Posts by marc stier

Judicial Districts and Judicial Independence

Posted by Marc Stier on May 14, 2019 3:27 pm
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This week the Republican leadership of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives plan to take up a HB 196, a constitutional amendment proposed by Representative Russ Diamond to elect the appellate court judges who sit on the Supreme Court and the two second-level courts, the Commonwealth Court and Superior Court, by districts rather than in statewide elections. This proposal is similar to the Aument amendment to SB22 a redistricting reform proposal that passed the Senate but stalled in the House last year.

HB 196 is deeply problematic for three reasons.

Fair Share Tax Plan - 2019 Edition

Posted by Marc Stier on April 18, 2019 2:47 pm
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The main reason that Pennsylvania’s tax system is so upside-down—with the top 1% paying only 6% of their income in taxes while the middle 20% pays 11.1% and the bottom 20% pays 13.8%—is that the Pennsylvania Constitution prohibits us from enacting a graduated personal income tax. Sales and property taxes tend to take a higher percentage of the income of taxpayers at the bottom and in the middle than at the top. But graduated income taxes in many states—including all of our neighbors—compensate by taxing those at the top at a higher rate.

Governor Wolf's 2019-2020 Budget: A First Take

Posted by Marc Stier on February 22, 2019 11:29 pm
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Governor Wolf’s 2019-2020 budget proposal reflects the unique politica

Speaker Turzai Offers Up A Fake Redistricting Reform Plan

Posted by Marc Stier on September 21, 2018 3:48 pm
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Speaker Turzai has recently floated a proposal for legislation to delegate the process of drawing congressional district lines to a commission modeled after the process used for drawing legislative districts that is embedded in the PA Constitution. The legislative districting commission consists of one member appointed by the majority and minority caucuses and fifth member appointed by those four. If they cannot agree on a fifth member, according to the PA Constitution, the Supreme Court chooses that person.

On Redistricting Reform, Good Intentions Are Not Enough

Posted by Marc Stier on July 15, 2018 3:04 pm
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The first rule of politics, like that of medicine, is do no harm.

And the intention to do no harm is not enough, you need a strategy to ensure that your actions actually avoid doing harm directly or indirectly.

Once again, Fair Districts PA (FDPA) and March on Harrisburg, in two separate ways, are potentially doing harm to our political system in Pennsylvania. 

Republican Judicial Districting — An Existential Threat to Pennsylvania Democracy

Posted by Marc Stier on June 18, 2018 3:04 pm
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After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

Protect Our Representative Democracy — Stop The GOP Attack on the PA Courts

Posted by Marc Stier on June 14, 2018 10:51 am
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Representative democracy in Pennsylvania is under attack. This week, on a straight party-line vote, Republican senators passed a constitutional amendment that would give the majority party in the General Assembly a strikingly unprecedented degree of influence over who is elected to our courts, including the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In turn, that would undermine the checks and balances in our state government — including those that have blocked, and would block in the future, the Republicans from tilting the rules of our democracy in their favor.

Time to Stop SB 22

Posted by Marc Stier on June 12, 2018 11:39 pm
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Republicans today added a second constitutional amendment to, in effect, gerrymander the Supreme Court to a bill, SB22, that proposed a constitutional amendment to stop gerrymandering of the congressional and state legislative elections. The Supreme Court gerrymandering amendment passed on a party line vote. And it means that today all supporters of redistricting reform, including PBPC, withdrew support for SB22 and tomorrow all Democrats will likely vote against  it.

The Folmer Redistricting Commission: Neither Independent Nor Nonpartisan

Posted by Marc Stier on June 11, 2018 11:29 am
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Both the political class in Harrisburg and the progressive community around the state are focused today on the redistricting issue. Last week the Senate State Government Committee passed a version of SB22 that was crafted by Senator Mike Folmer. Some of the advocacy groups that have been working in favor of a fair redistricting process have been cautiously, or in some cases not so cautiously, supportive of it. Some who have argued that the proposal itself is problematic have held that passing it in the Senate is a necessary step to reaching a better bill.

I’m reluctant to create divisions among people who are generally allies, but I want to make clear that I believe the Folmer redistricting proposal is not only deeply flawed but is in no way a step forward for those of us who want to see a fair, nonpartisan process of drawing congressional and state legislative district lines.

How to Fix Legislative Districting in Pennsylvania (Without Making Things Worse)

Posted by Marc Stier on June 5, 2018 10:54 pm
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We at the PBPC have been very critical of the effort to pass SB22, a constitutional amendment to change the way legislative districts for both Congressional and state legislative races are drawn, as it was recently amended in the state government committee. But that’s not because we don’t favor an independent redistricting commission that would create fair, nonpartisan districts.

We are very much in favor of a nonpartisan independent redistricting commission. There are very good, strategic options for securing a constitutional amendment, or the best parts of the current SB22, through legislation this year or very soon without supporting SB22 as it stands now. But we object to a political strategy that runs the very real risk of giving us another decade or more of gerrymandered districts, especially one that allows the Republican majority to claim credit for creating a better redistricting process when they have, in fact, undermined it.