Today, Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, sent the following letter to legislators in Pennsylvania. For a PDF version of the letter click here.

24 June 2011

Dear Members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, 

I wrote yesterday in opposition to the increase in the hospital tax that is set to be included in the budget. As I mentioned, as long as the hospital tax increase is paired with offsetting tax relief, ATR would not oppose, nor score, a vote in favor of the budget as a Taxpayer Protection Pledge violation.

It is now our understanding that the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax, currently set 2.89 mills for tax year 2011, is slated to be drawn down to a new rate of 1.89 mills for tax year 2012.  With each mill of CSFT worth $275 million in reduced tax liability, this would nullify ATR’s opposition to inclusion of the hospital tax increase in the budget, assuming that the CSFT reduction and any other tax relief included in the budget offset the additional revenue that the increased levy on hospitals would yield. Furthermore, no Taxpayer Protection Pledge signers would be violating their commitment to constituents in voting for, or signing a budget with the aforementioned provisions.

I applaud Gov. Corbett and members of the legislature for their tireless efforts to bring spending in line with revenues, rather than seek to further soak taxpayers. In doing so, Pennsylvania is leading the way, setting a pro-growth and fiscally responsible example for lawmakers in other states and Washington, D.C. There is much for Pennsylvania taxpayers to celebrate: after almost a decade of profligacy and nearly perennial tax increases under former Gov. Rendell, Harrisburg is under new management that clearly got the message that voters sent last November and is putting an end to the unsustainable status quo.

If you have any questions please contact ATR’s Director of State Affairs, Patrick Gleason, at 202-785-0266 or pgleason@atr.org.

Onward,

Grover G. Norquist