Category: Budget

Late last week, when many of us were focused on the struggle in Wisconsin between working people and the middle class on the one hand, and the corporate backed governor of Wisconsin on the other, that fight came to Pennsylvania. Republican Governor Tom Corbett’s Department of Revenue adopted new tax regulations that will reduce the corporate income tax by $200 million in 2010 and $833 million over two years. (If you don’t need to read more to know what you think about that, sign the Penn ACTION / Keystone Progress petition against this corporate giveaway here. And, at almost the same time AdultBasic, which provides health insurance for 42,000 working Pennsylvanians who do not qualify for medical assistance, ran out of money. Governor Corbett did nothing to save AdultBasic. What would it have cost to extend AdultBasic for another year? Just a bit less than the $200 million in Tom… Continue reading

While Pennsylvania is facing a $4 billion deficit, Gov. Tom Corbett approved a corporate tax break of $833 million last week. He did it with almost no notice, hoping that Pennsylvania’s citizens wouldn’t find out.  It was done with such little notice, that even reporters and PA legislators were unaware of this giveaway until we told them. Well, we found out and we’re outraged.  Just this week Corbett told us we couldn’t afford to continue healthcare for the working poor.  But somehow he can find $833 million for billionaires and CEOs, sticking middle class families with the bill. Tell Corbett and your legislators to stop this outrageous giveaway! This is not only a giveaway to special interests, it’s a job destroying tax break.  It could cost Pennsylvania another 5-15,000 jobs.1 Politicians like Corbett are using our real economic problems as an excuse to pay back their corporate donors at the… Continue reading

No money for Adult Basic but millions for big business Budgets are moral documents that set for the priorities of our government. Late last week, the Corbett Administration made clear that its top priority is helping American corporations not Pennsylvanians when it adopted new tax regulations that will reduce the corporate income tax by $200 million in 2010 and 833 over two years.1 With the state facing a $4 billion deficit that may lead to massive cuts in spending on education and health care, and with the AdultBasic program expiring at the end of the month, a reduction in corporate taxes is simply unconscionable. The Governor of the Commonwealth should not be putting the profits of corporations over the needs of people. The $200 million that the Corbett administration is giving away to corporations is more than the amount necessary to continue AdultBasic, which provides health insurance for 42,000 Pennsylvanians… Continue reading