Month: June 2023

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Statement on PA Senate’s Proposed State Budget

  By Budget, Penn Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: June 30, 2023 Contact: Kirstin Snow, Communications Director, snow@pennpolicy.org, 215-510-9336  Harrisburg, PA – Marc Stier, executive director of the Pennsylvania Policy Center, today released the following statement after the Senate passed House Bill 611, a 2023–24 General Fund Budget, on a 29–21 party-line vote. “The budget passed on a party-line vote by Senate Republicans is utterly unacceptable to the people of Pennsylvania. Its worst element is the inclusion of a $100 million down payment on a radical plan, sponsored by extremist billionaires like Betsy Devos and Jeffrey Yass, to destroy our public school system. That money is diverted from the $200 million the House added three weeks ago to the Level Up program, which helps the 108 least-well-funded school districts in the state. With this choice, and their rejection of the House plan to add $100 million to the Governor’s request for basic education funding and… Continue reading

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Pennsylvania Policy Center Update on Pennsylvania Budget

  By Blog post, Budget, Pennsylvania Budget

With $13 billion in an accumulated surplus and a budget proposal from the governor that only proposed modest additions to state spending on policies that have broad support, one would expect that making a budget deal would be easy. Yet the budget is due today, and no deal is imminent. While House Democrats passed a budget weeks ago, not only is no resolution in sight but it appears that a great deal more work needs to be done to reach one. Why? First, it seems like negotiations started later than usual. There were new political circumstances: a Democratic House majority that did not really take power until the special elections in March, a new governor, and new leadership in the Senate. The new people with power in their hands had to take time to build relationships internally and externally and learn the ropes of the budget process. And they were… Continue reading

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The Lifeline Scholarship Program Would Undermine Public Education

  By Education, K-12 Education in PA, Penn Policy Center, Testimony, Vouchers

My name is Marc Stier. I’m the executive director of the Pennsylvania Policy Center. Thank you for inviting me to testify today.  I’m here today with my fellow advocates for education—including the leaders of unions of teachers, who have dedicated their lives to our children—to speak against the Lifeline scholarship program put forward by Senate Republicans.  The advocates for that program say that it will not take money from our public schools. This argument is thoroughly disingenuous. While money for the program comes from the General Fund and not from individual school districts, Republicans keep reminding us that General Fund revenues are not unlimited. The accumulated surplus that is supporting the operating budget this year—and is projected to support it for the next five years—will eventually run out. Any funding that goes to the Lifeline scholarship program will come from revenues that are needed to meet our constitutional and moral… Continue reading

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Penn Policy Statement on House Passage of HB 1500, the Minimum Wage Bill

  By Minimum Wage, Statement

Marc Stier, executive director of the Pennsylvania Policy Center, released the following statement after the PA House passed HB 1500. House passage of House Bill 1500 is a major step forward for all working people and businesses in the state of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvanians have been waiting for seventeen years for an increase in the minimum wage and for seven years for the state to embrace a path to a minimum wage of $15 per hour. This long overdue action comes at an ideal time. Employers all over the state are already raising wages to ensure they can find the employees they need. Raising the minimum wage would create a floor under wages that ensures businesses can raise their wages without being put at a competitive disadvantage. Workers making below, and just above, $15 per hour would see their wages go up, which would generate new consumption that would help businesses,… Continue reading

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Penn Policy Speaks in Support of House Budget on K-12 Education

  By K-12 Education in PA, Statement

Remarks by Marc Stier, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Policy Center, at a PA School Work press conference in support of the House passed budget for 2023-2024 In March, Governor Shapiro put forward a proposed budget that many of us said had the right priorities but did not offer enough funding for critical needs, including K-12 education. Last week, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a budget—with the support of Governor Shapiro—that added funding in many of those critical areas. The House budget adds the basic education fund to the governor’s proposal. It includes new funding for the Level Up program, which provides additional money for the 108 least-well-funded school districts and adds money for special education and for repairing toxic schools. The House budget, which Governor Shapiro embraced, is a good down payment on what the state ultimately must do to meet the constitutional and moral requirements to fully… Continue reading

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Why We Should Raise the Minimum Wage in Pennsylvania to $15 Per Hour

  By Minimum Wage, Talking points

Click here to print or read full screen.   A high minimum wage ensures we have an economy that works for all of us. It protects workers and provides a dignified life. The minimum wage is a critical protection for workers—like the right to form unions, the social safety net, and a tax system that asks the rich to pay at a higher rate than the poor. These policies ensure that our economy works for all of us, not just the wealthy owners of huge corporations. We show respect for the dignity of work by ensuring all full-time workers are paid a decent wage that allows them to support themselves and their families. Opponents of a higher minimum wage want the work but won’t provide the dignity. Since 1947, workers’ share of the benefits of the United States economy has shrunk drastically. But our economy is more productive than ever.… Continue reading

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PA House Passes Proposals to Reduce Taxes for Working People

  By Blog post, Budget, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Budget, Taxation

Four Major Proposals Will Make Pennsylvania Taxes Fairer The Pennsylvania House today passed the second and third of four major tax proposals: an expansion of the Child and Dependent Care Enhancement Tax Credit (HB 1259) and the creation of a state Earned Income Tax (HB 1272). These actions follow on House passage of an expansion of the Property Tax / Rent Rebate Program (HB 1110) on January 6. The House is expected to act soon to pass the repeal of the gross receipts tax and sales and use tax on wireless cell phone services (HB 1138). Taken together, the four bills that have been, or will soon be, passed by the House of Representatives will reduce taxes for working people in Pennsylvania and make our state’s tax system fairer. While there is more to be done to fix our upside-down tax system in which the wealthiest Pennsylvania families pay taxes… Continue reading

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Learning from our bodies and failure

  By Language, Love and Sex, Philosophy

One of the endlessly appealing profoundly mistaken ideas found in science fiction is that idea that we human beings could take a pill or have a capsule or micro-chip inserted into our brains and then immediately have all kinds of faculties and capacities we previously did not have. This idea was prominent in The Matrix films, for example. But it certainly didn’t start there. I’m going to argue here that this idea is based on a particular kind of mind-body dualism that is ultimately rooted in ideas put forward by Socrates in some of the Platonic dialogues (although the extent to which Plato embraced these ideas is very much questionable). And I’m going to conclude that is a profoundly problematic idea that encourages us to think of our lives in ways that leads us to (1) misunderstand and become despondent about our bodies and (2) fail to understand how important… Continue reading

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Pennsylvania Policy Center Statement on General Fund Budget Passed by PA House

  By Budget, Penn Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Statement

For Immediate Release Contact: Kirstin Snow, Communications Director, snow@pennpolicy.org; 215-510-9336 Harrisburg, PA–Marc Stier, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Policy Center, today released the following statement after the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed HB 611, a 2023-24 General Fund Budget, on party line vote. “In March, Governor Shapiro proposed a budget that had the right priorities but proposed too little spending in certain key areas, including K-12 education, workforce development, and housing. The budget passed by the House of Representatives today follows the governor’s priorities but adds spending in areas we believe deserved additional support. That spending is supported by additional revenue expected in both the current fiscal year and in years 2023-24. Going beyond the governor’s budget proposal, the House budget includes: ·      An additional $100 million in basic education funding ·      A $225 million Level Up supplement to the 108 most underfunded school districts in the state. ·      An… Continue reading