PA Speaker Mike Turzai: 'Gov. Wolf's Budget Is "Disrespectful Of People's Hard Earned Tax Dollars"'
By Dom Giordano
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Pennsylvania's Speaker of the House Mike Turzai spoke with Talk Radio 1210 WPHT's midday host Dom Giordano about Gov. Tom Wolf's budget and said that it shows that Wolf thinks he "knows better how to spend your hard earned tax dollars."
According to Turzai, the proposed budget would have a 16 percent overall increase in spending and taxes, a 20 percent increase in the personal income tax, a 10 percent increase in the sales tax and an expansion of the sales tax to 45 unnamed new items.
"What Tom Wolf wants to do is just to increase spending by almost $5 billion on a $29 billion budget. It's just disrespectful of people's hard earned tax dollars."
Turzai credits the House with doing it's best with the situation, noting the liquor privatization bill that it past last week that "moves (Pennsylvania) into the 21st century and puts forth his plan for the upcoming weeks.
"We're going to pass a public pension reform bill that only moves new hires into defined contribution plans like the private sector, but we're going to make changes that have to get done to the systems so they are more responsive with the billions of revenue that they already have. Those are the items that we should be really talking about and getting over the goal line. Not the old school way of borrowing, increasing taxes, spending and taxing everything that you can put your hands on, because we know better how to spend your money."