Burns votes against billion-dollar tax hike
Back-door taxes used to prop up new state spending
Rep. Frank Burns July 13, 2016 | 5:11 PM
HARRISBURG, July 13 – Faulting its heavy use of back-door tax hikes on the likes of tobacco products, income tax on lottery winnings and downloaded internet data including apps to raise more than $1 billion, state Rep. Frank Burns voted "no" on today’s revenue bill.
Burns, D-Cambria, issued the following statement explaining his position:
"As a fiscally conservative Democrat, I cannot in good conscience vote ‘yes’ on a bill that amounts to a billion-dollar tax hike on certain groups like roll-your-own smokers, users of smokeless tobacco and those who download books, apps, music or movies from the internet.
"Likewise, I have strong reservations about borrowing $200 million from other state funds in order to help balance the 2016-17 state budget. That’s a smoke-and-mirrors tactic, because sooner or later, the state’s going to have to repay that money. And it’s very likely another tax or taxes will be raised in order to do that.
"Finally, imposing the state’s personal income tax on lottery winnings over $600 was something that never came up in any big way prior to approval of the new spending plan June 30. It’s just further proof that Pennsylvania has become a ‘spend first, tax later’ state, which is not sound budgeting and does a huge disservice to our residents.
"We’ve got to stop playing ‘spin the wheel and see where it lands’ to come up with revenue sources. Or else we can just start living within our means when it comes to taxation."