HARRISBURG— Two local state representatives are weighing in on the budget revenue package that was passed by the State Senate Thursday. State Representative, Kurt Masser (R-107th, Elysburg) says it will take some time for House to review the revenue package, “It’s going to take some time to review those and come up with a counter I think. I don’t think we are going to rubber stamp what they send over but we are going to take a look at it.”
House Republicans failed to reach agreement last week on a revenue plan that would have borrowed against Pennsylvania’s annual share of the 1998 multistate settlement with tobacco companies and included no new taxes.
State Rep. Lynda Schlegal Culver (R-108, Sunbury) says the conversations so far in the house have not been favorable, “Conversations so far are not favorable to the package coming over to the house, if we actually decide to bring it up. We are still floating multiple ideas around so; I think the next few weeks we will be able to determine what the House is going to be able to do with it.”
The Senate plan includes the tobacco money and new or higher taxes on Marcellus Shale drilling, utility bills and fireworks. Rep. Masser says the severance tax is doable, “I don’t know that we are saying no to all of these I think the severance is doable certainly as long as we have some regulator concessions in there so the industry can still thrive. Those are the discussions we are having now.”
The $2.2 billion tax increase package includes higher taxes on your phone bill and for natural gas consumption. It expands the sale of fireworks and adds higher taxes; and it establishes a severance tax on natural gas drillers. The bill could run into trouble in the tax-averse House.
