State Budget and Taxes

KRC/PBPC Insider News for the Week Ending Oct. 23, 2015

Posted by Anonymous on October 26, 2015 12:19 pm

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State House Majority Leader Dave Reed told Patriot-News/Pennlive.com Editorial Page Editor John Micek last week that the next few weeks will be critical in the ongoing state budget negotiations. Leader Reed said there is bipartisan support for more funding for education and a lot of interest in property tax relief. But there isn’t agreement yet on how these should be achieved. "We want to fix the structural deficit.

Why the Budget Matters: Way No. 4 -- Pre-Kindergarten Funding

Posted by Anonymous on October 22, 2015 4:23 pm

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Pre-K Expansion Would Enhance Educational Opportunity and Economic Growth and Pay for Itself Many Times Over

14,000 more children statewide would gain entrance into pre-kindergarten

KRC/PBPC Insider News for the Week Ending Sept. 4, 2015

Posted by Anonymous on September 8, 2015 11:05 am

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The Associated Press reported that Gov. Wolf is trying a new strategy as the state budget impasse extended into its ninth week – negotiating in private meetings with top Republican leaders instead of in brief but large gatherings with dozens of legislators and their staff. On Sept. 1, Gov. Wolf met at his official residence with Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman and House Majority Leader Dave Reed.

IFO Forecasts Lower Property Tax Revenue in Future

Posted by Anonymous on February 6, 2015 5:12 pm

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Act 1 may not be perfect, but it has slowed the growth of school property taxes. Since the passage of Act 1 in 2006, and its revision in 2011, the growth of school property taxes has moderated in Pennsylvania. A newly revised forecast from the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) shows more modest growth in coming years.

Shortsighted Policies Led to Pa.'s Money Woes

Posted by Anonymous on September 16, 2014 4:48 pm

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State Budget and Taxes

Pennsylvania is already short of money and borrowing to pay bills less than three months into a new budget year. And that's after transferring $225 million from other state funds in July.

State officials can't blame a natural disaster, unfortunate accident or month of unexpectedly low tax collections. Instead, the culprit is a built-in imbalance between revenues and expenditures triggered, in large part, by policymaker choices.

Tax revenues continue to nosedive in May. Now $174 million less than last year due to corporate tax cuts. 2014-15 shortfall continues to grow.

Posted by Anonymous on June 5, 2014 11:18 am

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State Budget and Taxes

For the sixth straight month, General Fund revenues fell short of estimate in May, missing the target by $108 million, or 5.5% for the month. The year-to-date revenue deficit grows to $613 million, or 2.3% below estimate (excluding the early transfer of liquor store profits in March). The deficit is now larger than the $581 million the Independent Fiscal Office had forecasted for the fiscal year just one month ago, as tax collections in nearly every category fell short of estimate in May.

1314 Revenue Tracker by Month May 2014

May 2014 Revenues to Estimate

May 2014 Revenues to Prior Year

STATEMENT: On the State of PA Budget Negotiations

Posted by John Neurohr on July 22, 2017 10:56 pm

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State Budget and Taxes

Marc Stier, Director of the PA Budget and Policy Center, made the following statement on the current state of PA budget negotiations:

"If news reports are accurate, enough members of the House Republican caucus heard the voices of their constituents who contacted them in the last 24 hours to demand new recurring revenues to balance the budget in a responsible way.

Drillers Are Right – PA Needs Tax Rate on Gas Like Other States: It’s Time for a Severance Tax

Posted by Stephen Herzenberg on July 21, 2017 9:06 pm

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In its recent letter to Speaker Mike Turzai, the Marcellus Shale Coalition points (in paragraph three) to the effective tax rate (ETR) on production as a key indicator of whether Pennsylvania should enact a severance tax in addition to the per-well impact fee we already have.

OK, let’s look at that ETR using Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) estimates of the ETR for 2011-16 and IFO estimates of prices and production to project the ETR (using IFO’s method) in 2017 and 2018.*

Public Investment and Economic Growth: Even the Commonwealth Foundation Gets It (Sometimes)

Posted by Marc Stier on July 21, 2017 8:49 pm

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A strange post a few days ago by Elizabeth Stelle of The Commonwealth Foundation seeks to undermine the case for a severance tax on natural gas drilling, but inadvertently explains exactly why we need new recurring revenues in the state.

Stelle first repeats once again — without evidence — the same tired argument that natural gas drillers “pay more in taxes and regulatory costs than producers in competing states.” Not once has anyone at the Commonwealth Foundation quantified those regulatory costs or attempted to respond to a series of papers put out by PBPC, including this most recent one, that show that natural gas drillers are not paying much, if anything, in corporate income taxes to Pennsylvania and are paying far less in taxes (and fees) here than in other states.

Speaker Turzai: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way

Posted by Marc Stier on July 20, 2017 9:47 pm

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State Budget and Taxes

The Pennsylvania Budget for Fiscal 2017-2018 is still not finished. Pennsylvanians deserve to know why and who is responsible. The answer is the House Republican Caucus led by Speaker of the House Mike Turzai, who refuses to accept any plan for funding the budget already passed by the General Assembly that includes new, recurring revenue — that is revenue that is generated year after year.

Third and State