DN Editorial: The big 'no-tax' lie
GOV. CORBETT reiterated his no-tax chastity pledge this week when he delivered his state budget. He claimed that his budget, which would slash millions of dollars, especially from higher ed, imposed no new taxes on citizens.
GOV. CORBETT reiterated his no-tax chastity pledge this week when he delivered his state budget. He claimed that his budget, which would slash millions of dollars, especially from higher ed, imposed no new taxes on citizens.
Too bad that's not true.
The stunning cuts to higher ed - about 30 percent - will certainly lead to tuition hikes for parents who send their kids to state schools. (This year, for example, Temple raised its tuition by more than $1,000 per year to deal with state cuts.) And since the governor also cut the higher-education-assistance program, which provides needs-based tuition aid, the new higher financial burden - which we call a tax - will rise in inverse proportion to income. Of course, parents can opt out of this tax hike by not sending their kids to college, but then they'll be paying another tax: the amount of lost earnings suffered by those with no college degree.
The price of attending college has been rising for a while. A report on financial trends in higher education by Roger Geiger and Donald Heller at Penn State tracked such costs, and found prices in public four-year instititutions grew the fastest: up 235 percent over 29 years, while median income increased about 15 percent. According to their report, in 1980, a family paid 4 percent of its (median) income to pay tuition at a public four-year institution By 2009, that bite had risen to 12 percent.
We support Corbett's promise of a public conversation about higher-ed costs, and don't think that the panel he is assembling to review access to higher ed is a bad idea . . . it's just a year late. Why didn't this panel begin last year, when Corbett threatened to cut higher ed by 50 percent? That could have provided actual rationale for this year's budget.
Although he did not impose big cuts on primary education, school districts in the state are struggling, and items like pension costs will cause more struggling. How will municipalities deal with their budget woes? Property-tax hikes.
A survey last year by a state group of school administrators and school-business officials found that just one-third of the state's districts didn't raise property taxes. Schools have also increased fees for activities. This further taxes Pennsylvania's families.
Although Corbett would like to remain pure about "no taxes," he should be honest about the many stealth taxes that his cuts will require.
Meanwhile, we all should be paying more attention to one tax that is being collected in the state: the steep taxes on casino revenue that are earmarked for a number of places, including the state's horse-racing industry.
Since 2006, casinos have been generating extremely healthy revenues, and the horse-race industry has benefited to the tune of - get ready for it - $1 billion. It's time to rethink this allocation; right now, children and the vunerable should come before horses.
