For Immediate Release

Contact:
Christopher Lilienthal, Communications Director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center
717-255-7156 (office) | 717-829-4823 (cell) | Email: lilienthal@pennbpc.org

Coalition Calls on Lawmakers to Preserve Essential Services
 

Advocates urge Legislature to raise new revenues to avert
the worst of the budget cuts being considered.

HARRISBURG, PA (July 13, 2009) – Dozens of groups will descend on the state Capitol this week to tell lawmakers the time has come to resolve the state budget by raising additional revenues and tapping budget reserves – in addition to making cuts to discretionary programs.

The effort, spearheaded by Better Choices for Pennsylvania, a coalition of groups committed to preserving essential public services with a balanced approach to bridging the budget shortfall, got under way today in the Capitol Rotunda.

“Lawmakers must take the courageous step of raising additional revenues,” said Sharon Easterling, Executive Director of the Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children. “We have a message for those worried lawmakers: the people of Pennsylvania won’t turn their backs on you, if you don’t turn your backs on us. Please have the political courage to do the right thing for our children and our future.”

Some lawmakers oppose new revenue or using reserves like the Rainy Day Fund to balance the budget. House leaders plan to present a budget blueprint this week that would cut more than $3 billion from Governor Ed Rendell’s $28.8 billion budget proposal, requiring 6,000 state employee layoffs, hospital closures, major cuts to education funding, and steep property tax hikes.

The impact would be felt by every Pennsylvanian, but especially children, seniors, the disabled, out-of-work Pennsylvanians and others struggling to keep their homes and health care during this recession.

For many young children, the cuts being considered could deny them access to pre-kindergarten and other early childhood programs.

“Our lawmakers need to think about the citizens of tomorrow – our children,” said Elsa Stuckman Bennett, a preschool teacher with Woodland Academy in Philadelphia, who was one of the speakers at today’s Capitol event. “Please don’t balance this budget on their backs.”

“All students in the Commonwealth deserve to have access to high quality schools,” said the Rev. Amy E. Reumann, Director of the Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Pennsylvania, who also spoke at the Capitol. “Many in the faith community are willing to share the increased cost for that to happen because it makes our whole society a better place to live and raise a family.”

Sharon Ward, Director of the nonpartisan Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, said Pennsylvania is facing its worst economy in decades, and that the state must take responsibility for resolving a multi-billion dollar shortfall. “At a time like this, we cannot afford to roll back services and pass those costs on to local property taxpayers,” she said.

Both tax increases and state spending cuts have an impact on the economy, but budget cuts do more harm than raising taxes during a severe recession, Ward noted. Economists have found that every dollar in state budget cuts reduces a full dollar of economic activity, while tax increases do not hit the economy dollar-for-dollar like budget cuts do. That is because individuals, especially higher-income earners, save a portion of their income, so tax increases remove less than a full dollar of economic activity

“We know that this is a tough vote for any lawmaker to cast, but the alternatives are far worse: higher unemployment, seniors losing in-home nursing care, libraries and state parks closing, and children losing health care coverage,” Ward said.

The coalition will hold another rally Tuesday at 1 p.m. in the Capitol’s East Wing Rotunda.

Better Choices for Pennsylvania is a coalition of groups committed to taking a balanced approach to resolving the state budget shortfall – one that raises revenue and uses budget reserves in addition to making cuts to discretionary programs. The coalition’s goal is to stop counterproductive budget cuts, preserve essential services that families rely on and protect our future economic growth.

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