Wheatley wants Pa. to invest in Black populace
While some cities move to shore up their finances with COVID-19 relief money, a Democratic state lawmaker who represents Downtown Pittsburgh up through the North Side joined the calls of activists to use the money to build up Black communities that have suffered the most.
Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Hill District, said 18 months of a pandemic showed how quickly governments can move when they deem an issue important enough. When that happens, resources have a way of flowing into the areas of need, he noted.
So, Mr. Wheatley asked: Why not do the same with the systemic inequities facing Black people in Pennsylvania?
“Now that we’re coming out of COVID, let’s keep our systems focused on what was clear to us: There are communities of color and impoverished communities that need this continued support and a holistic approach to bring them up to wherever everyone else is,” Mr. Wheatley said in a virtual forum last week.
But that’s simply not happening, he said.
Instead, in Harrisburg, the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Tom Wolf’s recent budget deal stored away $2.5 billion in surplus state revenue for the rainy day fund and held onto $5 billion in unspent funding from the American Rescue Plan — signed by President Joe Biden in March — for future budgets, according to reporting in the Pennsylvania Capital Star.
Meanwhile, in Pittsburgh, members of City Council are moving forward with a four-year spending plan of $335 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds following days of criticism from community groups and some lawmakers who said the plan was being rushed. The council’s standing committee
gave preliminary approval to the proposal on Wednesday. Joining the chorus of critics was Democratic mayoral nominee Ed Gainey, who said that decisions on long-term operating budget proposals for 2023 and 2024 should be delayed so the public could have more time to weigh in.
Mr. Wheatley, an ally of Mr. Gainey and an early endorser, said governments shouldn’t be approaching the stimulus by stashing money away for the future, as there’s too many “fires” to extinguish now. Renters and homeowners are trying to stay afloat, child care is underfunded, and schools need greater investment, he said.
Voters should remember this next year when they cast ballots for state offices, Mr. Wheatley said, and should organize to pressure their local officials.
“I’m glad, in a way, that Republicans showed their hand with this time and moment because just a few months from now, citizens can organize around the fact they are not happy we have placed $5 billion of money that’s meant for them — their money, their taxpayer money that the feds sent back to us — that the Republicans are holding hostage so they don’t have to do what they were elected to do,” Mr. Wheatleysaid.
Mr. Wolf, a Democrat, had
said the budget “invests in Pennsylvanians” and applauded its investments in public education, including a $200 million increase in the Fair Funding Formula, $100 million to support under funded school districts and $50 million in special education funding.
Republicans had warned thatthe state faces many of the same financial challenges it did during the Great Recession and said leaving $10 billion unspent was the “responsible approach” as the need to replace revenue losses and balance the budget over the next two fiscal years was too large.
“The impacts of the pandemic on state finances require us to focus several years ahead,” state Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, wrote in an op-ed last week. “Had we not
planned to manage long-term imbalances and instead used remaining federal funding this year, we would experience the challenges of the Great Recession when deficits exceeded $4 billion or 15% of ourrevenue capacity.”
Mr. Wheatley and activists continue to say that the moneyshould be spent to level the playing field for Black people in the state, and that leaving so much locked away in a rainy day fund does nothing to prioritize underserved communities.