The House is expected to vote today on a budget bill that would increase cigarette taxes and impose a levy on natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania.
The House was set to act on its tax bill in late May, but Democratic leaders postponed the vote after caucus members’ support wavered.
The measure has since been amended and it now includes a cigar tax, and reduces its cigarette tax increase from 30 to 10 cents a pack.
Johnna Pro, the spokeswoman for House Appropriations Chair Dwight Evans, says Democrats feel like that’s a better approach.
"I think once folks really had a chance to sit down and look at the numbers, it more sense to do a lower cigarette tax increase, and then bring cigars back into the mix. We are the only state that doesn’t tax cigars."
The bill also includes an eight percent tax on natural gas drilling, which is nearly twice as much as the rate Governor Rendell initially proposed, and caps the discount given to vendors who turn in tax revenue at 500-thousand dollars.
Pro says the package generates about 280 million additional dollars for the commonwealth’s general fund.,
If the measure passes it heads over to the Senate, where Republican leaders say they’re opposed to any tax increases.
Meantime, the Senate Appropriations Committee has acted on the 29-billion dollar spending bill the House passed earlier this year. The panel gave the bill a ‘negative recommendation,” which moves it to the full Senate floor.
Showing posts with label tax. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tax. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
PA Officials Hope Amnesty Response Picks Up
With a bit more than two weeks to go in Pennsylvania's tax amnesty program, the Revenue Department has collected 76.9 million dollars.
That's less than half of the effort's 190 million dollar goal.
Revenue Department spokeswoman Stephanie Weyant says there were a lot of applications in the first few weeks of the program, but that traffic slowed down in late May.
She says the department expects a big surge in the final two weeks, and has recently launched another advertising campaign to help boost awareness of the program.
"We had a television commercial that ran the first three weeks. We have a new television commercial running for the last three weeks of the program. We're also continuing all of the radio, print and online advertising throughout the rest of the program."
The General Fund is counting on at least 190 million dollars from the effort to balance the budget. Anything less would add to the state's 1.2 billion dollar revenue gap. Weyant says more than three quarters of applications came in during the final two weeks during the last amnesty effort, so she's confident the program will reach its financial goal.
"We know from last time that about 74 percent of people waited until the last two weeks before the deadline to apply. So if that holds true this time, we plan to reach the 190 million dollar goal."
Weyant says they advise people not to wait until the last minute because they anticipate the phone center will be very busy in the coming weeks.
That's less than half of the effort's 190 million dollar goal.
Revenue Department spokeswoman Stephanie Weyant says there were a lot of applications in the first few weeks of the program, but that traffic slowed down in late May.
She says the department expects a big surge in the final two weeks, and has recently launched another advertising campaign to help boost awareness of the program.
"We had a television commercial that ran the first three weeks. We have a new television commercial running for the last three weeks of the program. We're also continuing all of the radio, print and online advertising throughout the rest of the program."
The General Fund is counting on at least 190 million dollars from the effort to balance the budget. Anything less would add to the state's 1.2 billion dollar revenue gap. Weyant says more than three quarters of applications came in during the final two weeks during the last amnesty effort, so she's confident the program will reach its financial goal.
"We know from last time that about 74 percent of people waited until the last two weeks before the deadline to apply. So if that holds true this time, we plan to reach the 190 million dollar goal."
Weyant says they advise people not to wait until the last minute because they anticipate the phone center will be very busy in the coming weeks.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tax Relief Changes Proposed
Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner is urging lawmakers to simplify the application process for gaming-based property tax relief.
Wagner says the current county-by-county property tax relief system is too confusing.
He says a major issue is the fact property owners need to fill out an application in order to receive a tax reduction funded by revenue from Pennsylvania’s casinos.
Wagner, a Democrat who’s running for governor, says a study of several counties shows many people just don’t get around to doing that, so lot of revenue is going unclaimed.
"And with those 49 counties alone, I stand up here and can absolutely say there are at least a hundred thousand property owners not getting property tax relief from gaming revenues in Pennsylvania."
The size of rebates fluctuates by school district, but Wagner says they averaged out to 189 dollars last year. County tax assessors process relief applications, but Wagner wants the Department of Revenue or another statewide agency to assume more oversight.
Wagner says the current county-by-county property tax relief system is too confusing.
He says a major issue is the fact property owners need to fill out an application in order to receive a tax reduction funded by revenue from Pennsylvania’s casinos.
Wagner, a Democrat who’s running for governor, says a study of several counties shows many people just don’t get around to doing that, so lot of revenue is going unclaimed.
"And with those 49 counties alone, I stand up here and can absolutely say there are at least a hundred thousand property owners not getting property tax relief from gaming revenues in Pennsylvania."
The size of rebates fluctuates by school district, but Wagner says they averaged out to 189 dollars last year. County tax assessors process relief applications, but Wagner wants the Department of Revenue or another statewide agency to assume more oversight.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Schools could suffer in Wake of contradictions
A recent survey by the News and Observer collected the opinions of 1000 Wake County residents on the quality of Wake County schools and how to fund them. Before we go into a discussion of some of the results and crosstabs it is important to note the methodology. This is a survey of Wake County residents, not likely voters and especially not likely voters for the upcoming municipal and school board elections. So while these results are interesting and important, they are not necessarily the best predictor of any future election outcomes.
In the current whirlwind of the year-round schooling hubbub and calls for smarter growth, the results from the May 30th, 2007 poll reflect that not only do Wake county residents overwhelmingly oppose a possible school bond package (63% oppose it while only 26% support it), they also oppose new property and sales tax increases to pay for schools and do not think the Wake County School Board, County commissioners, or elected officials are handling the growth well. There seems to be a number of contradictions in the survey’s findings that are somewhat alarming.
