Governor Tom Wolf's first budget address put on an emphasis on his vision for improving Pennsylvania's present and its future. He is calling for a bevy of tax increases in an effort to generate additional funding for education, property tax relief, and economic development programs in a more than $33 billion state budget proposal.
Mary Wilson, Kevin McCorry, Marie Cusick and Emily Previti were at the state capitol for the governor's address and take a look at some of the specifics in the spending plan.
TAX INCREASES & CUTS -- by Mary Wilson
When Governor Tom Wolf was just a candidate running for office, Republicans’ biggest knock against him was to call him “tax man Tom Wolf.”
In his first budget proposal, he lived up to the nickname. How else, says the governor, could he follow through on his campaign promise to pump more money into schools while shrinking the $2 billion deficit he inherited?
"We need a historic commitment to education, and we’re going to make it today," he said. "Now I’m sure that all sounds great, and many of you are probably wondering how we’re going to pay for it."
A 20 percent hike in the personal income tax. A sales tax jacked up by 10 percent. Also, statewide taxes on cigarettes, their newfangled electronic imitators, and other tobacco products – they’re all part of the Wolf budget. More than $4 billion in new taxes.
But then, there is tax relief.
The governor says he borrowed from Republican proposals increasing sales and income taxes to bring down school property taxes, especially for seniors, and especially in poor areas, or places where the school districts are nearly maxing out residents.
"Overall my budget will reduce average homeowners’ property taxes by 50 percent, putting more than $1,000 dollars each year into their pockets," he told the joint session of the general assembly.
GOP Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman says Republicans can’t start negotiations with Wolf’s proposal.
"Look, I’m not using… this budget, every governor’s budget’s dead on arrival. That’s nothing new. The problem with this budget is it’s not based in reality. And so we have to get it to a starting point where we can begin discussion," he told reporters.
Corman said he doubts even Democrats are completely on board with this plan. ??But Democratic Senator John Blake of Lackawanna County said it shouldn’t be as controversial as Republicans say.
?"There has been a groundswell movement out there saying that people would prefer a tax shift off of property taxes onto consumption taxes," he said. "The governor has heard that."
But lawmakers from both parties say they want more details. ??Property tax reform is something the GOP has been seeking for years, led by grassroots advocacy. ??Republican House Appropriations Chairman Bill Adolph says he wants to see exactly how the relief package would shake out.
?"How does it get paid back? I want to see how the folks in my area do with this money," he said. "I know they’re going to be paying a state income tax. Do the seniors in my district receive a property tax rebate?"
?EDUCATION -- by Keystone Crossroads’ Kevin McCorry?
Wolf’s plan received uniform praise from education advocacy groups for the high priority he placed on new education funding.
In the first year of the plan, the governor would increase pre-K through higher-ed spending by $1 billion.
Over four years, K-12 spending would get a $2 billion boost. ?
This in combination with his property tax relief plan would push the state’s share of public education funding from 35 percent to over 50 percent.
“If Pennsylvania is going to be one of the best places to get an education, we can no longer afford to be one of the worst in funding our schools," Wolf said. "We need a historic commitment to education, and we’re making it today.”
The governor's ambitious proposal counts on the legislature approving a new predictable, student-weighted funding formula for divvying up the state’s pot of education cash.
He also hopes to implement reforms on the charter sector -- specifically, he’d cut funding for cyber charter schools, which currently receive funding at levels on par with what is spent by a students’ home district.
“They don’t have the costs of brick and mortar buildings, food services, transportation and other services that are associated with traditional public schools," said acting state education secretary Pedro Rivera. “So why are we paying for those services?”
The Republican leaders who control the legislature decried Wolf’s budget address for its reliance on tax increases.
Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman said the chamber will have to start from scratch, putting a public pension overhaul before any new spending increases. ?
Wolf’s plan, he said, has no shot of garnering the votes needed to pass.
“It’s a $33 billion budget, which is a 15 percent increase, which makes Ed Rendell look pretty conservative right now,” he told reporters.
Delaware County Republican Bill Adolph, the House Appropriations panel chair, said he’s for increases to pre-K and basic education funding, but said Wolf’s proposals will put too much of a burden on taxpayers.
“My first reaction when I got the governor’s budget was wow, an incredible amount of taxes,” he said.
Wolf anticipated the backlash, sending this message at the end of his address.
“But if you don’t agree with my ideas, here’s my request: please come with your own ideas," he told lawmakers in the audience. "It’s not good enough just to say no and just continue with the same old, same old.”
Although a budget agreement is technically due at the end of June, some are already anticipating an extended negotiation session.
"If we have to fight for more money to come to our schools to educate our children, it’s worth going past the June 30th deadline," said Senator Vincent Hughes of Philadelphia. "We can bust through that deadline as long as we do the right public policy.”
NATURAL GAS SEVERANCE TAX -- by StateImpact Pennsylvania's Marie Cusick
?Governor Wolf did not surprise anyone in his budget address, when he followed through on a major campaign promise.
“It starts by doing what every other major gas-producing state has already done,” he said to applause. “We’re going to place a severance tax on the extraction of natural gas.”
Wolf wants to model the levy on West Virginia, with a tax on both volume and sales.
Drillers would pay a five percent tax on the value of the gas, plus 4.7 cents per thousand cubic feet.
He projects it will bring in over $1 billion per year, which he wants to use for education.
“Natural gas is growing faster in Pennsylvania than in anywhere else in the country,” he said. “Yet, we are the only major producer of gas that does not ask drillers to pay their fair share.”
Natural gas companies currently pay a flat fee every time they drill a well. So far, it's brought in an average of $210 million per year, with most of the money going back to communities hosting drillers.
Wolf says local governments can keep that money. He's proposing to set aside $225 million per year from the gas severance tax.
But some county commissioners, like Republican Alan Hall of Susquehanna County told lawmakers he’s worried new tax will drive away business.
“If you put the severance tax in and it works, then you’re all heroes,” he said. “If you put the severance tax in and the industry walks away which it can easily do, because it can’t maintain a profit--not only do you lose the impact fee, you lose the severance tax you wanted.”
Meanwhile, Republican legislative leaders like Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman of Centre County said they won’t discuss new revenues, like a gas tax, until the an agreement can be reached on overhauling the heavily indebted public pension system.
“Everything will have to be weighted and looked at to see how possibly it impacts the economy of Pennsylvania,” he said. “But we’re going to focus on pension reform, because we’ve got to do that first.”
