To: The Pennsylvania State House, The Pennsylvania State Senate, and Governor Tom Wolf
Pennsylvania’s future on the chopping block
I urge you to support a fair state budget that doesn't unnecessarily hurt working families. Instead of huge cuts to education and services working and middle class Pennsylvania families rely on, you should close corporate tax loopholes and use the $540 million taxpayer surplus to restore cuts. I also urge you to enact a meaningful fee on Marcellus Shale drillers—and to invest a portion of those revenues in statewide priorities including funding for schools, health care, and environmental regulations.
Why is this important?
Urgent: a budget already approved by the Pennsylvania House inflicts massive pain on working families and the poor—and we only have days to stop it from becoming law.
The current budget cuts almost $1 billion from Pennsylvania public schools and slashes $471 million in funding for health care, services for people with disabilities and vulnerable children. It even stashes away $540 million in a “rainy day” fund, while unemployment remains at record levels. But it fails to close corporate loopholes or enact a Marcellus Shale drilling tax—which could help avoid cuts to services for seniors, kids, and other vulnerable citizens, while also helping to mitigate the environmental impact of drilling. (Pennsylvania is one of the only states that does not tax drilling.)
We still have a chance to influence the final budget—because negotiations with the governor and Pennsylvania Senate are ongoing. But there isn’t much time. A vote could happen as early as this week.