Healthcare workers take part in budget rally

SEIU Healthcare workers were among the hundreds who joined forces on March 9 in Harrisburg in the first of many rallies related to the state budget cuts and their effect on working people.

We marched to the offices of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry lobbying group, near the state capitol.
Our objective on March 9 was to protest the fact that, while the governor is proposing drastic cuts to essential services for state residents, energy companies aren't paying a dime in taxes on the natural gas they extract in our state.

Our new governor has refused to enact any fees or taxes for gas extraction -- or to raise any other taxes or fees. Instead, he wants to balance the state budget through wage freezes, 1,550 layoffs and some of the deepest cuts in memory for things like health care and education funding.

We will return to Harrisburg in much greater numbers for on May 3 for another budget-related rally at the state capitol.
For more information about the state budget and its effects on working families, visit the website of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center. The PBPC is a nonpartisan, statewide project that provides independent, credible analysis on state budget issues.