For example, although 57% of people rate the quality of Wake County Public Schools as excellent or good, only 23% said they favor raising property taxes “to pay for building more public schools and reduce crowding at Wake’s public schools.” It seems as if people want it both ways: they want to see the continued high quality of education provided to their children but they don’t want to pay for that service through property taxes that would help schools keep up with the massive growth. Also, a majority of people rate the School Board, county commissioners, and elected officials fair or poor when it comes to how well they are keeping up with growth. That rating seems strange considering that citizens are unwilling to pay the taxes that would help leaders keep up with the growth.
One telling result that shows just how unpopular Wake County’s recent property tax increases have been is the fact that even 65% of Democrats surveyed are opposed to increasing property taxes to pay for schools. Although more Republicans, 77%, oppose a property tax increases, a rising trend of Democratic opposition does not bode well for future bond proposals.
There are clear party differences when it comes to how Wake county residents view school performance. Sixty-five percent of Democrats who responded gave Wake County public schools a good or excellent rating, while only 53% of Republicans ranked Wake County schools as good or excellent. When asked whether they favor or oppose year-round schools, there were little differences between party responses. Age and income, however, affect opinion. Not surprisingly, respondents 65 years old and older show less opposition to year-round schools. Older citizens are more apt to support year-round schools because they do not have young children. However, when it comes to paying higher taxes to fund those schools, their opposition increases (at least 75% of people older than 50 oppose raising property taxes to support schools), showing another contradiction in the findings. Respondents with household incomes of $20,000 or less showed very strong opposition to higher taxes to year around schooling, with only 38% of respondents in favor. All other income ranges above $20,000 show at least 50% support, with several showing well over half of the respondents in favor of year-round schools.
Some of the survey questions themselves may have affected the responses. The question about a proposed $500 million to $1 billion school bond referendum on this year’s ballot stated that “it would pay for new schools to reduce crowing and would likely raise property taxes.” The fact that the question mentioned that the bond would raise property taxes might have influenced how people responded and led them to oppose it. It is obvious that people would oppose raising taxes, and framing the question in that way could have affected the results. The survey did mention other types of taxes that could help pay for public schools, such as impact fees and a transfer tax (the state legislature would have to grant authority first), but only the school bond question mentioned property taxes.
The questions dealing with how well Wake county leaders have handled growth also seem vague and do not specifically mention growth pertaining to schools. The term growth can apply to many different aspects of the county, including urban development, school, housing, and traffic.
BY Carrie and Mark
In the current whirlwind of the year-round schooling hubbub and calls for smarter growth, the results from the May 30th, 2007 poll reflect that not only do Wake county residents overwhelmingly oppose a possible school bond package (63% oppose it while only 26% support it), they also oppose new property and sales tax increases to pay for schools and do not think the Wake County School Board, County commissioners, or elected officials are handling the growth well. There seems to be a number of contradictions in the survey’s findings that are somewhat alarming.
For example, although 57% of people rate the quality of Wake County Public Schools as excellent or good, only 23% said they favor raising property taxes “to pay for building more public schools and reduce crowding at Wake’s public schools.” It seems as if people want it both ways: they want to see the continued high quality of education provided to their children but they don’t want to pay for that service through property taxes that would help schools keep up with the massive growth. Also, a majority of people rate the School Board, county commissioners, and elected officials fair or poor when it comes to how well they are keeping up with growth. That rating seems strange considering that citizens are unwilling to pay the taxes that would help leaders keep up with the growth.
One telling result that shows just how unpopular Wake County’s recent property tax increases have been is the fact that even 65% of Democrats surveyed are opposed to increasing property taxes to pay for schools. Although more Republicans, 77%, oppose a property tax increases, a rising trend of Democratic opposition does not bode well for future bond proposals.
There are clear party differences when it comes to how Wake county residents view school performance. Sixty-five percent of Democrats who responded gave Wake County public schools a good or excellent rating, while only 53% of Republicans ranked Wake County schools as good or excellent. When asked whether they favor or oppose year-round schools, there were little differences between party responses. Age and income, however, affect opinion. Not surprisingly, respondents 65 years old and older show less opposition to year-round schools. Older citizens are more apt to support year-round schools because they do not have young children. However, when it comes to paying higher taxes to fund those schools, their opposition increases (at least 75% of people older than 50 oppose raising property taxes to support schools), showing another contradiction in the findings. Respondents with household incomes of $20,000 or less showed very strong opposition to higher taxes to year around schooling, with only 38% of respondents in favor. All other income ranges above $20,000 show at least 50% support, with several showing well over half of the respondents in favor of year-round schools.
Some of the survey questions themselves may have affected the responses. The question about a proposed $500 million to $1 billion school bond referendum on this year’s ballot stated that “it would pay for new schools to reduce crowing and would likely raise property taxes.” The fact that the question mentioned that the bond would raise property taxes might have influenced how people responded and led them to oppose it. It is obvious that people would oppose raising taxes, and framing the question in that way could have affected the results. The survey did mention other types of taxes that could help pay for public schools, such as impact fees and a transfer tax (the state legislature would have to grant authority first), but only the school bond question mentioned property taxes.
The questions dealing with how well Wake county leaders have handled growth also seem vague and do not specifically mention growth pertaining to schools. The term growth can apply to many different aspects of the county, including urban development, school, housing, and traffic.
BY Carrie and Mark
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