Harrisburg – December 10, 2013 – In advance of the governor’s planned mid-year budget briefing, state Senate Democrats today announced details of a plan to generate more than $1 billion in budget savings and revenues they say can be used to make key investments, avoid deep cuts or tax increases in dealing with a projected $839 million budget deficit.
“Senate Democrats have identified ample revenues to not only deal with the significant budget deficit that has developed under Gov. Tom Corbett’s watch, but we’ve also found resources to fund key job creation initiatives, education investments and safety net repairs that are needed as a result of short-sighted administration policies,” Sen. Jay Costa (D-Allegheny), the Senate Democratic leader said.
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In a November budget status report, the Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) reported that Pennsylvania was facing a structural deficit of $839 million.
At today’s news conference in the state Capitol, Costa detailed the Senate Democratic $1.091 billion savings and revenue plan. The plan includes the following features and fiscal benefits:
- Expanded Medicaid — $400 million;
- Escheat Reform — $150 million;
- Wine and Spirits Modernization — $125 million;
- Charter School Reform — $85.5 million;
- Capital Stock and Franchise tax phase-out freeze — $75 million;
- Multi-state claims processing for SSP/SSI – $75 million;
- Enhanced tax collection — $55 million;
- Medicaid Managed Care — $50 million;
- Tobacco products tax — $36 million;
- Vendor discount elimination — $40 million.
Senate Democratic Whip Sen. Anthony H. Williams (D-Philadelphia) said Pennsylvanians should not accept the recurring rhetoric from the Corbett administration that they have to cut and slash each and every year due to a revenue shortfall.
“Every year we have heard the same tune from the governor that his hands are tied because revenues are soft and the job market is flat,” Williams said. “For the last three years, Senate Democrats have put forth plans outlining how we can generate budget savings and additional revenues to make key investments without severe cuts.
“The song the governor keeps singing about his budget woes is stale and taxpayers are tired of it. The fact is we need a new more aggressive approach,” he said.
Senate Democratic Appropriations Chair Sen. Vincent J. Hughes (D-Philadelphia) said the reason Pennsylvania keeps having budget deficits and scrambling for money each year is the Corbett administration does not have a comprehensive and coherent job creation strategy.
“Under the governor’s leadership, we’ve gone from eighth in job creation to near last among all states, dead last among all our neighboring states and last among all big states,” Hughes said. “We have a Corbett jobs deficit of 166,000 on top of a Corbett budget deficit of $839 million.
“The reason we can’t move forward is that the Corbett corporate tax cuts of over $1 billion, combined with a lack of attention to the needs of everyday Pennsylvanians in job creation, education and safety net protections, weigh us down.”
Senate Democrats also continued to lament the $1 billion in cuts in education funding authored by the Corbett administrations several years ago. The Democrats said this policy has been counterproductive and costly to the average taxpayers because the state simply shifted the burden.
“We can devise a better approach to budgeting and revenue generation that will not result in our local taxpayers paying more in property taxes and children losing opportunities in school,” Costa said. “The Senate Democratic plan provides a path that is responsible and deals with the Corbett budget deficit.”
In addition to the budget and savings plan, Senate Democrats said they would soon announce their budget priorities for the upcoming fiscal year.
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Harrisburg – November 19, 2013 – At a Capitol news conference today, Senate Democrats outlined a comprehensive package of legislation designed to help veterans and their families deal with issues as they return to civilian life from military service.
According to Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Jay Costa (D-Allegheny), the Saluting Pa. Veterans plan contains measures that promote veterans’ education, housing and jobs in addition to initiatives that provide monetary assistance, counseling services and relief for families.
“Saluting Pa. Veterans is a plan that addresses many of the issues that confront those who served in the military and their families,” Costa said. “The package was designed to smooth the transition for veterans from military service to life at home.”
Senate Democratic Appropriations Chair Vincent J. Hughes (D-Philadelphia) said the various initiatives will direct aid toward veterans and their families, plus it is a fiscally responsible plan at a reasonable cost that it is simply the right thing to do.
“Our veterans and their families have made sacrifices and have given so much in defense of our country it is time that lawmakers step up and help them deal with issues here at home,” Hughes said.
The ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs and Military Preparedness Committee, Sen. Tim Solobay (D-Washington), was one of the leaders that helped bring the significant package together.
“We have all seen and heard stories about the struggles of veterans,” Solobay said. “The legislation in this plan is targeted at specific problems and it will go a long way toward helping veterans and their families.”
