A vote on Gov. Tom Wolf’s big bad tax hike is scheduled for today, Oct. 7. The governor says he needs it fund education. No, what he wants it for is to fund government income including that of retirees some of whom have pensions of close to a half million dollars.
Gov. Wolf wants to take money from elderly people on fixed income, working class couples worried about how to pay for their kids college and the out-of-work and give it to rich people.
That is corruption. It’s not illegal corruption, obviously. The law is written to allow for this. But it is corruption nevertheless.
Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale has released a report saying that the state Department of Education is beset by apathy, and mired in bureaucratic ineptness.
It is obvious that if those in charge of education were doing the job they were supposed to we would not need more taxes on the little guy to pay for the rich people’s pensions.
Leo Knepper of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania reports that the Pennsylvania House will vote on Governor Wolf’s tax proposal, Oct. 7. Taxpayers in Pennsylvania cannot afford the $5 billion in tax increases that the Governor is demanding over the next two years. Every member of the House should vote “NO” on the Governor’s tax proposal, he says and he is right.
Knepper says that CAP will be closely monitoring the amendment process.
“While some lawmakers might be tempted to vote in favor of the extraction tax, bank share fee, and/or tax increase on tobacco products, CAP will also score attempts to amend the legislation toward those ends negatively,” he said. “In other words, the Governor’s proposal should be voted on in its entirety.
Knepper says that the Governor and his allies have painted this as a vote to make the natural gas industry pay “its fair share”, but the reality is that 75 percent of the new taxes will be collected via the personal income tax and changes to the sales tax.
He asks that you contact your Representative, Senator, and Governor Wolf to let them know that you oppose this latest scheme to raise your taxes and this can be done via this link.
Once upon a time the news media would make it a point to cover the boring but complex stories that impacted the lives of their readers with the rule being the bigger the impact, the bigger the play and they would make it a point of pride to make the complexity understandable to anyone with a sixth-grade education
Yesterday, Sept. 29, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) vetoed a stopgap budget presented by the Republican-controlled legislature.
This means school districts and social services are not going to get the state subsidies upon which they have come to depend. This is going to impact many of their readers a lot.
The Delaware County Daily Times put the story on page 10 and The Philadelphia Inquirer ran it on page 4 of the B section.
The reason for Wolf’s veto was that the stopgap budget would not give him the massive tax increases he is demanding along with the massive of transfer of wealth from Republican-voting parts of the state to Democrat-voting ones.
The governor’s irresponsibility and unwillingness to compromise is scandalous.
The legislature passed a standard budget on June 30 which was 3.6 percent higher than the previous year and increased education spending by $100 million.
If those who work in the establishment media would stop picking sides and cover all equally and honestly, we would not end up with the Wolf’s and Kathleen Kane’s — neither of whom got serious critical scrutiny because they ran as Democrats — in positions of authority.
Today (Sept. 29) has been a wild day so far in Harrisburg and it is only 2:30 p.m.
The Harrisburg version of the political thriller “House of Cards” is plowing ahead at full steam.
At 11 a.m., Auditor General Eugene DePasquale had a press conference highlighting all of the school districts in Pennsylvania that are on the verge of running out of money.
What the Auditor General did not mention is that Pennsylvania taxpayers are continuing to pay taxes and that money is still flowing into Harrisburg.
My thanks go out to the Auditor General for pointing out that school districts are running low on funds – but he stopped short of telling everyone that the flow of money has stopped because of Governor Wolf and his refusal to pass a balanced budget.
Below is an article from PennLive detailing what happened at the Auditor General’s press conference.
Around noon Governor Wolf issued a press release stating that he vetoed the Republican emergency funding package .
Folks – you can’t make this stuff up.
The Senate is in session and shortly thereafter Senate Republicans will go to caucus – today’s caucus will be interesting.
Stay tuned.
Sen. Wagner represents the 28th District in the Pennsylvania Senate.
Free the money, Gov. Wolf. Think of the children and not your ego.
This email came from State Sen. Scott Wagner. At his request we are promoting the article below concerning the Republican stopgap budget:
Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down with ABC27’s Dennis Owens to share my position on Governor Wolf’s refusal to support a stopgap budget that would continue to fund various agencies throughout the state that many people depend on.
Our tax dollars continue to be collected and those dollars are just sitting in the State bank account in Harrisburg.
In the private sector business world, cash flow is the oxygen that every business needs, and the state of Pennsylvania is enjoying our tax dollars flowing into the state bank account – Harrisburg is getting a continuous flow of oxygen.
There is plenty of money that could be released to these agencies that are in need but Governor Wolf is refusing to help them.
Below is the full article.
Please forward this to your friends.
