Third and State

In a recent interview with Triad Strategies, I outlined some of our concerns about state tax cuts enacted over the past decade and the Governor's plan to enact a new round of state corporate income tax cuts in the years ahead.

Business tax cuts enacted since 1999 have drained close to $3 billion this year alone from state coffers. The cost of the tax cuts has more than tripled since 2002, with little to show for it. Pennsylvania ranked 27th in job growth in 1999-2000 and 34th in 2011-12.

As I told Triad: "If the goal is to use these tax cuts to improve Pennsylvania’s ability to create jobs, it just has not worked.”

Sharon Ward of the PA Budget and Policy Center Discusses Tax Policy from Triad Strategies on Vimeo.

A few other highlights from the podcast ...

On the Governor's plan to enact a new round of corporate tax cuts beginning in 2015 that will cost as much as $1 billion a year when fully phased in, I said: "It’s a great deal for profitable corporations, and it’s very meaningless for the 85% of corporations that pay less than $1,000 a year” in state corporate income taxes.

I also made the point that Pennsylvania needs real tax reform: "Tax reform needs to take a fair look at all the ways that companies take advantage of the tax code, and if you want to use some of those dollars to reduce the [corporate income] tax rate a little bit, that’s perfectly fine. But you’ve got to get the reform piece there, and I don’t see any tax reform in this plan."