Blue Pennsylvania: Supply and Demand

As if the news has not been depressing enough, SEPTA last week announced the elimination of numerous bus and rail routes and a list of service cuts in the upcoming fiscal year unless a significant funding increase from the state materializes. 

And these emails have already driven home the fact that the state needs to build on its initial investment to underfunded school districts in order to reach adequacy in an already unacceptable time frame of eight years.

While the governor has proposed a budget that would address these shortfalls during the coming year, the Independent Fiscal Office is predicting a deficit in the near future unless the state attracts more revenue or drastic spending cuts are instituted.

In response to the governor’s proposal, Senate Appropriations Chair Scott Martin declared that “Gov. Shapiro’s budget fails to face reality, spending more than the state can reasonably afford…”

But what is truly unrealistic is the state senate’s distaste for exploring new revenue sources.  Just to name a few:

Taxing skill games;	$150 million to $368.9 million annually
Taxing Marijuana upon legalization.	$1 billion
Taxing the extraction of natural gas;	$227 million
Combined reporting to offset the revenue collection problems with the Delaware loophole;	$1.537 billion
Amending the state constitution to abolish the uniformity clause, or to find other work-arounds.	$2.45 billion
Total	2.916 to 3.135 billion

Are all of these sources feasible options?  Maybe not.  Are some of them overestimations of what reality might yield?  Possibly.  But it is difficult to believe that the benefits outrun the risks of avoiding all of these options.

Republicans are also intent on having us believe that investments in public education and SEPTA could have detrimental effects on the economy, even though:

(1)  Education seems to have a more beneficial effect on the economy than tax cuts; and

(2)  It is estimated that, with one-third of the state’s population, Southeastern Pennsylvania generates about 41% of the state’s economic activity.  Given that a significant part of the workforce depends on public transportation, we can infer that investing in SEPTA therefore generates tax income for the state that helps to fund that senior center in Westmoreland County.

What we therefore need to do is to force our legislators to augment the supply side of the budget (through new revenues) by highlighting the demand side (for such needs as education and transportation).  You can do so by using this link to automatically email your state house and senate members in Harrisburg to let them know that you are in favor of full and fair educational funding in Pennsylvania.

Also, how do you feel about political activism?  And how do you feel about pizza?  How would you like to combine the two?  Check out this message from our friends at Red to Blue:

If you are looking for a way to oppose the Trump-Republican budget, please join us for a Good Trouble Phone Bank on Thursday, April 17, from 6-8 PM, at Summit Presbyterian Church (6757 Greene Street, Philadelphia, PA 19119). SIGN UP HERE. (More dates to come).

We’ll be making calls in partnership with Senator Art Haywood, Neighborhood Networks, the Pennsylvania Policy Center and Action Together NEPA. Our calls will be focused in targeted Congressional districts where constituent pressure will be most impactful. We’ll be asking constituents to contact their own representatives to oppose cuts to Medicaid. 

You don’t have to be an expert on policy or phone banking. Marc Stier, Executive Director of the PA Policy Center, and Senator Haywood will kick off the phone bank with an update on the budget process and training. 

We’ll provide pizza and phone banking support. You bring your laptop, phone, earbuds, and concern for your fellow Pennsylvanians. Please join us: SIGN UP HERE.

Thanks,

Coleman