Mar. 03, 2015
HARRISBURG – Rep. Jim Christiana (R-Beaver) issued the following statement today in response to Gov. Tom Wolf’s 2015-16 budget proposal:
“The governor today referred to his proposal as a starting point, and as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, I couldn’t agree more. He has thrown nearly every option on the table and it’s now our job to sift through his plan and determine what is truly beneficial for Pennsylvania’s taxpayers, schools, businesses and our economy. There are conservative ideas sprinkled throughout his proposal, which means there is plenty of opportunity for compromise in the coming months. With that said, the governor today repeated the tired myth that a loss of federal stimulus dollars four years ago was a cut to education funding by the General Assembly. This myth may have been helpful to win an election, but it’s not helpful in reaching across the aisle to build a budget. Instead, we should be focusing on fixing structural problems that drive our state spending plans year after year.
“Amidst all of his talk about new approaches, the governor did not address the cost drivers of government spending in key areas such as education, pensions and property taxes. Instead of reforming broken systems for future generations, he is simply suggesting the same old classic approach of using more government spending to direct the economy, which has never worked, and I am doubtful this team magically tripped across a new secret formula for success this time.
“The governor is pushing for a 20.5 percent income tax hike, a 10 percent sales tax hike, a 7.5 percent severance tax, all totaling over $4.5 billion in new state spending. He’s selling all of this in exchange for approximately $2 billion in property tax relief for residents next year. The governor is using property tax relief as a shiny object to distract from a massive tax increase, in an attempt to lure Pennsylvanians away from on-time, fiscally responsible state budgets with no tax increases, back to an era of out-of-control spending.”
Representative Jim Christiana
15th Legislative District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Abbey Haslam
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ahaslam@pahousegop.com
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