“It’s time for Secretary Tom Wolf to stop hiding and be open and transparent about how much his Fresh Start platform will cost and exactly how much he plans to raise Pennsylvanians taxes to get the funding. If his plan is so good, why is he afraid to disclose critical details about how much it will cost and the impact it will have on Pennsylvania families,” stated Communications Director Chris Pack.
“Millionaire Secretary Tom Wolf for far too long has been treating a special energy tax that singles out the natural gas industry as the silver bullet to all of our spending problems and misrepresenting it as a tax that will provide an endless supply of money. Secretary Tom Wolf’s promises do not add up, and his platform sounds like it was plagiarized from President Barack Obama. Wolf supports higher taxes, more spending, increased regulation, a full embrace of Obamacare, redistribution of wealth and a myriad of other extreme liberal platform positions. Tom Wolf is simply too liberal for Pennsylvania.”
The Corbett-Cawley campaign argues that it is impossible to fund his campaign platform exclusively on a special energy tax; that he cannot rely on his income tax proposal because Wolf has stated that it would be revenue-neutral; and that his only other revenue proposal, a revival of former Governor Ed Rendell’s failed 30% tobacco tax, would generate a tiny fraction of the necessary revenue.
Wolf has repeatedly stated that he would replace the local impact fee with a 5% severance tax. According to The Wall Street Journal, Democratic State Senator Jay Costa projects that a 5% severance tax would generate $720 million a year in revenue.
According to The New Pittsburgh Courier, Wolf has many plans for the severance tax revenue. Wolf stated, “I’d have 20 percent of it go back to the localities, I’d have some go to the (Department of Environmental Protection) because it’s so understaffed that businesses have to wait for routine approvals. I’d earmark some for R&D into clean energy, and that would still leave hundreds of millions for education.”
Indeed, in his so-called “Fresh Start” plan, Wolf pledges to use his special energy tax to pay for all of the following:
- Increase education funding by $1 billion
- Increase DEP funding
- Replace impact fee revenue to local communities where drilling is taking place
- Subsidize interest rates on student loans
- Strategic investments in infrastructure, economic development, and renewable energy technology
- Attract more energy efficiency investments from the private sector
Below is a break-down of the mathematics regarding Wolf energy tax proposal, assuming it will generate $720 million per year.
$720 million– Energy Tax Revenue
-$144 million (“I’d have 20 percent of it go back to the localities.”)
$576 million – New Balance
-$1 billion (“I would use a severance tax to restore Governor Corbett’s $1 billion cuts to education.")
-$424 million – New Balance
-$??? – Increase DEP funding
-$??? – Subsidize interest rates on student loans
-$??? – Strategic investments in infrastructure
-$??? – Economic development
-$??? – Renewable energy technology
-$??? – Attract more energy efficiency investments from the private sector
-$A Whole Lot of Red Ink – New Balance
“If you do the math on millionaire Secretary Tom Wolf’s new spending proposals, it immediately becomes clear that he does not have a real plan to lead our state. If Secretary Tom Wolf had even an ounce of leadership capability, he would provide a detailed outline of his special energy tax and how it would fund his laundry list of new spending,” concluded Pack.
For more information on the Corbett-Cawley campaign for a stronger Pennsylvania, visitwww.tomcorbettforgovernor.com.
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