Rep. Schroder: Democrats will push massive tax hike

A guest column by Chester County state Rep. Curt Scroder on the games Gov. Ed Rendell and House Democrats are playing with the state's fiscal crisis:

State spending threatens huge tax increase

The state Senate is under attack for passing a budget that lives within existing revenues and raises no taxes. In fact, Senate Bill 850 accurately reflects the state's economic realities and the kinds of sacrifices that will be necessary to arrive at a constitutionally mandated balanced budget.

The taxpayers of this commonwealth need to know what is at stake.

We are facing an unprecedented $3 billion budget deficit. In order to restore all of the cuts that have been proposed in the Senate plan, a broad-based tax increase of record proportions would be necessary.

Neither Gov. Ed Rendell nor House Democratic leaders are sharing this fact with the public. Day after day, the governor and his supporters attack specific cuts in the Senate's budget plan, while setting the table for a huge tax increase.

Interestingly, many of the reductions included in the Senate plan were proposed in the governor's budget bill. Unfortunately, the governor's proposed cuts were offset by spending increases in other areas, resulting in a proposed budget that spends $705 million more than the year before. Sharply declining revenue has made even the governor's original budget out of balance and unsustainable.

Last year, before passage of the current budget, we were warned by Senate budget analysts that the proposed spending plan would result in a $1 billion deficit this year. They warned that revenue estimates were too high and unrealistic, and one-time revenue sources were being used. I rejected that budget, as did 31 of my House colleagues.

Our current economic crisis could have been avoided if Pennsylvania's spending increases had stayed within the rate of inflation during the Rendell years.

Under Rendell, the state budget has increased nearly 40 percent — double the rate of inflation. Had we held spending to a modest 3 percent in each of the past six years, our spending would be in line with the revenues coming in today. Our budget would be balanced, important programs would be retained and there would be no danger of a tax increase.

Instead, we are in a budget crisis. We are left with no easy choices, but the choices are clear. We must live within our means or prepare for a major tax increase. I will not vote for a tax increase, and I challenge those members of the General Assembly who are critical of efforts to budget responsibly to come clean with taxpayers and let them know which taxes they will raise in order to pass a budget that restores spending to the levels proposed by the governor.

REP. CURT SCHRODER
R-155th Legislative District