Thank you,
Scott Wagner
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – Mount Wagner has been quiet for several weeks.
On Thursday, it erupted as brash and outspoken Senator Scott Wagner (R-York) ripped Governor Tom Wolf (D) over the 79-day budget impasse.
Wagner supports the stopgap budget that the GOP Senate is in the process of passing. It would free up money for schools and social service agencies while the broader negotiations continue.
To make his point, Wagner showed a pay stub from one of his employees and highlighted the line where state taxes were deducted. He also showed the receipt from a truck purchase, this time highlighting the line where state sales taxes were collected.
“That money is going into the bank account of the state of Pennsylvania and its sitting there,” Wagner said. “There is plenty of money sitting in a bank account right now that we could release to the agencies that need money.”
The collection of tax dollars continues, Wagner reasons, so why shouldn’t the state’s disbursement of tax dollars?
On Wednesday, the normally even-tempered Governor Wolf blasted the Republican stopgap tactic, calling it a gimmick.
“I’m against the stopgap,” Wolf said in perhaps his most emotional tone since becoming governor. “They’re poking me in the eye again. They want to see how hard they can push me. They can’t.”
But that won’t stop Wagner from trying. He has adorned his Capitol office with several anti-Wolf poster-sized signs that are critical of the governor’s leadership.
“I want the message to be loud and clear to the people out there who depend on the money from the state, those agencies. You need to get Governor Wolf’s cell phone number and his address and start picking on him. Stop picking on me. Stop picking on my fellow senators. Governor Wolf deserves all the blame for this, what’s going on, pure and simple. Don’t blame me.”
Wolf and Democrats call the Republican stopgap a gimmick that gives some money, but not nearly enough money to schools and social services
“This is the most cynical response I have yet to see in politics,” Wolf said. “This is ridiculous. This is what the people of Pennsylvania hate about Pennsylvania politics.”
But York County apparently can’t get enough of Wagner, the self-funded outsider unafraid to speak his mind. He could be Pennsylvania’s version of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, though Wagner quickly notes the differences.
“He (Trump) talks a lot about himself. I don’t think he has really any class,” Wagner said.
“Donald’s obviously stirring things up, but I think I have better hair.”
State Rep. Bill Adolph (R-165), Sept. 16, told the Springfield Republican Party that Gov. Tom Wolf has not budged on the state budget since March and he won’t either.
The Pennsylvania Legislature passed a $30.179 billion budget on June 30 which was a 3.6 increase over the previous year. Wolf vetoed it as it did not include the income and sales taxes that he was demanding.
Adolph said the leadership of the GOP-controlled legislature recently offered to increase education spending by $400 million — the increase in the passed budget was $100 million — if the Gov. Wolf agreed to pension reform and the privatization of our state-owned liquor stores.
Wolf turned it down flat.
Adolph said that this was the first budget in his memory that a governor rejected in toto. Gov. Rendell merely crossed out the items with which he disagreed while signing what he wanted.
Adolph said that while 93 of the 500 school districts in Pennsylvania would receive total property taxes eliminated, Springfield and Morton residents will find themselves with a cost increase of $60 million.
Think of the children, Governor, and stop playing politics.
The Pennsylvania Council of Children, Youth and Family Services has filed a lawsuit against Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services seeking to compel them to perform their duty to continue to fund the critical and essential services necessary to care for and protect the most vulnerable populations of this Commonwealth – abused, neglected and dependent children, their at-risk families and juvenile offenders.
The legal action, filed today, Sept. 15, with Commonwealth Court by Lamb McErlane, PC, seeks to ensure that child safety and community protection services are designated as being essential even during budget disputes. PCCYFS, which represents more than 100 private providers of child welfare and juvenile justice services in Pennsylvania, believes that children, youth and their families must be able to access needed and defined services without fear of delay or disruption, even in the absence of state budget decisions.
“Since July 1, PCCYFS has tried to work in a proactive and positive manner with the Wolf Administration to have the state’s child welfare and juvenile justice services designated as essential services to ensure that public dollars flow despite the current budget impasse,” said Bernadette Bianchi, Executive Director of PCCYFS. “Unfortunately the Governor’s Office has failed to acknowledge the Commonwealth’s responsibility to financially support funding for these mandated services. We wish we did not have to take this legal action, but it is necessary to ensure that children, who are entitled to these services, continue to have uninterrupted access to these crucial services.”
“In the vast majority of cases, these child welfare services – which include in-home supports, foster care, and residential placements – are court-ordered. Children requiring placement out-of-their own homes due to abuse or neglect need protection, but the Administration has nonetheless refused to classify these interventions as ‘essential’,” said attorney Joel L. Frank, legal counsel for PCCYFS.
