Senator Scott Hutchinson issued the following statement on the proposed $32.338 billion General Fund budget for Fiscal Year 2017-18 that Governor Tom Wolf unveiled before a joint session of the General Assembly on Tuesday.
“It’s work in progress, definitely. There are a few good things in there,” Senator Hutchinson said. “I am glad that he is focused upon finding efficiencies in state government. Whether we end up doing the ones he wants is another question, but we are going to have to dig into those details. I am a little bit concerned because there are $1 billion in tax increases. It’s not the personal income tax or sales tax, however there is a severance tax in there, some expansions of the sales tax — things that really are not good policy for our state. We are going to have to work on that too. Pension reform is such a huge cost driver across the board, until we tackle that everything else is a short-term band aid. Pension reform is a priority of mine, and it is something we must do sooner rather than later. It will require leadership from the Governor to finally tackle this issue.”
Contact: Justin Leventry (717) 787-9684