10/22/2014
Translation Leaves A Familiar Vibe From Pa's Own Crack Jack Candidate: "If you want to know what's in my plan, you'll have to elect me first."
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Translation Leaves A Familiar Vibe From Pa's Own Crack Jack Candidate: "If you want to know what's in my plan, you'll have to elect me first."
Wolf talks about taxes and raising revenues to Times Leader Opinion Board
Tom Wolf, Democratic candidate for governor, talks with the The Times Leader Opinion Board Tuesday morning in Wilkes-Barre.
WILKES-BARRE — Tom Wolf says he is for the middle class and if he is elected governor, he will see they get a long-overdue tax break.
Wolf, a 65-year-old York County businessman, is running on the Democratic ticket for governor against incumbent Republican Tom Corbett.
“The middle class in Pennsylvania deserves a break,” Wolf told the Times Leader Opinion Board Tuesday.
Wolf defined middle class as an individual who makes between $70,000 and $90,000 per year, or a family that makes $140,000 to $180,000. People falling into that definition would not pay more taxes.
He said people making less than those figures would also benefit. Those making more will see an increase in taxes, he said.
Wolf said Pennsylvanians pay too much in property taxes and corporations pay too much in corporate taxes. He said one of his first acts as governor will be to implement a 5 percent severance tax on the Marcellus shale gas industry extractions.
But when that tax is levied, the impact fees now levied will go away, Wolf said. The impact fees go to affected municipalities to fix roads and make other infrastructure repairs done as a result of gas industry activity.
“Pennsylvania is the only major gas-producing state in the nation without an extraction tax,” Wolf said. “I believe it’s time for oil and gas companies to pay their fair share.”
Wolf said “a reasonable” 5 percent severance tax would generate $1 billion in 2015. He would use this revenue to invest in top priorities like education and help communities with infrastructure needs.
Wolf said the impact fee money would represent about 1.4 percent of the revenue generated by the severance tax.
Income tax
Wolf was asked about taxes — will he raise them, add to them, reduce any — and he explained his position.
First, Wolf said he has no access to the data used to compute the state income tax, but he vowed to make it fairer.
“I have to know first what the hole is that Gov. Corbett is leaving,” he said.
Wolf said he will implement a fair, progressive tax and he will also see that small businesses get a tax break. Wolf wants a flat tax with universal exemptions, he said.
Wolf will not increase the state’s sales tax, and he favors lowering property taxes by increasing the state contribution to education to 50 percent of the budget, up from the current 30 percent.
When pressed for more specifics, Wolf said, “It would be like me telling you how cold this winter will be. I just don’t know.”
Wolf noted that Corbett has not renewed his first-term pledge not to raise taxes. But, Wolf said, Corbett did raise taxes to get the Transportation Bill funded by increasing the taxes and fees on gasoline.
GOP responds
Megan Sweeney, spokeswoman for the state Republican Party, said it’s time for Wolf to stop hiding the details of his tax plans and start coming clean about his plans to raise our taxes.
“For months, Pennsylvanians have watched Tom Wolf refuse to discuss the details of his proposed income tax hikes only to find out that they may raise tax by as much as 188 percent,” Sweeney said.
Sweeney said Wolf’s solution for addressing Pennsylvania’s $50 billion state pension crisis is to deny its existence in the first place.
“Wolf claims we can no longer ‘kick the can down the road,’ while at the same time advocating staying the course, which has resulted in skyrocketing property taxes,” she said.
Sweeney said former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell raided the state education budget and covered his tracks with temporary stimulus dollars.
“And Tom Wolf knows it,” Sweeney said. “State education spending has increased every year of the Corbett administration. In fact, Pennsylvania currently spends more on basic education than at any point in the history of our Commonwealth.”
Wolf’s viewpoint
Wolf said Corbett did cut education funding and as a result, most school district across the state raised taxes.
Wolf said in Gov. Ed Rendell’s final budget for fiscal year 2010-11, the state Department of Education received $6.4 billion to fund K-12 education programs. He said Gov. Corbett then cut more than $1 billion from K-12 education programs, reducing overall funding to $5.3 billion.
Wolf said the cuts made by Corbett over the last four years have led to increased property taxes, massive layoffs, larger class sizes, and the elimination of valuable programs.
Wolf said no matter how he looks at it, a billion dollars were cut from education.
Other issues
Wolf said:
• He will create jobs and will do so through innovative policies that help attract the high-tech, high-wage jobs of the future. He said his experience as a successful businessman is key in increasing manufacturing in Pennsylvania.
• Agriculture remains a key to the state’s economy and he will increase funding for the Department of Environmental Protection to keep a closer watch on the gas industry.
• He opposes changes to current employees’ pension plans and he believes that a defined benefit retirement plan is the most effective tool for ensuring that public workers have a financially secure retirement.
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