Tag Archives: Tom Corbett taxes

PoliticsPA: For Corbett on Onorato, it’s all about taxes, taxes, taxes

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By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA
roarty@politicspa.com

PALMYRA — Boiled to its bones, Tom Corbett’s message is simple: I’m not going to tax you if elected governor.

The other guy, Dan Onorato? He, like his “mentor” Ed Rendell, never met a tax he didn’t like.

It was the central theme of remarks the GOP gubernatorial nominee delivered to employees at a food-processing plant here in Lebanon County Friday morning shortly after taking a tour. The local business event was one of many Corbett, who’s run a relatively low-profile campaign to date, has taken across the state as he emphasizes a pro-business message.

“In this campaign he’s calling for even more taxes and spending,” the GOP attorney general said. “He shares the same tax-and-spend philosophy as Governor Rendell.”

Corbett has signed the Americans for Tax reform no-tax pledge, a promise not to raise any taxes if elected. On Tuesday, he promised the audience that he would cut taxes, although stressing later to reporters that any tax cuts would come after the state dealt with a looming multi-billion deficit.

Dan Onorato has repeatedly stressed he doesn’t plan to raise any taxes outside of one that will likely become law before the next governor takes office. His campaign shot back that Corbett is distorting not only the Democratic nominee’s record but his own, which Onorato contends shows he’s proven he doesn’t know how to balance a budget.

“(Onorato) has made it very clear he’s not considering raising the income and sales tax,”said his spokesman, Brian Herman “The highest priority needs to be finding efficiencies and looking where to cut.”

On a conference call earlier this week, the Allegheny County executive called signing a no-tax pledge “gimmicky” but nonetheless vowed he wouldn’t raise the sales or income tax.

Herman, echoing a theme the Democrat’s campaign has pushed throughout, said Corbett has almost no experience balancing a budget, and what little experience he has proves he won’t do it well.

“Tom Corbett has demonstrated that he can’t handle a budget,” said the spokesman. “He’s asked for more more money every single year as attorney general. The one time he had to vote on a budget he had to raise taxes.”

The Onorato campaign earlier this week cited a vote Corbett took in 1988 as a township supervisor to raise property taxes by 20 percent.

Asked directly by a reporter what taxes Onorato wants to raise, Corbett cited his support of a new levy on natural gas extraction in the state’s Marcellus Shale region. But that tax, per a budget agreement among legislative leaders in July, will likely reach Governor Rendell’s desk before he leaves office.

The attorney general struggled to name another tax Onorato supports.

“I have to go look at my notes,” he said. “I don’t have my notes here in front of me.”

But the candidate said the Onorato-supported severance tax would be the “worst thing you can do” for the state’s burgeoning natural gas industry. His campaign has also repeatedly cited an array of taxes raised by Onorato as chief executive in Allegheny County as evidence he would do the same in Pennsylvania.

Corbett leads Onorato by 11 points, according to a Franklin & Marshall College poll released Thursday, based mostly on the strength of an enthusiasm gap among voters that strongly favors Republicans.

UPDATED: Onorato says Corbett has ‘flip-flopped’ on no-tax pledge

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By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA
roarty@politicspa.com

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato on Wednesday blasted GOP opponent Tom Corbett for saying he would consider increasing fees if he becomes governor, a position the Democrat said contradicts with the Republican’s no-tax pledge.

Corbett’s campaign told Capitolwire.com Tuesday that raising fees, a proposal lawmakers are considering to help the state deal with a billion-dollar transportation-funding shortfall, would not violate the high-profile no-tax pledge from Americans for Tax Reform signed by the candidate earlier this year. But in an interview with KDKA in March, Corbett explicitly said fees were included in his pledge not to raise any taxes.

Onorato called that a “flip-flop.”

“When you make a no-tax pledge a key part of your campaign, and then you start changing the parameters of what it covers, you have no credibility,” he said.

The Allegheny County Chief Executive has tried to criticize Corbett’s tax stance this week — on Tuesday he dug up a 22-year-old vote from the Republican in which he voted to raise property taxes in his local municipality by 20 percent.

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Updated, 3:45 p.m.:

A spokesman for Corbett’s campaign said he hadn’t seen Corbett’s interview with KDKA’s Jon Delano and emphasized that the no-tax pledge does not include fee increases.

“I don’t know what he told Jon Delano about the pledge in March,”  said spokesman Kevin Harley. “He signed a no-new-tax pledge that doesn’t include” fee increases.

Harley pivoted from questions about Corbett’s comments in March to suggest the real story was Onorato’s refusal to sign the tax pledge.

“Tom Corbett has signed a no new-tax pledge. Dan Onorato refuses to sign a no-new-tax pledge,” Harley said. “And the reason for that is plan and simple: Dan Onorato is a career politician, and he’s done nothing but raise taxes and fees on the hard-working people of Allegheny County for the last 18 years.”

