Day: June 19, 2025

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on June 19, 2025. By Marc Stier It appears that my recent letter to the editor in the Inquirer, claiming that business taxes are not a deterrent to business activity in Philadelphia, got under the skin of MAGA mega-donor and Pennsylvania’s richest man, Jeff Yass. He responded with a letter of his own: “In a recent letter to the editor, Marc Stier of the Pennsylvania Policy Center states that research shows business taxes are not deterrents to economic growth. Quite the opposite, he adds. The city wage tax, currently about 3.5%, generates approximately $2 billion per year. May I suggest we double it to 7%, raise an additional $2 billion, and increase per-child spending in Philadelphia to $42,000 per student — up from the current $32,000 — for each of our  Jeff Yass, Bala Cynwyd Jeff Yass’s financial acumen is highly touted, so I’m a… Continue reading

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on June 19, 2025. June 19, 2025 By Marc Stier and Erica Freeman Juneteenth is a day of celebration that marks the end of slavery in America. But it should also be a time of reflection about white supremacy’s continued presence and the way it affects our country. This year, it’s virtually impossible to ignore the resurgence of explicit and unabashed racism in America, which is a major force in the MAGA movement and the steps the current administration has been taking to roll back efforts to diminish the role of white supremacy in the United States. While we celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation, we all know that white supremacy didn’t end with slavery. Today, forced, unpaid Black labor hasn’t ended as contemporary mass incarceration, including chain gangs in some states, forces Black people to engage in unfree labor for meager wages, as did the… Continue reading