Month: May 2018

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MEMO: Analysis of the PA Senate Redistricting Commission Plan and the Folmer Amendment

  By Legislative Districts, Memos, Redistricting

This memo outlines how the Folmer proposal is worse than the process we have now in four important respects. The redistricting process created by Senator Mike Folmer‰’s version of SB 22 passed by the Senate State Government Committee last week does initially look like a move toward nonpartisan redistricting, and for that reason some reform groups have said it is a step forward. But while we at the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center support the goal of a nonpartisan system of drawing Congressional and state legislative districts lines, the process that would be put in place by the Folmer plan is so far from desirable that we urge the full Senate to reject it and start over. Continue reading

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The real path to economic prosperity

  By Economic Development, Economic Justice, Public Policy, Published Op-Eds

Originally published in the Bradford Era, May 27, 2018 In the aftermath of the Trump-GOP tax cut enacted at the end of the last year, some legislators and advocates are calling for Pennsylvania to also cut tax rates for both individuals and corporations in the hopes of spurring economic growth and job creation. It is hard to think of a worse idea for our political community, not only because it is unfair, but because it has been tried and failed again and again. Pennsylvania has one of the most unequal tax systems in the country. Low-income Pennsylvanians pay 12 percent of their income in state and local taxes while middle-income Pennsylvanians pay 10 percent. But those with incomes in the top 5 percent pay only 6.8 percent of their income taxes while the top 1 percent pay only 4.2 percent. With a tax system this unfair, why should we emulate… Continue reading