Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Do Wolf's Spending Plans Come Up Short?

In Pennsylvania, the Corbett-Cawley campaign today highlighted ever changing revenue estimates by millionaire Secretary Tom Wolf on the amount his planned severance tax would rob from Pennsylvania municipalities and counties for bigger government and Harrisburg's coffers. 

After Wolf has been challenged that his numbers just don't add up, Wolf has miraculously found another $50 to $200 million in his plans. This still leaves Wolf's spending proposals in the red though and raises the question of what other taxes would Tom Wolf increase.

“Just as Secretary Tom Wolf's positions on the issues change with the wind, apparently so do his revenue projections," stated Communications Director Chris Pack. "That's no surprise given Tom Wolf's reputation as Revenue Secretary, where projections were so far off they contributed down the road to a $4.2 billion budget deficit and the creation of a non-partisan office to check projections by the governor."

Earlier this week on a radio interview with KDKA in Pittsburgh, Wolf projected $800 million in severance tax revenue, while his campaign later the same day with the Beaver County Times projected $700 million, just months after budget negotiations when Wolf's campaign claimed $650 million or as little as $600 million would be raised. Wolf is either trying to gloss over the multi-million deficit in his spending plans, or projecting his additional tax burdens won't reduce competition for drilling rigs in other states.

In an interview with The Rick Smith Show in April of 2013, Tom Wolf said "I got to be Secretary of Revenue and I realized I was not that knowledgeable about revenue." In proposing the Independent Fiscal Office, legislators cited revenue projections in 2008-2009that came up $3.2 billion short, and $1 billion short in 2009-2010.

"Secretary Tom Wolf will do anything to fool voters into believing he won't have to hike their taxes, but the math just doesn't add up. Tom Wolf may not know much about revenue, but it's pretty clear he'll do anything to take more of it out of Pennsylvanians' wallets."

Earlier this month, the Corbett-Cawley campaign, based on a generous $720 million projection by Senator Jay Costa, projected that Wolf's spending plans already come up nearly half-a-billion short before additional spending items for which Tom Wolf has not set a price tag.

RELATED: Corbett-Cawley Campaign Says Secretary Tom Wolf's Plan Just Doesn't Add Up.

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