Senator Corman’s hypocrisy
In one of his dopey television commercials that is on television in my area, Republican gubernatorial hopeful state Sen. Jake Corman boasts of fighting “Wolf’s taxes.”
I would first note that there has been no increase in the sales or income tax during Tom Wolf’s term.
More importantly, Pennsylvanians should know that Senator Corman had a role in thrusting one of the largest tax increases in history upon us. He was among the 41 state senators who voted for a massive pension enhancement in 2001 at a time that pension funds were in surplus, a surplus that was obviously burning a hole in our representatives’ pockets.
The deal provided a retroactive 50% increase for state legislators and 25% for state employees and public school teachers. Legislators may now retire after 33 1/3 years of service with a pension that is virtually 100% of their final salaries, a perverse and wrong incentive to serve for life, something which the Founding Fathers did not envision.
Soon thereafter and in part due to the terrorist attack on our country of 2001, the pension funds’ investments declined and a shortfall ensued. To make matters worse, governors and legislators provided tax holidays to school districts which ultimately caused a deficit of tens of billions of dollars to accumulate. We are now in the process of paying the piper for the General Assembly’s largesse. Our onerous school taxes have ballooned because efforts to make up the shortfall in pension monies has had to be accomplished by imposing a massive hike in what school districts are required to contribute to the funds.
If presumed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro faces Jake Corman in the general election, I wonder if the Attorney General will reference “Corman’s taxes” (and his greed).
Oren Spiegler
Peters Township