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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 19, 2024

Contact: Kirstin Snow, Communications Director, snow@pennpolicy.org

NEW TAX JUSTICE CAMPAIGN- Pennsylvanians Should Thrive, Not Just Survive

PA’s Tax System Is Upside-Down!

Harrisburg, PA—The Pennsylvania Policy Center, the statewide affiliate of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and its action arm, Pennsylvanians Together, kicked off their Tax Justice campaign with a press conference in the Matthew J. Ryan Office Building-Main Steps, 451 N. 3rd St, Capitol Complex, Harrisburg, PA. The kickoff included proposals to raise revenue without it taking a dime from working families’ wages.

The event featured the following speakers:

  • Marc Stier, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Policy Center
  • Dwayne Heisler, Campaign Director, Pennsylvanians Together
  • Senator Art Haywood
  • Representative Elizabeth Fiedler
  • Representative Chris Rabb
  • Jacinta Burgess and Suzzanne Ott
  • Ritchie Tabachnick of the Patriotic Millionaires

 The following are quotes from the event:

Marc Stier: “Tax justice means two things. First, fixing a system in which we tax work too much and wealth too little. And second, raising enough revenue from the ultra-rich and wealthy corporations to fully fund K-12 education and provide other public goods we need to enable everyone to thrive.”

Dwayne Heisler: “The truth is we can raise revenue without taking a dime from working families’ wages. We need tax justice in Pennsylvania.”

Senator Art Haywood: “Our tax system is rigged against us. Reducing taxation on everyday people and making the rich pay their fair share is the first step toward fairness.”

Ritchie Tabachnick: “Structural poverty is largely the result of government policy and decisions. The tax code is a big part of the problem and one that can be addressed. We are glad to see Pennsylvania embarking on a new path to address this injustice.”

Suzzanne Ott: “I make a good income and I don’t mind paying my share of taxes. But there is something deeply wrong with a system that asks me and people like me to pay a far greater share of my income than the very richest Pennsylvanians. And it’s not just the high taxes I pay that is the problem. It’s that when the very rich don’t pay their fair share, we all lose the resources we need to provide a good education and other services to everyone who needs them.”

Representative Rabb: “I’m proud to have introduced the Fair Share Tax Plan bill for four consecutive sessions because it holds to account the most privileged taxpayers who pay disproportionately less than the most precariously situated working families across our commonwealth. Money made on money should be taxed at a higher rate than money made on labor and sweat equity in business. In [a] state where the vast majority of taxpayers’ income comes from compensation via salary or hourly wages, a higher tax rate for classes of income that most wealthy Pennsylvanians report represents tax fairness that benefits everyone.”

 Representative Fiedler: “It’s time for us to fully fund public services by ensuring the rich pay their fair share. The Fair Share Tax plan is part of that, as is the bill I have to repeal Pennsylvania’s uniformity clause. Money earned by welding a bridge or caring for people in a senior center isn’t the same as wealth made by a millionaire trading stocks or real estate. It’s different …. and it should be treated differently in terms of taxation.

For too long in Pennsylvania, the rich have paid too little in taxes, while the working class and poor people have paid too much. We’ve started to address this injustice, but there is much more that we can [do], and I believe in time, we will!”

What is tax justice?

Tax justice means that ultra-rich individuals and wealthy corporations pay what they owe.

It means that their share of taxes enables us to provide the common goods we all need to create a growing high-wage economy and a strong future for all of us.

And it means rejecting even more tax cuts for large corporations and the wealthy—tax cuts that create few jobs but undermine public education, the building and improvement of roads and bridges, and other public goods that create jobs.

Our campaign for tax fairness is for every Pennsylvanian, no matter where we were born, where we live, what we look like, or how much we have. Join your neighbors from around the state to tell the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass tax justice legislation, including the Fair Share Tax plan, a severance tax on natural gas fracking, corporate tax reform, and a working families’ tax credit. And stand with us to support federal proposals to make billionaires and wealthy corporations pay their fair share.

We need tax justice to build a commonwealth and country where everyone, not just the ultra-rich, has the opportunity to thrive.

A video of the event can be found here.

Pennsylvanians Together is a campaign working to ensure that all Pennsylvanians can thrive—not just survive. For too long, we’ve let politicians, who serve the interests of corporations, and the rich divide us based on what we look like, where we come from, where we worship, how much money we have or whether we are native-born or immigrants. By dividing us, they have given us public policies that do too little to help most Pennsylvanians while making the rich and corporations even wealthier.

ADDENDUM: charts below