Posted on 02/02/2021 11:23:22 AM PST by lightman
Gov. Tom Wolf’s 2021-22 budget proposal contains the largest increase in education spending Pennsylvania has ever seen along with a sizable increase in the state’s personal income tax rate.
While the governor is proposing to raise the income tax for the first time in nearly two decades, some of the new money would be directed to provide tax relief for lower income families and some tax-shifting at the local level.
According to sources, the governor will be proposing hiking the 3.07% personal income tax rate rise to 4.49%, starting July 1. That would be the first time it has increased since 2003. An increase of that size in the personal income tax would raise more than $3 billion annually.
There are nine states with flat tax rates like Pennsylvania currently range from 3.07% in Pennsylvania to 5.25% in North Carolina. With this proposed increase, it would push Pennsylvania into the seventh spot out of nine with only Indiana at 3.23% and Michigan at 4.25% being lower.
The budget proposal seeks to address the inequities created by the state’s flat personal income tax rate by expanding the tax forgiveness credit, according to an administration official. Filers with incomes at or below these thresholds – $15,000 for single filers; $30,000 for married filers; and $10,000 allowance for each dependent – will receive total 100 personal income tax forgiveness. The percentage of tax forgiveness declines by 1 percentage point for each $500 above the threshold for 100 percent forgiveness.
So families with two children making less than $84,000 will receive a tax cut while a family of four making $50,000 will have their taxes eliminated.
It appears the governor’s budget proposal also attempts to boost overall state spending to $37.7 billion which is what the state’s Independent Fiscal Office indicated is necessary to maintain spending at current levels. This year’s general fund budget totals $33.1 billion in state spending with $3.4 billion in federal stimulus funding to help soften the blow from the pandemic recession.
More than $1.3 billion raised from a higher income tax would go to basic education funding, boosting that total to about $8.1 billion. Most of that would go through the 5-year-old funding formula designed to iron out inequities in how Pennsylvania funds the poorest public schools as well as to allow for some tax-shifting off local revenue sources, according to sources.
Wolf is proposing to increase funding for special education by $200 million, to a total $1.4 billion, and the total increase in funding for public schools could approach $2 billion, according to the Associated Press.
The governor is proposing to reduce the 9.99% corporate net income tax and impose a severance tax on natural gas drillers. Pennsylvania is the only major gas-producing state that doesn’t have a severance tax on the product at present; instead, the state imposes an impact fee that is assessed on each drill site. According to the state’s Independent Fiscal Office, the 2020 impact fees equaled an effective tax rate of 3.3%. (West Virginia’s rate, by comparison, is 5%.)
Wolf’s budget proposal also is expected to revive Nelly Bly scholarship program designed to help low- and middle-income full-time students who attend a Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education university. It would be funded by the Race Horse Development Trust Fund, which receives money from slots gaming in Pennsylvania casinos.
He also once again wants to impose a fee on municipalities that rely on the state police for police coverage, and raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour and ratchet up by 50 cents a year until it reached $15.
The Democratic governor will need approval from the Republican-controlled General Assembly to approve his spending plan and his proposals to raise the state income tax and increase the minimum wage.
I’m sure NJ teachers are paid more - for 180 part-time days of work.
So families with two children making less than $84,000 will receive a tax cut while a family of four making $50,000 will have their taxes eliminated.
If the writer graduated from a Pennsylvania public school, that doesn't say too much about about Pennsylvania public schools.
Gots to give money to them folks in big cities who ALWAYS vote dem don’t ya know?
“ But everybody is being schooled from home.”
Yes, but even so, teachers got a “snow day” here in northern Virginia. Wrap your head around that one.
We’re already giving away over a trillion a year in Welfare
and other freebies.
Now this knuckle-dragger wants to raise taxes by HOW MUCH?
Here: Get an eye full of this.
https://beverlypress.com/2020/11/lausd-serves-75m-meals-in-covid-19-relief-effort/
Gosh, what a surprise! Not.
“An increase of that size in the personal income tax would raise more than $3 billion annually.”
Someone please remind me the last time a prediction about how much a new tax would “raise” to the government was actually correct?
“Penna is a blue state now. They won’t mind paying extra taxes. It’s for the children.”
Not really. We’re “blue” only if you count the fraudulent votes and dead people. Which, of course, politicians do.
“All public school teachers are grossly overpaid.”
________________________________________________
Not all, but definitely some are. For example a long term gym teacher making near 100K-absolutely disgusting pay.
Let me show you the sh!t my wife has to deal with,or better yet, maybe you should spend some time in her shoes. For what she makes, I bet you’d sing a different tune.
THERE IS NO WAY I WOULD TAKE HER JOB FOR HER PAY!!!
Never, never,never, no way in H3ll!
Administration, parents, lawyers, bratty kids, and state politics render MOST teachers hamstrung.
They’re supposed to make silk purses outta sows ears, with 2 hands tied behind their backs.
The GOP needs to win the governor’s race in 2022, or we won’t win in 2024.
They have to write that for the stupid that think higher taxes are a good thing.
Government should be cut. MASSIVELY. Every school teacher deserves a 30% pay cut. They are a bunch of leftists. So screw them. Business taxes should be completely eliminated. The temporary sales abolished. (Yeah, it was supposed to be temporary.) Personal income taxes should be lowered to 1%. I'm being generous, because I really don't think anyone working in Harrisburg is worth a dime.
Obviously the author is a product of Pennsylvania's public schools.
GOP LOL, LOL, LOL give me a damn break GOP is useless a GOP winning is Dem lite!! WAKE UP!!
This is nothing more than a payoff to the teacher’s unions for their unwavering support. It has nothing to do with actually improving education. The only thing that will do that would be to get government out of education at all levels.
Wanna bet? I guarantee that Republicans will cave and there will be higher taxes. Maybe not all of what the Wolf wants, but definitely some. Republicans do not know how to fight. They do not know how to win. They are pussies. Oh, and by the way, when is the Republican control legislature going to fix election fraud in PA? Screw them. I am never voting for a Republican again - not that it matters, because my vote doesn't count.
Bull crap. Your wife belongs to a leftist school teacher’s union that fights against everything I stand for. The quality of education has not increased one iota, but school taxes constantly increase. If a teacher belongs to a union then they need to be lumped into the same pile of excrement as all the teachers.
PA’s constitution does not permit a graduated tax. Using a tax forgiveness credit to vary tax rates smells like a graduated tax. It should not hold up in court except that the PA courts are corrupt. I don’t think the legislators would pass this increase. There is not much love between the republican legislator and the governor.
Pensions and health bennies are a far bigger problem than salaries.
As a Border Patrol Agent I also belong to a leftist union that supports things I stand against and work to prevent. My wife and I are both in unions that we because of the lawyers that they provide in case we are sued or in my case prosecuted.
Not everyone in a union likes it, but we don’t have much choice. Getting a lawyer to defend ourselves in court would more than likely bankrupt us.
Raising taxes.
No, no, lemme guess. He’s a demonrat.
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