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Pennsylvania Policy Center Announces Leadership Team

By Blog Post, Pennsylvania Policy Center

June 8, 2023
For Immediate Release
Contact: Kirstin Snow, snow@pennpolicy.org

Pennsylvania Policy Center Announces Leadership Team
PA’s State Affiliate to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Harrisburg, PA—Today, Pennsylvania Policy Center’s (PPC) executive director, Marc Stier, announced five progressive politics and organizing professionals joined the state’s affiliate to the national Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

In addressing the recent hires, Stier said, “The Pennsylvania Policy Center aims, through its research and policy development, to create the tools that political officials, opinion leaders, grassroots organizations, and the people of PA need to expand our vibrant democracy, secure our freedom, and seek economic justice in Pennsylvania. I am confident the team we have built, and are continuing to build, will see that to fruition.”

New team members include:

Levana Layendecker, Deputy Director / Chief Operating Officer – Levana comes to the Pennsylvania Policy Center with more than twenty years of experience working with advocacy groups and campaigns. She worked for increased access to health care and housing for all, equality for the LGBTQ community, and against climate change. A graduate of the Fels School at Penn, she has a strong background in communications and organizing.

Kirstin Snow, PhD, Communications Director – After having served as the communications director for the PA Budget and Policy Center and the Keystone Research Center, Kirstin brings over 25 years of experience in marketing, advertising, public relations, and crisis communications in the public, private, corporate, political, and non-profit sectors. She was director of communications for Governor Ed Rendell’s administration; and a weekly columnist with a progressive perspective for the Patriot News. She’s worked with progressive and high-level leaders, including President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, and President Bill Clinton.

Adrienne Standley, Deputy Design and Digital Director – Adrienne is a policy nerd with a fine art degree from Arcadia University, and has additional experience in small business operations, management, and e-commerce. In addition to their work with PPC, Adrienne is an LGBTQ+ rights activist and harm reductionist, working in Philadelphia to end the overdose crisis through education and direct supply distribution, as well as advocacy for safe consumption sites and better drug policy.

Jeff Garis, Outreach and Partnerships Director – Jeff is the outreach and partnerships director at the Pennsylvania Policy Center, drawing on his quarter-century of experience working with advocacy organizations in the state. For the decade prior to joining Penn Policy, Jeff worked for the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, coordinating advocacy campaigns focused on state and federal policy priorities.

Erica Freeman, Deputy Communications Director – Erica joins PPC with a long history of volunteering and advocacy with a particular interest in racial issues. Before working in public policy communications, she worked in nonprofit fundraising as a researcher and was a copy editor, who worked both independently and for The Philadelphia Tribune. She has a bachelor’s degree In English and creative writing and is a published academic author with a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

www.pennpolicy.org

The Pennsylvania Policy Center aims, through its research and policy development, to create the tools that political officials, opinion leaders, grassroots organizations, and the people of PA need to expand our vibrant democracy, secure our freedom, and seek economic justice in Pennsylvania.

June 8, 2023

Pennsylvania Policy Center Statement on General Fund Budget Passed by PA House

By Blog Post, Press Statement

For Immediate Release
Contact: Kirstin Snow, Communications Director, snow@pennpolicy.org; 215-510-9336

Harrisburg, PA–Marc Stier, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Policy Center, today released the following statement after the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed HB 611, a 2023-24 General Fund Budget, on party line vote.

“In March, Governor Shapiro proposed a budget that had the right priorities but proposed too little spending in certain key areas, including K-12 education, workforce development, and housing. The budget passed by the House of Representatives today follows the governor’s priorities but adds spending in areas we believe deserved additional support. That spending is supported by additional revenue expected in both the current fiscal year and in years 2023-24.

Going beyond the governor’s budget proposal, the House budget includes:

·      An additional $100 million in basic education funding

·      A $225 million Level Up supplement to the 108 most underfunded school districts in the state.

·      An additional $50 million for Special Education.

·      An additional $250 million for school facilities maintenance and improvements.

·      An additional $30 million for job training programs and $14 million for career and technical education.

