Jun 18, 2016 3 min read

This budget season, taxpayers are anxious to see if Harrisburg will finally end its all-too-common practice of tax-and-spend, status quo governing.

I, like many of the people I represent, would like to see a different approach this time around. I believe Pennsylvanians should not be asked to take a pay cut until government has done all that it can to find inefficiencies, and cut waste, fraud and abuse. That, we can be sure, has not been done.

Yet, Gov. Tom Wolf has already asked the Legislature for $2.7 billion in new taxes on Pennsylvanians in order to increase the cost and size of government by almost 10 percent.

The governor’s proposal would increase the personal income tax on working Pennsylvanians by 11 percent, not only for the upcoming fiscal year, but also retroactively. It would also expand the sales tax and increase numerous taxes on small businesses, yet it does nothing to control the cost of government.

Pennsylvanians do not want, nor can they afford, higher taxes, especially not when those taxes would simply cover the cost of more government spending without accountability. It’s time to change Harrisburg’s money-grabbing culture to one that is centered on protecting taxpayers. In a multibillion dollar state budget, there are plenty of opportunities to find savings.

In an attempt to find those savings and develop alternatives to higher taxes, the Taxpayers’ Caucus was formed. The Taxpayers’ Caucus, of which I am proud member, is a working group of legislators founded to identify budget reforms which increase transparency and accountability, maximize program efficiencies to reduce costs, and eliminate or consolidate duplicative government programs.

After months of work, the caucus recently released a comprehensive report that details over $3 billion in savings to taxpayers. To put these savings in perspective, the Taxpayers’ Caucus found $300 million more in savings than Wolf requested in tax hikes.

A list of potential savings:

• Tax Amnesty Program, $150 million

• Improved collection of delinquent taxes, $75 million

• Social Security payment collection for other states, $12.4 million

• Leftover funds from previous years, $319 million

• Reforming state health care costs, $153 million

• Ending private pension management, $600 million

• Pennsylvania State Police cost savings, $43,384

• Liquor privatization, $220 million

• Uber Public Utility Commission fine, $11.4 million

• PennDOT’s questionable selling of driver information, $26.1 million

• Auditor General’s audit findings, $167 million

• Reduction of state debt, $10.6 million

• Reconciliation of the current and prior year’s budget, $200 million

• GO-TIME (government efficiencies), $158.7 million

• Department of Human Services cost savings, $922 million

• Energy savings, $3 million

The total comes to $3 billion.

Through these savings, the commonwealth can protect hard-working, middle-class families from burdensome new taxes, like those proposed by Wolf. These proposals alone are more than enough to close the budget deficit twice. It would be unacceptable to leave these cost savings on the table and ask taxpayers for more and more of their hard-earned dollars.

Working Pennsylvanians are tired of being viewed as an endless source of money for more government spending. Protecting taxpayers, not spending their money, should be Harrisburg’s top budget priority.

Jason Ortitay represents the 46th Legislative District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, which includes parts of Washington and Allegheny counties.