It’s time to Rally! Please join us on Thursday, May 28 at 4:30 PM for an energetic VIRTUAL DAY OF ACTION FOR A PEOPLE’S BUDGET.

Because we can’t safely rally and lobby our legislators in the halls and the Rotunda of Harrisburg, we want to bring the rally and lobbying visits to you via ZOOM. You must register to receive the login information. Let’s make our voices heard, virtually.

We will:
Virtually Rally for our demands
Virtually Lobby our legislators in regional breakout rooms
Virtually have a Community Conversation

Please register today so that you can be a part of this historic day of action!

Planning organizations in formation:
CASA; Make The Road – PA; ROC ; We The People – PA; One Pennsylvania
For Our Future – PA; SiX; SEIU; POWER; PA United

OUR DEMANDS: 

WE CAN SECURE A FAIR RETURN FOR OUR WORK

Because some politicians have tried to divide us, too many of us have ignored how many people work long hours for wages that don’t allow them to support their families. Now it’s impossible to ignore the fact that frontline workers in hospitals, grocery stores, and farms—who are more likely to be Black, brown, or immigrants—are still receiving fair wages or the protective equipment they need.

So We The People are determined to work together, not just to protect and reward frontline workers during this crisis, but to ensure that everyone—with no exceptions—can secure a fair return on their work and give their kids a better life in the future by:

• removing the barriers that prevent Pennsylvanians from joining together to form unions to negotiate for better wages, benefits, and safety in the workplace;
• creating a living wage for everyone—with a path to a $15 minimum wage that increases with the cost of living, an end to the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers, and strong enforcement of minimum wage laws.

WE CAN GIVE ALL OUR KIDS A GREAT EDUCATION

Because some politicians have set some of us against others, we have not come together to insist that every kid—poor as well as rich, Asian as well as Latinx, Black and brown as well as white, immigrants as well as native-born—can secure an education that excites and stimulates them and that prepares them to make the most of their lives, not just to benefit themselves but all of us. The pandemic has made it impossible to ignore the stark inequality in our schools and the differences in the computer equipment, technical support, and number and quality of teachers available to members of different communities.

So We The People are united in support of providing every child and every school the means to continue receiving education during the crisis and ensuring an equal education for all once it ends by

• increasing state funding for pre-K and K-12 public schools and fully desegregating our schools so every child gets a superior education and and rising property taxes don’t impoverish working people;
• making tuition affordable at community colleges and at our state colleges and universities, ensuring students can earn a degree without going deep in debt;
• investing in career and technical education, job training, and apprenticeship programs that are critical to the future of our children and our economy.

WE CAN PROVIDE HEALTH CARE TO ALL 

Some politicians have ignored our common vulnerability to illness and disease so they don’t have to ensure that everyone, no matter their race, income, or immigrant status, can go to a well-trained doctor or a hospital with the best equipment. COVID-19 has made it impossible to ignore that some of us are strugglinge to get tested or see doctors. And it has reminded us that we are all better off when all of us, regardless of where we live or where we came from can get the care we need.

So We The People renew our commitment to ensuring that everyone can secure testing and treatment for COVID-10 and receive quality, affordable health care in the future by

• creating state regulations that ensure that no one is denied health insurance or is required to pay more if they have a pre-existing condition and that limit the profits of health insurance companies;
• creating a public option for health insurance in Pennsylvania.

WE CAN ENSURE AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR ALL 

Some politicians have set one community against another, encouraging us to forget that some people can easily find affordable homes while those with low and moderate incomes, as well as many people of color and immigrants both documented and undocumented, must spend a larger and larger share of their income to put a roof over their head. The current crisis is showing how many of us are just one disaster away from homelessness.

So We The People stand together in protecting both homeowners and renters during the crisis,  and ensuring that the state requires every county and city to create a plan to make affordable housing available to all and provides the funds to carry out that plan.

WE CAN MAKE EVERYONE PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE

We have let some politicians split us from one another so they can cut taxes for the rich and corporations again and again even though doing so does not create jobs, investment, or growth. We now have a tax system in which working people pay too much—especially those who are Black, brown, or immigrants, both documented and undocumented—and corporations and the rich pay too little. That’s not only unfair but it prevents us from raising the funds we need to invest in our future. The response to the COVID-19 disaster reveals similar inequities as too much relief funding is going to corporations and too little to small businesses and working people.

We The People are committed to providing everyone with the economic support they need right now and to fixing our tax system for the future so that everyone pays their fair share for our common needs by

• enacting the Fair Share Tax which raises taxes on profits, capital gains, dividends, and estates; reduces taxes on wages and interest; and generates billions from the top 5% while cutting taxes for 60% of Pennsylvanians;
• ending tax loopholes so that large multi-state and multi-national corporations pay taxes at the same rate as Pennsylvania-based corporations;
• creating an anti-poverty tax credit that prevents families from being taxed into poverty.

WE CAN ENSURE THAT EVERY VOICE IS HEARD AND EVERY VOTE COUNTED 

For too long, we have allowed some politicians to make our very democracy an object of division because they know that when every voice is heard and every vote is counted the power of We The People will overwhelm the money and power of their corporate sponsors. As we struggle to adjust to elections under threat of a pandemic we see them looking for ways to block the voices and votes of those with low and moderate incomes as well as Black and brown people and immigrants.

So We The People pledge to work jointly to eliminate the barriers that prevent everyone—and especially Black and brown people and those with low incomes—from playing a role in shaping our government now and in the future by

• sending every voter a postage-paid mail-in ballot;
• ensuring that early voting locations are widely available;
• ending the partisan and racial gerrymandering of legislative districts;and
• limiting the influence of money in our politics.