State Budget and Taxes

Morning Must Reads: Perfectly Legal Forms of Wage Theft and Build Baby Build!

When you tip your server at a restaurant, you probably assume that all of that money goes to the server. If you use a credit card to pay, you would be wrong. 

It is very common for restaurant owners to use a portion of those tips to pay credit card processing fees.

The Philadelphia Daily News reports this morning that Philadelphia City Council has passed a law that stops restaurant owners from stealing from servers in this way. 

Another Corporate Loophole – This Time for Jets

Posted by Christopher Lilienthal on December 19, 2011 6:13 pm
Posted in:

If you buy a car, a truck, or any other vehicle in Pennsylvania, you pay sales tax. But if you are one of the wealthy few in the market for a Learjet or a Gulfstream aircraft, you will be able to purchase it tax free under a bill introduced in the state House of Representatives.

House Bill 1100 would exempt the sale of private and corporate aircraft from the state sales and use tax. At a time when average Pennsylvanians are bearing the brunt of cuts in education and other vital services, the bill effectively creates a $10 million to $14 million annual taxpayer subsidy for individuals who buy airplanes for recreational purposes and for corporations that upgrade jets for executives.

Third and State This Week: No Marcellus Shale Fee in 2011, Extended Unemployment at Risk and PA gets a D

This week, we blogged about a new report on economic development subsidies in Pennsylvania, the economic harm that ending extended unemployment insurance for 281,000 jobless Pennsylvanians will have, and the latest on the debate over enacting a Marcellus Shale drilling fee.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

  • On economic development, Chris Lilienthal shared the results of a national study by Good Jobs First that ranked the 50 states' economic development subsidy programs based on job creation requirements and wage standards for workers at subsidized companies. Pennsylvania came in 40th.  
  • On the Marcellus Shale, Michael Wood blogged about 2011 ending as the last two years have — without a Marcellus Shale drilling tax or fee for Pennsylvania.
  • On unemployment, Sean Brandon laid out the facts supporting the extension of emergency federal unemployment insurance. With the average duration of joblessness among Americans at an all-time high, now is not the time for Congress to turn its backs on the unemployed. 
  • In the Morning Must Reads, Mark Price highlighted news stories discussing the safety issues of Marcellus drilling and the foreclosure crisis in the midstate. 

More blog posts next week. Keep us bookmarked and join the conversation!

PA Economic Development Programs Rank 40th on Job Creation, Job Quality Standards

Posted by Christopher Lilienthal on December 15, 2011 10:56 am
Posted in:

A new national study sizing up hundreds of state-level tax credit, cash grant and other economic development subsidies has some bad news for Pennsylvania.

The commonwealth scored a D and ranked 40th place among the states in the Good Jobs First report, Money for Something: Job Creation and Job Quality Standards in State Economic Development Subsidy Programs. Some of the five Pennsylvania programs reviewed by researchers lack job creation requirements and wage standards for workers at subsidized companies. None of the programs required companies receiving state tax dollars to provide health benefits to workers in jobs or facilities funded by the subsidy.

Third and State This Week: Corporate Tax Avoidance, Insurance Rate Review and Prevailing Wage

This week, we blogged about a new report on state tax avoidance by some of the largest U.S. corporations, how to really save money on public construction projects, and legislation that undermines the state’s ability to review most health insurance rate hikes.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

More blog posts next week. Keep us bookmarked and join the conversation!

Corporate Tax Avoidance Adds to State Woes

Posted by Christopher Lilienthal on December 8, 2011 6:18 pm
Posted in:

Far too many of the largest corporations have come up with ways to avoid paying taxes on billions of dollars in profits each year. A new report on state corporate tax-dodging finds that 265 of the nation's largest corporations paid state corporate income taxes on only about a half of $1.33 trillion in profits between 2008 and 2010. That amounts to nearly $43 billion in state income tax avoidance over the three years!