·      $200 million for an expansion of the Whole Home Repairs program.

·      An additional $52 million for general support, facilities support for PASSHE schools; and $24 for PHEAA grants for students.

·      An additional $66 million for community and economic assistance programs and $30 million for the Keystone Communities program.

·      An additional $45 million for childcare services and assistance.

The first five items in the list constitute a strong down payment on the spending that will be necessary to meet the constitutional requirement to provide an adequate education to every child in Pennsylvania. The sixth item—funding for job training—is, we believe, a critical investment for Pennsylvania workers and our economy. And the seventh item, the addition to the Whole Home Repairs program, will take an additional step forward in helping low- and moderate-income Pennsylvanians deal with the current crisis in affordable housing.

Despite these welcome additions to Governor Shapiro’s proposal, this is a fiscally responsible budget plan. The state remains on pace to have a more than $13 billion budget surplus at the end of the current fiscal year, including an $8 billion operating surplus and over $5 billion in the Rainy Day Fund. This is a far greater surplus than is necessary or reasonable to maintain. The House budget for 2023-24 expects an ending balance of $5.6 billion before additions to the Rainy Day Fund, essentially the ending balance the governor proposed in March. The additional funding proposed by the Appropriations Committee is supported by higher revenue expectations for the current fiscal year ($663 million) and Fiscal year 2023-24 ($461 million) compared to the governor’s March projections. These higher revenue expectations are based on the IFO’s recent projections and are in keeping with both recent revenues and consensus estimates for growth in the Pennsylvania economy over the next year.

In addition, the House passed proposes to add an additional $558.7 million to the Rainy Day Fund. The governor’s budget did not propose adding anything to the Rainy Day Fund. If this budget is adopted, at the end of the 2023-24 fiscal year, that is on June 30, 2024, the state will still have an accumulated surplus of over $10.5 billion, including a General Fund operating surplus of $5 billion and a $5.7 billion Rainy Day Fund.

Given the large surplus, the higher than expected revenues, and the urgent needs of Pennsylvanians—including the need to fully and fairly fund our schools—it would be irresponsible not to enact a budget along the lines passed by the House Appropriations Committee. We commend Chairman Harris and the Democrats who devised this proposal. We hope that the Republicans who opposed it will reconsider when the bill comes to the floor of the House and the Senate.”

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The Pennsylvania Policy Center aims through its research and policy development to create the tools political officials, opinion leaders, grassroots organizations, and the people of Pennsylvania need to expand our vibrant democracy, secure our freedom, and seek economic justice in Pennsylvania. 

www.pennpolicy.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 6, 2023

The Real Cost of Opening a Window for Sexual Abuse Lawsuits in Pennsylvania

By Blog Post, Policy Briefs

By Marc Stier

I was asked to testify about the claims made in a paper by the Susquehanna Valley Center for Public Policy that opening a two-year window for childhood victims of sexual abuse to bring lawsuits against their abusers might cost public schools in Pennsylvania between $10 billion and $32 billion. On its face, the claim sounds utterly absurd. (Not to mention irrelevant; if that is the cost of doing justice for those who have suffered from sexual abuse, then that is what we should be prepared to pay.) But as I delved into the details of the paper, I discovered that it was based on what, frankly, was a horror show of faulty research methods and statistical analyses. I was tempted to say—but in the setting of an official hearing in the Capitol, did not say—that this paper would have received no better than a D grade in the research methods or statistics courses I had taught at the University of North Carolina Charlotte or City College of New York. But that is, in fact, the truth.

Read the whole response here.  

[pdf-embedder url=”https://marcstier.com/blog2/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/The-Cost-of-Opening-a-Window-for-Sexual-Abuse-

May 1, 2023

Why We Need a Property Tax Circuit Breaker in Pennsylvania

By Policy Statement

Statement of Marc Stier at Senator Jimmy Dillon / Representative Robert Freeman press conference on establishing a property tax circuit breaker in Pennsylvania on April 25, 2023

I’m very pleased to stand with Senator Jimmy Dillon and Representative Robert Freeman in support of establishing a property tax circuit breaker in Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center first proposed such a plan in 2015 and our new organization, the Pennsylvania Policy Center, continues to support it. Representative Freeman has long championed it, and we are glad to see Senator Dillion become a champion of it as well.

