Category: PA Budget and Policy Center

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This Budget We Have The Chance To Move PA Forward. We Can’t Miss It.

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Published op-eds

Originally published by the PA Capital-Star on June 16, 2022 For more than a decade, the Republican majority in the General Assembly has called for austerity. And it appears that a huge state budget surplus — without counting one-time American Rescue Plan funds — of more than $5 billion isn’t stopping them from doing so again. So, the question Pennsylvanians need to ask themselves is this: If not now, when? The results of a decade of austerity are easy to see. We are not a poor state. Our economy ranks sixth in the nation in total gross domestic product. And yet: We rank in the bottom seven states for support for higher education. We rank in the bottom seven in state funding of K-12 education and thus have the most inequitably funded schools in the country. We are falling behind neighboring states in the percentage of 3- and 4-year-olds in pre-K… Continue reading

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Keeping Property Taxes Lower in Philly Is the Right Idea

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Taxes, Policy briefs, Property Taxes, Taxation

Philadelphia is currently debating what to do with the additional revenues generated by the increase in property assessments. One side wants to use those additional revenues to moderate the growth in property taxes by raising the Homestead Exemption amount and expanding the Longtime Owner Occupants Program or “LOOP” (a tax relief program for low- and moderate-income homeowners whose property assessments, increase by 50% or more over the prior year). The other side wants to use the additional revenues to cut business and wage taxes. Our view at the PA Budget and Policy Center is that moderating the growth in property taxes is the right choice. That path will make our tax system fairer and is a better way to spur population and job growth than lowering business and wage taxes. The experiences of Boston and San Francisco, as well as Philadelphia’s experience with property tax abatement, shows us that Philadelphia’s… Continue reading

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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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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