On The Issues

In Depth

Taxes are far too numerous.  And too high!  Income tax, property tax, sales tax, this tax, that tax, ALL the taxes are too high.

The reason why taxes are so high is because spending is too high. 

The reason why spending is so high is because politicians love to glad-hand your tax dollars on unconstitutional programs, pork barrel spending, and flat-out self-serving schemes intended only to get themselves re-elected.  In fact, the cost of Pennsylvania government has been growing at more than three times the rate of inflation over the past 50 years.  Even when adjusted for inflation, per-capita taxes have almost doubled, and per-worker taxes have more than doubled

But when I’m governor, that trend will end.  Using the powers granted to me by the Pennsylvania Constitution, I can single-handedly hold the line on taxes and spending.  How?  I promise to veto every single tax increase that crosses my desk.  And given the close party divides in the Legislature, it’s very unlikely that any vetoes would be overridden.  And to add an additional roadblock against an overridden veto, I will champion legislation to require that ALL tax increases must go to a referendum for voter approval.  The era of constantly-rising taxes will end. 

Better yet, as governor I can single-handedly cut back the cost of government.  That’s because the Constitution also gives the Governor the power of the line-item veto.  That means I can cross out any item in any bill.  Every year I’ll go line-by-line through Pennsylvania’s budget and aggressively use the line-item veto to eliminate any new or existing unconstitutional or pork barrel spending.  And best of all, with the savings, I’ll introduce a series of budgets over the course of my term that will completely eliminate the Pennsylvania personal income tax. 

As governor, I won’t merely be trimming the budget, I’ll be slashing the budget.  And not with a few mere symbolic cuts, but machete cuts.  What sort of spending can be cut?  Lots!   Let’s start by looking at the two main categories: Big ticket items and low-hanging fruits. 

First, tally up all the big-ticket items to be vetoed:

• Money spent on horse racing?  Over $200 million of your taxes pay for it.  Gone!
• Sports?  Tally another $200 million for stadiums.  Gone!
• Unions?  Add another $1 billion due to prevailing wage laws.  Gone!
• Movies?  There’s another $100 million in film subsidies.  Gone!
• Slush funds?  Another $300 million goes for the governor’s discretionary grants.  Gone!
• Your fine wine and spirits?  Add yet another $100 million for liquor stores.  Gone!
• Tax breaks for special interests?  There goes another $200 million for tax-free zones.  Gone!
• Convention centers?  Yet another $200 million.  Gone!
• Dirty air?  Another $100 million to subsidize burning dirty culm coal.  Gone!
• Unfunded mandates?   That’s another $500 million.  Gone!
• All those twenty-four overlapping cabinet positions?  Not consolidating them into eight positions adds another $600 million.  Done!

Total big-ticket pork to be vetoed: $3.5 billion—so far.  And that’s just a brief sampling of some of the bigger pork bloat.  The list goes on and on and ON.  It’s clear that pork barrel spending is way out of control. 

 In addition to the big-ticket pork, there are the smaller, low-hanging fruits that have no reason to exist, such as:

• Why waste money putting the governor’s name on the Welcome to Pennsylvania signs?  End the practice!
• Why aren’t all state buildings covered with solar panels?  Private companies will install them FREE, and they’ll produce electricity at below-market rates.
• Why are there over a dozen different license plate designs?  It doesn’t matter if it’s for a car, pickup, truck, trailer, motorcycle, municipal, etc., etc., etc.  One style, sequentially numbered, is all that is necessary, and it would reduce the cost of design and manufacture.
• Why can’t the two old parties pay for their own primaries?  One out of six voters doesn’t belong to either party, but are forced to pay for a system they are barred from using.
• Why not park junk police cruisers along roads rather than buying expensive speed-monitoring signs?  Guaranteed to calm traffic!
• Why pay for speed bumps and humps?  Studies show they do little beyond slowing down emergency vehicles and complicating snow plowing.  Motorists may slow down for one—assuming they see it!—but immediately resume their speed(ing) afterward.
• Why not enjoy Daylight Saving Time all year round?  Or Standard Time, for that matter.  Falling back and springing forward are nuisances with negative heath and economic implications and zero positive benefits.
• Why not eliminate all those “feel good” traffic signs?  Studies show they provide no noticeable benefit—except that “Share the Road” cyclist signs actually INCREASE accidents. 

 In addition to these specific big- and small-ticket examples, there are numerous other ways to improve Pennsylvania’s economic outlook, such as performing a line-by-line audit of all state spending, refusing federal dollars, and separating Society and State.  Inflation can be tamed with A Sylvan Penny (details to come).  And then there’s the plan to eliminate property taxes. 

But at the moment, there’s no denying spending is far too high.  As a result, taxes are similarly far too high.  And the best way—and apparently the only way—to reduce taxes and spending at all is to vote Libertarian.