Why Pennsylvanians Should Reject Vouchers.

Why Pennsylvania Should Reject Vouchers Susan Spicka, Education Voters PA Diana Polson, Keystone Research Center Marc Stier, Pennsylvania Policy Center Here we quickly summarize three major reasons why the General Assembly should not adopt a new voucher program. Voucher-funded schools do not offer educational choice for families and students. They use public dollars to support schools that engage in discrimination against many families and students. Voucher programs do not create educational ā€œchoiceā€ for many families and students. Instead, voucher programs create the illusion of ā€œchoiceā€ because private and religious voucher schools canā€”and doā€”engage in discrimination and refuse to enroll students, even if their family is eligible for a voucher.Ā We have seen this in the tax-credit voucher programs already in place in Pennsylvania. In 2022ā€“2023, the Pennsylvania legislature authorized the diversion of $340 million tax dollars out of the state treasury and into private and religious voucher schools through the Educationalā€¦ Continue reading

A Fair Share Tax for Pennsylvaniaā€“Updated for 2023

By Mafc Stier and Diana Polson Pennsylvania has long suffered from a tax system that is both highly regressive, taking a larger share of income from low-income and moderate-income families than high-income families, and that does not raise sufficient revenue to meet the needs of Pennsylvanians. In the recent past, inadequate revenues have led to a structural budget deficit and will continue to do so in the near future. In turn, this has led to what we call a public investment deficit: a lack of funding for critical needs that undermines both opportunity and economic growth. Just one example of the public investment deficit in Pennsylvania is the recent decision by Commonwealth Court President Judge Jubelirer saying the state fails to meet its constitutional obligation to provide a ā€œthorough and efficientā€ education to all K-12 school children. This paper puts forward the Fair Share Tax proposal, a major step towardā€¦ Continue reading

The Fair Share Tax Proposal is Uniform Under the PA Constitution

By Richard Feder, J.D. For a number of years, the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has been proposing a replacement for Pennsylvaniaā€™s Personal Income Tax, which we call the Fair Share Tax. This plan is one of a number of ideas that include corporate tax reform and a natural gas severance tax and are designed to reverse the horrible inequities in our tax system that result in families with low and middle incomes paying taxes to state and local governments at about twice the rate of families in the top 1% of incomes. One of the questions raised about the Fair Share Tax is whether it meets the uniformity clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution. PBPC asked a noted Philadelphia lawyer with expertise in tax matters to do a thorough review of case law and other taxes in the state to answer that question. This is his answer in the formā€¦ Continue reading

Blockbuster Investigation on Tax Avoidance Shows Clear Need for Bold Federal Tax ChangesĀ 

By Erica Freeman Last monthā€™s ProPublicaĀ revelationsĀ identified what many experts,Ā someĀ lawmakers, andĀ a majority of AmericansĀ already knew about the U.S.Ā tax code:Ā Policymakers over the past several decades have created a system that allows some of the nationā€™s wealthiest individualsĀ toĀ pay little or noĀ federalĀ income tax each year.Ā Ā  Ongoing negotiations over the next round of recovery legislation give Congress an opportunity to reverse course by closing loopholes and rolling back tax cuts for those at the top,Ā thereby raising the revenue needed to strengthen the nationā€™s infrastructure and respond to economic and racial inequalities, according to aĀ new report from the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities.Ā  Improving and expanding the taxation of wealth will bring more balance to the countryā€™s tax code and raise the revenue we need to invest in a recovery that helps Pennsylvania and other states build a better future and an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy. Pennsylvania families contribute toā€¦ Continue reading

