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On The Mid-Year Budget Briefing: The Full Picture Is Even More Grim

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

Budget Secretary Randy Albright’s mid-year budget briefing this week brings worrisome news that, at its current level of expenditure and revenues, the Pennsylvania budget for the 2016-17 will have a deficit of $600 million. Part of that deficit is the result of lower tax revenues than were projected when the budget was enacted in July. Another part is higher human service caseloads, which will require a supplemental appropriation.   The projected deficit might increase again if the General Assembly does not enact legislation to bring in $100 million in internet gaming revenues and if a second Philadelphia casino license is not sold for $50 million. While the current year deficit is a problem for the state, unfortunately it is not the biggest budget problem we face. The Independent Fiscal Office is projecting a 2017-18 deficit of $1.7 billion, which does not include the ongoing costs of higher human service caseloads… Continue reading

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Statement On The Inaction by State Senate to Fund Unemployment Compensation Call Center

  By Statements, Unemployment Insurance

Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center Director Marc Stier made the following statement after the state Senate failed to vote for additional funding for the Department of Labor and Industry’s unemployment compensation call centers during its only scheduled post-election session day: “If you have received unemployment insurance or know anyone who has, you know how important it is for people to receive help in navigating a complicated system, particularly at a difficult time in their lives. Too often, the phone lines to the call centers where help can be found are busy. And that often means that recently-unemployed people cannot secure the help they need in claiming the benefits to which they are entitled, and which have been paid for in part by their own taxes. “This has long been a serious problem in Pennsylvania. Recent additions to funding from the federal and state governments have helped reduce it. But yesterday,… Continue reading

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IFO Report: Deficits Now and In The Future

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

Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center Director Marc Stier made the following statement following the Independent Fiscal Office release of their Five Year Economic and Budget Outlook: “The herculean efforts of the Governor and General Assembly to overcome their divisions and reach a budget agreement last year may have enabled legislators to leave town in July. But it left the state with a deficit of at least $524 million for the current year, a projected deficit of at least $1.7 billion for the year beginning July 2017, and budget deficits that grow year after year beyond that. “If the state continues to generate revenue under current laws and maintains the current level of services, the projected deficit reaches $3 billion in 2021-22 and continues to grow by $175 million per year thereafter.  “That conclusion, which is contained in the new Five year Economic and Budget Outlook released today by the Independent… Continue reading

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For Hillary Clinton Without Tears

  By 2016 Presidential race, Politics

I’m going to try, one last time, to talk without rancor to those of you are thinking of voting for Stein or not voting at all instead of voting for Hillary Clinton. And let me start by saying that every activist I know who has played a role in actually changing public policy in a progressive direction is voting for Hillary. And that includes all of us who voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary. I know an awful lot of them. I know people have fought for civil rights laws; opposed the Vietnam War; made the Clean and Water Act possible; secured increases in the minimum wage; reformed health care; raised taxes on the rich; expanded funding for education at all levels: pre-k, K-12, higher education; enacted the tax soda; brought supermarkets into food deserts; expanded housing opportunity. We are all, without exception, voting for Hillary Clinton. Some of… Continue reading

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On HB 1885, the Sanctuary Bill

  By Immigration, Memos, PA Budget and Policy Center

Legislation rushed to the finish line in an election year is notorious for being both badly crafted and motivated by less than pristine motives. And that certainly goes for HB 1885, the anti-sanctuary city bill passed by the House recently and currently under consideration in the Senate this week. There is a lot wrong with the bill, starting with the intention of its sponsors to appeal to the anti-immigrant voters whose ire has been inflamed by Donald Trump and continuing on to its likely consequence of leading to racial profiling that undermines police-community relationships, and thus effective policing, in (documented and undocumented) immigrant communities. But here I want to focus on the potential economic costs of the bill to the counties and cities of Pennsylvania—costs that have been barely considered in the fast-track legislative debate on it. The House Fiscal Note on the bill does not even try to identify,… Continue reading

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Against HB 530–Once More with Feeling

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts

HB 530, a revision of the laws that govern charter schools, has reared its ugly head again. We continue to oppose it. School districts in Pennsylvania contain a mix of traditional public schools and charter schools. Some local school districts want to add charters schools. Many do not. All of them should be empowered to evaluate the best way to educate students in their respective districts. Unfortunately, provisions in HB530 will remove much of the supervisory and decision-making authority from local school districts in every corner of the state. Since charter schools receive funding from local school districts, the creation of new seats in charter schools without school board supervision and control diminishes the ability of school districts to establish and manage their budgets. That could result in the underfunding of traditional schools or significant local tax increases. That is why we oppose this legislation, which that permits charter schools… Continue reading

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Rep. Brad Roae Compares School Board Members to Hitler

  By K-12 Education in PA, Legislative Politics and Rules, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts

Marc Stier | 10/19/2016 Blog This week, in a Facebook discussion with a person who seems to be one of his constituents, Representative Brad Roae (R-Crawford/Erie) felt it was appropriate to compare school board members in Pennsylvania blaming charter schools for the financial difficulties of their districts to Adolf Hitler blaming Jews for “everything that was wrong with the world.” I’m not sure whether I should be more offended as a Jew or as a policy analyst by Representative Roae’s remark.     It is, of course, morally offensive to anyone who grasps the evil of Hitler’s murder of 6 million Jews, to compare it to any other crime. A general rule of thumb about Hitler comparisons is to not make Hitler comparisons. But to compare it to a public policy choice like the opposition of school boards to charter schools would be doubly offensive if it were not so… Continue reading

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Higher Education Funding in Pennsylvania

  By Higher Education, Memos, PA Budget and Policy Center

In this press memo, dated October 14, 2016, PBPC shares some of our most recent findings about the funding of higher education in light of a strike deadline by members of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF) against the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) looming. To: Education reporters, editorial board members and columnists From: Marc Stier, Director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center Subject: Higher Education Funding in Pennsylvania Date: October 14, 2016 With the October 19 deadline for a strike by members of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF) against the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) looming, I thought it might be useful for us to share again with you some of our findings, and that of our national partners, about the funding of higher education in Pennsylvania. There are many important issues at stake in the dispute… Continue reading

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The Revenue Shortfall and the Budget

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

Marc Stier | 10/07/2016 Blog Almost as soon as the Pennsylvania budget was passed in July, rumors swirled about the legislature coming back—either in a lame duck session in December or next year—to fix it because it was not truly balanced. The Department of Revenue’s announcement yesterday that revenues for the year to date are running $218 million below estimates, makes revisting the budget even more likely. In July, we at PBPC pointed out that estimates of some of the one-time revenuesincluded in the budget—especially those from selling licenses for internet gaming, for a second Philadelphia casino, and for the expansion of alcohol sales—were possibly over-stated. We also said that we were not confident that enough money was appropriated to meet the likely caseload for medical assistance (The Commonwealth must appropriate its share of funding for these programs to continue to draw down the federal funding for them.) Those problems… Continue reading

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Dorothy Stier 1930-2016

  By Family Stories

My mother came of age in a unique time for women. She went to college at the end of the World War II when, largely in response to the fear of unemployment on the return of servicemen from the war, women were being strongly encouraged to limit themselves to the role of homemaker. And that was perhaps especially true for college educated women. Working class women, even then, often had to work. But as the middle class expanded in the post-war years, the middle class idea of marriage became ever stronger. So women like my mother were encouraged by parents, like my grandparents, who tremendously valued education, to get a very good education. And they were then encouraged to stay at home with their children rather than enter the work world. Despite some appearances, my mother never really fit that mold. She worked almost her entire life. She was a telephone operator… Continue reading