As of September 30, there are more than 22 million veterans in the U.S. with more than 995,000 veterans currently living in Pennsylvania. The Senate Democratic plan features initiatives including:
- $40 million in bonds to provide payments to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars;
- A pilot peer-to-peer counseling program for veterans to address post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, and rising rates of suicide;
- $20 million for veterans’ housing projects, and veteran preference in public housing;
- Housing assistance grants to homeless or imminently homeless veterans and help with down payments or closing-costs for veterans buying homes;
- Increased funding for Veterans’ Emergency Assistance Program, along with extended deadlines, and expanded maximum Military Family Relief Assistance;
- Doubling educational assistance to help offset fees and costs and increasing the years the assistance is provided;
- A training program under the Department of Health to help emergency service providers recognize and treat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or brain injury as well as creation of the Veterans Traumatic Brain Injury, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Military Sexual Trauma Public Service Announcement Fund;
- Priority for subsidized child care to veterans and families of active duty military;
- Expanded eligibility for veterans in the disabled veterans tax exemption statute (i.e., exempting 50% of Social Security and Railroad Retirement Benefits from the calculation)
- A task force to study health-care issues unique to women veterans, including accessibility and quality of care;
- Call on the U.S. Congress to increase funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Senate Democrats had previously introduced several legislative items within the context of their PA Works plan. These have been incorporated in the Saluting Pa. Veterans plan. These initiatives include:
- Development of a training program to help veterans start small businesses; creation of a $5 million veteran-owned businesses loan guarantee; new tax credits for hiring unemployed veterans; new standards to incorporate education and training in the military into education credits to help expedite the obtaining of a degree; increased veterans’ preference points for civil service examinations, from 10 to 15.
Senate Democrats said that they hoped their Republican colleagues would embrace their plan and push many of the initiatives forward.
“Helping veterans and their families has never been a partisan issue for Democrats or Republicans,” Costa said. “Over the years, we’ve worked together to identify and solve problems and we are hopeful that our Republican colleagues will join us in pushing many of the elements in the plan.”
Senate Democrats have estimated that the total cost of the plan to be $61.1 million.
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Democratic Leaders Outline Specific Revenue Initiatives
Harrisburg – November 15, 2013 – On the heels of the Independent Fiscal Office’s (IFO) release of its budget outlook report suggesting that Pennsylvania is facing a structural deficit of $839 million next year, state Senate Democrats said today the blame for continued economic uncertainty and gaping budget deficits lies at the feet of Gov. Tom Corbett and his administration.
“For several years, the one thing that the governor has pointed to as an ‘accomplishment’ is his stewardship of the budget,” Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa (D-Allegheny) said. “Given this new independent report and the data suggesting continued daunting budget deficits on the horizon that claim looks highly suspect and disingenuous.
“It’s not enough that the budget gets passed on time; it has to include bold initiatives and an investment strategy that moves Pennsylvania forward and that has not been the case with the Corbett budgets.”
Senate Democratic Appropriations Chair Sen. Vincent J. Hughes (D-Philadelphia) said that Corbett’s lack of leadership on economic development and business investment has resulted in not only severe budget deficits but a job deficit as well.
“If jobs were created in Pennsylvania at the same rate as rest of the nation, there would be at least 150,000 more Pennsylvanians working right now,” Hughes said. “These new employees would have resulted in the addition of several hundred million dollars annually in revenues that could be used to balance the budget.
“Plus, by simply moving forward with Medicaid expansion, the governor could have gained a huge infusion of new federal money at the exact time when we need it most.”
The Senate Democratic Leaders said that the IFO’s conclusion that the last several Corbett budgets were balanced with surplus funds carried over from the Rendell administration is significant. The IFO indicated that those surplus funds will be nearly exhausted by the end of this year.
“Governor Corbett has failed to lead Pennsylvania down the path toward economic recovery,” Costa said. “The governor’s track record is disappointing — long on politics, quick at finger pointing, but short on solutions.”
Hughes said that the governor has lacked an investment strategy that would reverse the jobs drain and that Pennsylvania shouldn’t be positioned at the tail end of all states in new job generation. Pennsylvania has gone from the top ten to the bottom ten in job creation during Corbett’s tenure.
“Job creation is not the only area that has suffered,” Hughes said. “We’ve seen devastating cuts to many critical areas because of Governor Corbett’s irresponsible fiscal policies, especially nearly $1 billion cut from public education. That is not a path we can go down again in the next budget.”
The leaders recited a litany of issues that continue to plague Corbett including uninspiring increases in employment, budget shortfalls, struggling local schools, spikes in property taxes, gaps in health care and the governor’s penchant for pushing tax cuts for large corporations that Pennsylvania taxpayers cannot afford.
Costa said that his caucus has outlined better, common sense and forward-looking revenue approaches that would change the state’s fiscal direction. He said that Senate Democrats have identified more than $1 billion in new revenues that are available to stanch the flow of fiscal red ink.
