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SWEB & Staff Update 9-25-09

SWEB AND STAFF UPDATE
September 25, 2009
Submitted by SEIU 668 President Kathy Jellison

1.       The State Budget – we do not yet have a budget to analyze to see what the possible impact may be to public services. Lawmakers are working on a $27.95 billion state budget that is nearly 3 months overdue. The “handshake” budget deal was announced last Friday by Governor Rendell and the leaders of 3 legislative caucuses. According to the Pa. Budget and Policy Center the plan will provide additional revenue to produce a balanced budget this year and next. The plan cuts spending from $28.1 billion in 2008-09 to $27.95 billion in 2009-10. It relies heavily on reserves and fund transfers to balance the budget and also includes $1.2 billion in “recurring revenue,” although some of those reserve sources are temporary, like a 3-year delay in the phase-out of the Capitol Stock and Franchise Tax. The Governor also said the plan met his requirements on public investments in education, health care and economic development. It includes a $300 million increase in basic education funding.

·         One piece of the revenue plan would ends a sales tax exemption on admission costs to live theatre, dance, concerts and performing arts as well as museums, historical sites, zoos and parks. This is projected to raise $100 million in 2009-10. The tax was not extended to movie, sporting events, live arts or cultural venues.

·         The budget agreement calls for adding cigarette-sized cigars ($30 million) to the state cigarette tax but does not extend it to cigars and smokeless tobacco.  $171 million from increasing the tax on a pack of cigarettes by $.25. Pa. is the only state that does not tax cigars, chewing tobacco and other tobacco products.

·         $300 million from business tax changes. They include temporarily freezing the Capitol Stock and Franchise Tax at the 2008 rate for the next 3 years.

·         $200 million from the introduction of table games in casinos.

·         $20 million in 2009-10 and $45 million in 2010-11 from taxing small games of chance.

·         $65 million in leases from drilling on state park lands in the Marcellus Shale.

·         $40 million in cuts to tax credits.

·         The plan will use all of the $755 million in the Rainy Day Fund and $708 million in the Health Care Provider Retention Account.

·         The plan will make one-time changes in tax payments that generate $211 million in 2009-10 and $159 million in 2010-11.

·         It will transfer $208 million from the Oil and Gas Lease Fund and $150 million from the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Fund.

·         Enact a tax amnesty program projected to raise from $133 million to $190 million in 2009-10.

·         Transfer $45 million from existing traffic fines to the General Fund.

Once all the details are available, we will provide a more detailed report. State Senate President Joe Scarnati said he doesn’t expect the Legislature to vote on the state budget until after October 2. Stephen Crawford, Governor Rendell’s chief of staff, said a meeting with legislative leaders could occur today to settle some questions and concerns that arose last week.

2.       The Human Services Campaign – the Human Services Campaign is, and will continue to be, effective in activating membership participation in the budget process, as well as achieving the short-term goal of ending “payless paydays” for state workers and making the public aware of the importance of our jobs as state, county and municipal workers. With the help and guidance of Strategic Communications, we now need to prepare for the impact of this budget on public services for this budget year and the next. The legislature will begin to work on the next budget as soon as this one is resolved. We will have challenges similar, and in many cases greater, than we face now. In the coming year, there will be elections for Governor, all of the State House and half of the State Senate. Another issue will be the so-called “pension reform”, related to the Philadelphia bail out actions. There will be a significant push to change most state, county and municipal pension funds from the defined benefit plan to the riskier defined contribution plan that will place individual union members’ pensions at risk in the stock market.  Add to that state contract negotiations and you can see the need to gear up and move forward with the Human Services Campaign. Once we have a budget to review, the Leadership Team will meet to discuss plans to move forward. Our main goals are still there:

·         To build union solidarity and member engagement

·         To increase the union’s political power

·         To improve the public’s perception of the union

·         To fully fund public services

3.       PEBTF – Senate Bill 189 was recently signed into law by Governor Rendell. This law requires insurance companies in Pa. to offer extended medical coverage to eligible dependent children under age 30. Although the PEBTF is not subject to the new law, the PEBTF passed a resolution to amend the PEBTF plan to provide coverage to eligible dependent children up to age 30 based on existing practice of voluntary compliance with state mandates. The effective date is January 1, 2010. The eligible dependent child must be under age 30, unmarried and with no dependents of their own, reside in Pa (unless attending school outside of Pa) and do not have to live with their parents. More information will follow.

4.       National Healthcare – can you believe that in 8 states and the District of Columbia, domestic violence is considered a “pre-existing condition” for healthcare? Even if the spouse left an abusive relationship and applies for healthcare, he/she can be denied in these states. With 20 to 35% of emergency room visits made by women as a result of domestic violence, this is appalling! One in every 4 women and 1 in every 9 men will experience domestic violence in his/her lifetime. One in 6 women and 1 in 33 men has experienced an attempted or completed rape. Approximately 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the US. Thirty percent of the 60% of perpetrators also abuse children in the home. Intimate partner violence results in more than 18.5 million mental health care visits each year. The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year, $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health services. (Statistics as per Keystone Progress). Teddy Roosevelt first proposed health care for all in the early 1900s. FDR fought for it in the 1930s. LBJ won Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s but wasn’t able to provide coverage for everyone. Bill Clinton tried in the early 1990s. And since Barack Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, Congress has heatedly debated health care reform. We’ve been talking about healthcare for over 100 years! Obama vows that he is not the first President to try to pass universal healthcare, but he will be the last!

5.       Food Bank Donations – Thanks to everyone who brought a food donation to the September 2009 SWEB. We delivered 190 pounds of food to the Central Pa. Food Bank! Please keep these drives going in your chapters to replenish the food banks of Pa.