HARRISBURG -- After three months of a state budget impasse, Governor Tom Wolf has changed his budget proposal slightly. He continues to call for an income tax hike, but no longer calls for sales tax on more items.
Wolf is sending his new plan to the state Capitol, hoping for a vote from lawmakers.
The governor is no longer calling for sales taxes on more items, instead he wants to hike the state income tax 16 percent. Personal income tax would rise from 3.07 percent to 3.57 percent.
He still is pushing for a severance tax on natural gas, but says the current impact fee from the gas industry would remain intact.
"Pennsylvania needs critical revenue to fix our structural budget deficit without gimmicks. We need to make sure oil and gas companies pay their fair share so we can restore the drastic cuts made to education, and seniors and disabled households desperately need relief from skyrocketing property taxes that resulted from underfunding education," said Governor Wolf in a release. "If we do not fix our deficit, our credit rating will be downgraded to junk status and we will be forced to cut more funding from education. More education cuts will lead to the layoffs of more educators, further increases to class sizes and skyrocketing property taxes. We must get Pennsylvania's financial house in order and invest in our future."
He says this is all needed to balance the budget and increase funding for education.
In addition, the proposed budget expands property tax relief for seniors and disabled and eliminates school property taxes for them.
