State Budget and Taxes

Finally: Waste, Fraud, and Abuse!!!

Posted by Marc Stier on May 24, 2016 6:09 pm
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After ribbing Senator Wagner and his fellow members of the taxpayer caucus for not understanding the basics of budgeting, I want to acknowledge that they did come up with a really good idea today.

It appears that the Pennsylvania State Police take two sheets of paper to print tickets. Some intrepid investigator discovered that they could get the whole thing on one sheet of paper if they printed in landscape rather than portrait mode. At 8 cents per sheet of paper for the 542,000 tickets they print, that’s a savings of $43,384.

Make Believe Budgeting in Harrisburg

Posted by Marc Stier on May 24, 2016 4:31 pm
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I’ve been doing political advocacy for over ten years and have been a teacher and writer about politics for a lot longer. I don’t surprise easily. But what I saw today at the press conference at which Senator Scott Wagner and the “Taxpayer’s Caucus” presented their three billion dollars in proposed budget cuts, left me almost speechless.

PBPC Research Prompts Senators to Introduce Tax Fairness Legislation

Posted by Marc Stier on May 11, 2016 4:15 pm
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Something new and unusual happened in Harrisburg today. Senators Art Haywood, Vincent Hughes and Jay Costa put forward an idea that actually could help resolve the pressing fiscal cliff we face this year, and at the same time could make our tax system more progressive.

Despite partisan differences, three goals are more or less shared by everyone in Harrisburg. While their top priority may differ, for the most part, legislators all say they want:

1. to close the $1.8 billion structural deficit;

2. to spend more on education;

Advocacy Update: Hunger Transcends Political Boundaries

Posted by Sheila Christopher on May 11, 2016 2:33 pm
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Last month, the state’s 2015-16 budget impasse finally came to an end --- more than nine months after it started. But there was little time to celebrate. As quickly as one budget debate ended, a new one began.

Legislators and the governor now must begin in earnest to craft and finalize a 2016-17 budget. They have two months to do it. The state’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30 each year, and May and June are the most critical months for finding consensus.

Need a data-driven break from the election? Let's talk education funding...

Posted by Mark Price on April 26, 2016 11:42 am
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For the education data geeks out there (admit it, you're probably one) here is data comparing new classroom funding (in budget geek speak that's the basic education subsidy plus the ready to learn block grant) by school district as proposed under the bi-partisan budget framework versus the same funding under the final budget for 2015-16.

End Harrisburg’s School Funding Hunger Games

Posted by Susan Spicka on April 15, 2016 1:56 pm
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Over the past five years, Harrisburg has mastered the art of pitting school districts, parents, and students against each other in order to draw attention away from the damage their policies and the lack of adequate state education funding have inflicted on children, schools, and communities throughout the Commonwealth.

Diverse Coalition of Organizations Launch "PA's Choice" Budget Campaign

Posted by John Neurohr on April 13, 2016 2:39 pm
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A diverse coalition of groups from across the state, including education advocates, community service organizations, faith-based groups, environmental groups and labor organizations launched the "Pennsylvania's Choice" campaign today to bring attention to the devastating consequences of budget cuts across the commonwealth and to advocate for a Pennsylvania budget that best serves the people.

#NameTheCuts

Posted by Marc Stier on April 4, 2016 6:36 pm
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It appears that some elements in the Republican Party of Pennsylvania have one and only one goal – to not raise taxes. 

It doesn’t matter if spending in our classrooms, and especially in the classrooms in our lowest income communities, have not recovered from the Corbett cuts of 2011-12; they won’t raise taxes.

It doesn’t matter if waiting lists for mental health and intellectual disability services grow; they won’t raise taxes.   

It doesn’t matter if tuition keeps rising for our colleges and universities. 

FAQs about the $75 million CUT in state funding to schools in the 2015-2016 Republican budget

Posted by Susan Spicka on April 1, 2016 9:37 am
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The following is a guest post from Susan Spicka, Director of Education Voters of Pennsylvania.

An Explanation of Our Infographic, “Especially for Poor Districts, Drastic Corbett Education Cuts Remain”

Posted by Marc Stier on March 31, 2016 9:10 am
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So what difference does a budget actually make? Why should we care that we wound up with the Republican budget for this year (HB 1801), rather than the bi-partisan budget agreed to in December 2015 (SB 1073), let alone the budget Governor Wolf proposed in March 2015?

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