Fair Taxes and Budgets

Don't balance the budget on the backs of the needy - rally

Just Harvest’s Ken Munz and Ann Sanders at the 2011 Why Cut What Works? rally.

The taxes government collects determines the quality of services they are able to provide. Requiring corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share allows for a more equitable society where we can cover all needed support and investments – like education, health care, and human services.

For over a decade, Just Harvest has provided free tax preparation assistance to low-income households in Allegheny County in order to help them access key tax credits and put more of the money they’ve earned back in their pockets – one of the best and most efficient ways to fight poverty and hunger.

In the meantime, we continue to lobby at the federal, state, and local levels for tax policies that address wealth inequality and poverty, and for the adequate funding of government anti-poverty and anti-hunger benefits programs.

Our advocacy on tax policy has included successful campaigns to:

  • change the collection schedule for the Local Services Tax to make it easier on low-income households;
  • prevent extra paperwork requirements for EITC recipients;
  • expand and protect the EITC and Child Tax Credit.

Our advocacy on budget policy has included successful campaigns to:

  • establish and maintain a Pittsburgh City Hunger Fund;
  • establish and maintain the Pennsylvania Keystone Education Yields Success (KEYS) program to assist parents receiving TANF or SNAP (food stamp) benefits;
  • help prevent massive and unprecedented cuts to food stamps in the 2014 Farm Bill.