Day: September 5, 2017

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On the PA House GOP Budget Plan to Raid Special Funds

  By Budget, Memos, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget

This press memo, released on September 5, 2017, details how the budget plan released by a group of Republican House members fails in the most important task before our state today: to resolve the long-term structural imbalance between expenditures and revenues. MEMO To: Editorial Page Editors, Editorial Board Members, Columnists, and Other Interested Parties From: Marc Stier, Director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center Date: September 5, 2017 Re: On the PA House GOP Budget Plan to Raid Special Funds The budget plan released today by a group of Republican House members fails in the most important task before our state today: to resolve the long-term structural imbalance between expenditures and revenues. Even if every fund transfer proposed by the Republican back-benchers today were constitutional and legal, and even if they had no impact on the commitments made by the General Assembly to provide funding for public purposes, this one-time transfer will provide almost no… Continue reading

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Pay No Attention to the Budget Cuts Behind the Curtain: the PA House GOP Budget Plan

  By Budget, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania Budget

For the last few weeks, we have been told a Republican plan to balance the budget was coming, one that would, almost miraculously, come up with more than $2 billion without raising taxes or cutting any public programs simply by transferring “surplus funds” that were “not doing anything” into the General Fund. We knew and said that this plan was, at best, a one year fix that would not do anything to reduce the long term structural deficit in the state budget. And in the same piece we strongly suspected that it was based on some false assumptions about why there are numerous state special funds and why, at certain points of the year, they run a surplus. But we were not prepared for what we heard today when the program was revealed and the whole effort was shown to be a sham of Wizard of Oz proportions. This plan… Continue reading