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5 The Gavel SUMMER 2010
Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus
Jobs: Putting Pennsylvanians to Work
State Sens.
Vincent Hughes
and Christine
Tartaglione recently
introduced a
package of bills
that would establish
and provide funding
for job creation
programs. These
programs would create more than 40,000 temporary jobs
statewide within the next two years.
Tartaglione’ s bill, S.B. 1234, would focus on creating
temporary community service jobs. Each job would last for
a nine-month time period and it would pay $10 per hour
for up to 30 hours per week.
Senate Bill 1235, introduced by Hughes, focuses on a
youth employment component. It would create six-week
summer positions at $9 per hour for 25 hours per week.
Hughes also introduced S.B. 1236, a proposal that
would institute a tax on the wholesale price of smokeless
tobacco products. The money from the taxes would be
used to help fund the job creation programs.
Hughes said in addition to using the money from the
tobacco sales tax, the job creation programs would also
be funded by federal dollars, which were allocated to
Pennsylvania as part of a $5 billion emergency fund.
This fund was created by the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act.
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Fiscal Report Card
In these tough economic times, Pennsylvanians have to make hard choices. In Harrisburg, many programs funded
by the state budget faced deep cuts, including valuable social programs and services that benefit the people of our
Commonwealth. Despite this reality, we spent about $1.8 billion on our prison system this year, and prison expenditures
continue to increase. This cannot continue. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections fiscal report card is below.
The Cost of Incarceration:
1971 Today
Number of Prisoners 5,284 51,391
PA DOC Budget $33 million $1.87 billion
In order to decrease these costs, we are
working to reduce recidivism, explore alternatives
to incarceration for low-level offenders and, most
importantly, prevent crime.
As a House Judiciary Committee member, Rep.
Waters is working to implement:
DOC Budget Request for 2010-11
Personnel $1,161,915
Operating $579,665
Fixed Assets $6,528
Other $1,060
General Fund $1,749,168
+ federal funds $180,712
other funds $79,307
TOTAL $2,009,187
State Universities, 2010-11 (000’s) $1,191,732
‘
Projected Prison Spending (000’s)
2011-12 2012-13
GENERAL FUND $1,952,356 $2,024,745
FEDERAL FUNDS $7,431 $6,781
OTHER FUNDS $82,418 $85,653
TOTAL $2,042,205 $2,117,179
Drug rehabilitation and drug court as
alternatives to incarceration.
Counseling programs for drug abusers.
Day Reporting Centers to provide
comprehensive one-stop services to lowlevel
offenders as an alternative to prison.
The centers cost only $23.44 to $44.10 per
inmate, per day compared to $87 a day in
prison.
Improved police-community relations.
Community-based prevention programs
that stress education over incarceration.
Earned time and early release for good
behavior.
Combining the DOC and Probation and
Parole to cut costs.
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