Onorato, during Wednesday’s conference call, vowed that he wouldn’t raise the state’s income or sales tax as governor, saying the state needs to bridge looming deficits by finding efficiencies in government first. But he declined to sign a pledge stating as much, calling such a move “gimmicky.”

Parameters for the Americans for Tax Reform no-tax pledge can found here. Patrick Gleason, the group’s director of state affairs, told PoliticsPA in an interview that the fees are allowed as long as they’re used for a specific purpose — not put into the state’s General Fund.

The increases Corbett said he was amendable to, such as raising drivers’ licenses and car registration fees, would be funneled into a transportation-funding account separate from the General Fund. The account funds maintenance and construction of roads and bridges and local mass-transit systems, such as SEPTA, statewide.

“As long as it’s not being diverted from the services the fess are currently funding, and it doesn’t go into the General Fund, the pledge isn’t being violated,” Gleason said.

Corbett, as outlined in his transportation-funding policy paper, also indicates he would consider fees for high-occupancy tolls and vehicle-miles traveled, which also would go into the transportation account.

PoliticsPA: Onorato cites Corbett’s 22-year-old vote as no-tax debate rages in Capitol

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By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA
roarty@politicspa.com

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Dan Onorato’s campaign is digging up a nearly 22-year-old vote from Republican opponent Tom Corbett, when he was a local township commissioner, to prove he will raise taxes as governor despite pledging not to do so.

The GOP candidate’s campaign is calling it a “desperate tactic by a desperate campaign” while pointing out that Onorato has raised an array of taxes and fees as Allegheny County executive. But the Democrat maintains the vote is relevant because it’s the only time Corbett has had to vote for a tax increase.

In 1988, Corbett as a Shaler Township commissioner voted to raise proper taxes in the municipality by 20 percent, a vote that was approved 4-3. The Onorato campaign said it one of the largest tax hikes for any municipality in Allegheny County that year.

The vote offers a moment of contrast for Onorato, who has consistently touted the fact he never raised property taxes as Allegheny County’s chief executive. The campaign also argued it shows Corbett’s high-profile pledge not to raise any taxes as governor, despite looming billion-dollar deficits, is unrealistic and indicative of a public official without any experience running government.

“It’s easy for Tom Corbett to tell an audience what they want to hear, but voters should look at the candidates’ records and decide who best can reform Pennsylvania’s government and balance its budget,” said Onorato spokesman Brian Herman, in a statement. “Dan Onorato has six years of balanced budgets with no property tax increases, versus Tom Corbett’s one-year 20 percent property tax hike.”

Herman, in an interview with PoliticsPA, defended citing the 22-year-old vote as relevant to a campaign in 2010.

“Tom Corbett has so little experience, you have to go back 22 years to find anything relevant to the office he’s trying to run for,” the spokesman said.

The Corbett campaign shot back that Onorato’s own record shows how inclined the Democrat is to support tax hikes, including an infamous levy placed on poured alcohol drinks in Allegheny County. In a dossier provided to PoliticsPA, it cited 10 instances of Onorato suggesting, voting for, or enacting a tax as a public official.

“As evidences by his record, Dan Onorato has never met a tax he didn’t like or didn’t hike,” said Corbett campaign spokesman Kevin Harley. “If he is so concerned about a tax vote that Tom Corbett cast as a township supervisor 22 years ago, then he should join Corbett in signing a no new-tax pledge.”

Polls have shown the GOP attorney general maintaining a double-digit lead over his opponent, a margin that data indicate is strongly tied to the public’s distaste of Democratic incumbent Ed Rendell.

“Onorato’s latest attack is a desperate act by a desperate campaign,” said Harley.

Corbett’s no-tax pledge, and whether he can keep it if he assumes office, has been one of the gubernatorial campaign’s biggest debates. Many officials in Harrisburg, on both sides of the aisle, consider it impossible, with Senate Republican Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware) going so far to say, in public, that he saw no way it could be done.

The state faces what some project to be a $5 billion deficit next fiscal year with the expiration of federal stimulus money and expected bump in state pension payments.

The no-tax issue came up again in the Capitol on Monday, when lawmakers attended an address by PennDOT Secretary Allen Biehler on how the state can solve a $3 billion gap in its transportation infrastructure needs. Rendell has said the state needs to approve a funding-plan now because if Corbett wins, he won’t approve any tax increases to help pay for the repair of roads, bridges and mass-transit systems.

Senate Republicans, however, have remained steadfast in opposition to approving a plan this year. They maintain they can approve a better proposal next year that would include tax hikes, even if Corbett is governor.

“Good for him,” said Senator John Rafferty (R-Chester), chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, when asked about Corbett’s pledge.

“Candidates say a lot, and when they get in office maybe they see things a little differently,” Rafferty said.

Told about the comments, Harley insisted not raising taxes is possible.

“We look forward to working with Senator Rafferty and his colleagues in showing them how to developing common-sense budgets that do not raise taxes,” he said.