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A Guide to the $1.9 Trillion American Rescue Plan: UPDATE with PA-Specific Data

  By American Rescue Plan, Federal Budget

  The American Rescue Plan, as put forward by President Biden and about to be approved by the U.S. Congress, is a bold and necessary action—not just to restore the American economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic but to make it far more just. Here we point to some of the leading features of the plan with estimates of how many people in Pennsylvania will benefit from it. (PA estimates are from the Senate version of the legislation. Links are to the sources of our information.) Most notably, the legislation takes a major step forward in making health insurance through the ACA more affordable and includes a welcome expansion of child tax credits, which for the first time would give low- and moderate-income families in our country the kind of support that can be found in many other countries. And, at one stroke, the legislation would ensure that… Continue reading

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The minimum wage was created during the Great Depression. We need to raise it during the Pandemic Recession

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Published op-eds

Originally published at the PA Capital-Star on March 7, 2021 Opponents of raising the minimum wage seem to have an inexhaustible supply of concerns which they repeat no matter how often we present evidence that refutes them.  The latest one is the claim that we cannot raise the minimum wage during the COVID-19 recession. Raising the minimum wage during a recession, they say, will stall our recovery.  This might sound plausible for a second—or until one remembers that the minimum wage was created during the Great Depression by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). After a slow recovery from the Great Depression, the economy went into reverse in 1937 and the beginning of 1938. The reason is clear. In 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt started to listen to orthodox economists worried about the budget deficit. Taxes were raised, government spending was cut and the U.S. government had a balanced budget in 1937. The Federal Reserve raised interest rats as well, hurting the economy.  But the economy suffered. Unemployment, which was still high… Continue reading

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The Trouble with TABOR

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

UPDATED April 12: The Republican leadership of the House of Representative is poised to bring a dangerous  constitutional amendment, the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), HB71 tomorrow, April 13, 2022. This amendment, which has been championed in states all over the country by the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council, would limit the growth in PA General Fund spending to the previous year’s level adjusted for the sum of (1) the average percentage change in the U.S. Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) over the preceding three calendar years plus (2) the average of the percentage change in the resident population for the preceding three calendar years. Adopting this constitutional amendment would be a terrible mistake for many reasons. General Fund spending has not been growing faster than TABOR rates. First, even if one believes that the growth in state spending should be restrained, it is unnecessary. Over… Continue reading

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Initial Response to Gov. Wolf’s Proposed 2021-22 PA State Budget | Thursday, February 4, 2021

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Video

The Pennsylvania Budget & Policy Center’s director Marc Stier and senior policy analyst Diana Polson provide an initial overview of Gov. Wolf’s proposed FY 2021-22 state budget, highlighting some of the governor’s key initiatives & priorities and identifying some of the challenges that are likely to impact budget negotiations. Marc & Diana respond to questions posed by representatives of various nonpartisan advocacy organizations, who participated in a Zoom meeting on Thursday, February 4, 2021.   Continue reading

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First Response to Governor Wolf’s 2021-2022 budget

  By Uncategorized

Watch our initial response to Governor Wolf’s 2021-22 budget proposal and February 3, 2021, budget address. Participating in this discussion: Marc Stier (Director, PA Budget and Policy Center), Reesa Kossoff (Executive Director, SEIU PA State Council), Susan Spicka (Executive Director, Education Voters of PA), and Morgan Plant (Veteran Lobbyist).   Continue reading

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On Governor Wolf’s 2021-22 Legislative Agenda

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, Statements

Harrisburg, PA — Statement on the governor’s newly released agenda by Marc Stier, Director, PA Budget and Policy Center Legislative enactment of the agenda Governor Wolf announced today would be a huge step forward in meeting the needs of Pennsylvania workers and businesses that are suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, while also ensuring a fast and inclusive economic recovery. Critical elements of his agenda include providing support to working people, especially those with low incomes; raising the minimum wage and investing in workforce training to help people move into new jobs; and providing support to small businesses damaged by the pandemic. Investments in public infrastructure, and especially in school buildings and broadband internet access, would overcome some of the deep inequities in public services that some of us have known about for years but the pandemic has revealed to all. Corporate tax reform would require large multinational corporations to pay… Continue reading

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How to change the filibuster without really trying

  By Congress, Politics

Two or perhaps three Democratic Senators–Manchin and Synema and perhaps one other–are reluctant to overturn the filibuster. That reluctance could be overcome by Republican obstruction of critical policy needs–COVID-19 relief, funding for a massive vaccination campaign, help with health care and housing–that are critical to the states of these Senators. But even then, Senators who have publicly opposed filibuster reform might be concerned about changing their position publicly. So here are two steps that go part way to filibuster reform. First, we can change the rules for the reconciliation process. The reconciliation process allows Congress to move, once every session, a budget resolution under which changes in laws that affect the budget–including taxation and appropriations–without being subject to a filibuster. Critical legislation has been passed by both sides under reconciliation resolution in the last 15 years including the ACA and the Trump Tax Cut. There are, however, limitations on what… Continue reading

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Deflection by Constitutional Amendment: On HB 55

  By Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties, Legislative Politics and Rules, PA Budget and Policy Center, PA Constitutional Law, Separation of Power, Statements

Republicans this week will seek to advance a constitutional amendment that would enable the General Assembly to act by a concurrent resolution to override a governor’s emergency order after 21 days. In doing so they are doubling down on their false narrative about COVID-19 and the economic crisis it created. That crisis remains severe. New cases and hospitalizations have fallen to about half of their peak in mid-December—but they are far greater than the first wave of March and April. Meanwhile, COVID-19 deaths per day have just reached their peak. The economy of the state remains in bad shape especially for small businesses and those with low incomes. Small business revenues are down by more than 25% from January 2020 and, shockingly, by more than 40% in high-income neighborhoods, where many people with low incomes work. As a result, employment remains at 6.7% below the January 2020 level and for… Continue reading