“Juvenile offenders requiring rehabilitation to keep communities safe are also not included on this essential services list,” Frank said. “That the state receives federal money for many of these programs, but the Administration is refusing to make those existing federal funds, or the necessary state funds, available to counties to pay counties and service providers is frustrating, improper and violates a comprehensive federal and state statutory scheme enacted to protect and serve this specific population”.
“The state has a responsibility and a duty to fund these critical, essential programs,” said Alex Rahn, Wanner Associates and Government Affairs Consultant for PCCYFS. “The Administration’s failure to fund these programs – while at the same time claiming that child daycare subsidies are “essential” — is unacceptable and irresponsible public policy. This court action is designed to protect these vulnerable and at-risk populations. We will not stand by and allow the safety of children or our communities to be held hostage in this budget debate.”
Federal and state laws define the entitlements of children who have been abused or neglected. Services to ensure their ongoing safety, as well as the supports to be available to their families, are often also put into court orders. Many of these supports, including programs offered in the child’s home, foster family care and residential placement, are delivered through contracts between counties and private provider agencies. These services are clearly intended to be funded with designated public tax dollars.
Juvenile offenders who have been declared by the court to be in need of rehabilitation are another population of youth with entitlements to interventions. Those youth who present a threat to the safety of their community require placement interventions and are again primarily served through the private provider network. Although funding continues for some youth served in the State Youth Development Centers, services for youth presenting the same behaviors placed in private facilities are not.
Private agency staff are working every day to meet these legal and ethical expectations – many programs are staffed round the clock, seven days a week. The additional pressures of worrying about how to pay for the care, supervision, food and transportation for these children and youth by exhausting agency resources, taking out loans and staff layoffs are an unfair consequence to the agencies committed to this work. These services are absolutely essential to the health, safety, and protection of Pennsylvania’s children, are certainly required by federal and state laws and must be funded. PCCYFS is confident the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania will agree.
It appears that newspaper editorial departments across the state are offering their opinion on the state budget. Let me set the record straight — the legislature met its obligation to pass a balanced budget by the constitutionally required deadline.
The budget sent to Gov. Wolf on June 3 included $1 billion more for spending than the previous budget. Gov. Wolf chose to veto a budget that was balanced, did not raise taxes, and provided increased education funding. Notably, two-thirds of the line items were funded at or above the amount that the governor requested.
Gov. Wolf had the power to use what is called a line-item veto — he could have approved approximately 270 items, and he could have vetoed the rest. Instead he has left organizations in our communities scrambling to stay afloat because he insists on a tax-and-spend budget that exacerbates the problem that I continue to call attention to — Harrisburg does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.
Gov. Wolf claimed during his political campaign that he turned around his family business, which meant reining in costs and reducing waste. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen him show a willingness to perform his private sector business magic on Pennsylvania.
Our state is financially distressed and needs a turnaround governor, not a tax-and-spend governor.
I take my role as a state senator seriously. I serve on the Senate Appropriations Committee. I sat through 33 hearings on the budget covering 80 hours.
I have considerable private-sector business experience. The various companies that I own, along with thousands of other businesses in Pennsylvania, continue to withhold weekly payroll taxes from employee paychecks and send those taxes to Harrisburg weekly along with other taxes the companies pay, so the cash flow to Harrisburg continues.
Let me be crystal clear: I will not be voting for any additional tax increases. I will continue to beat on the table demanding accountability for the taxes everyone already pays.
I would ask editorial writers to do everyone a favor and stop blaming the legislature and point the blame to Gov. Wolf.
Over the last few weeks I have repeatedly read articles in various newspapers saying government-funded non-profit organizations and social programs are running out of money because the PA State budget did not pass on June 30.
These articles are misleading and deceptive.
As a small business owner, I know for a fact that cash continues to flow into Harrisburg.
How do I know this?
Since June 30, PA state taxes have continued to be deducted weekly from employee paychecks at my various companies.
In addition, these companies also continue to pay corporate and federal taxes.
I know for a fact that the cash flow into Harrisburg continues to be very strong and has not stopped because we are REQUIRED by the state to wire transfer Pennsylvania state taxes withheld weekly from our employees’ paychecks to Harrisburg.
Last Friday, August 14, one of the businesses I own issued 345 payroll checks and deducted $8,170 in employee withholding taxes.
Those withholding taxes will be wire transferred to the State of Pennsylvania today.
So far for 2015, we have sent $266,177 in employee deducted state taxes to Harrisburg.
In July, we purchased four waste collection trucks for a total of $918,477.
We paid Pennsylvania sales tax in the amount of $53,718 for the trucks which went to Harrisburg immediately.
We also paid $104,540 in federal excise taxes on those trucks.