He outlined several ideas put forth by Senate Democrats to address Pennsylvania’s fiscal challenges:
- Expanding Medicaid — $400 million;
- Escheat Reform — $150 million;
- Wine and Spirits Modernization — $125 million;
- Charter School Reform — $95.5 million;
- Freeze Capital Stock and Franchise tax phase out — $75 million;
- Multi-state claims processing for SSP/SSI – $75 million;
- Enhanced tax collection — $55 million;
- Medicaid Managed Care — $50 million;
- Tobacco products tax — $36 million.
“Yesterday’s IFO projection validates what Senate Democrats have been saying for months,” Costa said. “What was once a situation that needed to be addressed has turned into a crisis that we’re battling from all angles.”
Costa said that Senate Democrats have repeatedly made detailed suggestions about how the deficit issue could be addressed during a number of budget priority news conferences and briefings, but the Corbett administration has ignored their ideas.
“Over the course of the last four years, the landscape in Pennsylvania has changed dramatically,” Hughes said. “What we see is a governor who pushes ideological concepts that have no support beyond his inner circle and have failed to yield results.”
The IFO released Pennsylvania’s Economic & Budget Outlook: Fiscal Years 2013-14 to 2018-19 yesterday.
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Potential funding stream would freeze property taxes for seniors
Harrisburg – October 24, 2013 – State Senate Democrats said today they were pleased that Gov. Tom Corbett has now signaled his approval of their plan to direct revenues generated from small games of chance in taverns to the Lottery Fund. The Democratic plan would bolster lottery programs and create a potential funding source for a property tax freeze benefitting seniors.
“Senate Democrats are unified in the desire to use the revenues generated from small games of chance in taverns to help seniors,” Sen. Jay Costa (D-Allegheny), the Senate Democratic leader, said. “Our members believe strongly that these new revenues should be targeted to aid seniors instead of being disbursed into the General Fund.
“We certainly hope that the final version of the small games legislation includes our idea to target the revenue for the Lottery Fund.”
Costa, Democratic Appropriations Committee Chair Vincent J. Hughes (D-Philadelphia) and Sen. John Blake (D-Lackawanna), who sponsored the plan as an amendment to House Bill 1098, said today that the new revenues from the Senate Democratic plan would provide flexibility and create opportunities.
On Wednesday, the Corbett administration circulated an email to lawmakers indicating that they were supportive of putting the money from the tavern small games into the Lottery Fund.
The Senate Democratic plan — detailed in the Blake amendment — was voted down during a Senate Appropriations Committee meeting on Tuesday. The legislation was eventually reported from committee and passed in the Senate, 39-11. It is now in the House of Representatives.
The new tax on small games of chance in taverns is expected to generate $38 million this year and $156 million in 2014-‘15, according to Senate fiscal notes.
“Senate Democrats have tried to explain why this was so important and how it could be used to help fund critical senior programs,” Hughes said. “We are hopeful that with the governor’s endorsement of our plan, House members will adopt the approach and support it when they return to session in November.”
Blake said helping fund senior programs is important and the new revenue may be the funding conduit that allows the General Assembly to develop a property tax freeze for seniors.
“The new funds would give the legislature flexibility and resources that can be set aside to help seniors address high property taxes,” Blake said. “These new revenues must be employed effectively and a specific use must be identified.
“My amendment made it clear that the revenues should be earmarked for the Lottery Fund, from which we already provide property tax relief and from which we already fund essential programs for our seniors.”
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Harrisburg – October 23, 2013 – More than $5 million in low-interest loans for sewer projects in the City of Pittsburgh were approved by the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST) today, according to state Sen. Jay Costa (D-Allegheny.)
“The new funds for these important projects make environmental and economic sense,” Costa said. “There is a critical need to separate storm water drainage from sanitary sewers.
“The funds that will aid the redevelopment of the former Civic Arena site have the potential to leverage more than $10 million in private development and create in excess of 100 jobs.”
The first loan of $2.72 million will pay for the installation of 24 storm inlets and catch basins in addition to 3,500 feet of new storm sewers in various sections of Pittsburgh. The project will help address the needs of 95,000 customers in a low-and-middle-income area.
A second loan of $2.3 million will help fund the construction of 1,800 feet of concrete storm sewer pipe to separate storm and sanitary sewers at the site of the former Civic Arena.
Costa, who serves as Senate Democratic leader, said that combined sewers have been an issue in the region for years and that both projects are in compliance with a Department of Environmental Protection Consent Order and Agreement.
The lawmaker said there are a number of important benefits of the projects. Not only will storm water be segregated and prevented from overflowing into sanitary sewers thereby reducing stress on sewage treatment facilities, but it will also help prevent flow of untreated sewage into the Monongahela River.
“For many years we have been seeking ways to infuse new dollars to address environmental concerns related to combined sewers and also pave the way for new development,” Costa said. “I am pleased that PENNVEST has approved these projects and that we can begin working on solving the problem.”
Costa said that they both loans have an interest rate of one percent.
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