Proposed PA Budget Cuts Business and Real Estate Taxes; Stresses Education and Economic Development

Ron Wilshire

Ron Wilshire

Published April 17, 2015 9:07 pm
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CLARION, Pa. (EYT) – Governor Tom Wolf sent a top-level representative to brief people on the proposed Commonwealth budget, along with a platform for candidates for Clarion County Commissioner and Clarion County Treasurer at the annual Spring Legislative Breakfast of the Clarion Area Chamber of Commerce Friday morning at the Park Inn.

Secretary of Policy and Planning John Hanger was on hand to discuss how Governor Wolf’s 2015-2016 Budget would rebuild the middle class, according to a new advisory from Harrisburg.
           
Wolf proposes a budget that includes major investments in education and economic development that will hopefully spur economic growth.  The Wolf budget also calls for cuts in businesses taxes and increases in the personal income tax. It also includes additional items under sales taxes such as service previously not covered.  The additional revenue, according to Wolf, would allow a drastic reduction in school taxes.

“The fundamental choice that the Governor is putting in before all of you is ‘Do you want another budget that is pretty much a traditional budget or do you want a bold transformative budget that will allow Pennsylvania to finally start growing jobs at a much faster rate?” said Hanger.

(Click the YouTube Video (audio only) for the complete and extensive remarks made by Hanger, along with answers to questions raised by the audience after his talk.)

“He (Wolf) has seen Pennsylvania under-perform economically for a long time,” said Hanger.  “We’ve had Democratic Governors, we’ve had Republican Governors, and we’ve had Democratic and Republican legislators.  I think its safe to say nothing has worked as well as we would like.

“In the last four years there has been five downgrades of the state debt, three of those are in the last 12 months.  We’ve had structural deficits at the state level for at least the last six years. Ever since then state budget has been quite frankly, a mess.”

Some people are not going to like the budget because there are over 400 lines in the state budget and more than two thirds are frozen or cut.

“I really appreciate the opportunity to talk with you all,” said Hanger.  “I think frankly this is a moment for Pennsylvania to decide if you think the last 30 years have gone well enough or do you want to have a plan that is actually going to fix the structural deficit that is honest and will provide a way for growing Pennsylvania’s jobs?”

Hagar continued, “It starts with education, goes to economic development and absolutely must include getting our tax system competitive. At the end of the day, were this plan to be put into place, we will have a very effective competitive tax system because we will have the third lowest personal income tax in the country, the fourth lowest corporate taxes in the country, property taxes under control, sales taxes pretty much in the middle.”

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