Wolf Exposed By Sen. Scott Wagner
This post is my first for 2016 – it is long – so please be patient – there are plenty of facts for you to read.
Before I get into that, I want you to know one thing – there is a huge difference between Governor Wolf and me.
Governor Wolf was born into an upper class family, he attended a private high school, attended Ivy League colleges and by all accounts, had a privileged upbringing.
He was also given an opportunity to buy his family’s business which was started over 100 years ago.
My background is much more humble – I grew up on a farm, graduated from Dallastown High School, and only attended college for one year.
In fact, I was not a very good student because I loved to work at my parents’ farm and neighboring farms, my uncle’s construction business, and I wanted to learn how things worked in the real world.
I started my first waste company from scratch over 30 years ago with two trucks and one other co-worker.
I drove the trucks for the first three months in business until we hired our first driver – and by the way, I still maintain my commercial drivers license and I can drive and operate any truck in our fleet.
Within 10 days after I started my first waste business, the new company was sued by Waste Management, and within 60 days we had accumulated over $100,000 in legal fees.
It took three years to pay off the legal fees to the two law firms that defended us.
Nothing has been handed to me – I have survived through at least five recessions starting with the 1980 recession when the prime interest rate went to 22 percent.
When I started my current waste company in 2000, I was again sued by the public company that I had sold my first company to three years earlier.
These lawsuits by public companies are routine in an effort to bury a small start-up competitor with legal fees and drive them out of business.
I am in an industry that is highly competitive, as are many other industries – smart business people are willing to compete as long as the competition is fair.
I had to learn to work hard, work smart, not to give up and to fight for things I believed in.
Defending what you believe in, whether it is starting a business, surviving in business, or defending a cause, fighting the fight is routine for me.
I fight for things I believe in because of my background and experience and I guess Governor Wolf does too. Unfortunately for the people of Pennsylvania, it seems all he believes in is scoring political points and raising taxes.
On June 30th of last year, the Republican House and Senate sent Governor Wolf a balanced and responsible budget that DID NOT increase taxes.
Governor Wolf chose to veto the budget completely – He DID NOT approve a single item.
Governor Wolf’s veto of the budget on June 30th and his continued fight over the budget until December 23rd when he approved certain items and vetoed others in another budget sent to him, may have set an historic record for his actions.
To be crystal clear, Governor Wolf has declared war on Republicans because he is not getting his union-friendly, liberal agenda approved.
Governor Wolf and his public sector union friends unleashed TV ads and sent mailers last summer bashing Republican lawmakers.
Last week more TV ads were aired again bashing Republican lawmakers.
It is time to take off the gloves with Governor Wolf and get out on the field and settle this once and for all.
Governor Wolf’s actions have caused hardships for many non-profits, charter schools, school districts, government entities and vendors.
In my Senate District, a charter school was going to close at the end of October if it did not receive funding.
I have not said much about the fact that I loaned money in October to a York City charter school to keep it from closing.
I will be loaning them an additional $169,869.73 this coming Wednesday so they are able to make payroll and pay necessary expenses – in total , I will have provided loans totaling $889,264.43 since Oct. 30.
I am borrowing from a personal line of credit and in turn, lending money to the charter school.
Why did I make the decision to lend money to this charter school?
It was simple – there were 530 students who would have been dumped onto the street and there are also almost 75 employees at the school, teachers and support staff who only wanted to do their jobs – unfortunately Governor Wolf did not care.
From July 1 to today this Charter School has not received any state funding even though Governor Wolf released funds to other schools in late December.
The first payment from the state that is anticipated to be received by the charter school is on Jan. 28 – the best estimate is that the school should receive more funding on Feb. 25.
It will take funding up to the end of March or April to get this school back on track with its finances and repay the loans to me.
Since July this school and others across the commonwealth have been held hostage by Governor Wolf – enough is enough.
Now let’s talk about Governor Wolf’s tax plan.
