Wolf, GOP Eye Major Sales Tax Increase To End Budget Impasse
HARRISBURG P.A., (CBS) -- With Pennsylvania in its fifth month without a budget, a deal to end the stalemate is taking shape that would involve a major increase in the state sales tax to partially fund property tax relief.
Under the deal taking shape, Governor Wolf would get historic increases in education funding while Republican Dave Reed, the House majority leader, says the state sales tax would increase.
"There's a lot of details that will still have to be finalized, but certainly, the moving the sales tax from 6 to 7-and-a-quarter (percent) has been part of the discussion," Reed said.
Reed's spokesman could not say exactly how that increase would affect Philadelphia and Allegheny County, where the sales tax is already higher than six percent. The budget plan would also involve significant new property tax relief.
Governor Wolf's spokesman would not confirm any details except those related to education funding, but did confirm that the discussions involve ways to address the state's spiraling pension costs and reforms to liquor sales. An increase in cigarette taxes is also being discussed, a tax on natural gas drilling is not.