Third and State This Week: The Costs of Child Poverty, Too-Good-to-Be-True Liquor Privatization and Temp Workers

This week, we blogged about the economic costs of child poverty, a privatization study that is too good to be true, what the trends in temporary worker services suggest for Pennsylvania's economy, and much more.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

  • On poverty, Chris Lilienthal blogged about an analysis estimating that child poverty costs the United States' economy $500 billion every year in foregone earnings, healthcare expenses, and crime involvement. 
  • On privatization, Stephen Herzenberg highlighted testimony presented by researchers with the Keystone Research Center this week making the point that privatization of Pennsylvania's wine and spirits stores would not benefit state revenues but could increase alcohol-related social problems. 
  • On jobs and unemployment, Sean Brandon explained what the employment trends of temporary workers could mean for Pennsylvania as an indicator of broader job market trends. 
  • And in the Morning Must Reads this week, Mark Price wrote about news report on $7.7 trillion in loans and guarantees the Federal Reserve provided to troubled banks, the growing number of elementary school students who qualify for subsidized school lunches, and the real root of high unemployment among today's youth. 
More blog posts next week. Keep us bookmarked and join the conversation!

Liquor Privatization Findings Too Good to Be True

Posted by Stephen Herzenberg on December 2, 2011 2:36 pm
Posted in:

The privatization of Pennsylvania's wine and spirits shops will not do much for state revenues but will usher in alcohol-related social problems.

Those were the key takeaways offered by researchers working with the Keystone Research Center at hearings of the Pennsylvania House Liquor Control Committee this week in Philadelphia.

University of Michigan researcher Roland Zullo, who has worked with Keystone on privatization issues, presented the results of his analysis of a pro-privatization study commissioned by Governor Tom Corbett's Budget Office. As Zullo's written testimony shows, the study, performed by Public Finance Management (PFM), was very open about its assignment: show how privatization will maintain annual wine and spirits revenue for the state, while maximizing upfront fees from privatizing.

As Roland shows, this is an impossible assignment.

Morning Must Reads: Economic Austerity and School Lunch

More evidence of the lingering effects of economic austerity: Allegheny County looks headed for a property tax increase.

A tax hike appears likely for Allegheny County property owners next year after a county council committee recommended raising the real estate millage rate...

If the tax-rate increase to 5.69 mills is approved by a two-thirds majority of council, the owners of a property assessed at $100,000 will see their county tax bill rise $100, from $469 this year to $569 next year.

It would be the first millage increase under the 12-year-old executive-council form of government.

The New York Times this morning reports that the number of students participating in the subsidized school lunch program has risen sharply. The story is based on new data. Graphed below is older data for Pennsylvania and the U.S.

Steve Hebert, The New York Times — Line Grows Long for Free Meals at U.S. Schools:

Since 2007, the proportion of fourth graders eligible for free or reduced-price lunches through the federal government’s school meals program has increased nationwide to 52 percent, from 46 percent.

Below is a map from The New York Times story showing in which states more than half of all students are so poor they are eligible for a subsidized lunch (the darker red states). Remember this map next time a member of the business lobby tells you that economic policy in Pennsylvania should be more like economic policy in Southern states. The business lobby believes in low wages and free lunches.

Third and State This Week: A $56 million Marcellus Oops, Fiscal Austerity and Why It's Good to Be King

We hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday and are ready to take a break from the shopping mall to see what you missed this week at Third and State.

We blogged about the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue's Britney Spears moment, the challenges of reading all the way to the end, and why it's good to be king (or at least a well-paid CEO).

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

  • On the Marcellus Shale, Michael Wood blogged about a $56 million "oops" by the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue in estimates it made earlier this year of Marcellus Shale industry tax contributions in 2010.
  • On jobs and the economy, Mark Price explained why it's a good idea to read to the end before criticizing the work of others. He also highlighted in the Morning Must Reads The Philadelphia Inquirer's series "America: What Went Wrong" and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's series on what happened to the middle class.
  • In other Morning Must Reads, Mark Price shared news stories on the fallout of fiscal austerity across the Commonwealth and wrote about the big bucks the new CEO of Pittsburgh-based American Eagle Outfitters will be making. As King Louis XVI of France was fond of saying, it's good to be king.
More blog posts next week. Keep us bookmarked and join the conversation!
Syndicate content