PA Tax Increases
Wanted: Ideas on how to balance budgets without raising taxes.
There are not a lot of businesses breaking down doors to do either move here or conduct
business here. The Post Gazette reported the following in an August 8th
article. “Pennsylvania earned a D in overall friendliness to small
businesses, placing it 33rd out of the 38 states included in the survey.
Pittsburgh also earned a D, ranking it 73rd out of the 82 metropolitan
regions surveyed by Thumbtack in conjunction with the nonprofit Ewing
Marion Kauffman Foundation.”
Like many states we are ‘unfunded’ or running deficits in many areas – capital
projects, pensions for police and firefighters, pensions for teachers
and state workers, etc. Our debt and unfunded is somewhere in excess of
$100 billion.
There are many pockets of encouragement. It’s exciting to see the growth in many of our
cities – especially the youthful trend and population increases over the
past decade. But two things are needed – now.
We need to start telling the truth about what the real issues are. It has little to
do about politics. Let’s begin with the campaign rhetoric. Actually,
let’s just stop the campaign rhetoric. The issues are the pensions, the
eroding tax base in the housing market (hint – we need land banks) and
the lack of honest communication in the legislature. There’s that
communication word again.
Quit spinning the obvious and start talking solutions. The ones that really need
addressed. We don’t need politicians. We need people that care for the
people in their state.
Mark Schuster
August 11, 2014
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