Pennsylvania tax hike details fuzzy as possible vote looms

Lawmakers are under increasing pressure from social services organizations and school districts that are cut off from their state funding due to the budget impasse.

The Congressional Budget Office says that the bill will cause $1,205,146,000,000 in federal outlays between now and September 30. “Obviously that’s not possible given the vote today”, he said after Saturday’s House vote.

The state House voted 149 to 52 on Saturday against the proposal to put newly hired teachers and state workers into a hybrid system made up of a traditional pension along with a 401(k)-style benefit.

“Let’s take steps – as the legislation we’ll consider proposed – to support more jobs, more opportunity, and more economic growth”, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on the Senate floor.

Wolf’s press secretary Jeff Sheridan told The Associated Press on Friday morning that the office was confident that forthcoming tax legislation will pass the House and cap Wolf’s quest for a record increase in public school aid and money to close a long-term budget deficit.

House Republican majority leaders turned against a bipartisan tax and spending package, and challenged the Democratic governor to come up with enough rank-and-file House GOP support to get it through the chamber. GOP leaders hope to produce tax and health care overhaul measures next year, fully expecting vetoes from a Democratic president but savoring the campaign-season opportunity to fire up conservative voters.

The ranking Democrat, Rep. Joe Markosek of Allegheny County, said the changes would require $20 million in computer, legal and consulting costs and will not provide any savings for the current budget or help pay down the pension debt any sooner.

The measure is expected to include some increase in the personal income tax, an expansion of the sales tax, and higher cigarette taxes.

A $30.8 billion budget would increase spending by about 6 percent. We need a full year budget. It had earlier swept through the House on a pair of decisive votes on Thursday and Friday, marking a peaceful end to a yearlong struggle over the budget, taxes, and Republican efforts to derail his regulatory agenda.

Rep. Stephen Barrar, R-Delaware, said the size of the tax increase being requested by Wolf had shrunk dramatically since his multibillion-dollar request in March and that it was important that the stalemate come to an end. Wolf criticized it then as shortchanging public schools and using gimmicks to balance.