Category: Statement

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Statement on Federal Child Tax Credit Expansion

  By Statement

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on January 19, 2024. STATEMENT on Child Tax Credit Expansion – Marc Stier, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Policy Center The House Ways and Means Committee today voted in favor of bipartisan tax legislation that includes an expansion of the child tax credit along with the restoration of some expired business tax credits. The legislation is the product of negotiations between the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, Jason Smith (R-MO) and the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Ron Wyden (D-OR). This legislation would benefit 19 million children in low-income families, or 1 in 5 of children under 17, including 506,000 children in Pennsylvania. It would especially help Black, Latino, and Asian children, whose parents are overrepresented in low-paying jobs due to structural barriers to opportunity. In the first year, the expansion of the child tax credit would lift 400,000 children nationwide—and roughly… Continue reading

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Statement in response to the Basic Education Funding Commission Report

  By Education, K-12 Education in PA, Penn Policy Center, Statement

The adoption of the Basic Education Funding Commission Report yesterday is a major step forward in meeting our constitutional and moral responsibility to fund education fully and fairly in Pennsylvania. The first step in this process was a Court decision by a Republican judge holding that our current system of funding education is not constitutional. Yesterday, the state took a second step. We are grateful that a majority of the Commission, including the Governor and the members of the General Assembly, provided a detailed and specific plan to meet the constitutional and moral requirement of adequately and equitably funding our schools—a plan we believe is fair. The plan comes very close to meeting our expectations. It sets a plausible and defensible standard for evaluating the adequacy of funding in every school district. By that standard, we need $5.4 billion per year in new funding to close the adequacy gap in a… Continue reading

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Press Release: Taxes in Pennsylvania Are Upside-Down

  By Penn Policy Center, Pennsylvania State Taxes, Statement, Taxation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 10, 2024  Contact: Kirstin Snow at Penn Policy Center snow@pennpolicy.org or Jon Whiten at ITEP jon@itep.org. RELEASE: Pennsylvania’s Tax System Exacerbates Inequality, In-Depth National Study Finds State Has the 4th-most Regressive Tax Code in the Nation Harrisburg, PA — Pennsylvania’s tax system is upside-down, with the wealthy paying a far lower share of their income to taxes than low- and middle-income families. That’s according to the latest edition of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s Who Pays?, the only distributional analysis of tax systems in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In sharing the data, Marc Stier said, “The new report from our national partner, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, shows that Pennsylvania has one of the most upside-down state and local tax systems in the country. We should be ashamed to live in a state with the highest rate of… Continue reading

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PRESS STATEMENT: PA Will Lose $3.1 Billion to Corporate Tax Cuts by 2028

  By Blog post, Statement

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on November 30, 2023. November 30, 2023 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Kirstin Snow, Communications Director, Pennsylvania Policy Center, snow@pennpolicy.org; Ellie Blachman, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, (202) 325-8718, eblachman@cbpp.org New report: Pennsylvania will lose $3.1 billion to corporate tax cuts by 2028 Pennsylvania is part of historic, nationwide tax-cutting wave that jeopardizes investments in communities and our ability to meet the challenges of the future. Harrisburg, PA — In recent years, policymakers in Harrisburg joined their counterparts in more than half the states across the country on a historic revenue-reduction spree that shifted public funds away from public investments and toward tax cuts that primarily benefit wealthy households and corporations. Those corporate income tax cuts have already cost Pennsylvania $127 million in revenues and will cost an additional estimated $3 billion by 2028, according to a new report by the Center on Budget… Continue reading

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PPC Statement on PA Court’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Decision

  By Blog post, Statement

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on November 9, 2023. The Pennsylvania Policy Center (PPC) joins several of its partners in expressing concern about last week’s Commonwealth Court ruling, which struck down Pennsylvania’s opportunity to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The court’s decision was made along procedural lines and is antithetical to RGGI’s purpose, which is to limit damaging carbon emissions in the state and surrounding region. “Among the many steps Pennsylvania can, and should, take to limit climate change, joining RGGI is among the most important. Governor Wolf’s decision to join RGGI is justified by the substantial authority the law grants the Governor to protect our environment,” said PPC’s executive director Marc Stier. This is of even more concern for communities of color and low-income families and is a setback for environmental equity in our Commonwealth. We echo calls for Governor Shapiro to appeal this decision to… Continue reading

