Good Property Tax Plan

As we work to increase the minimum wage for Pennsylvania workers we must also work to change the commonwealth’s property tax climate, and I am pleased to share that a great new idea came to light this week from my Senate Democratic Caucus.

Called the PA Home Rebate Plan, the proposal would eliminate property taxes for 2 million homeowners throughout the state and reduce the annual bill by $1,990 for everyone else.

The rebate plan also offers promise for renters, and many minimum wage earners do rent.

If approved by the General Assembly, the PA Home Rebate Plan would deliver a $500 give back to renters who earn less than $50,000.

The idea also holds merit for Philadelphians who are being killed by wage, sales, use, cigarette and property taxes. Read more here.

10 Days for $10.10

Our positive drum beat for a $10.10 minimum wage continued this week on the floor of the PA Senate where fellow Democrats took part in our “10 Days for $10.10” campaign.

Sens. Sean Wiley, Rob Teplitz, Andy Dinniman and newly-elected John Sabatina made salient points this week, and you can watch/listen to their remarks by clicking on the links in their names.

Speaking of minimum wage, did you read that Ikea will be upping its base hourly rate, as will Rhode Island? Rhode Island has not increased its minimum wage four times over the past four years.

PA Workers Getting Shelled

The Sheller Center at Temple released an important new report on Wage Theft in PA this week, called “Shortchanged.”

This is the first comprehensive study that defines the scope of the wage-theft problem and its results are startling:  every week, PA workers lose between $19 million and $32 million to unscrupulous business owners. The report contains data by region, so you'll want to check it out, HERE.

Two bills in my minimum wage package, SB 195 and SB 198, would make sure Pennsylvania does much better in making sure employers don’t steal workers’ wages.

Anti-Union Activity in D.C.

Need to alert you to the fact that Republicans are once again up to their budget-busting ways in Washington.

According to the International Business Times, a GOP proposal would cut the budget of the National Labor Relations Board by 27 percent.

“The bill underlines Republicans’ deep hostility toward an agency the party and its allies increasingly lambaste as biased toward the interests of Big Labor. It also offers a window into what about the NLRB’s agenda today rankles them most: rules to speed up union elections or attempts to claim agency jurisdiction over tribal land, among others,” IBT reported.