The misleading information that is being fed to Pennsylvanians by the Wolf Administration makes me extremely angry and is an insult to Pennsylvanians that have payroll taxes deducted from their paychecks and it is also insulting to business owners all across Pennsylvania who continue to generate tax revenue each and every day.
It is a poor attempt to get the general public to think Governor Wolf’s budget proposal is the only option we have.
Guess what – there was another option.
Governor Wolf could have chosen to approve 270 line items for passage so cash flow would have continued to these agencies and organizations – he made the decision to veto the entire budget despite that option.
Governor Wolf made a huge mistake.
It is time Governor Wolf takes responsibility for his poor decision and put an end to the political games.
I’m curious – did you stop paying taxes on June 30?
For even good neighbors, the answer of course is “no,” and that’s OK, because compromising over differences of opinion is the essence not only of civility in general but also the public policy process in particular.
In that spirit, I am calling on Gov. Wolf to live as a better neighbor with the state legislature and sign the approved state budget into law. The legislature-approved budget matches the governor’s original proposal with equal or better funding for 270 of the 401 (67%) line items that make up the budget. This legislature-approved budget is fair, reasonable and responsible on behalf of the 12.7 million citizens of our great Commonwealth.
Instead, Gov. Wolf opted to veto the major and historic pieces of legislation passed by the legislature in June. Worse, since then, this governor has refused compromise with the legislature, thereby rendering state government reeling on the verge of shutdown as we slide through August.
In this case, the governor is in the wrong simply to veto all this legislation across-the-board, because it all is not exactly as he, but one person, wants. No bill is the proverbial “perfect,” and all of you as one individual citizen probably would make a change in some respect if given the option. Nonetheless, at some point decisions must be made, and the policy and political reality is one of legislation that has been crafted deliberatively after much consideration and debate in Harrisburg.
The legislature-approved budget:
• Caps at $30.18 billion, and checks the growth rate (from last year’s budget) below that of inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
• Remains balanced and rejects reckless borrowing and government debt.
• Turns down Tom Wolf’s proposed tax increase, the largest ever for Pennsylvania, including an unprecedented expansion of the sales tax as well as pushing up the personal income tax; voted down unanimously, Democrats and Republicans alike, by the House.
• Unmasks the governor’s property tax reduction claim as a phantom.
It also invests in education as it:
• Allocates $11 billion to education, the highest amount ever in Pennsylvania state education dollars.
• Equates to nearly 45% of spending being devoted to education (to include primary, secondary and higher education, as well as number of “small” slices not separately broken out on budget pie graph.
• Positions Pennsylvania’s per student spending at $15,535, considered well above the national average of $11,764, according even to the union: the National Education Association.
This ;budget was assed by the legislature on June 30 and vetoed by Gov. Wolf July 1
The status of Pennsylvania’s state owned liquor stores was addressed with House Bill 466 which
• Approves reform by both House and Senate for first time since end of Prohibition.
• Recognizes that running adult beverage sector fails definition of limited government.
• Allows ample opportunity for private sector markets to offer these products.
• Permits as well the direct shipment of wine, something long wanted by citizens.
• Creates better convenience, choice and cost for consumers.
This bill was passed by the legislature June 29 and vetoed by Gov. Wolf July 2
The necessary pension reform was addressed with Senate Bill 1 which
• Leverages $10 billion in savings for the taxpayers, and leads to new fiscal paths to prevent future pension crises.
• Acknowledges that current employees and retirees have paid their pension contributions.
• Applies bill provisions to new employees: enrolled into defined contribution/401-style plans rather than defined benefit plans.
• Legislators, including even current ones if re-elected (thereby becoming “new” state employees), and their staffs also no longer would be entitled to defined benefit plans.
• Plan demonstrates determination to demand fiscal prudence in fairness to the future of our kids and grandkids.
This was passed by the legislature June 30 and vetoed by Gov. Wolf July 9.
While all of us strongly hold our points of view, no one can reasonably expect to get one’s own way completely in life, let alone politics. Policy outcomes on behalf of the citizens must somehow balance the extraordinary array of interests and opinions in our large and politically diverse state. In the final analysis, what is called for is agreement on one budget, one set of laws, and one path forward that permits our one state government to serve the millions of citizens whom comprise Pennsylvania.
Tell Governor Wolf it’s time to reach across the backyard fence and compromise: Call him at 717-787-2500 or email him here.
Rep. Milne represents the 167th Legislative District in the Pennsylvania House. He is a professor of Political Science at West Chester University and has written academic papers on federalism and public sector management.[5] He also has worked as an organizational consultant and has gained international experience through business projects in countries throughout Asia, including China, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.