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The (First Part) of the Budget Standoff Is Over

  By Budget, Penn Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Public Policy, Statement

After Governor Shapiro signed the General Appropriation bill today, the Pennsylvania Policy Center released the following statement by our executive director, Marc Stier: “Today, Senate Republicans blinked in the budget standoff with Governor Shapiro and Democrats. Thanks to the increasing pressure from social service providers and school districts worried about the delay in receiving state funding and the public, which supports them, the Republican leadership agreed today to bring the Senate back to session to allow the General Fund appropriations bill to be sent to Governor Shapiro. The Governor just signed it after issuing his promised line-item veto of $100 million for the voucher program. Today’s action does not mean that the 2023–24 budget is complete, however. In Pennsylvania, what we call “code bills” are needed to authorize some of the spending in the appropriation bills, including the Level Up program, which provides additional funding for the least-well funded schools… Continue reading

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Penn Policy Center Statement on PA Budget Passage

  By Budget, Penn Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Statement

July 5, 2023 For Immediate Release Contact: Kirstin Snow, snow@pennpolicy.org Penn Policy Center Statement on Budget Passage Governor Shapiro’s letter announcing that he would line-item veto the appropriation for vouchers in the budget passed by the Senate last week clears the way for the House to also pass the budget and send it to the Governor for his signature. Enacting a budget that doesn’t include a voucher plan is a victory, especially because that plan would have likely been a first step toward the destruction of public education in Pennsylvania. We are grateful to Democrats in both the House and the Senate for standing strong against vouchers. Sadly, while the enacted budget is likely the best that can be achieved at this date, it is not a good one. While it includes bout a 5% increase in total spending, after taking inflation into account, the increase is not substantial. If… Continue reading

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Statement on PA Senate’s Proposed State Budget

  By Budget, Penn Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: June 30, 2023 Contact: Kirstin Snow, Communications Director, snow@pennpolicy.org, 215-510-9336  Harrisburg, PA – Marc Stier, executive director of the Pennsylvania Policy Center, today released the following statement after the Senate passed House Bill 611, a 2023–24 General Fund Budget, on a 29–21 party-line vote. “The budget passed on a party-line vote by Senate Republicans is utterly unacceptable to the people of Pennsylvania. Its worst element is the inclusion of a $100 million down payment on a radical plan, sponsored by extremist billionaires like Betsy Devos and Jeffrey Yass, to destroy our public school system. That money is diverted from the $200 million the House added three weeks ago to the Level Up program, which helps the 108 least-well-funded school districts in the state. With this choice, and their rejection of the House plan to add $100 million to the Governor’s request for basic education funding and… Continue reading

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Penn Policy Statement on House Passage of HB 1500, the Minimum Wage Bill

  By Blog post, Minimum Wage, Penn Policy Center, Statement

Marc Stier, executive director of the Pennsylvania Policy Center, released the following statement after the PA House passed HB 1500. House passage of House Bill 1500 is a major step forward for all working people and businesses in the state of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvanians have been waiting for seventeen years for an increase in the minimum wage and for seven years for the state to embrace a path to a minimum wage of $15 per hour. This long overdue action comes at an ideal time. Employers all over the state are already raising wages to ensure they can find the employees they need. Raising the minimum wage would create a floor under wages that ensures businesses can raise their wages without being put at a competitive disadvantage. Workers making below, and just above, $15 per hour would see their wages go up, which would generate new consumption that would help businesses,… Continue reading

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Penn Policy Speaks in Support of House Budget on K-12 Education

  By Blog post, K-12 Education in PA, Penn Policy Center, Statement

Remarks by Marc Stier, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Policy Center, at a PA School Work press conference in support of the House passed budget for 2023-2024 In March, Governor Shapiro put forward a proposed budget that many of us said had the right priorities but did not offer enough funding for critical needs, including K-12 education. Last week, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a budget—with the support of Governor Shapiro—that added funding in many of those critical areas. The House budget adds the basic education fund to the governor’s proposal. It includes new funding for the Level Up program, which provides additional money for the 108 least-well-funded school districts and adds money for special education and for repairing toxic schools. The House budget, which Governor Shapiro embraced, is a good down payment on what the state ultimately must do to meet the constitutional and moral requirements to fully… Continue reading