People need to be told that the tax increases Governor Wolf wanted for the 2015-16 budget were the equivalent of an additional two paychecks for a middle class family.
In fact, the Independent Fiscal Office looked at Gov. Wolf’s proposal and found that families in every income group – middle-class, rich, and poor – would all pay more.
Here is a link to download the report –
http://www.ifo.state.pa.us/download.cfm?file=/resources/PDF/Revenue_Proposal_Analysis_April2015.pdf
Pages 21, 25, 37, 38, and 43 describe more in depth the effects of Governor Wolf’s tax plan.
Governor Wolf continues to demand that the natural gas industry pay a severance tax.
Governor Wolf should get a copy of this past Saturday morning’s Wall Street Journal and maybe he would learn that oil closed this past Friday under $30 per barrel, a historic low, and the DOW dropped almost 400 points – natural gas pricing is also at historic lows.
Just last week, the following headlines appeared in several business publications:
| “Drug Firms Ring in Higher Prices” | Wall Street Journal – Monday, January 11, 2016 |
| “Kohl’s Weighs Sale or Split Up” | Wall Street Journal – Monday, January 11, 2016 |
| “Oil Drop Sparks Bankruptcy Fears” | Wall Street Journal – Tuesday, January 12, 2016 |
| “Arch Coal Files For Bankruptcy” | Wall Street Journal – Tuesday, January 12, 2016 |
| “Oil, at $31.41, Skids to 2003 Levels” | Wall Street Journal – Tuesday, January 12, 2016 |
| “CSX Revenue Hit By Coal Slump” | Wall Street Journal – Wednesday, January 13, 2016 |
| “PC Sales Decline to Historic Levels” | Wall Street Journal – Wednesday, January 13, 2016 |
| “Stocks Take Beating as Alarm Grows” | Wall Street Journal – Thursday, January 14, 2016 |
| “$15 Oil? It’s Already Here, in Canada” | Wall Street Journal – Friday, January 15, 2016 |
| “Wal-Mart to Shutter 154 Stores in US” | Wall Street Journal – Friday, January 15, 2016 |
| “Concerns are mounting over whether the U.S. economy and financial markets can withstand global weakness.” | Wall Street Journal on Friday, January 15, 2016 |
| “Wal-Mart’s Oakland Store Closure; Oakland’s Minimum Wage is Blamed” | Forbes – January 18, 2016 |
| “Oil Hits 2003 Low Below $28 as Iran Sanctions Lifted” | Rueters – January 18, 2016 |
I have been a private sector business owner for over 35 years and I can smell that a recession is beginning to develop.
The Democrats and the public sector unions need to get realistic and stop beating the drum that the Republicans are letting the oil and gas industry off the hook.
In addition, due to Governor Wolf’s close friend Barack Obama and his grand Obamacare plan, nearly every American is paying more for healthcare coverage.
Governor Wolf’s tax plan to help his public sector union friends is simple – “Wage War on Pennsylvania’s working middle class.”
My job as a Republican PA State Senator is to stop Governor Wolf from imposing more taxes on Pennsylvanians and to force him to focus on the out of control spending in Harrisburg.
On Feb. 9 Governor Wolf will deliver his 2016 – 2017 budget address and I can assure you he will be proposing tax increases – Governor Wolf has three years left in office and be assured every single year he will be looking for more tax increases before he is willing to address out of control spending.
My job is to fight the war for all Pennsylvanians and protect middle-class citizens.
Welcome to the arena Governor Wolf.
Sen. Wagner represents the 28th District in the Pennsylvania Senate.
One of the few decent legislators out there. Very commendable Sen. Wagner.
What’s really impressive is what Wolf has done personally to help the York City charter school. Can you see Katie McGinty or Wolf doing it? LOL.
Of course, if McGinty or Wolf did do it you’d see front page headlines in the Inquirer and week-long reportage on the nightly news throughout the states.
The Dems — and corrupt Republicans too — if the reporting was fair.
Obviously, there’s more than enough revenue. We just need to cut spending.