Ed “Spendell’s” New Taxpayer Swindle You name it, the governor will tax it Washington, D.C. – This week Gov. Ed Rendell (D), also know as Ed “Spendell, ” unveiled his budget plan for the new fiscal year that begins in July. The spending proposal would raise the state sales tax from 6 to 7 percent statewide and up to 8 percent in Philadelphia and Allegheny counties. Other tax increases include: imposing a new electricity consumption tax, imposing a new tax on certain employers, imposing a gross profits tax on oil companies, imposing a new tax on tobacco products, and hiking the cigarette tax. In addition to raising the sales tax by 16.7 percent, the $27.3 billion budget would tax electricity consumption at about 45 cents per month for the average household, skim $760 million off of oil companies’ profits for mass transit, impose a new 3 percent tax on employers that do not provide health benefits, and collect more tax dollars by taxing cigars and smokeless tobacco and by raising the cigarette tax 10 cents per pack.
“Maybe next year Gov. ‘Spendell’ should just use his budget as a list of taxes he does NOT want to raise. That would probably save his staff some time and paper,” said taxpayer advocate Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “Exploring public-private partnerships for transportation goals is commendable, but it’s hard to see the sunny clearing in the vast tax hike wilderness.” The governor’s budget does allot some of the revenue from the sales tax hike to help lower property taxes in the Keystone State. However, experience in other states has shown that unless local spending is restrained, local governments will spend the state revenue and continue to raise property taxes. “No one likes property taxes because, unlike a sales tax, the burden is visible to taxpayers. Charging people more for buying products in the state will not alleviate their burden, at best it will just shift it around,” continued Norquist. “I strongly urge lawmakers to ditch this tax hike budget and start from scratch.” Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) is a non-partisan coalition of taxpayers and taxpayer groups who oppose all federal, state and local tax increases. For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact John Kartch at (202) 785-0266 or at [EMAIL PROTECTED] ###
