See it here.
Ok, a little underwhelming.
The key points seem to be:
Imposing a severance tax on natural gas producers. The thinking is that PA already pays a severance tax to big oil producing states at the gas pumps but PA doesn’t do the same for the rest of the country when it comes to natural gas. The money will be used to address the impact of shale oil drilling and to fund education.
The personal income tax is going up.
The corporate income tax is going down and then down again, while tax loopholes will be cut.
Education budget will be restored. Community colleges will get $15M. State colleges will get 50% of the money back from previous cuts with the provision that they must not raise tuition and that funds must go to classroom spending, not more administration.
State education funding formula to be revised to direct more money to rural schools.
Money will be used to incentivize new businesses to come to PA and to restore four years of cuts to education.
Wall Street money managers of PA pension funds will be dismissed. Savings estimated to be $1.2B over 5 years and underfunded pensions should be covered. There’s a $10B deficit in the pension funds that will be under new management.
The State’s minimum wage will be increased to $10.10/hour. Well, provided R’s vote for that, which they might not. I would have asked for a minimum wage of $15.00/hour and let the legislature fight it out.
So, there you have it. If you live in PA, your property taxes, which increased by something like 50% when Corbett was governator, will be going back to normal. If you earn more money, you’ll pay a smidge more. If you are a corporation, it’s all you can eat.
Filed under: General | Tagged: budget, Middle class jobs, PA governor, Tom Wolf |
The Confluence 
Ruh-Roh, Republicans are not going to like this.
He wants to cut property taxes by 50%.
Restore the budget to schools.
Jobs targeted to middle class.
He wants to cut the finance industry money managers out of the PA pension funds. Why are we paying fees to them?
Improving middle class incomes.
Stable incomes are important for teachers.
PA used the education budget to balance the budget in the past four years.
I will restore the $1 billion cuts to education.
The way things were before are not good enough. So, we’re going to increase funds at every grade level. Increases pre-K budget by 75%.
$15 million to community college
50% restoration to state colleges.
In exchange, higher education has to freeze tuition.
Must be spent on classrooms and not bureaucracy.
Increases education funds by 50%.
More of the cost falls on homeowners. There is no funding formula. Rural districts are not getting the help they need.
OMG, this sounds like redistribution – to rural areas!
Wait, Republicans should like that.
Education commission. Transparency, student achievement.
How are we going to pay for it?
Here it comes…
Oh, so we’re going to reduce taxes on middle class homeowners by 13%.
OOOOOooooooOOOooo! Severance tax on extraction of natural gas.
Some of the tax is to go to addressing effects of drilling, then the rest of the tax to education.
We already pay a severance tax on gas for oil produced in Texas and Oklahoma, why not on locally drilled natural gas?
Ave homeowner property taxes reduced by 50%.
(Normally, I don’t object to property taxes. It’s just that incomes are too low right now.)
Personal income tax goes to 3.6%. But sales tax should go down. So, taxes will get more progressive.
Rebuilding our economy:
Connecting our transportation system in Philly, Pittsburgh and Erie.
Act 89 to turn PA into transportation hub.
Made in PA cash back program. Cash payments up to 5%.
Give priorities in tax rebates to local companies.
PA has a ton of natural resources. Solar energy coming back? Yes!!
Why can’t we make kitchen cabinets? Steel? Clean water? Here?
(OK, I’m not so crazy about the shale oil thing)
Workers must be fairly rewarded too. Diversity, inclusion, fairness.
Hard work must be rewarded. No one who works full time in PA should be forced to live in poverty.
Raise the state minimum wage to $10.10/hour.
(Still too low)
(Oh, no. Not profit sharing.
Please, can’t we have a bigger wage increase??)
Corporate income tax is 9.9% plus loopholes.
Close loopholes, reduced corporate tax by 40% in first year and 50% in second year.
Phasing out the capital stock and franchise tax in PA. Not sure about this. Must do research
We will take the funding for the ACA, restore some HHS funds. Medicaid changes will save more money.
No Bid contracts are out.
Streamline management.
Give state agencies to save money, not cut their budget if they don’t spend every penny.
State and Municipal pension systems
Will eliminate management fees to Wall Street.
Will save $1.3 Billion in 5 years and will cover $10 billion in unfunded
Campaign financing reform and redistricting reform.