3/13/17
by News Department on 03/13/17PA Budget...
With three weeks of budget hearings behind them, Pennsylvania's big Republican legislative majorities now have months of budget-making ahead of them.
For now, top Republicans are saying what they said last year, a tax increase is a last resort. That was before they approved a tax package anchored by an additional $1 per-pack excise tax on cigarettes.
Last month, Gov. Tom Wolf delivered his third budget plan to lawmakers, his first plan not to propose an increase in income or sales tax rates, seeking a smaller increase in spending — $1 billion.
The tax package would end Pennsylvania's status as the only major natural-gas production state not to tax it, a tax that Republicans have rejected for nearly a decade.
The package also would close what the administration characterizes as tax loopholes for out-of-state corporations, custom software sales, insurance policies and commercial storage.
