The Pennsylvania state House of Representatives voted 49-150 this afternoon to defeat the Senate’s $27.1 billion budget proposal, which sends the budget discussions to a House-Senate conference committee.
And what do Pennsylvanians think?
From the Quinnipiac Statewide Poll, 21 July 2009
Approve/Disapprove of job handling:
Governor Rendell: 39%-53%
State Legislature: 27%-57%Blame for failure to pass budget:
Governor Rendell: 30%
Republicans in Legislature: 17%
Democrats in Legislature: 11%Raise taxes or cut services to balance budget:
Raise taxes: 35%
Cut services: 55%Rendell’s personal income tax hike 3.07% to 3.57%:
Support: 33%
Oppose: 63%
I wrote to my state Senator this evening:
Dear Senator Argall:
The latest news is that the state House has rejected the Senate’s $27.1 billion budget plan, and that it will now go to a House-Senate leadership conference. I wish to urge you not to support any conference bill which presents a budget of greater than $27.1 billion!
Pennsylvanians are very much against the increased taxes that Governor Rendell would like to impose on us, and the latest Quinnipiac Poll found that Pennsylvanians prefer cuts in state services to increases in taxes by a 55% to 35% margin. The same poll found 63% to 33% opposition to the Governor’s proposed state income tax increase.
Pennsylvania Republicans have a chance to do something truly historic: to actually cut state spending, rather than just reduce the rate of increase.
Everywhere you look, in virtually every election held, the public vote for lower taxes. President Obama ran on tax cuts, and even had a section on his campaign website in which you could find out how much more your taxes would be reduced by his plan vis a vis that of Senator McCain. (That page still exists!) Whether they meant them seriously or not, all, of our winning presidential candidates have run on cutting taxes; the last candidate to run on tax increases was Walter Mondale in 1984, and we all remember how much support he received!
Pennsylvanians are not Californians, but the voters in our most liberal state were asked to vote on (supposedly) temporary tax increases to help the Golden State out of its huge financial bind; the voters in California rejected those proposed tax increases by an almost two-to-one margin. We don’t have the initiative process here, so we don’t have the citizens voting on such subjects, but it’s clear as can be that Pennsylvanians don’t want higher taxes.
I’m asking you to hold the line. Voting for increased spending, regardless of what financial sleights-of-hand are used to make the budget seem balanced, is simply fuel for increased spending next year and the next year and the year after that. This is the time and this is our opportunity to stop, to reverse the trend of ever-increasing spending, of ever-increasing programs, of uncontrolled and uncontrollable growth in the state budget and the state government.
It’s time to make a difference!
Sincerely,
Dana R Pico
Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania 18229