Pennsylvania has long had a serious problem: our tax system is unfair. State and local taxes in our commonwealth place a much greater burden on families with low incomes and moderate incomes than those with high incomes.

Just to give you an idea of how unfair our tax system is, consider this:

The 20% of families with the lowest incomes in the state, who have incomes below $23,000 per year and an average income of only $13,000, pay 13.8% of their income in state and local taxes.

The 20% of families in the middle of the income scale, with an average income of $61,000 per year, pay 11.1% of their income in state and local taxes.

But the richest 1% of families, with an income of more than $667,000 and an average income of $1.75 million, pay only 6% of their income in state and local tax.

This is an upside-down, tax system that is fundamentally unfair. But it is neither necessary nor common. Every state surrounding Pennsylvania has a fairer tax system.

There are many reasons for the unfairness of our tax system. One is that our uniformity clause prohibits graduated income tax rates. Another is that we rely too heavily on property taxes to fund our schools. Pennsylvania provides only 38% of the funding for our schools, while national average for all states is 48%.

Property taxes tend to burden low- and middle-income people more than those who are wealthy. In Pennsylvania, the 20% of families with the lowest incomes in the state pay 4.6% of their income in property taxes. The middle 20% of families pay 2.7% of their income in property taxes. And the top 1% of families pay only 1.6% of their income in property taxes. (All data from Institute on Tax and Economic Policy, Who Pays, 6th edition, 2018, https://itep.org/whopays/pennsylvania/.)

Property taxes burden people with low and middle incomes more than those with high incomes because the lower a family’s income, the higher the cost of housing relative to their income. Rich people do tend to have bigger houses and sometimes have more than one. But the income of the very rich tends to be so high that the cost of their homes is relatively low compared to their income.

On the other hand, because their incomes are so much lower, whether they own or rent—and property taxes are included in rents—low- and middle-income Pennsylvanians must pay a larger share of their income for housing than those who are wealthier. And that shows up in the higher share of their income that goes to property taxes.

This problem is especially problematic for seniors, who may live for many years with relatively fixed incomes that don’t rise with the cost of both housing and property taxes.

The basic unfairness of property taxes is exacerbated because people with lower and moderate incomes tend live in communities with less wealth. And, as result, those communities have to tax themselves more to pay for schools and local government services.

The extent of the property tax problem varies from one region to another. It is an especially serious problem inside the arc of counties from York to Schuylkill to Carbon to Monroe. But it is a problem that afflicts families in every county in the state.

One solution to the problem is a property tax circuit breaker.

With the most common version of a property tax circuit breaker, the state gives taxpayers a credit or rebate for taxes above a certain percentage of their income. This credit could go to all taxpayers, it could be limited to those below a certain income threshold, or it could be gradually reduced as the taxpayer’s income increases. By giving taxpayers a credit for taxes they pay, the program protects both homeowners and the communities that must rely on property taxes to pay for schools and local government services. And because the program provides a credit or rebate, limiting it to taxpayers with low and moderate incomes taxpayers and / or giving a larger credit to seniors would be constitutional under the uniformity clause.

This is not a new or uncommon idea. New York instituted such a program in 2015. Sixteen other states and the District of Columbia have a property tax circuit breaker.

Pennsylvania currently has a limited version of this program, the Property Tax / Rent Rebate program. But this limited program only benefits Pennsylvanians 65 or older, widows and widowers 50 or older, and people with disabilities 18 and older. And only those with incomes below $35,000 for homeowners and $15,000 for renters benefit from the program. Governor Shapiro has called for expanding the program. However, what Representative Freeman and Senator Dillon are calling for today is a bolder program that would benefit far more Pennsylvanians.

We have long believed that Pennsylvania’s unfair taxes are one of the two largest public policy problems in our state. The other is, of course, our immoral and now unconstitutional system of funding K-12 education.

At base, however, the two problems are really one. Our over-reliance on property taxes to fund K-12 education is, as we’ve pointed out, one of the sources of tax unfairness. And raising the funds necessary to reform the way we fund K-12 education will require new tax laws that ask the richest Pennsylvanians to pay their fair share.

So, we believe that the legislation that Representative Freeman and Senator Dillon propose today is critical—and not only to solve the problem of unfair taxes. We believe that what they propose today is likely to be part of any comprehensive solution to the K-12 school funding issue.

April 25, 2023

Pennsylvania Policy Center to Launch in Effort to Improve State Policies and Strengthen Communities

By Press Statement

HARRISBURG, PA – The Pennsylvania Policy Center, a nonprofit conducting policy research and analysis, will launch next month with the goal of expanding opportunity and promoting equity throughout Pennsylvania. Led by Marc Stier, who has served in leadership roles at policy advocacy organizations for more than two decades, the Center will identify solutions to some of the most pressing problems facing Pennsylvanians from Erie to Philadelphia and Scranton to Pittsburgh. The Center will launch on May 3, 2023.

“Regardless of whether you live in rural, urban, or suburban Pennsylvania, most of us are facing the same challenges,” said Stier. “We will focus our research on policies that improve people’s day-to-day lives and strengthen our communities. Our goal is to ensure children get a quality education, working people get the training and support they need to build a better life, and all Pennsylvanians have access to high-quality public services and programs paid for by fair taxes.”

The Center will provide information, quantitative analysis, and case studies on issues people have raised in community conversations held across the state. Its research agenda will include housing affordability and homelessness, child care, education at all levels, senior care, and tax and fiscal issues. By the end of this year, the Center anticipates having a staff of up to 10 policy analysts, communications experts, and advocates who will seek to equip lawmakers, journalists, advocacy groups, nonprofit service providers, and the public with unassailable information and tools they need to advance public policies that work for all Pennsylvanians.

The Center will conduct research on local, state, and federal policies so that lawmakers at all levels of government understand the needs of Pennsylvanians. This will also allow the Center to identify promising programs and ideas operating locally that should be scaled statewide; provide practical recommendations to elected and senior agency officials; and analyze the impact of different federal programs on families’ health and well-being, such as the Child Tax Credit and the extension or expansion of public benefits initially put in place during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The new organization will represent Pennsylvania in the State Priorities Partnership, a network of more than 40 independent, nonprofit research and policy organizations coordinated by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Partnership works to expand economic opportunity, reduce inequality, and fight poverty.

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Marc Stier

Marc Stier has had a long career as an activist, advocate, teacher, and writer. From 2015 to 2023, Marc was the director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center in Harrisburg, PA, where he wrote policy reports on many federal, state, and local issues, including tax fairness, K-12 and higher education funding, raising Pennsylvania’s minimum wage, health care, and child care, as well as on racial and gender-related justice. He was also the founder and chair of PBPC’s advocacy campaign We The People–PA.

Before joining PBPC, Marc served as the executive director of Penn Action, where he worked to protect funding for education and women’s health care and expand Social Security. He was also the Pennsylvania director of Health Care for America Now, which led the grassroots effort in support of what became the Affordable Care Act, and the Health Care campaign manager for SEIU Pennsylvania State Council. He began his career in activism as a leader and then president of West Mt. Airy Neighbors in Philadelphia and an advocate for transit funding.

Stier was an academic for 25 years before starting his career in public policy analysis and advocacy. He has a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and a doctorate from Harvard University, both in political science. He has taught at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks; City College of New York; the University of North Carolina, Charlotte; and Temple University, where he was the associate director and internet coordinator of the Intellectual Heritage Program. Stier is the author of papers on political philosophy, the history of political thought, and American politics. He is the author of the book Grassroots Advocacy and Health Care Reform, published in 2013. He will be publishing two new books in the next few years, Liberalism and Communitarianism Revisited and Civilization and Its Contents: Reflections on Sex and the Culture Wars. He is also co-editor of Ambiguity in the Western Tradition.

April 19, 2023