Category: PBPC Blog posts

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Legalize Recreational Cannabis and Pardon Those Imprisoned for Possession

  By Drug Legalization, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts

Sometimes it takes some personal experience to recognize a policy problem. My experience securing a medical cannabis  card has convinced me that the system we’ve set up in Pennsylvania is bad public policy. It is in many ways hypocritical; it is biased against those with low incomes and, most likely, people of color; and it fails as a way to undermine the illegal distribution of marijuana. It’s time to move to full legalization of recreational marijuana. And it is also time to follow President Biden’s lead and pardon all people convicted of simple marijuana possession. I’ve suffered from spine problems for much of my life and just recently had my fourth spinal surgery and third in the cervical spine. Prior to this last surgery, my doctor suggested that I try medical cannabis, which has ingredients that are known to relieve pain and reduce inflammation. So I went online to figure… Continue reading

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Marc Stier: We Need a Budget for All Pennsylvanians

  By Budget, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania Budget, Published op-eds

Originally published at the TribLive.com on July 6, 2022. The last few weeks of public debate in Harrisburg have been deeply revealing of the different approaches of the two parties. One of those parties has been trying to bring people in our state together. The other has been trying to divide us. One party has seriously addressed real issues we all care about. The other has been making issues up so they can turn Pennsylvanian against Pennsylvanian. All Pennsylvanians share some common interests; no matter where we live in the state, what we look like, how rich or poor we are, or what work we do, we want jobs to be created and wages to grow. We want to be able to afford the necessities of life — food, clothing, shelter, health care and transportation to get to work, do errands, and see family and friends. Our well-being doesn’t just… Continue reading

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New PBPC Poll on Taxing Corporations and the Ultra-Rich and the Minimum Wage

  By Corporate Taxes, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Taxes, Polling

PBPC commissioned Data for Progress to do a poll of likely voters on a limited number of issues that are at play in the current budget negotiations. The polling memo is below. Three things to note. First, there is overwhelming support (73%) for putting the minimum wage on a path to $15 per hour over four years and thereafter having a yearly cost of living increase (77%). Second, there is overwhelming opposition to cutting corporate taxes. Seventy percent of voters prefer tax increases for billionaires and corporations; only 25% want to see them cut. More than 78% of likely voters want to see the Delaware loophole closed so that multinational corporations can no longer hide their Pennsylvania profits from our Corporate Net Income Tax. And when asked whether some of the $12 billion accumulated state surplus should be devoted to cutting taxes on corporations and the wealthy, only 2% said… Continue reading

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Make a PA Earned Income Tax Credit Part of the Budget

  By Inequality, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania State Taxes, Taxation

To: Members and staff of the General Assembly, editorial board members, and political writers From: Marc Stier, Director and Diana Polson, Senior Policy Analyst, PA Budget and Policy Center Re: Tax Relief for Working Poor Pennsylvanians in the Next Budget Date: June 29, 2022 Some discussions about providing tax relief for low-income working Pennsylvanians appear to be a part of the current budget negotiations. We want to strongly encourage the General Assembly to take such action by instituting a state version of the federal earned income tax credit. This is especially imperative if the General Assembly is likely to cut corporate tax cuts now. If there are funds to cut taxes for many of the richest Pennsylvanians, there should be funds to cut taxes for low-income working Pennsylvanians. As we have extensively demonstrated, the PA tax system is unfair, with low-income families paying state and local taxes at twice the… Continue reading

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Who Runs Harrisburg? You or The Corporate Elite?

