PA GOP: Rendell Misses Opportunity to Cut Taxes for Working Families

HARRISBURG, Penn., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- In his annual budget address today, Governor Ed Rendell continued to show he's out of touch with working families by forgoing a Republican plan to cut individual income taxes, while proposing a budget that would increase state spending by more than $800 million.

"Whether it's tax hikes, raising fees or increasing the cost of doing business in state government, Gov. Rendell continues to put heavier burdens on Pennsylvania's working families," said Acting Republican State Committee Chairwoman Eileen Melvin. "Given it was his 'Plan for a New Pennsylvania' that created a 10 percent increase in the state's income tax, it would only be fitting that he at least entertain an opportunity to give something back to the people of Pennsylvania."

Republican leaders in the General Assembly have crafted a "Playbook for Progress" that creates a clear path towards a fiscally responsible government that will create jobs, make our neighborhoods safer, protect our environment and improve the quality of life for future generations of Pennsylvanians. The centerpiece of the "Playbook" would use the state's projected $300 million surplus to cut the state's Personal Income Tax.

In Gov. Rendell's New Pennsylvania, individuals are paying close to $1,000 more per year to fund government operations. He has enacted a staggering $1 billion in new taxes on everything from Pennsylvanian's hard earned income to the businesses that employ them. Over the past year, the governor has supported raising fees by a whopping $110 million on everything from emissions stickers to tires to personal driving records.

Gaming executives will soon start to collect millions in revenues from new slot machines, while working families won't receive a dime in property tax relief until 2007 at the earliest. The governor has also delivered $42 million in state grants for his friends at Comcast to finance their new headquarters.

There isn't much good news on the job front either.

Forbes magazine recently ranked the commonwealth 45th in the nation in job friendliness. Since Governor Rendell took office, Pennsylvania's once proud manufacturing industry has lost jobs nearly every month -- more than 6,000 manufacturing jobs in the last nine months alone. Instead of embracing tax cuts and relieving manufacturers of job-crushing government regulation, Gov. Rendell's inexplicable solution was to propose a tax that would hit manufacturers the hardest.

"Working families deserve something better than Gov. Rendell's New Pennsylvania," Melvin said. "I call upon the governor to reevaluate his position and support the Republican Playbook for Progress. Pennsylvanians want and deserve lower taxes. It's as simple as that."