Category: My Work

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Racial and Economic Patterns in the Consumption of Sugary Drinks

  By Memos, PA Budget and Policy Center, Sugary Drink Tax

To: Members of City Council, Editorial Boards and Opinion Writers From: Marc Stier, Director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center Date: June 5, 2016 Re: Racial and Economic Patterns in the Consumption of Sugary Drinks The continuing debate about Mayor Kenney’s proposal to tax sugary drinks is multi-faceted. We at the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center have expressed our support for the policy on a variety of grounds. But here we want to address only one issue – an important misconception – about who consumes sugary drinks. A common theme of those who criticize the sugary drink tax is that it is doubly regressive. Critics say it is regressive first because, like all sales taxes, it takes a higher percentage of the income of those who have low incomes than those who have high incomes. And they say it is regressive, second, because those with low incomes and from ethnic and… Continue reading

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Why Philly Needs the Sugary Drink Tax

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Philadelphia, Sugary Drink Tax

Originally appeared on the Third and State Blog on May 25, 2016 As we move closer to a City Council vote on the sugary drink tax proposal, I want to offer some final thoughts about the idea and correct some misapprehensions about it: 1.While the tax itself is regressive, and the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center almost always opposes regressive taxation, the program as a whole is not regressive. To begin with, the opponents of the tax are simply wrong about one aspect of it. They have been arguing that it is doubly regressive because members of low-income families consume sugary drinks at higher rates than middle- and high-income families or that African-Americans drink sugary drinks at higher rates than white people (and keep in mind that these are two groups not one). Those are myths. The research on this issue is equivocal and does not support that claim. 2.… Continue reading

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Make-Believe Budgeting in Harrisburg

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

Originally appeared on the Third and State Blog, May 24, 2016 I’ve been doing political advocacy for over ten years and have been a teacher and writer about politics for a lot longer. I don’t surprise easily. But what I saw today at the press conference at which Senator Scott Wagner and the “Taxpayer’s Caucus” presented their three billion dollars in proposed budget cuts, left me almost speechless. I walked into the room to see a list of cuts, and near the top was a $922 million cut to the Department of Human Services (DHS). I know how devastating real budget cuts of that magnitude would be to senior citizens who get long-term care through Medical Assistance, the working poor who get health care through the same program (which is called Medicaid everywhere else), and people who are intellectually disabled and mentally ill. So I was prepared for the worst.… Continue reading

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PBPC Research Prompts Senators to Introduce Tax Fairness Legislation

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

Originally appeared on the Third and State blog, on May 11, 2016. Something new and unusual happened in Harrisburg today. Senators Art Haywood, Vincent Hughes and Jay Costa put forward an idea that actually could help resolve the pressing fiscal cliff we face this year, and at the same time could make our tax system more progressive. Despite partisan differences, three goals are more or less shared by everyone in Harrisburg. While their top priority may differ, for the most part, legislators all say they want: 1. to close the $1.8 billion structural deficit; 2. to spend more on education; 3. and to put no additional tax burden on low- and middle-income taxpayers. Yet no one has presented a plan to accomplish this feat. In an election year, legislators will say that they are not willing to raise the income tax or sales tax – which could generate the necessary… Continue reading

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Those Feeling the Brunt of the Soda Tax Will Also Feel Benefits

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, Philadelphia, Published Op-Eds, Sugary Drink Tax

Originally published as Those feeling brunt of soda tax will also feel benefits, Philadelphia Daily News, April 19, 2016 THE SUGARY-DRINK tax proposed by Mayor Kenney, also known as the “soda tax,” is controversial because it takes a greater share of the income from poor families than rich ones. And since we at the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center are fundamentally committed to economic justice, we are always inclined to be suspicious of taxes that do that. So it may come as a surprise that we have concluded, overall, that the sugary-drink tax proposed by the mayor is a good idea. Though the costs fall more heavily on those with low incomes, for two reasons, more of the benefit of the tax will go to low-income Philadelphians, as well. The first benefit of the tax flows from how the new revenue will be spent – on pre-K education, community schools, and… Continue reading

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Diverse Coalition of Organizations Launch “PA’s Choice” Budget Campaign

  By John Neurohr, PA Budget and Policy Center, Political Organizing, Press release

A diverse coalition of groups from across the state, including education advocates, community service organizations, faith-based groups, environmental groups and labor organizations launched the “Pennsylvania’s Choice” campaign today to bring attention to the devastating consequences of budget cuts across the commonwealth and to advocate for a Pennsylvania budget that best serves the people. If Pennsylvania continues to enact unbalanced state budgets, the commonwealth will run a deficit that grows every year. Without new tax revenues, Pennsylvania will not be able to maintain the needed funding for education, human services, the environment, or community and economic development. “Pennsylvania’s Choice” partners will be organizing in areas across the state, bringing together community members to make clear to elected officials that, if the state cannot secure new revenues, these communities will face devastating cutbacks to programs in these and other areas that are critical to Pennsylvanians every single day. Utilizing earned media events,… Continue reading

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#Namethecuts

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

Originally published at Third and State, April 4, 2016 It appears that some elements in the Republican Party of Pennsylvania have one and only one goal – to not raise taxes. It doesn’t matter if spending in our classrooms, and especially in the classrooms in our lowest income communities, have not recovered from the Corbett cuts of 2011-12; they won’t raise taxes. It doesn’t matter if waiting lists for mental health and intellectual disability services grow; they won’t raise taxes. It doesn’t matter if tuition keeps rising for our colleges and universities. It doesn’t matter if the budget is “balanced” with smoke and mirrors; they won’t raise taxes. It doesn’t matter if the ratings agencies can see through the smoke and mirrors and plan to downgrade our credit again; they won’t raise taxes. And now that all the special funds have been raided, all the bills have been put off… Continue reading

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An Explanation of our Infographic, “Especially for Poor Districts, Drastic Corbett Education Cuts Remain”

  By K-12 Education in PA, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania Budget

Originally published at Third and State March 31 So what difference does a budget actually make? Why should we care that we wound up with the Republican budget for this year (HB 1801), rather than the bi-partisan budget agreed to in December 2015 (SB 1073), let alone the budget Governor Wolf proposed in March 2015? The difference for the education of our kids is found in this first figure above. The $846 million cut from classrooms in 2011-2012 has never fully been restored. And because more funding was cut and less funding restored in the districts that have a higher poverty than a lower poverty rate, state spending per student in those districts remains substantially behind what it was in 2010-11. We call the difference between what was spent per student in 2010-11 and what is spent today the “funding gap.” The bi-partisan budget – the one agreed to by Governor… Continue reading

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Winners and Losers

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

Governor Wolf decided yesterday to allow the latest Republican budget to become law. We were hoping he would veto it. But we understand why, given the intransigence of the extremists in the PA General Assembly, he decided to bring this round to a close, keep schools open this year, and continue the fight for fair and equitable funding for education and human services to enact next year’s budget. We will join him in that and subsequent rounds. But as this one closes, we should be honest about what we lost and congratulate those who won. So, if you believe that natural gas drillers should not pay another cent to the government, even if that means we never restore the Corbett cuts to education funding and human services, congratulations — you won yesterday. If you don’t care that schools in rich districts in Pennsylvania spend 33% more per child than schools… Continue reading

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No One Wants Leviathan

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

Republicans claims that government has been getting larger and larger in Pennsylvania and that Democrats want it to grow bigger still. They are wrong on both counts. Government in Pennsylvania is smaller than it has been in decades. And Democrats only seek to restore it to the size it averaged over the last 20 years. Continue reading