First off, good job by Governor Wolf. He absolutely had to get education money, and he got it. He also got help for the pension system and seniors being crushed by property taxes. He did have to let the Republicans off the hook on the severance tax on natural gas, which is ridiculous, but that's the price he had to pay. The bottom line is that the budget makes good on his promises to Pennsylvania, even if that issue gets kicked down the road. He did well here. Legislative Democrats should vote for this deal. He didn't give in on liquor stores, or killing pensions, and they didn't cave on taxing the drillers. Yet, the people who needed help now got it.* The sales tax would be raised to 7.25 percent, generating about $2 billion to be used to create a new fund for property tax cuts. All the money raised from the higher sales tax levy would be restricted to that purpose.* Taxes collected from the state's 12 casinos that now go for property tax reductions - $616 million in fiscal 2014 - would be re-purposed to help pay the state's ballooning pension system contributions.* That shift of the slots money, in turn, would free up dollars in the state's general fund that could be used for increases in state aid to public schools, public universities and other needs.Wolf administration sources noted Monday they've received commitments from GOP leaders that control commanding majorities in the state House and Senateto increase the main state aid line to public schools by $350 million this year,plus another $50 million in additional funding for special education.Wolf had initially asked for $520 million in new funding for those lines; the GOP-drafted budget that the governor vetoed contained about $110 million. The new package is $400 million, with the promise of another round of increases in 2016-17, administration sources said.
Next year is a critical election year. More Republican gains in the legislature, which could happen under the gerrymandered map we have, would embolden them to push for a better deal in the future. The agreement we got here is a fair one, but it could be improved upon, quite frankly. Bringing our taxation on gas drilling up from the 1% impact fee to a level that at least matches places like Alaska and Texas would allow the state more room to breathe. Democrats should help pass this budget, and then take their case to the people for future budgets.
How do you know he didn't give in on liquor privatization? Everybody else with any real contacts or insight says it is still in play.
ReplyDeleteIt is "in play," with no chance of passage. My information is from several Democratic legislators. The agreement is for all the items that were released- education funding, pensions, and property tax relief- and all of them must be in any deal. If the Republicans can get 102 House votes and 25 Senate votes for a budget with all of these items in it, and they get privatization in both budgets, the Governor isn't signaling he'll veto that budget. That seems like a long-shot. My understanding is they don't have 102 Republican House votes or 25 Senate Republican votes, with or without privatization, and need Democratic votes. My understanding is that he won't sign full privatization as a stand alone bill. My guess is there will be regulatory reforms on the LCB, but not the wholesale changes that some hope for. It's also not all done yet, either.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, "in play" does not imply he has "caved" on this issue. I'm not sure who you mean by "everybody else with any real contacts or insight," as the PennLive article linked to above states pretty clearly that this part of the agreement is far apart. Yes, PoliticsPA described it as "in play," and I'd call that a fair description. It's not as close as you seem to want it to be though.
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