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Which New Taxes are Coming for Pennsylvania?
The new Pennsylvania state budget “deal”, which House Democrats, Senate Republicans, and Senate Democrats have agreed to – but which House Republicans have disavowed and Gov. Rendell has not signed on to – contains a number of new taxes to fund $27.945 Billion spending:
- Retroactively increasing and delaying the phase-out of the Capital Stock & Franchise tax. This is a tax Gov. Rendell said was the most harmful to Pennsylvania’s economy. It is estimated to add $374 million in 2009-10 and $550.6 million to state revenue collections.
- Legalizing and taxing table games in casinos. Estimated (based entirely on conjecture, given the failure of slots to raise what was projected) to generate $200 million.
- A 25 cents per pack increase in Pennsylvania’s cigarette tax – a tax which disproportionately affect the poor, is a declining revenue source, and leads to smuggling (and will add on to the recent federal cigarette tax increase). This is to be estimated a $97 million tax increase this year and $146 million next year.
Additional non-tax revenue sources would include:
- Expanding leases for natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation, estimated $100 million in revenue
- $25 million from liquor store profits