Pyle Responds to Governor’s Call for More Taxes

2/9/2016

HARRISBURG – Today, Gov. Tom Wolf gave his 2016-17 budget address which calls for billions of dollars in new taxes to pay for more government spending.

Rep. Jeff Pyle (R-Armstrong/Butler/Indiana) issued the following statement:

“I just sat through a governor’s annual budget speech that didn’t discuss the budget for 2016-17 at all. Instead, Gov. Wolf, the ‘different kind of governor’ spent his time referring to representatives who oppose his gigantic tax increases as everything but representatives. According to the governor, I do not understand elective government nor do I understand democracy. Granted, my daddy didn’t pay for an MIT education, but I do have a degree in political science and taught civics for 14 years. What do I know, right?

“The governor’s 2016-17 budget plan luckily contained no tax increases, but his ‘revenue enhancements’ were quite noteworthy. Among these ‘revenue enhancements’ were an expansion in the sales tax to include many services used every day by all of us like a new tax on homeowners insurance, things downloaded from the Internet and cable television. Other revenue enhancements include increasing the Personal Income Tax so he can make ‘strategic investments’ in our schools, of which 85 percent would go directly to Philadelphia while the other 497 school districts could split up the remainder. I guess the 60th District’s schools aren’t considered ‘strategic’ enough for him. Of note in his proposal to increase our personal income tax is RETROACTIVE collection on people’s incomes going back to the first of the year. In short, we will ALL have a NEW tax bill that attaches to the taxes we already paid. I don’t really know how that’s legal, but he covered that in the ‘you representatives don’t understand democracy’ section of his budget speech. I urge anyone interested to access his live budget speech for the blow by blow of his speech.

“Last summer, I held town halls in all parts of our district. I asked a very simple question of all attending: Do you support raising our taxes to achieve the governor’s goals? I made it clear what his goals were. Apparently, none of us know anything about democracy because not a single soul told me they favored their taxes increasing in the amounts the governor felt were ‘a compromise.’ Uh, if you demand a $6 billion tax increase and then realize (after three unanimous bipartisan votes against the proposed tax increases) that the support for such increase wasn’t there, it is not a compromise to fall back on a ‘paltry revenue enhancement’ of only $3 billion dollars. Repeating, that is NOT compromise.

“Thomas Jefferson said ‘representative government exists only by the consent of the governed.’ Maybe my public school education didn’t cover that part well enough and the governor’s MIT education covered it more fully – I really don’t know – but what I do know is that all decision making begins and ends with the people, not some rich guy who won an election. My question to the citizens of the 60th District is this: Am I doing what you want me to do? (which goes to another assertion the governor has made, that I am not voting according to your wishes and that you support grossly higher taxes.) Not to be redundant, but my job is to do what you want me to do. I thought I had a pretty good bearing drawn from the input of the hundreds and thousands of people I speak to weekly. Not a single person has ever told me to raise their taxes.

“The Commonwealth needs a budget that funds its obligations and does so in a financially prudent manner that reflects the wishes of those who pay the taxes. That’s us. The Commonwealth is NOT a monarchy to be ruled like a Banana Republic dictator. We deserve better from the guy in the big chair.”

Representative Jeff Pyle
60th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives