|
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
|
CONTACT: Barbara
Grill |
Majority Leader Bill
DeWeese |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pennsylvanians like sales tax to further reduce property taxes
DeWeese plan would use all new revenues for property tax cuts
HARRISBURG, June 1 – A new Quinnipiac University poll shows that the majority of Pennsylvanians approve of raising the sales tax to reduce property taxes, a plan House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese wants to deliver on.
DeWeese is introducing legislation to increase the state sales tax by one-half percent statewide, using the proceeds for dollar-for-dollar property tax cuts totaling $712 million. With the anticipated $1 billion in revenue from gaming, the sales tax boost would enable all homeowners to see significant and immediate relief.
According to the poll released on Wednesday, Pennsylvania voters support 56 percent to 39 percent raising the state sales tax 1 percent with part of the money going for local property tax relief. A similar poll released March 28 showed voters supported the plan 54 percent to 40 percent.
“Public support for the sales tax plan is increasing but their patience for this legislative body to deliver is not,” DeWeese said. “I have watched for 30 years as this legislature sacrificed the possible while waiting for the perfect. My plan is clean, clear, direct, easy to understand, easy to explain and would deliver real and meaningful property tax cuts to homeowners. It’s what the majority of Pennsylvanians want, and it is time we give it to them.”
The poll findings also fly in the face of House Minority Leader Sam Smith’s claim that state residents would not be willing to pay a half percent more in sales taxes if the money was used to reduce their property taxes. Smith recently dismissed calls for further property tax cuts, calling instead for unidentified “spending controls” and saying homeowners should live “within the existing tax structure.”
“I don’t know how many Pennsylvanians the minority leader has talked to over the course of the past year but this latest poll confirms what I’ve been hearing from constituents and residents across the state,” DeWeese said. “People want relief from high property taxes, and they believe a small increase in the sales tax is a fairer way to share in our constitutional obligation to provide for public education.”
DeWeese’s legislation is being circulated for co-sponsors.
###bfg/2007/mjh
l:\print\releases\salestaxpoll.050