As the budget impasse continues to drag on, Democratic Governor Tom Wolf took the opportunity during the County Commissioners’ Association Conference held in Harrisburg on Monday, to warn the attendees that counties will end up with higher human services costs, unless the Republican-controlled Legislature agrees to raise taxes, writes Marc Levy for the Daily Local News.
Addressing the several hundred officials gathered at the conference, Wolf said that more costs will be pushed from the state to the counties and among them, those for mental health and programs for substance abuse.
“We will continue to pay our bills late, if we pay them at all,” said Wolf during his speech. “However we will require in the sacred name of local control that you continue to do the things that we should have done for ourselves here in Harrisburg, and this of course means we’ll want you to pay for these things.”
The tax package proposed by Wolf includes an 11 percent income tax increase that would incur an additional $165 cost from anyone earning $50,000 a-year. Among his other ways to increase revenue, Wolf also proposed applying Pennsylvania’s 6 percent sales tax to both basic cable television services and tickets for movie theaters, as well as an increase in the state’s cigarette tax of $1 per pack.
Wolf also told the County Commissioners that the effect of the impasse is already being felt throughout the state, and as a result the state is short-changing the people when it comes to human services programs funding. Top Republican lawmakers however, want to deal with the budget deficit without tax increases.
The ongoing budget gridlock has already put billions of dollars in subsidies on hold for over two-thirds of this year, causing some school districts to borrow funds to pay their staff and has caused Penn State to consider closing its agricultural extension offices.
Read more about the Governor’s remarks on the Daily Local News here, and check out previous VISTA Today coverage of Pennsylvania’s budget crisis here.
