Zadylak Letter
June 30 has come and gone. The budget for Pennsylvania is not finalized. The legislature has to approve a balanced budget in which expenses shall not exceed the actual and estimated revenues and surplus available. The House devises revenue bills and the Senate can amend. A budget that is in the best interest of the people would be one that expenses equal income and would yield no tax increases.
The Senate just voted in the af?rmative to do the opposite. They voted to increase income to equal expenses. They decided that new and higher taxes and the imposition of fees would be a necessary course of action.
Where did they do the most damage? Utilities of course. How many of us read our utility bills thoroughly? We pay them because we have no choice. The Senate voted 26-24 to raise the tax on electric bills from 6 percent to 6.5 percent. They also voted to raise the tax on phone bills from 5 to 6 percent. In their finite wisdom, they took it upon themselves to impose a hefty tax on the consumption of natural gas.
If they have their way for every $100 spent on the use of natural gas a 5.7 percent tax would be charged. Guess which heating fuel is used in the majority of homes located in this state? You guessed it natural gas. The tax would cause the users of natural gas to find ways to alter their household budgets to pay the increase.
The Senate also voted to impose an extraction fee on gas companies that do business in this state. The fee would be placed on top of an impact fee now paid to the state. How do you say extortion?
Lastly, the Senate did something that would question their sanity. They decided that a 12 percent tax would be included in the purchase price of ?reworks sold in Pennsylvania. Talk about getting a piece of the action.
Now onto another revenue source to balance the budget.
They want to expand gaming so the machines are in thousands of venues so as to bring in revenue to the state. Did you take notice that when the state gets a cut in the profits the word gaming is used instead of gambling?
Just how bad is the budget that was passed by the Senate? Governor Tom Wolf supports it. We the people can only hope and pray that the members of the House of Representatives look at this budget as one that expands the size and scope of state government and would not be in the best interests of each and everyone of us. Daniel Webster once said, “An unlimited power to tax involves necessarily a power to destroy.”
Ed Zadylak
Connellsville