Pennsylvania Senate Republican Caucus

Senator Regola speaks at January 29th press conference

SB 7 (Constitutional Amendment Version)

SB 707 (Statute Version)

Senator Folmer speaks at January 29th press conference

June 13, 2007

It's Time to Get Spending Under Control

To the Editor:

From 1990 to 2006, spending by Pennsylvania state government increased 110 percent, from $12.4 billion to $26.1 billion. Over the same period, people’s personal income earnings increased only 88 percent.

In other words, government has been growing much faster than our ability to pay for it.  People are working harder and longer for less pay.

At the same time, we have seen sharp increases in taxes to pay for this increased spending.  According to the Tax Foundation, Pennsylvania had the 9th lowest state and local tax burden in 1990. Today, Pennsylvania has fallen to the middle of the pack.

This year, Governor Rendell is pushing seven different new taxes and/or tax increases.  It’s time to draw a line in the sand and say “no” to tax increases and “no” to additional state spending and borrowing.  We need to get government off the backs of the taxpayers.

Requiring government to live within its means, as families and individuals must do, is not only vital to making our tax burden more manageable, but it also to growing our economy. As President Reagan once noted, you can grow the government, or you can grow the economy, but you can’t growth both. Research by the Commonwealth Foundation verifies Reagan’s wisdom by demonstrating that states which routinely increase spending above inflation and population growth do not experience as much as economic growth as those which keep spending at or below inflation and population growth.

Pennsylvania is a perfect case in point: while spending to excess over the last decade and a half, we’ve lagged well behind the national average in job growth and personal income growth.

In order to get spending under control so that we may cut taxes and spur robust economic growth, we’ve introduced the Taxpayer Protection Act. This landmark legislation would constitutionally and statutorily limit any increase in state spending to the combined rates of inflation and population growth. For example, if population increased by 5 percent and inflation increased by 10 percent, state spending could increase by up to 15 percent, and not a penny more.

Twenty-eight other states have enacted some form of a common-sense protection against excessive spending. For the sake of our economy and our overtaxed citizens, it’s time for Pennsylvania to do the same.

Senator Bob Regola                 Senator Mike Folmer

April 26th hearing at Seton Hill University.

April 26th hearing at Seton Hill University.