Posted in: Key Players Top Story

Educators Angered by Inaction on Tax Cuts

Tags: American Jobs Act, barack obama, PA, Pennsylvania, taxes

by Amanda Litvinov, picture courtesy of Paul Shemansky and PSEA

President Obama, speaking to a crowd in Scranton, Pennsylvania, last week, said the choice before Congress was very simple: “Are you going to cut taxes for the middle class and those who are trying to get into the middle class? Or are you going to protect massive tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, many of whom don’t even want those tax breaks?”

Educators are among the many citizens just as frustrated as the President by the latest standoff in Washington, this time over extending payroll tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year. Without the tax cuts, an estimated 160 million middle-class families will see a tax increase of $1,000 and small businesses will face a substantially heavier tax burden, decreasing their ability to create new jobs. Under President Obama’s proposal, a component of the American Jobs Act, the average working family would receive an extra $1,500.

“Thousands of our Pennsylvania State Education Association members have taken pay freezes and made other concessions to protect student programs in these tough economic times,” said educator of 34 years and PSEA President Mike Crossey. “In fact, many of our ESP members earn less than the living wage. Now politicians seem more focused on forcing gridlock and trying to take away benefits that help hard working families put food on their family’s table and that help the economy. That doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“We’re all middle income people, and that’s who these kinds of tax relief efforts are really going to help,” said retired West Scranton High School teacher and former PSEA president Annette Palutis when asked what that money could mean for Pennsylvania’s teachers and education support professionals.  

Senate Republicans blocked a proposal to extend the payroll tax cut in a vote on Thursday. Though Republicans have stated support for the extension—a shift from their earlier flat-out opposition—they cannot agree with supporters of the Obama proposal to offset the tax cut by, in the President’s words, “asking our wealthiest citizens to pay their fair share.”

Said President Obama to the crowd packed into the Scranton High School gymnasium: “I can’t tell you how many well-to-do folks I meet who say, ‘Look, America gave me a chance to succeed. Somewhere along the line somebody gave me a good education. Somewhere along the line somebody gave me a college scholarship. . . . Somewhere along the line somebody gave me a shot. Now it’s my turn to do for the next generation that same good thing.’”

Educators in Pennsylvania and across the nation will be watching as the debate over offsetting the cost of the tax cuts wears on.

In addition to the payroll tax cuts, the American Jobs Act would prevent an estimated 280,000 teacher layoffs and modernize at least 35,000 public schools across the country. Republicans in the Senate not only blocked the bill in early October, but refused to even debate it. Polls have shown that two-thirds of Americans support the provisions in the bill, so the President is now trying to get Congress to approve it in pieces.

“It really resonated with this audience when Obama said, “Here’s the good news, Scranton. Just like you don’t quit, I don’t quit!” said Palutis.

 The President chided those elected leaders who took a vow never to raise taxes but seem ready to allow tax hikes for those struggling most with the effects of the recession.

“This cannot be about who wins or loses in Washington. It’s about a win for the American people.”