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Although the flash and bang of the Fourth’s fireworks are no more than memories and the long holiday weekend is over, Harrisburg could be noisy place this week as budget talks are set to resume.
The June 30 deadline passed without a new spending plan in place for the 2015-2016 fiscal year. Last week Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, vetoed the $30.1 billion budget submitted by Republican lawmakers who make up the majority in the General Assembly. The governor dismissed it for failing to address the issues of adequately funding public education through the passage of severance tax on the natural gas industry, property tax reform and erasing a structural deficit of more than $1 billion.
The standstill drew responses from a number of groups, urging the administration and lawmakers to put aside partisan differences and negotiate with the interests of the citizens and the future of the Commonwealth at heart.
• Common Cause, a government watchdog group, advocated for a reform of the budget process that would penalize lawmakers for missing the deadline. The group, which first called for such reforms in 1991, proposed giving lawmakers ample time to review a budget, seek experts’ advice before voting, opening the process up to the public under the Sunshine Law and automatically continuing the prior year’s budget if the deadline passes while requiring the governor, cabinet secretaries and all legislators to forfeit their salaries until a new one is enacted.
Since the state budget affects every single government agency and program, it also affects every single Pennsylvania citizen, making it, arguably, the most important bill the legislature and executive branch deal with each year. The General Appropriations Act is the only constitutionally mandated law that the General Assembly is required to enact. Yet in most years it becomes a partisan power-play instead of a game plan for managing a modern democracy.
“What a concept” said Nancy Gippert, chair of Common Cause/PA, “actually allowing every citizen’s elected officials to read, understand, and weigh in on the most important bill passed each year before the vote is taken.”
• Pennsylvania Growing Greener Coalition, a mixture of groups advocating for funding to conservation, protection and restoration of habitat for wildlife, farms and historic places, said:
“Using revenues from a severance tax to address Commonwealth needs, like education and environmental initiatives makes sense. Given the impact of natural gas development on local communities and the environment, a portion of this revenue should be earmarked to conserve, protect, and restore land, water and wildlife, to preserve farms and historic places, and to provide well-managed parks and recreational areas throughout the state.
“The Governor’s proposed budget contains many elements our Coalition supports; including increasing investments in renewable energy, increased funding for state agencies, such as the Department of Environmental Protection, whose responsibility is to protect and enhance the environment, and reducing the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources dependence on revenue from the Oil and Gas Lease Fund.”
• PA Alliance for Retired Americans, an advocacy group that aims to keep seniors and the public informed about retiree issues, supported the governor’s veto of the Republican proposal. Group president Wayne Burton said:
“The proposed budget ignores the historic statewide victory won by Governor Wolf last fall as he campaigned on restoring education funding and education equity to our public schools, the severance tax and ending the budget gimmicks that were the hallmark of most (Gov. Tom) Corbett budgets. In addition to being good policy, these proposals enjoy widespread public support. The PA Alliance supports his proposals to increase the minimum wage and provide property tax relief for seniors by shifting to other taxes.”
• 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, a non-partisan statewide and regional community development organization, sided with the governor and pushed for a bi-partisan plan that includes a severance tax:
“The notion that out-of-state gas companies can extract natural resources from under our lands, profit heavily from doing so, and pay no tax toward the statewide public good (beyond a small ‘local impact fee’) is simply untenable both environmentally and fiscally. These companies can and do expect to pay a reasonable tax on their production and profits; indeed they do in every state other than Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania residents whose homes are heated or use electricity generated by natural gas suppliers from outside the state are also paying a severance tax— a severance tax from some other state that is being passed on to them by their gas company.”
• PA Working Families director Kati Sipp added to the call for a severance tax to pay for the governor’s increased spending on public education:
“These Republican legislators believe that drillers should be able to come into our state, cause environmental damage to Pennsylvania communities, and not even pay a 5% tax to cover the billion dollars in education funding that their Republican governor cut, with their support. It’s their mess, and they don’t want to make a serious effort to clean it up.
“They also failed to include anything on raising PA’s minimum wage above $7.25, which both parties have agreed must be done. Wolf’s proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 is a smart policy that will lift workers out of poverty and put money back into the economy.”
• Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association opposed a severance tax and its president and executive director Louis D. D’Amico criticized the governor for unfairly singling out the industry:
“It is unfortunate that the governor has made a severance tax on natural gas production his primary line the sand in the debate over the budget. The Commonwealth doesn’t tax something to spur its growth. The severance tax would be no different. Why not place an excise tax on Gov. Wolf’s former cabinet making business to help fund education? If the governor opposed that idea because of its negative effect on the sale of cabinets, would he be against education and children? Of course not, but that’s what he says about severance tax opponents. This shows how disingenuous his argument is. The same applies to his ‘we’re the only state without a tax on drillers’ argument. We do have one – but it’s called an ‘impact fee’ instead of a ‘severance tax.’ PIOGA would not oppose legislation to rename it what it is … a tax.”
“The jobs and general state taxes our industry and its supply chain businesses provide for education are the real links between natural gas production and education. Drillers pay the same taxes other businesses and industries pay – as well as the special impact tax – so drillers are already paying more than their fair share. If the current general state tax structure that provides education funding uses DOES NOT require companies to pay their fair share, then no business is paying ITS fair share. Another new, special tax on one industry is not ‘fair’ by any rational measure. PIOGA and other industry participants also support and provide assistance to teachers and educational institutions to help prepare our children for careers in the energy field.”