Wolf’s Budget Proposal is Out of Touch with Constituents, Gleim Says

February 3, 2021

HARRISBURG – In another attempt to shift the public conversation from his failed vaccine distribution to anything else, Gov. Wolf today used his annual budget address to propose the highest Personal Income Tax hike in Pennsylvania history, said Rep. Barb Gleim (R-Cumberland). This budget is a non-starter. It not only raises taxes on middle-class Pennsylvanians, small businesses and critical infrastructure, but there is also no plan to get back to normal or what normal will look like. He gives a break to big business in a 1% Corporate Net Income Tax (CNIT) reduction, and taxes the small business community.

Afterward, Gleim issued the following statement:

“While my office continues to be inundated with cries for help with unemployment and vaccines – remember, the governor has not relaxed restrictions on most businesses and those employees remain at home with no paycheck – Wolf proposes a nearly $7 billion Personal Income Tax (PIT) increase which will tax struggling working-class families, along with the businesses that once provided them a paycheck.

“Recently, a frustrated constituent laid off from Chili’s restaurant due to COVID-19 emergency order restrictions, explained that for 12 weeks she tried to communicate to Wolf’s unemployment department, but there is no phone number that is answered, and her emails do not get responded to. She gets an automatic response that states her employer is the Chester County Intermediate Unit, which it is not. Her story is just one of hundreds that are similar. While the employees of the Unemployment Compensation section at Department of Labor and Industry are doing their best, the system is broken and this governor’s budget address does not reflect the concerns of my constituents. We need to get the vaccine out, get businesses back to work, which will raise tax revenue, and get kids in school.”

Among other things, the governor also proposes, again, a severance tax on natural gas. At the beginning of the pandemic, natural gas in our state was labeled critical infrastructure. These businesses make base ingredients for plastics, which are critical for personal protective equipment (PPE) and vaccine development and deployment, and Gleim said we shouldn’t be singling out an industry that is critical to our pandemic response.

“I believe that we can tie short-term relief with long-term solutions like ending endless emergency orders, fixing the UC Department’s system of application, and improving vaccine deployment, and we will be prioritizing these in our work this week.”

Representative Barbara Gleim
199th Legislative District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Charles Lardner
717.260.6443
clardner@pahousegop.com
RepGleim.com / Facebook.com/RepGleim