Information provided by Rep. David Millard

The House Appropriations Committee last week launched a website which provides information on how the Commonwealth’s taxpayers in each school district would fare under Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed property tax shift plan. If fully implemented, the governor’s plan would raise $8 billion in new taxes by 2016-17, but put only $3.6 billion toward property tax relief. The website shows that taxpayers in approximately 400 of the state’s 500 districts would pay more in personal income and sales taxes than they would receive in property tax relief.

The plan, as proposed, would negatively impact every taxpayer in Columbia and Montour counties. The following is the estimated net impact in the area’s school districts.

•    Benton Area School District: $179,776 in additional taxes.
•    Berwick Area School District: $825,471 in additional taxes.
•    Bloomsburg Area School District: $3,118,377 in additional taxes.
•    Central Columbia School District: $3,732,331 in additional taxes.
*    Danville Area School District: $6,377,761 in additional taxes.
•    Millville Area School District: $812,686 in additional taxes.
•    Southern Columbia Area School District: $2,499,332 in additional taxes.

Chamber President Fred Gaffney participated in a conference call with chambers from across Pennsylvania last week to continue the discussion of Gov. Wolf’s budget proposals. Among the concerns are audacious tax increases and revenue projections in the face of weak economic growth, and the lack of any reform to the public pension systems. A policy statement on the Governor’s plan is being developed.

From PA Chamber of Business & Industry

Last Tuesday, March 3, Gov. Tom Wolf gave his first budget address before a joint session of the General Assembly. The plan calls for nearly $34 billion in total spending for the 2015-16 fiscal year, an increase of 16 percent over the current year’s spending.

Most concerning to the PA Chamber is that the budget plan fails to offer any real solutions for addressing a $50 billion and growing pension crisis that will place enormous financial burdens on every Pennsylvania taxpayer if nothing is done. In a press release issued the same day as the budget address, PA Chamber President Gene Barr warned that pension obligations will grow by $1 billion over the next three years alone and stressed the urgency for substantive pension reform in order to protect the Commonwealth’s economic stability and competitiveness.

In order to fund billions in additional spending, Governor Wolf is calling for increases in many employer taxes – including increases in the sales and personal income tax rates and expanding the sales tax base to many additional goods and all professional services. And while the PA Chamber applauds the governor’s efforts to reduce Pennsylvania’s Corporate Net Income Tax rate – which at 9.99 percent is the highest in the nation – there are concerns about his call to institute unitary combined reporting which would create a more confusing, unpredictable and costly tax climate for job creators.

Lastly, the PA Chamber has already voiced opposition to Governor Wolf’s plan to institute another tax on the natural gas industry. Replacing the current impact tax with the governor’s proposed five percent severance tax would take money that’s currently being directed to local communities and put it into the General Fund for Harrisburg to spend. Furthermore, a higher tax on Pennsylvania’s fastest-growing industry would have a direct negative impact on core and ancillary jobs and would harm our state’s competitive advantage in the shale play.

The Columbia Montour Chamber will be working closely with the PA Chamber to address concerns with the Governor’s proposals and is also attempting to schedule a local budget briefing with a representative of the Wolf Administration for members.