Wolf Delivers Election Year Budget Proposal

Governor Tom Wolf addressed the state Senate and House to propose his budget for 2018-2019, marking his last address before his re-election campaign this year.

Throughout his speech Wolf talked about successes during his time in office and touted his work with the legislature.  

“Now, it has always been, and will always be, my preference to work with the legislature.  When we’ve found ways to do that, we’ve been able to get a lot done for the people of Pennsylvania,” Wolf said.  

Wolf continued his push from his first campaign, a severance tax on natural gas.  

“I’m going to keep doing whatever I can to reduce costs and streamline government.  But we can do so much more to improve our fiscal future if we work together.  And that brings us to the severance tax,” Wolf said.  

Wolf put the blame on a severance tax not passing yet on the oil and gas industry, saying “the oil and gas industry, they’re powerful.”

“So, today, I’m not just asking you, but challenging you, to do the right thing and pass a severance tax this year – so we can keep making the investments that will grow our economy, keep making progress on the issues Pennsylvanians care about, and keep writing the proud story of a brighter future for our Commonwealth.”

Wolf’s speech gives some insight to the key issues he will continue to push during the campaign along with the severance tax.

Wolf touted that he “reversed the billion dollars in cuts that were made under the previous administration,” that he economy is growing and “gained nearly 180,000 jobs” since he took office, and “gotten rid of burdensome taxes like the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax, cut red tape that made it harder to build a small business, and streamlined” the government.

5 Responses

    1. I pretty much can’t listen to this weasel anymore, I simply turn the channel. I voted for him the last time because Corbet had to go. I’d vote for a derelict with no money before I’d vote for this Rendell hack again.

  1. Why don’t you pass a severance tax and just call it an impact fee. Oh, wait. It was done already.

  2. Wolf can get the severance tax tomorrow, if he has the balls to shut down drilling and pipelines today. Industry would beg to pay 10% severance to turn the tap back on.

    If Wolf is going to continue to sellout the environment to the oil/gas industry, and least sellout for the severance tax, than the giant bag of nothing he currently has.

  3. Approval for a severance tax has been on a steady upward trend for years and is now comfortably in the 70s. The only reason we don’t already have a severance tax, like every other natural gas-producing state, is because of lawmakers who are beholden to oil and gas industry lobbyists. As new pipelines come online, natural gas prices will increase, and so will the opportunity cost of not having a severance tax.

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