Pennsylvania’s budget crisis is political, not fiscal
The budget fight isn’t over; there are solutions on the table. But we’re done accepting a system where the richest man in the state gets a free ride while the rest of us are told to tighten our belts.
Pennsylvania’s state budget is long overdue, and Philly residents and schools are bracing for the cuts. We’ve learned that when it comes time to balance the budget, it’s always the people who have the least who are forced to sacrifice the most.
Residents have asked for the basics: buses that show up on time, schools that are safe for our children, housing people can afford, and healthcare close to home. State lawmakers pushing austerity want us to believe there’s just not enough money.
But the state budget crisis is political, not fiscal.
Some of our state legislators are claiming the state cannot afford to fund essential services like transit, while choosing to starve our state of essential revenue by protecting tax loopholes for billionaires.
Like Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass, whose tax rate is lower than that of most Americans, and who pays less than his fair share in taxes. Yass has donated millions to politicians over the years — one in three Pennsylvania legislators have received campaign contributions from him, including 24 out of 28 Senate Republicans (an astonishing 85% of their caucus).
In Pennsylvania, the poorer you are, the higher your tax rate. The average family pays over 12% of their income in state and local taxes. The richest 1% pay just 6.2%.
It’s one of the most unfair tax systems in the country.
But the good news is the budget gap is closable. Lawmakers can pass legislation right now that would raise $14 billion by making billionaires like Yass pay what they owe.
Last month, I was on the ground in Harrisburg with more than 150 members of the All Eyes On Yass campaign demanding exactly that. We flooded the Capitol rotunda with people calling on lawmakers to stop balancing the budget on the backs of poor and working people.
Smart legislators were listening.
Significant portions of the All Eyes On Yass campaign’s Pathway to Prosperity revenue plan are set to move forward right now. State Reps. Elizabeth Fiedler, Aerion Abney, and John Inglis recently introduced HB 1678 to tax Big Tech companies — including TikTok, which made Yass $17 billion richer this year — on the revenue they earn from digital ads, which could raise up to half a billion dollars a year.
And a few days before that was introduced, the House passed HB 1610 to close the Delaware loophole and require corporations to report all income nationwide — a big step toward ending the way corporations avoid paying taxes on their earnings.
If just these bills become part of this year’s state budget, they will bring in more than $2 billion in new revenue next year.
The budget fight isn’t over — there are solutions on the table. But we’re done accepting a system where the richest man in the state gets a free ride while the rest of us are told to tighten our belts.
For politicians, there’s no more hiding behind the veil of austerity. The only question that remains is whether lawmakers have the backbone to stop protecting the wealthiest Pennsylvanians and start working for the rest of us.
The people of Pennsylvania deserve to know whose side their representatives are on — and what they do next will tell us.
Paulette Whitfield is a resident of North Philadelphia and board vice chair of One Pennsylvania.