Pa. gov seeks billions in higher taxes for schools

Associated Press

HARRISBURG, PA.

In an ambitious first budget plan, Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday proposed more than $4 billion in higher state taxes on income, sales and natural-gas drilling to support new spending on schools and to cut property taxes as part of an overhaul of the way public education is funded.

Wolf, a Democrat, also is asking the Republican-controlled Legislature to cut corporate taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars, borrow more than $4 billion to refinance pension debt and inject new money into business loans, clean-energy subsidies and water- and sewer-system projects.

All told, new subsidies for education from prekindergarten through college plus money for districts to reduce school property taxes would amount to more than $4 billion.

Top Democrats applauded the plan. But leaders of the Legislature’s huge Republican majorities quickly singled out the nearly $5 billion in increased state spending as a serious point of disagreement.