Category: Budget

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On PA Budget: “Declare Victory” and Go Home

  By Budget, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Budget, Public Policy, Published op-eds

Originally published in NewsWorks, February 5, 2016 In 1966, Senator George Aiken returned from a trip from Vietnam with the recommendation that the United States “declare victory and bring the troops home.” It wasn’t entirely clear that the U.S. had won the war at that point, but we also hadn’t yet lost the war (as we would after another eight years of suffering and death). It’s a very different context, but I’m inclined to give the General Assembly similar advice: Finish the work on the bipartisan budget, declare victory, and go home. Last year, an appropriations bill that implements the bipartisan budget framework, SB1073, passed the Senate by an overwhelming vote of 43-7. It was one roll call vote short of passing the House in December, having already been approved by a narrow, yet bipartisan, majority on second reading. The General Assembly should return to that bipartisan approach now and then… Continue reading

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Understanding the Numbers in a Budget Crisis

  By Budget, Education, K-12 Education in PA, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Policy reports

This Reports and Briefing Papers compares the three budget propasls comimng out of Harrisburg: Governor Wolf‰’s budget proposal, the Republican budget, and the bi-partisan budget. The report focuses especially on the differences and similarities among these three budgets with respect to proposed General Fund spending as a share of the state economy and spending on two key components of the budget, Pre-K-12 education funding and human services funding. Click here to print or read full screen.  Continue reading

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Rep. Grove’s Diatribe Was Off-Key

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Budget, Published Op-Eds

Originally published in the York Daily Record, January 13, 2016 It’s always funny and sometimes sad when national entertainment trends filter down to our local communities. The rapper or metal band in our community may have picked up some of the moves and rhythms of the big stars, but they seem to be pale imitations at our local venues. That’s how Rep. Seth Grove’s diatribe against Governor Tom Wolf comes across. Grove wants to sound like one of the agitated and aggrieved conservative radio stars or Republican presidential candidates (who are hard to tell apart these days). Like them, he seeks to shock us and motivate his followers with personal attacks. Like them, he seeks to create a rhetorical whirlwind that hides inconvenient facts. But his performance seems off-key here in Pennsylvania. (And, to his credit, he doesn’t seem entirely comfortable with it, either.) Gov. Tom Wolf is not some distant, high-handed… Continue reading

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Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way

  By Pennsylvania Budget

Originally published at Third and State Blog, December 17, 2015 Five and a half weeks ago, Governor Wolf and the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Pennsylvania House and Senate announced a bi-partisan “budget framework” designed to end the long impasse over the budget. The framework agreement, like most compromises between parties that are far apart, pleased no one. But it provided enough to satisfy everyone. Or so we thought. In the last two weeks, the House Republicans have backed away from the bi-partisan agreement. In the last two days, Speaker Turzai has been demanding that someone else — the Governor or the House Democrats—come up with the votes to enact the tax revenues that are a necessary part of the budget framework. As I write, efforts are continuing to find those votes, most of which in the House are going to come from Democrats. Speaker Turzai, it appears, won’t… Continue reading

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Why Conservatives Can Like Pennsylvania’s Personal Income Tax

  By Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Budget, Pennsylvania State Taxes

Originally published at Third and State, December 14, 2015 Rumors of a sudden interest on the part of Republicans in raising the personal Income tax (PIT) instead of the sales tax to meet the revenue requirements of the budget framework have floated across 3rd Street to our offices at the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center. So I’m going to do something unusual for us—and frankly a bit uncomfortable—and give some conservative arguments for preferring the PIT over the sales tax. First, a PIT increase is for three reasons likely to place a smaller burden on businesses than a sale tax increase. For those goods and services on which the sales tax is imposed, the tax is paid on every purchase. It thus dissuades some people from making purchases. It especially dissuades those who live near a border with a state that has a lower sales tax from buying goods in… Continue reading

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PA Sales Tax can be Expanded in an Equitable Way

  By Budget, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Budget, Pennsylvania State Taxes, Public Policy, Taxation

Originally published in NewsWorks, December 7, 2015 Legislators have been considering raising new — and necessary — revenue by expanding the sales tax base to include more goods and services instead of increasing the sales tax rate. This would be a good way to raise revenue if it is done in ways that make the tax more equitable. Still a broader sales tax would fall more heavily on low-income families. Legislators could limit the burden on those least able to bear it by coupling the sales tax expansion with a new, refundable sales tax credit. The inequity of the sales tax The original budget framework increased the state’s sales tax rate from 7 percent to 8.25 percent (and from 8 percent to 9.25 percent in Philadelphia). This proposal was opposed by many legislators. Some opposed any tax increase. Others worried that businesses near our borders with other states would lose… Continue reading

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AVI Without Tears

  By Philadelphia, Philadelphia Budget, Taxation

I have an op-ed in today’s Daily News about AVI. I think the argument there is correct, but it is highly compressed. I’ve tried to set out my argument at a little greater length here. (Note that in the op-ed and in this piece I made a mistake and said that AVI shifts the tax burden from residential to commercial property. It does the opposite. I’ve corrected it here. Councilman Green’s proposals minimize the shift.) So much has gone wrong in the city’s move to the Actual Value Initiative (AVI), that many people are fearful about its consequence. And one of the things that has gone wrong is that people who know better are playing on this fear for their political purposes, I think the fear is over blown. AVI is a good thing if it is implemented properly and I think it can be implemented properly this year. Continue reading

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In Philly, We Need Transparency in Criticism As Well As Budgeting

  By Budget, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Budget, Taxation

Some critics of Mayor Michael Nutter are calling him out for hiding a real estate tax in his new budget since the budget proposes that after the new market based system of setting property values is put in place, tax rates will be set so that the city takes in an additional $90 million in real estate tax receipts. There is a just a little bit of truth in the criticism. But most of it is really just hogwash. Continue reading

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The Imaginarium of Pat Toomey and Kevin Ferris

  By Federal Budget, Health Care, Taxation

Today in the Inquirer, Kevin Ferris channels PA Senator Pat Toomey, who has been providing a Republican spin on the failure of the Super Committee. In the imagniarium of Pat Toomey and Kevin Ferris, the Senator courageously broke with fellow Republicans to propose a balanced, bi-partisan deal that would combine $450 million in tax increases along with $750 million in budget cuts to meet the Super Committee’s ten year goal. In rejecting this proposal, President Obama and the Democrats showed that they don’t truly want a balanced bipartisan solution to the deficit problem. This is what the proposal looks like when you take off the funny glasses. Toomey’s proposal would have raised revenue slightly—no more than $45 billion a year. But most of that increase would have come from the middle class not the rich. Toomey proposed to reduce the marginal tax rates for everyone by 20%. However, the absolute… Continue reading

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The Cost of the Bush Era Tax Cuts

  By Federal Budget, Penn ACTION, Taxation

Ten years of the Bush Tax Cuts have cost us $2.5 trillion.  They were a $2.5 trillion dollar gamble that if we pushed enough money into the pockets of millionaires, billionaires and giant corporations, some of it would fall out and land on the rest of us.  We know what happened – that money stayed in those overstuffed pockets.  But, as Think Progress says, it didn’t have to be that way: Here are ten alternatives we could’ve pursued instead: – Give 122.7 Million Children Low-Income Health Care Every Year For Ten Years – Give 49.2 Million People Access To Low-Income Healthcare Every Year For Ten Years – Provide 43.1 Million Students With Pell Grants Worth $5,500 Every Year For Ten Years – Provide 31.5 Million Head Start Slots For Children Every Year For Ten Years – Provide VA Care For 30.7 Million Military Veterans Every Year For Ten Years –… Continue reading