Category: PA Budget and Policy Center

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First Look at the 2017-18 State Budget

  By Budget, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania Budget

While we will need some time to analyze the details of the budget that the House and Senate will pass today, our preliminary view is that it is, as we had expected from the beginning of the year, an austere budget that does not really address the deep public investment deficit of the state, but it certainly could have been far worse. Given that the General Assembly seems utterly unwilling to raise revenues to meet public needs, negotiations by the leaders of the legislature and Governor Wolf have led to a budget that still takes some small steps forward. We caution, however, that we have only half of a budget so far. No plan has been passed to secure the revenues necessary to balance the budget. And, as we will point out later today in more detail, we are deeply troubled by reports that the deficit for the year that… Continue reading

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State As Well As Federal Republicans Go After Medicaid

  By Health Care, Medicaid, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Public Policy, Work requirements

At both the state and federal level, Republican Party leaders seem to be on the warpath against Medicaid. Thankfully, rank and file Republicans in both legislatures and the public seem to be pushing back against them, as long, bi-partisan support for Medicaid continues. At the federal level, both the Senate and House Republican health care bills call for drastic cuts to not just the Medicaid Expansion but traditional Medicaid. The cuts they propose will lead to tens of thousands of seniors, children, disabled people and working adults losing health care. Thankfully some Republicans are pushing back against the proposal. Four Pennsylvania Republican members of the U.S. House delegation voted against the House bill. And while Senator Toomey is pushing to make the Senate bill worse, so far he hasn’t convinced all his Republicans colleagues to join him. In Pennsylvania, Republican leaders want to seek federal waivers for our Medicaid program… Continue reading

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Effects of U.S. Senate Health Care Bill on Pennsylvania

  By ACA, Health Care, Memos, PA Budget and Policy Center

MEMO To: Interested Parties From: Marc Stier, Director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center Date: June 28, 2017 Re: Effects of U.S. Senate Health Care Bill on Pennsylvania The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center will be releasing a number of briefs on the effects of the U.S. Senate health care bill in the next few days. You can see our initial statement in response to the CBO scoring of the bill here. Below is our first brief on the effects of the bill on Pennsylvania. Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die – Estimating Number of Premature Deaths Due to the GOP Health Care Plan Legislators, like God, make decisions all the time about who shall live and who shall die. So many public policies, from those that control access to medicinal and recreation drugs, to those that set speed limits and safety standards for the roads, to those that help people… Continue reading

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PBPC On the CBO Report for the Senate Health Care Bill

  By ACA, Health Care, PA Budget and Policy Center, Statements

Marc Stier, Director of the PA Budget and Policy Center, made the following statement following today’s release of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on the U.S. Senate GOP Health Care Bill (Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017) It’s official — the Senate health care bill is not an improvement but actually worse for Americans than the House bill. The CBO analysis released today holds that 22 million fewer Americans will be insured in 2026 as a result of the Better Care Reconciliation Act. That is slightly better than the House bill. But, as the CBO itself hints, it’s ten-year analysis of the bill does not take into account the drastic change the Senate bill makes to the Medicaid program in 2025. This plan, proposed by Senator Toomey, reduces the index by which per capita caps go up each year from the medical inflation rate (CPI-M, which is projected by… Continue reading

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Which Direction for America? What’s at Stake in the Health Care Debate?

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

Marc Stier | 06/25/2017 Blog One of the fascinating / distressing things about the health care debate on Facebook is that it’s bringing the truth out in a way that the debate in the Senate is not. If you have any doubt that this is a inflection point in our history, in which the forces of tolerance, compassion and justice are arrayed against the forces of bigotry, greed, and injustice, look at what the opponents of the ACA are saying.   I’ve seen folks blaming “fat, poor people who eat badly” for their own illnesses because, as they would say, most illness is self-inflicted. of course, there are no rich people who ever get fat or eat badly, yet they get health care. I’ve seen folks say they shouldn’t pay for the health care of those who can’t afford it, even though they don’t do so under the ACA, which… Continue reading

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A Severance Tax: The Basics

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Severance Tax, Taxation

Pennsylvania has been considering a severance tax on natural gas for years. Here are four reasons it is long overdue: TALKING POINT #1: A severance tax can bring in substantial and, as natural gas prices rise, growing revenues to help close our budget and investment deficits now and in the future. Governor Wolf’s proposal is projected to bring in $349 million next year, $712 million in 2018-2019 and $1.15 billion a year by 2021-22. (These are net revenues after deducting a credit for the impact fee already paid by natural gas drillers.) Even a tax at slightly lower levels brings in over $200 million next year and close to a billion dollars a year 2021-2022. TALKING POINT #2: Oil and gas development companies pay comparatively little in state taxes now. Even though gas production has increased from 4,070 billion cubic feet in 2004 to 5,096 in 2016, total revenue from… Continue reading

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What Is the Fair Share Tax?

  By Fair Share Tax, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Taxation

The main reason that Pennsylvania’s tax system is so upside down — with the top 1% paying only 4.3% of their income in taxes while the middle 20% pays 10% — is that the Pennsylvania Constitution prohibits us from enacting a graduated personal income tax. Sales and property taxes tend to take a higher percentage of the income of taxpayers at the bottom and in the middle than at the top. But graduated income taxes in many states — including all of our neighbors — compensate by taxing those at the top at a higher rate. We can start to fix our broken tax system by adopting what we call a Fair Share Tax which has been introduced by Senators Costa, Hughes, and Haywood as SB555.  Here are the key elements of it: The Personal Income Tax which is currently set at 3.07% will be divided into two taxes. The… Continue reading

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What Would an Adequate Pennsylvania Budget Look Like This Year?

  By Budget, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania Budget

What Would an Adequate Pennsylvania Budget Look Like This Year? A really good budget for Pennsylvania would begin addressing our long-term public investment deficit. It would provide new funds to: eliminate our worst-in-the-nation inequality in K-12 school funding; expand pre-K education to all three and four year-olds; make higher education more accessible, especially to students from low-income families; restore the funding that would allow the Department of Environment to better protect our air and water; provide new funding to repair roads and bridges and support public transit.   Continue reading

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Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Taxation, US

Sam Brownback became governor of Kansas in 2010 just as Tom Corbett became governor of Pennsylvania. Brownback and Corbett, with the help of Republican majorities in their legislatures, embarked on an extremist Wizard of Oz economic agenda of cutting taxes, especially for large businesses, and reducing spending on education and human services. Spending as a share of the state’s economy dropped by 10% in our state. Faced with slow economic growth, stark budget deficits, and citizens who were demanding better public services, a bi-partisan majority in the legislature in Kansas this week stood up for common sense against Wizard of Oz extremism and, over Brownback’s veto, rolled back many of those tax cuts. Is this the year that state legislators in Pennsylvania also embrace common sense and reject extremism?   Continue reading

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Pennsylvania’s Budget Choices This Year

  By Budget, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Budget, Take political action

As we head into what everyone hopes will be the last month of the Pennsylvania budget season, this is a good moment to take stock of where we are and what’s at stake in the decisions the governor and General Assembly will make this year. Doing so will also explain why the Pennsylvania’s Choice campaign is urging people to attend a tele-town hall on the budget at 7:15 on June 1, a budget rally at noon on June 5 in Harrisburg, and lobbying days later in the month. (More information and registration for these events can be found here.) Continue reading