Columnist: At least 1 RINO willing to back Rendell tax hike

John Baer of the Philadelphia Daily News has found a Republican state House member willing to support Gov. Ed Rendell's call for a 16-percent tax hike for Pennsylvania families and small business owners.

No surprise that he is Rep. Dennis O'Brien, the Philadelphian who served as Speaker of the House under Democratic control of the House from 2007-09. O'Brien may be registered as a Republican, but his is a RINO who always votes with Rendell.

That still leaves 98 Republicans who would probably oppose the tax hike. A defection by a few Democrats would give the GOP the 102-vote majority it needs to kill the $4.5 billion Rendell tax hike.

From Baer's column:

Selling higher taxes in the current political and economic environment might be the toughest task Rendell's faced to date.

Even an urban House Democrat supportive of the governor tells me, "There will be an endgame here, but it won't include the income tax."

Read the full column, "Tax-hike plan hitting GOP wall, for now," at the newspaper's Web site.