{"id":10723,"date":"2017-01-03T13:22:52","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T18:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=10723"},"modified":"2024-01-15T13:37:48","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T18:37:48","slug":"two-approaches-to-the-state-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=10723","title":{"rendered":"Two Approaches to the State Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"header\">\n<section class=\"content-header\">\n<div class=\"container\">\n<div class=\"header-content-wrap\">\n<div class=\"content-side-right box-1\">\n<div class=\"header-top\">\n<div class=\"top-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"header-bottom\">\n<nav>\n<div id=\"navigation\">\n<p>It\u2019s becoming more and more rare to see serious attempts on the part of newspapers (and their virtual counterparts) to compare policy proposals meant to deal with a serious public issue. That\u2019s one reason I was so happy to see Tim Stuhldreher\u2019s excellent piece, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/lancasteronline.com\/news\/pennsylvania\/pennsylvania-think-tanks-battle-over-remedies-for-b-state-budget\/article_e3b902aa-d110-11e6-a6bd-238569f0e05f.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pennsylvania think tanks battle over remedies for $1.7 billion state budget deficit<\/a>\u201d in LancasterOnline.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"interior page\">\n<div class=\"container\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-xs-12 col-sm-12 col-md-9 side-direction side-direction-left\">\n<div class=\"news-wrap\">\n<div class=\"single-box\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"post-3084\" class=\"item entry\">\n<div class=\"storycontent\">\n<div class=\"row row-archive\">\n<p>The other reason I was happy is that the article demonstrates the difference between a serious proposal that actually tries to find a solution to the budget deficit\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=10708\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">our Fair Share Tax Plan<\/a>\u2014and the Commonwealth Foundation\u2019s right wing wish-list, which barely even gestures towards a solution.<\/p>\n<p>What, according to the piece, does the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.commonwealthfoundation.org\/issues\/detail\/a-christmas-wish-list-for-pennsylvania\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Commonwealth Foundation propose<\/a> to close our state budget deficit? And what\u2019s wrong with those ideas? They propose:<\/p>\n<p><em>Putting new state employees in a 401(k) pensions<\/em>\u2014even though Republicans have failed time and again to find such a proposal that actually reduces state spending in the next fifteen years.<\/p>\n<p><em>Expanding charter schools<\/em>\u2014even though, under our worst-in-the-nation charter school law, charters, especially in their provision of special education, tend not only to be more costly than public schools but also take funding away from those public schools.<\/p>\n<p><em>End donation limits on the opportunity scholarship tax credit program<\/em>\u2014even though the program is a backdoor way to fund private schools and give tax breaks to corporations that actually reduces state revenues while not saving the state any money.<\/p>\n<p><em>Publishing labor contracts before they are finalized<\/em>\u2014even though this information is already available, there is no reason to think that greater publicity will change the contracts, and there is data shows that state employees are not remotely over-paid relative to the private sector.<\/p>\n<p><em>Increasing work requirements for welfare<\/em>\u2014even though welfare, as traditionally understood, was repealed in the 1990s, work requirements already exist in the TANF program that replaced it, and spending on that program is a small and declining share of the state budget. Of course, the Commonwealth Foundation is not really talking about \u201cwelfare,\u201d but about federal programs such as food stamps that (1) don\u2019t have any impact on the state budget; (2) can\u2019t be changed by state action alone, and (3) create very little disincentive to work while providing essential support in helping those with low incomes escape from deep poverty.<\/p>\n<p>You can find fault with our proposal, and we will continue to refinine it as we learn more. But you can\u2019t deny that we actually have some ideas about how to close the deficit without massive cuts in spending on education and human services, and without broad-based tax increases.<\/p>\n<p>But the Commonwealth Foundation proposal? There is a reason they don\u2019t have estimates that show how their proposal reduces the budget deficit. It barely does so.<\/p>\n<p>And unlike the Commonwealth Foundation proposal, we want to help people with low incomes, by raising the minimum wage among other things, rather than making them suffer while doing little to address the budget deficit. The Commonwealth Foundation, on the other hand, presents us with Ebenezer Scrooge\u2019s Christmas wish list, updated for 2016. Their goal is to reduce the relatively little money we spend on helping people with low-incomes, no matter the pain it causes them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s becoming more and more rare to see serious attempts on the part of newspapers (and their virtual counterparts) to compare policy proposals meant to deal with a serious public issue. That\u2019s one reason I was so happy to see Tim Stuhldreher\u2019s excellent piece, \u201cPennsylvania think tanks battle over remedies for $1.7 billion state budget deficit\u201d in LancasterOnline. The other reason I was happy is that the article demonstrates the difference between a serious proposal that actually tries to find a solution to the budget deficit\u2014our Fair Share Tax Plan\u2014and the Commonwealth Foundation\u2019s right wing wish-list, which barely even gestures towards a solution. What, according to the piece, does the Commonwealth Foundation propose to close our state budget deficit? And what\u2019s wrong with those ideas? They propose: Putting new state employees in a 401(k) pensions\u2014even though Republicans have failed time and again to find such a proposal that actually reduces\u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=10723\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1896,"featured_media":10724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[197,205,107],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/capitol-1.jpg?fit=500%2C330&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p35YuU-2MX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10725,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10723\/revisions\/10725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}