Total revenues in Pennsylvania were up in the fiscal year that just ended by $94 million, compared to 2007-08 on the eve of the Great Recession, according to data released by the National Association of Budget Officers (NASBO). That’s an increase of 0.3%. Pennsylvania’s revenue growth over that period ranked 25th among states.
Total revenues in Pennsylvania were up in the fiscal year that just ended by $94 million, compared to 2007-08 on the eve of the Great Recession, according to data released by the National Association of Budget Officers (NASBO). That’s an increase of 0.3%. Pennsylvania’s revenue growth over that period ranked 25th among states.
NASBO’s data for 2015-16 projects that a combination of healthier economic growth and higher taxes will boost revenue in the Commonwealth by $672 million, an increase over 2007-08 of 2.2%. That would push Pennsylvania’s revenue growth to 22nd fastest in the nation.
As the budget battles in Harrisburg have heated up, critics of investing in more teachers and textbooks have claimed that the proposed tax increases necessary to accomplish those goals would be the largest ever or the largest in the country. These comparisons appeal to an impassioned, but largely innumerate, minority in Pennsylvania. We know they are a distinct minority as we just had a gubernatorial election in which the victor/challenger promised, if elected, to raise taxes to restore funding to education, and the loser/incumbent identified his signature achievement as not raising taxes.
The voters chose to make investing in education a priority because they saw firsthand the consequences of the policies of the last four years — thousands of teacher layoffs, climbing class sizes, falling test scores, and rising property taxes. As economist and Keystone Research Center executive director Steve Herzenberg explains in another blog post, when it comes to children’s well-being and the American Dream in Pennsylvania, voters made the right choice.