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Editorial : Tom Wolf's 'Fresh Start': Vague & stale

The Commonwealth Foundation is saying what Democrat gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf won't: His “Fresh Start” education spending boost could hike Pennsylvanians' personal income taxes by at least a whopping 121 percent, forcing the rate up from 3.07 percent to 6.8 percent — or as high as 8.85 percent.

A foundation analysis shows that's what it would take to fund Mr. Wolf's false-premise “restoration” of $1 billion “cut” by Republican Gov. Tom Corbett — who has state education funding at a record high — while raising the state's share of education funding from 35 percent to 50 percent and funding school employees' pensions.

Wolf says he doesn't want individuals making $70,000 to $90,000 — “double that if you're married” — to pay more and wants those making less to “get a break.” That would require differing exemptions for single and joint tax filers, violating the Pennsylvania Constitution's uniformity clause. But using $80,000 as the income point where taxpayers would pay more, Wolf's education spending would require a $52,500 “universal exemption” — and hiking the personal income tax rate by 188 percent, to 8.85 percent.

Foundation President and CEO Matthew J. Brouillette, a former high school teacher, says Wolf's proposals “will swamp middle class families' budgets in a sea of red.” Which doesn't sound like much of a plan.

Read the article here

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