BY THE TIME Gov. Wolf completed his budget address to the Pennsylvania Legislature yesterday, it was easy to imagine that at least 100 jaws had finished dropping to the ground. One Republican legislator called it "breathtaking," though he didn't mean it as a compliment.
Admittedly, it was almost too much to absorb in one sitting.
For starters, the governor called for a broad array of tax increases, including an increase in the state income tax, from 3.07 to 3.7 percent; a rise in the state sales tax, from 6 percent to 6.6 percent; a 5-percent tax on natural gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale; and a $1-a-pack increase in the tax on cigarettes and their modern high-tech equivalents.
That is only part of the story. Wolf also offered solutions to problems that have vexed Harrisburg for years, seeking to break the logjam on pension reform, the liquor-control system, on corporate taxes and high local property taxes.
On top of that, he proposed major increases (of about $500 million) in state support for basic and special education, $100 million to pay for pre-K programs, millions more for community colleges and generous increases in state funding for the state universities, including Temple, Penn State and Pitt.
There's much more - a plan to offer tax incentives to create jobs and an increase in the state's minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour, to name two.
Details will emerge in the coming weeks, as legislators and budget analysts comb through the budget document. But "breathtaking" does capture the essence of Wolf's proposal. A few points:
Though Wolf's various proposed tax increases will eventually amount to $4.7 billion, his plan calls for half of it to be returned to local governments and earmarked for property-tax reduction. (In Philadelphia, we would not get a cut in property taxes, but the wage tax would be reduced from 3.92 percent to 3.48 percent for city residents.)
One way to look at it is that the new governor is seeking to reverse the policy of the previous four years. Under Gov. Corbett, state taxes were frozen, but his cuts in education and human services added more burden on local governments, which had to cut programs and increase property taxes to partially repair the holes that Corbett created.
Wolf's plan shifts the burden back to the state, restoring its role as a prime supporter of basic and secondary education. Over time, the governor wants the state's share of paying for public education to reach 50 percent. It now stands at 35 percent, among the lowest levels in the nation.
Though a liberal Democrat, the governor also showed his roots as a business owner. He proposed cutting the state's corporate net income tax from its current rate of 9.9 percent to 4.99 percent over time. He believes that the current rate stifles business expansion and job growth.
Property-tax relief and tax breaks for businesses are two items long favored by Republicans, though they were always reluctant to provide the money needed to pay for them.
Wolf wasn't elected to stand pat on big issues. His budget plan is brimming with new solutions to old problems and he wisely refused to take the cautious one-step-forward, two-steps-back preferred by many politicians.
We hope that legislators will try a little boldness of their own in embracing the ideas and solutions offered by the governor. Working together, they can make history.