Pro-Wolf tax ads grossly misleading
Posted: Thursday, July 30, 2015 7:30 am
America Works USA, an affiliate of the union-funded Democratic Governors Association, is waging a TV and radio ad campaign while stuffing mailboxes with misinformation, urging support for higher taxes on Pennsylvania families.
These ads and mailers are grossly misleading.
For starters, natural gas drillers already pay taxes applicable to every other Pennsylvania industry. They also pay an impact fee, which has generated more than $800 million in revenue since 2011. According to the Independent Fiscal Office, the 2015 impact fee is equivalent to a 4.7 percent effective tax rate, placing drillers firmly on the hook.
Moreover, the severance tax is only a small part of Wolf’s massive tax hike. His sales tax and income tax increases will cost taxpayers billions, while adding taxes on diapers and day care, college textbooks and meal plans, and nursing homes and funerals. Families in all income groups will pay more in taxes under the governor’s plan.
The budget Gov. Wolf vetoed increased K-12 education by an additional $370 million. State funding for public schools would have increased to more than $10.4 billion — a new record high — for the 2015-16 budget year.
It is time the governor stop campaigning, abandon his ill-advised tax plan, and start negotiating on solutions that help working families.
Jonathan Humma
Commonwealth Foundation
