Category: Op-ed

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on June 4, 2025. June 3, 2025 By Marc Stier Sometime at the beginning of the next decade, the City of Philadelphia’s pension fund will be fully funded. As a result, the City will be able to stop making catch-up payments, which are roughly $400 million per year. The question then is: What should our city do with that money? Mayor Parker’s answer is to deeply cut part of the business income and receipts tax (BIRT) as the recent Tax Reform Commission (TRC) has recommended. But the members of the community advisory committee to the TRC and I have another idea that we think is better. We all know that, despite the great wealth in our city, the share of Philadelphia’s population that lives in poverty is the highest among large US cities. Yet the city does far too little to reduce poverty. Why… Continue reading

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on May 5, 2025. May 5, 2025 By Marc Stier Note: This is an updated version of a piece I wrote while I was director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center. It was published in the Penn Capital–Star on October 3, 2019. A few things have changed since then—and I’ve added sixth and seventh myths to supplement the original five—but most of the arguments I made at that time not only remain true but are supported by new evidence. Raising the minimum wage in Pennsylvania is long overdue. Yet even though the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a good minimum wage bill in 2023 that was actually modeled on one introduced in the Senate, Pennsylvania’s Senate Republican leadership continues to refuse to hold a hearing or bring it up for a vote where, we believe, it would almost certainly pass. Some legislators remain… Continue reading

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on October 17, 2024. Originally published at The Keystone. Donald Trump doesn’t like to talk much about the public policies he would propose if he becomes president again. To the despair of his own political advisors, he would rather make juvenile, personal attacks against Kamala Harris. But maybe Trump knows what he is doing. For if you look at the policy proposals he and his closest advisors have actually supported, you’ll see that they would be disastrous for working people. That’s especially true when it comes to taxes. Here’s what we can surmise from what he has said and done about his likely tax policies and how they would affect Pennsylvanians. First, he would seek to reauthorize the 2017 Trump tax cut law, which expires in 2025. The tax cut was so tilted in favor of the wealthy, rather than workers, that it had… Continue reading

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on July 9, 2024. The Pennsylvania state budget for fiscal year 2024–25 is now officially overdue, so we’re still left wondering: What might a deal look like? There are two critical components that need to be addressed. The first is enactment of year one of the Basic Education Funding Commission’s plan to adequately and equitably fund education. Enacting this plan is a moral and constitutional requirement. Failing to meet it would leave the General Assembly to answer to both the voters and the courts. Public opinion polls show overwhelming support for meeting this goal. And while courts are generally reluctant to tell legislators how exactly to spend money, for three reasons this barrier is lower in Pennsylvania right now than in other times and places. Neither Democrats nor Republicans sought to appeal Judge Jubelirer’s ruling that our current system of K–12 school funding is… Continue reading

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on June 30, 2024. Originally published in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star By Marc Stier House Bill 1500, co-sponsored by Democratic Reps. Jason Dawkins of Philadelphia and Patty Kim of Dauphin County, would increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour over three years and then create annual increases in the future based on the cost of living. While the bill, which is now before the House Appropriations Committee, is not perfect, it would provide enormous benefits to Pennsylvania workers and Pennsylvania’s economy. The legislation has faced the usual arguments made against raising the minimum wage. But what the critics seem not to have noticed is that those arguments make little sense under current economic conditions, if they ever did. Indeed, it’s hard not to conclude that this is the best possible time to raise the minimum wage for both workers and businesses. Raising the minimum wage is almost certain… Continue reading