House panel approves bills that would cut taxes for small businesses.
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – In a series of party-line or near party-line votes, a House committee approved three bills Tuesday to provide tax breaks to small businesses.
Rep. Patty Kim, D-Dauphin, the panel minority chair, opposed the measures out of concern that they would result in a $500 million loss of state revenue.
During debate over the bills in the Finance Committee, members offered their views for achieving economic revival in Pennsylvania and voiced concerns about the impact of state revenue losses and the struggles facing small business owners. The House Republican majority caucus calls them the Small Business Tax Fairness Package.
The move comes less than a month ahead of Gov. Tom Wolf’s Feb. 8 budget address at a time when the state’s seen month after month of revenue beating projections. Collections for the current July-to-June budget year are now $1.5 billion above expectations, or 7%, largely driven by better-than-expected sales, personal income and corporate tax payments. “Things are doing really well, we had a nice surplus at the end of last year,” Wolf said earlier this month, hours after his Revenue Department announced the state took in $464 million more than had been projected last month.
Under The Dome – capitolwire.com
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