Some Pennsylvania lawmakers are proposing that the commonwealth offset some of the inflationary burden on residents by pausing certain taxes.
One bill State Senator Lisa Boscola (D-Bethlehem) is currently drafting would stop sales taxation in June and July 2022 at a time the senator says the state can afford to do so. In a memorandum seeking co-sponsors for her bill, she cited Governor Tom Wolf’s (D) recent declaration that Pennsylvania will amass a budget surplus for Fiscal Year 2021-22 of over $2 billion and a similarly large surplus for the following year. Since budget years end on June 30, the legislation is thus timed to spread the financial loss to the state over both budget cycles.
What is unaffordable, Boscola insisted, is the present rise in ordinary Pennsylvanians’ cost of living. She noted that annual U.S. inflation reached 7.5% last month, a four-decade high.
“The tax holiday is intended to help provide some temporary relief to everyone,” she wrote. “Whether it is working families, recent college graduates or retirees, price increases have negatively impacted everyone’s bottom line. I believe we can do something to help Pennsylvanians.”
Boscola’s proposal pausing the commonwealth’s 6% sales tax would not affect Philadelphia’s 2% sales tax nor Allegheny County’s 1% sales tax.
State Representative Anthony DeLuca (D-Pittsburgh) has meanwhile proposed giving Pennsylvania motorists a six-month break from the state’s 58-cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline.
“Pennsylvanians need relief from pain at the pump,” DeLuca said in a statement on his proposal. “As more and more people get back on the roads, gasoline prices have increased from their pandemic lows. Unfortunately, rising geopolitical tensions may push these prices higher as certain foreign oil exporters seek to inflict pain on American consumers.”
The full cost of a gallon of gas in Pennsylvania is $3.71 on average, an expense the representative said many Keystone State residents cannot afford to bear.
In the Philadelphia region on Dec. 21, energy costs overall saw a 25.1% jump over their level that same month the previous year, according to a report by Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office. The cost of durable goods in the city increased 19%.
Typical earnings for Pennsylvanians are not keeping pace with economy-wide price increases, a phenomenon that Biden administration officials initially dismissed as “transitory.” Average hourly earnings for all private-sector workers saw a merely 4.3% year-over-year increase in the third quarter of 2021 and 5.4% growth in the fourth quarter.
According to the National Federation of Independent Business, inflation has played a major role in depressing the optimism of small-business owners to an 11-year low. A survey by the organization found that 61 percent of small businesses raised their prices in January, a four-point increase since the previous month and the highest percentage in 48 years.
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Lisa Boscola” by Senator Lisa M. Boscola. Background Photo “Pennsylvania State Capitol” by Kumar Appaiah. CC BY-SA 2.0.
