PA state income tax increase
 

So, i just got my paycheck. in it is a letter to my employer from the state notifying us of an increase in the state tax rate from 2.8% to 3.07%.

i must have missed a memo....when did this happen...it says effective 1.1.04, but i'd have thought there would have been some stir in the news about it.....i don;t watch the news, but i usually get it through osmosis from those that do. WTF?

did anyone else know about this?

Because I get email from things like the "Pennsylvania Tyrrany Response Team," yes, I was aware of this.

Even wrote to my state house reps about it.

The deal is this ... Phila and Pittsburgh need bailing out for a number of reasons ... particularly revisions to the school systems, upgrading of equipment, addition of new programs and so on.

That's what the increase is paying for, as well as to make up for the shortfall that Street caused by reducing the City Wage Tax.

This was also in one of those flyers from your state senator and representative that you throw out without reading ... usually detailing by school district what programs in that district would benefit, which for my section of Montgomery County was "NONE - NONE - NONE - NONE"

The whole of the state is being forced to support the urban areas.

Again.

i hope you're happy, sycamore

And you'd better keep doing it. Do you want them all moving out next to you?

I'd rather they just all starve or kill each other...preferbly in such a way that they don't smell too bad...or that it doesn't blow the stench in my general direction.

That income tax increase was thrown into a very rushed and disorganized state budget that was approved by Senate on Dec. 23 and signed by Gov. Rendell on Dec. 28.

Pennsylvania was the last state in the entire fucking country to settle its budget. Rendell pledged to keep the Legislature in session until late Christmas Eve to handle pressing affairs.

But yeah, that money will be used for all sorts of stuff. The other half of the story was pressing for the gambling bill (and hence taxes on gambling) to replace income tax hikes.

It also funds a Trauma Center Relief program that supplements trauma centers across the state. If you haven't noticed, two level-1 trauma centers in Philly recently closed (Hahnemann and MCP) that would have been helped slightly by the relief (MCP is just all-around fucked; Tenet is closing that hospital March 31, unless the city finds a way to fund it).

Also in pushed into the budget was a 35-cents per pack increase on cigarettes. 25 cents will be used to relieve doctors from skyrocketing liability insurance costs (there's a state fund called MCARE that supplements malpractice insurance with hopes that prviate carriers will lower their rates, but that has yet to happen since MCARE started in 2001). The other 10 goes to some school education initiatives.

STADIUMS! :mad:

What particularly concerns me is that the Commonwealth seems more than willing to rely on sin taxes (the recent increase in cigarette prices and of course the PLCB). How the hell can you encourage people to quit either if you really need the money that comes from the sale of them?

(Thank you Marlboro for the $5 off a carton coupons! You came through just in time!)

Can't help but respond to this.

Our editorial board editorialized against cigarette tax hikes two weeks ago, and it just absolutely pissed me off. Their argument was that the state was relying on addiction to fund programs.

I have to disagree. Speaking as a former smoker and a regular boozer, I think the state has all the right in the world to extend taxes on unnecessary luxuries. There's no need to smoke - if you're addicted, get help and quit or pay the price. Cigarette taxes a) deter people from smoking (I buy the occasional pack of cigarettes less often these days because it's getting expensive), b) recover some money for the increased cost of health care (this is a tricky argument, with the "fat" tax and all .. won't get into it), and c) generates revenue for other state programs. And with booze ... well, I can deal with not drinking (all the time).

Now as long as the money is used appropriately (and yeah, it isn't always, but hey, it's government), I think a tax makes perfect sense. It's just one of those things that people like to do, and if they're going to pay the price to smoke or drink, shit, let them do so.

--The excessive costs of sin items can increase smuggling and crime (e.g. PA trying to be more "forceful" with people that went across state lines to buy alcohol during the holidays)

--Government bodies become too dependent on the revenue from such taxes and can't let it go (one of the reasons why the PLCB still exists)

We should have a 37% tax on newspapers. They are wasteful of resources, completely unnecessary with the digital mediums available, and cost a fortune to handle in the waste stream.:p

That's why we now sell a digital version of our newspaper.

Papers are all rags and garbage anyway - I say get rid of em.

Life's only 2 constants: death and [rising] taxes.

Interestingly, even if rural PA supports the cities, it is largely the opposite on a national scale.

But it's so hard to wrap a fish in a CRT.:)