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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Rick Mirabito
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Mirabito reacts to governor's proposed 2010-11 budget
Says bringing tax equity and reducing spending need to be top priorities
HARRISBURG, Feb. 9 – State Rep. Rick Mirabito, D-Lycoming, released the following statement regarding Gov. Ed Rendell's proposed 2010-11 budget:
"The governor’s budget speech is a starting point to address the issues of tax equity and reducing state spending. The issue of tax equity involves lowering the state sales tax to 4 percent, but including some items that are not taxed now. Some of us are shouldering a burden of paying a 6 percent tax when we actually could be paying only a 4 percent tax if we distributed it in a more equitable way.
"Separate from the issue of tax equity is the goal of continuing to reduce our state spending. The current state budget contains almost a half billion dollars less in state spending than the prior year budget. This year we should continue to examine all of the state spending to see if we can make similar reductions.
"Another issue of tax equity is bringing fairness to the payment of business taxes. People who have small businesses -- the mom and pops, the pizza shops, the barber shops -- are all paying certain business taxes. But large, out-of-state corporations are able to avoid paying some of these taxes because they set up Delaware corporations. The average person who has a small business is not able to do that and it's only fair that large, out-of-state corporations pay their fair share," Mirabito said.
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