#AllEyesOnYass
What does Pennsylvania's richest man have to do with you?
Who is Jeffrey Yass?
Jeff Yass is PA’s richest man, a Main Line billionaire and head of Susquehanna International Group. Susquehanna International Group is a Wall Street firm that makes money by investing in technology, sports gambling, cryptocurrency companies, real estate and more. As of 2018, Yass owned 75% of Susquehanna.
Yass is worth an estimated $30 billion dollars, and is the single largest donor to Pennsylvania's right-wing politicians, causes, and dark money infrastructure. Yass uses his money to have an outsized influence on our democracy.
That’s why it’s time to stop billionaires like Yass from rigging our democracy. By working together, we can protect our rights and ensure working Pennsylvanians’ voices are heard.
Examining one man’s influence can help us to understand how billionaires have rigged our democracy and our economy – and what we can do together to fix it. Our communities deserve fully funded schools, a living wage, affordable housing and a healthy planet. When billionaires pay their fair share and stop rigging our democracy, we can win what we deserve!
His Money
Just how much is $30 billion dollars?
No one "earns" enough to become a billionaire. Billionaires rely on extracting money from us—Black and Brown workers and communities—in order to amass and grow their wealth.
They make money by investing in corporations that extract from workers and harm our earth in order to maximize profits.
To "earn" $30 billion dollars,
it would take...
the average worker in Pennsylvania
the average female worker in Pennsylvania
the average Black worker in Pennsylvania
a mininum wage worker in Pennsylvania
582,000 years
713,000 years
788,000 years
1.9 million years
If Yass and other Wall Street billionaires in Pennsylvania paid their fair share, we could cover these crucial costs for our communities:
BASIC EDUCATION FOR OUR CHILDREN
A 20% increase in Basic Education for our children. Pennsylvania needs just $5 billion more dollars to provide all K-12 children with a quality education.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled our current school funding system so unfair that it’s unconstitutional!
SAFE HOMES FOR OUR NEIGHBORS
An expansion of the Whole Homes Repair program. We need millions more for a statewide push to give grants to low- to moderate-income families and forgivable loans to small landlords to repair and weatherize their homes.
& SO MUCH MORE
His Priorities
Yass gives major money to candidates who will enact his priorities.
DESTROYING PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Yass and his friends have worked year after year to take money away from our public schools, and fund their own network of private and charter schools. Yass and his network of PACs and lobbying groups continue to push for an expansion of school vouchers and ‘educational tax credits.' These vouchers take vital money away from public schools, leaving the majority of Pennsylvania's children in underfunded, inequitable schools. Yass and his allies have used these credits to avoid paying at least $53 million in state taxes.
EVADING TAXES & UNDERFUNDING PUBLIC SERVICES
Public reports show that Yass has avoided paying $1 billion in federal taxes by potentially abusing tax laws. The rate at which he and his partners at Susquehanna pay taxes is the lowest of other similar billionaires.
EXPLOITING WORKERS & BUSTING UNIONS
Yass is dead set on fighting unions, especially teachers’ unions, which work to support working people in winning dignity at work and fair wages. Yass is also a major investor in TikTok, which has been accused of exploiting Black creators and censoring content related to Black Lives Matter.
HIS NETWORK
Yass prefers to be behind the scenes. So he contributes to dark money PACs and has helped sustain his own network of non-profit organizations and PACs to distribute funds to candidates for office and issues. In Pennsylvania, these organizations include the Commonwealth Foundation and Commonwealth Partners.
These organizations are headed up by political operatives who openly brag about their ability to manipulate the legislature and the press against the majority of Pennsylvanians. Watch them openly discuss their privatizing agenda here.
Through Commonwealth Partners, Yass funnels money to several other right-wing PACs. Those PACs are run by groups like the fossil fuel-tied Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, the anti-LGBT Pennsylvania Family Council, and others that spend large sums of money to influence elections and legislation. The Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association not only gives tens of thousands of dollars to Republican leadership in Pennsylvania, but also spends hundreds of thousands each year to lobby against climate solutions, such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and for lowering corporate taxes.
His Candidates
Yass funds elections through a network of political action committees (PACs) and lobbying groups that influence legislation on issues like privatizing public schools, cutting corporate taxes, banning abortion, busting unions, cutting our social safety nets, campaigning against ‘critical race theory’ in schools, and blocking climate solutions.
He mostly gives to Republicans all over the state, in both primary and general elections. He has also donated to some Democrats in Philadelphia, like State Senator Anthony Williams, Rep. Jordan Harris, and Amen Brown.
Between 2017 and 2022, Yass spent more in campaign contributions than all of the top 20 corporate PACs combined.
Yass finances elected officials who support QAnon conspiracies and have ties to white nationalism. Through massive contributions to Club for Growth and direct spending, he contributes to the worst elected officials around the country who sell these lies.
Let's work together to stop billionaires like Yass from rigging our democracy. Stay tuned for campaign updates by signing up below.