

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Calm Before the Storm: An Analysis of Governor Wolf’s Proposed Budget for 2020-21

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

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here, By Diana Polson, Marc Stier, and Stephen Herzenberg We were in the last two weeks of work on this analysis of the governor’s proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2020, when the political and economic world in which we’d been living tilted on its axis. The coronavirus that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic was creating havoc in China, both to the health of the population and to the economy of the country. It is now clear that the United States is heading into a recession. We should expect that our economy, and indeed the whole world, will suffer for some time. A recession will have a severe impact on the budget of Pennsylvania with regard to both revenues and expenditure. Revenues will certainly decline. And expenditures for human services—especially for Medical Assistance (Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program), Unemployment Compensation, SNAP (formerly called… Continue reading

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Lawmakers Should Take a Mulligan When Governor Wolf Vetoes Tax Credit for More Petro Plants

  By Economic Development, Environment, Marcellus Shale, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts

HARRISBURG – Keystone Research Center economist Stephen Herzenberg and Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center director Marc Stier issued the following statement in the wake of the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s approval yesterday of a multimillion-dollar tax credit for future petrochemical and fertilizer plants that use Pennsylvania natural gas as a feedstock. “We strongly urge Governor Wolf to veto HB 1100, an  inadequately considered subsidy for petrochemical companies and then urge lawmakers of both parties to reconsider their support so that the governor’s veto is sustained. Doubling down on subsidies for petrochemical and plastics companies at this moment of history is like buying more deck chairs for the Titanic.” “The minimum due diligence the Pennsylvania General Assembly should demand of itself is to ask the Independent Fiscal Office to evaluate the advisability of this subsidy, considering: the consequences of expanding petrochemical production in western Pennsylvania for carbon emissions and other pollutants, and… Continue reading

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STATEMENT: On Governor Wolf’s Proposed 2020-21 Budget

  By PA Budget and Policy Center

Following Governor Wolf’s budget address, Marc Stier, Director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, released the following response. A more detailed analysis of Governor Wolf’s proposal is below. “There are two contexts in which we can and should analyze Governor Wolf’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2020-21. The first begins from the perspective of the current year’s budget. From that point of view, the budget is excellent. It proposes new spending in high priority areas—especially in critical human services, education at all levels, infrastructure, and the environment—while also calling for spending and tax reforms that will make government more effective, efficient, and fair. The budget contains five major initiatives. Two of them, the governor’s call for raising the minimum wage—which would be a major step forward for Pennsylvania workers and for our economy as a whole—and his Restore PA proposal for infrastructure investment, were made in previous years, but… Continue reading

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Trump Makes the States a Medicaid Offer They Must Refuse

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. Yesterday the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it would encourage states to apply for waivers that would replace the current system of financing Medicaid with a block grant program that would cap federal Medicaid funding. States like Pennsylvania must say no to this offer, which threatens a federal / state Medicaid program that works well, especially in our state. Under the current system, states must implement the Medicaid program in a way that guarantees that individuals who meet certain income requirements get coverage for a set of medical problems. Some states cover a more limited number of medical problems. Others, like our state, cover more. But all must meet certain minimum federal requirements. And, together, the federal and state governments pay for the health care of everyone who meets the requirements set by the state. The Trump plan is problematic in… Continue reading

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Trump Makes the States a Medicaid Offer They Must Refuse

  By PA Budget and Policy Center

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. Yesterday the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it would encourage states to apply for waivers that would replace the current system of financing Medicaid with a block grant program that would cap federal Medicaid funding. States like Pennsylvania must say no to this offer, which threatens a federal / state Medicaid program that works well, especially in our state. Under the current system, states must implement the Medicaid program in a way that guarantees that individuals who meet certain income requirements get coverage for a set of medical problems. Some states cover a more limited number of medical problems. Others, like our state, cover more. But all must meet certain minimum federal requirements. And, together, the federal and state governments pay for the health care of everyone who meets the requirements set by the state. The Trump plan is problematic in… Continue reading

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Corporate Tax Cuts Since 2002 Now Cost PA $4.2 Billion Yearly: Pennsylvania Should Pass Worldwide Combined Reporting

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania State Taxes, Policy reports, Taxation

Originally published at KRC-PBPC here. By Stephen Herzenberg, Diana Polson, and Marc Stier This paper focuses on the details of one part of this story: the cuts in corporate taxes in Pennsylvania since 2002 that have reduced revenues by what is now $4.2 billion per year and have created a tax system that is among the most unfair in the country.   Pennsylvania’s tax-cutting, shaped by the corporate-sponsored narrative, has taken a variety of forms. Under both Republican and Democratic governors, we have entirely eliminated one of our two major taxes on corporations, the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax (CSFT). We have also allowed businesses to lower their reported profits subject to the largest remaining corporate tax—the Corporate Net Income (CNI) tax. And we have continued to give multi-state corporations free rein to cook their books and exploit corporate tax loopholes to their reported income subject to the CNI. The result is that 73% of corporations that do business in Pennsylvania pay no corporate income tax at all.1  This policy brief updates estimates of the cost each year to the Pennsylvania budget from corporate… Continue reading

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The 2019-20 Enacted Budget: How Did Education Fare?

  By Budget analysis

Originally published by KRC-PBPCP here. By Diana Polson and Marc Stier While this 2018-19 budget increase moves us in the right direction with increased funding for education, it still does not adequately and equitably fund our schools across the Commonwealth. In order to do that, Pennsylvania must find recurring revenue sources. Read the Overview of the 2019-20 enacted budget for education below. Continue reading

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On Today’s Ruling on the Affordable Care Act Individual Health Insurance Mandate

  By Health Care, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts

Originally published at KRC-PBPC here. Today’s 2-1 decision by a federal appeals court rules the ACA’s requirement that people have health insurance is unconstitutional because Congress has repealed the tax penalty for those who don’t have health insurance. But it steps back from the conclusion reached a year ago by Federal Judge Reed O’Connor that the entire ACA is unconstitutional. Both parts of the decision were expected by reasonable legal scholars. The individual mandate was upheld by the Court in NFIB v. Sibelius in 2012 on the grounds that it was an exercise of Congress’s power to tax individuals. The repeal of the tax undermined this rationale for the individual mandate put forward by Chief Justice Roberts in that case. Judge O’Connor went much further and argued that without the individual mandate, the entire ACA is unconstitutional, even though there was no explicit indication in the law that said the… Continue reading