Including Immigrants in Pandemic Relief is Essential for Americaā€™s Public Health and Economic Recovery

by Maisum Murtaza and Marc Stier Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed numerous ways in which our political community is unfair to many peopleā€”and especially those with low incomes and people of color. But perhaps the most disturbing inequity is that immigrants, both documented and undocumented, have been left out of much of the relief efforts so far. Both documented and undocumented immigrants play a critical role in the economy of our state and nation. Immigrants to America are our neighbors, our friends, our employees, and, in some cases, our employers. There areĀ 28.3 million foreign-born residents in the labor force, of which 7.5 million areĀ undocumented immigrants. More than 866,000 immigrants aged 16 or older live in Pennsylvania, of which over 582,000ā€”including 91,000 undocumented immigrantsā€”are part of our workforce. Almost 9% of Pennsylvania’s workforce was born abroad, and 1.4% of the workforce is here without documentation. Immigrantsā€¦ Continue reading

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

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 governorā€™s proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2020, when the political and economic world in which weā€™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 servicesā€”especially for Medical Assistance (Pennsylvaniaā€™s Medicaid program), Unemployment Compensation, SNAP (formerly calledā€¦ Continue reading

Corporate Tax Cuts Since 2002 Cost PA $4.2B Annually

By Stephen Herzenberg, Diana Polson, and Marc Stier Closing Delaware loophole, instituting worldwide combined reporting would level the playing field for small businesses and generate over $700 million a year to invest in PA communities This paper focuses onĀ the details ofĀ one part of this story:Ā the cuts in corporate taxesĀ in PennsylvaniaĀ since 2002Ā that haveĀ reduced revenuesĀ byĀ what is nowĀ $4.2 billion per yearĀ andĀ haveĀ created a tax system that is among the most unfair in the country.Ā Ā  Pennsylvaniaā€™s tax–cutting,Ā shaped by the corporate-sponsored narrative,Ā has taken a variety of forms. Under both Republican and DemocraticĀ governors, we haveĀ entirelyĀ eliminatedĀ oneĀ of our two majorĀ taxesĀ on corporations, the Capital Stock and FranchiseĀ TaxĀ (CSFT). WeĀ haveĀ alsoĀ allowed businesses to lower their reported profits subject to the largest remaining corporate taxā€”theĀ Corporate Net IncomeĀ (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. TheĀ resultĀ isĀ that 73% of corporations that do business in Pennsylvaniaā€¦ Continue reading

Effects of a Minimum Wage Increase on Social Safety Net

Published at KRC-PBPC here. By Marc Stier and Diana Polson INCREASED INCOME FROM RAISING MINIMUM WAGE IS GREATER, AND IN MOST CASES, FAR GREATER THAN THE LOSS IN BENEFITS AND NEW TAXES PAID HARRISBURGā€”As Pennsylvania seriously considers raising the minimum wage for the first time in over a decade (and as the U.S. House prepares to vote on a bill to increase the minimum wage federally), concerns have been raised that workers receiving a higher wage also will face a ā€œbenefits cliff.ā€ A benefits cliff occurs when individuals get a wage increase but the social benefits they lose and the taxes they pay increase more than their additional earnings, resulting in an overall reduction in a familyā€™s standard of living. The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center today released two policy briefs examining the effects of a minimum wage increase to $15/hr in Pennsylvania. One brief examines a wage increase whenā€¦ Continue reading

With John Neurohr Originally published by KRC-PBPC. HARRISBURGā€”PA Budget and Policy Center director Marc Stier made the following statement in response to a press release sent out today by the Pennsylvania Republican Party criticizing a Budget Day of Action and rally/press conference in Harrisburg today in support of raising the state minimum wage: ā€œThe PA Republican Party is criticizing the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center and the We The People campaign for offering citizens a bus trip or a gift card to pay for their gas to make the trip to Harrisburg to advocate for a raise in the minimum wage. ā€œSomehow in their effort to criticize us for helping Pennsylvanians who are taking a day offā€”in many cases from minimum wage jobsā€”to exercise their rights as citizens, they have forgotten that the business community that opposes raising the minimum wage has paid lobbyists who no doubt get their mileageā€¦ Continue reading