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Wednesday April 6, 2011
It’s critical to reach out to your state legislators about the budget today!
Last Friday the House and Senate wrapped up three weeks of hearings on Governor Corbett’s proposed budget.
Three key themes emerged from the hearings:
- The Governor’s proposal tries to balance the budget at the expense of children and youth. While it would continue to fund most early childhood education, the budget makes deep cuts to K-12 and higher education; prevention; child welfare and income supports for struggling families. (For details on proposed cuts to children click here).
- Some legislators don’t want to stop there. They’re disappointed that Governor didn’t propose deeper cuts to the Department of Public Welfare (DPW), which funds health care, child care and other services that kids need to grow up.
- The only way to ensure that Pennsylvania supports all the services that are critically important to children is by increasing the ‘spend number’ in the budget.
This is possible if Pennsylvania’s largest corporations pay their fair share through a tax on natural gas from the Marcellus Shale and closing other corporate tax loopholes.
- Did you know more than 70 percent of Pennsylvania’s largest corporations don’t pay any income tax?
- That taxing natural gas could generate almost all of the proposed cuts to the State System of Higher Education?
- Or that Pennsylvania is the only state that doesn’t tax smokeless tobacco, a move that’s not only harmful to the state’s bottom line but also to our children’s health? (Click here for more information about these loopholes.)
Many legislators, Democrats and Republicans alike, are concerned about the impact of proposed cuts on their constituents. Yet they are equally concerned about voter backlash against a tax increase.
Your email to them now will help tip the balance in favor of a budget that supports the whole child – not one that supports some programs for children at the expense of others. ACT NOW by clicking here.
House leaders are beginning work today on a budget they hope to vote on just two weeks from now. Then it will go to the Senate for consideration.
While they’re fast at work, please join me in urging the House and Senate to call for a budget that supports the whole child by clicking here.
Thank you for all you do on behalf of the region’s kids!
Sincerely,
Shelly Yanoff, Executive Director
PS: Feel free to forward this email or to link to it on Facebook. If you would like additional resources on the state budget, click here to visit our website.
About this E-Alert
In an effort to keep our friends and colleagues up-to-date on what’s going on with children and families in our region, PCCY will, from time to time, issue an E-Alert on an issue that we need YOU to take action on!
We will: provide you with the information on the issues
We need YOU to: take the action step(s) that are listed
We hope that you will join us in helping to protect the lives and life chances of children and families in our region by doing something TODAY to help protect their tomorrows. However, if you would like to be removed from the e-mail list and receive no further updates, please send an e-mail to info@pccy.org.
* END ALERT *
President: Carolyn Adams
Executive Director: Shelly D. Yanoff
Communications Director: Sid Holmes
Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY)
1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Sixth Floor
Philadelphia, Pa 19103
Phone: 215-563-5848
Fax: 215-563-9442
Website: www.pccy.org
E-mail: info@pccy.org
Webmaster: Steven Fynes
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