Republican leadership has agreed to allow Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s revenue plan to go to a vote in the state House on Wednesday, with hopes it will fail and stymie the governor’s quest for a suite of tax increases that would total $5 billion over two years.
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Basic details of the proposal Wolf will formally submit later Tuesday also include cuts for seniors and disabled people in property taxes used to fund schools, according to an administration document obtained by The Associated Press.
Wolf said the prior year’s budget relied on more than $2 billion in what he described as one-time or unsustainable funding, and that human services, pensions, prisons and debt service are forcing up state spending even without the education and other spending he wants.
The state income tax rate would increase from 3.07 percent to 3.57 percent.
Another state budget showdown looms this week, and one conservative group has already warned Republican lawmakers it will monitor any votes on new or higher taxes. To do so, he would need all 84 Democratic votes, plus about 20 GOP members.
“If they have something dramatically different from that, we may have to reassess (the vote)”, Stephen Miskin, spokesman for House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-62, Indiana, said.
“With the veto of liquor privatization, Gov. Wolf is maintaining the status quo and protecting his special interest friends”, Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, said in early July.
“I am not trying to do anything other than show you what I believe to be the truth in terms of the mathematics of this budget”, Wolf said. The state’s existing impact fee on gas drilling, which is targeted to areas where the activity occurs, would be untouched. The proposed 3.5 percent severance tax, plus an additional surcharge, would be tied to the price and amount of gas extracted.
A few days later the Republican leaders announced they would give the governor a chance to demonstrate he has the votes for tax increases through a floor vote next week, and Democrats have been scrambling to see whether they can find votes across the aisle for passage.
Wolf dropped a proposal to increase the Pennsylvania sales tax rate, now 6 percent in much of the state, to 6.6 percent. The governor’s proposal would anticipate elimination of property taxes for more seniors and households with disabled residents. And he is no longer seeking an expansion of the list of items the sale tax covers that he had previously supported.
But the governor is of the mind that a balanced budget, now more than three months late, will require broad-based tax increases.
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The first-term Democrat issued the warning as Pennsylvania state government’s budget impasse is certain to reach its 100th day later this week.
