Gov. Wolf praised
Gov. Tom Wolf is a man of surprises, certainly a type of Democrat to which the Commonwealth has not been accustomed.
He has proposed for starters, the far-fetched and seemingly impossible: halving the corporate income tax rate and eliminating the onerous capital stock franchise tax, initiatives which are so bold and revolutionary that not even any business-friendly Republican has sought to enact them in the past.
It is also reported that he will call for the following in his upcoming budget address: halving the school property tax, this to be paid for by increasing the state income tax from 3.07 percent to 4.07 percent, boosting the state sales tax to 6.6 percent (and to 7.6 percent in Philadelphia and Allegheny Counties), and extending it to clothing and professional services, and bringing Pennsylvania into line with every other state in taxing cigars and smokeless tobacco.
I regret that the governor is not going all the way on onerous and haphazardly assessed property taxes by proposing a means to eliminate them in a swap with other taxes, but his proposal is a start and he is on the right track.
A governor rarely gets everything that he wants in a budget address, but it is clear that Tom Wolf is an intelligent, skillful, and thoughtful man, a leader whose initiatives are worthy of serious consideration. He has wisely extended his hand across the aisle and is seeking to throw bones to the GOP to lure its members to provide support. The Republican majorities in the General Assembly have an obligation to evaluate that which he puts forth which can benefit the electorate without looking at it through a partisan lens.
Oren M. Spiegler
Upper Saint Clair