Headline: Governor Wolf Proposes Largest Ever PA Tax Increase to Improve Education

Author: Madison Kwiecinski, News Editor

On Wednesday, February 3, Governor Tom Wolf proposed his budget for the 2021-2022 fiscal year, which included a 3.78 billion dollar spending plan. Wolf is asking the state legislature for a large boost in funding for public schools, for the legalization of recreational cannabis, and for approval of the first major tax increase in nearly two decades.

The extensive spending increase would mainly go toward public education and include an effort to more evenly distribute funding throughout the country.

The Governor wants to raise the personal income tax from 3.07 percent to 4.49 percent, the largest increase he has ever proposed. However, the proposed tax increase would expand the exemption bracket for the lowest wage earners.

“This isn’t about pitting the rich against the poor and the middle class,” Wolf said. “This is about asking folks who have already made it to shoulder a little more of the burden.”

PA Republicans have already shown deep disapproval of the proposed plan.

“The budget he is presenting is completely unsustainable, totally irresponsible, and absolutely crippling to the state’s economy,” said Jake Corman, the PA Senate’s top Republican. “Now is not the time to ask Pennsylvanians to send more of their hard-earned dollars to Harrisburg.”

The coronavirus has impacted income for households across the state this past year, and continues to do so. Republicans have used the ongoing pandemic as another reason for opposition to the tax increase.

Senator Pat Browne wrote in a statement, “The governor could not have picked a worse time to propose a 46.3 percent increase in the personal income tax given the struggles Pennsylvanians continue to face during the worst pandemic of our lifetime.”

The Governor has said that he believes his budget blueprint will make the state’s education system fairer and its tax structure more equitable for those reeling from the financial blows of the pandemic.

The Governor’s tax plan also puts a large focus on public education and will increase funding by 1.35 billion dollars. The increase in school funding would be covered by the tax increase, but the Wolf administration says that only the top one-third of earners will pay more because the proposal expands exemptions and tax forgiveness.

The Governors tax increase would also allocate 25 million dollars to the Erie School District annually, a huge increase that is reflective of the Governor’s promise to increase school funding.

Wolf wants to run all state funding for Pennsylvania’s 501 school districts through the state’s fair-funding formula, which would benefit larger, urban school districts such as Erie’s.

According to data released by the Pennsylvania Department of Education on Wednesday, the proposed budget increase for the Erie School District would mean about 23 million dollars more in basic education funding for the 2020-21 level, or an increase of about 28 percent, and about a 2.3 million dollar increase in special education funding, an increase of about 20 percent.

Governor Wolf wants to move quickly on this tax reform, saying there is no other time like now. In the midst of the pandemic, with many families struggling, there is no reason to wait to lower taxes for low tax bracket individuals or improve education state-wide.

“I refuse to tell any young family in Pennsylvania that they just happen to be starting out at the wrong time – that, with everything going on, 2021 just isn’t going to be the year we get around to lifting the barriers that stand between them and the future they hope to provide for their children,” Governor Wolf said. “Most of all, I think your family’s future is important enough that we ought to just have this argument right now instead of putting it off until next year, and the year after that, and the year after that.”