  By Corporate Taxes, Minimum Wage, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania State Taxes, Polling, Published Op-Eds

Originally published in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, June 29, 2022.  By Nick Pressley and Marc Stier Every rumor we hear about the state budget negotiations tells us that a reduction in the corporate net income tax (CNIT) rate is possible. It is unclear whether that corporate tax cut also includes some of Gov. Tom Wolf’s “add-back” provisions, which would make multinational corporations that currently pay nothing pay something. It appears that Republicans continue to oppose closing the Delaware loophole by enacting combined reporting. Every rumor we hear also says that raising the minimum wage may not be included because Republicans oppose it.  Are we talking about cutting corporate taxes because it is a good idea? And is raising the minimum wage less likely because it is a bad idea? I’ll come back to these questions below, but the short answers are “no” and “no.” If they are not bad ideas, then is it hard to raise the minimum wage and easier… Continue reading

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Reply to the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce’s LTE about Corporate Taxes

  By Corporate Taxes, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania State Taxes

The Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce has responded to our recent op-ed about corporate taxes with a letter to the editor and makes two points, to which I will reply. First, it says that the Delaware loophole was closed a number of years ago by legislation that created some of the add-backs Governor Wolf wants to put in place this year. Our answer: if that legislation really closed the Delaware loophole, then more add-backs and / or combined reporting wouldn’t have any effect and the Chamber would have no reason to oppose them. The proof that the Chamber is blowing smoke is that it opposes further efforts to close the Delaware loophole because its members know that the loophole is still open and closing it would make multinational corporations pay what they actually owe. The notion that combined reporting is complicated and would lead to lawsuits would be news to the… 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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Pennsylvania’s Financial Outlook Just Got Better Again—It’s Time to Help Pennsylvania Families

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

Pennsylvania’s financial outlook for 2022/23 just got better. In March 2022, state revenues came in higher than expected as they have in nearly every month this fiscal year. Several months ago, we calculated that the state would have an estimated surplus of $10.7 billion at the end of 2021/22. Our revised estimate, after the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue’s March report, is that Pennsylvania will have a surplus of between $11.2 billion and $12 billion by the end of June 2022. Fiscal year collections to date for 2021-22 total $2.7 billion, or 8.5% above estimates. If in the last quarter of this fiscal year, revenues come in according to the estimates of last June, the state budget surplus will be $2.7 billion greater than projected at the start of the fiscal year. If, however, revenues continue to come in at the rate of 8.5% above projections (and April is a big… Continue reading

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The Big Lie Is the Problem, Not Nonprofit Funding of PA Elections

  By Elections and Voting, PBPC Blog posts, Voting

Senate Bill 982, introduced by Senators Baker and Phillips-Hill, looks like an innocuous bill to ban “third-party funding” of our elections—that is the grants that nonpartisan, nonprofit groups give county election officials to help run our elections. But in fact, it is a hypocritical attempt to carry out the Republican agenda of supporting the Big Lie about the 2020 election and making voting more difficult in our state. Start with the hypocrisy: the Republican Party is the party of privatization. They want to privatize our schools by giving corporations tax breaks to support private schools. They want to hollow out our public schools by creating charter schools funded by private enterprises. When we criticize those proposals on the grounds that private funding is not accountable to the public and does not flow equally to all children, they scoff. They are also the party that pushed to use private-public partnerships to… Continue reading

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The GOP Design

  By Congressional redistricting, Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties, Democracy, Elections, Fascism, Judicial Gerrymandering, Judicial Gerrymandering, Jurisprudence, Legislative Districts, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania

“When people show you who they are, believe them.” It’s time to believe what Pennsylvania Republicans have shown us they are. Begin with what they have shown us they don’t care about: Public health: They have opposed efforts to encourage—not mandate–people to wear masks and be vaccinated. They have not funded programs to make COVID tests available to all of us. Relief from the burdens of the pandemic: Despite having huge sums of our tax money in the bank, they have provided insufficient housing assistance that was distributed unfairly. They have provided too little relief to small businesses and blocked a proposal to help the restaurant industry. Unlike other states, Pennsylvania has not used ARP money to provide paid family and medical leave or support for those with low incomes. Wages: Pennsylvania’s minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 for 14 years, keeps falling farther and farther behind neighboring… Continue reading