Gov. Wolf’s Budget Would Make Matters Even Worse

Gov. Wolf’s Budget Would Make Matters Even Worse

Gov. Wolf’s Budget Would Make Matters Even Worse

Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget address delivered this week to the Pennsylvania State Legislature — remotely of course, for the first time in state history — promises to kill jobs and raise taxes.

Naturally, he didn’t express it quite those words. But when your stated goals include things like raising minimum wage to $15 an hour and increasing school funding by almost $1.5 billion, it’s necessary to read between the lines.

In an interview with NBC 10 Philadelphia, Wolf’s budget secretary Jen Swails explained, “The biggest part of that, $1.35 billion, would be distributed to schools to pay for their primary operations, like teacher salaries, operations costs and supplies, on top of the $6.8 billion they currently receive.”

We’ve already witnessed half of Pennsylvania’s restaurant workers — 300,000 out of 600,000 — lose their jobs almost overnight because of Wolf’s draconian and dystopian mandates. We’ve heard parents angrily demand that public schools be re-opened for in-person teaching because the science says it’s safe. And we’ve seen business owners ordered to close up shop and lose their life’s dream and lay off or fire their workers because of these ever-changing mandates.

One would think the governor might be a bit more mindful of the people and industries he’s decimated. But no.

At the end of the day, someone has to pick up the tab for this. That’s just how basic economics works.

And who might that be? Of course, it’s the hard-working taxpayers of our Commonwealth who’ve been dealt blow after blow from this administration.

The model for this insanity is to raise state income taxes from 3.07 to 4.49 percent — a 46 percent increase. Can you and your family afford to live on less money in Pennsylvania?

Don’t think so.

Our state legislature last approved an income tax increase 17 years ago, in 2004. In a day and age where we’ve all had to make do with less, is it too much to think government could do the same — particularly since the state’s wounds are largely self-inflicted?

Since announcing his run for the state house in 2013, the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) and Americans Federation of Teachers (AFT) have donated $2.35 million and $1.69 million, respectively, to Tom Wolf’s political war chest.

Gov. Wolf has every intention of paying dividends on that investment with your money. He’ll do the political bidding for his biggest donors, we’ll all suffer because of it.

Unless, that is, public-sector employees recognize the direction this state is headed and recognize that their money is funding our collective downfall.

Go to OptOutToday.com and learn how you can do your part to expose the crooked game Wolf and his union cronies are playing — and what you can do to put a stop to it.

East Coast Director
htower@freedomfoundation.com
Hunter Tower was hired as the Pennsylvania Director for the Freedom Foundation in March 2020 and now serves as the East Coast Director. Hunter has previously served as Executive Director of the Republican Committee of Lancaster County and as a Field Director with the PAGOP. He has also served as a Campaign Manager for a State Representative race in Connecticut and has lobbied Congress on behalf of his Fraternity (Theta Chi) and the Fraternal Government Relations Coalition (FGRC) to pass the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act (CHIA). Hunter has been featured in many outlets across the East Coast and the nation such as RealClearPolicy, RedState, Center Square, Broad + Liberty, Penn Live, City & State, and Lincoln Radio Journal. He’s a member and Parliamentarian of the Pennsylvania Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He has facilitated several national and regional events for his Fraternity, is a charter member of his local Rotary Club, a Kentucky Colonel, and a former member of Kennett Township (PA) Zoning Hearing Board. Hunter’s family has a long history in politics beginning with Charlemagne Tower Jr., who served as Minister to Austria-Hungary (1897–1899) for President William McKinley before being transferred to Russia as Ambassador (1899–1902). Following his post in St. Petersburg, Charlemagne served as Ambassador to Germany from 1902 to 1908 under President Theodore Roosevelt. Tower City in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania is named after his father, Charlemagne Tower, as is Tower, Minnesota, and Tower City, North Dakota. Hunter’s cousin, former United States Senator John G. Tower (R-Texas), served 24 years in the Senate and was George H.W. Bush’s first nominee for Secretary of Defense. Hunter’s late father, John W. Tower, was President Richard Nixon’s aide at the 1972 RNC in Florida with Alexander Haig’s son, worked with the Reagan Administration in the 1980s, and was a lobbyist in Washington, DC as President of American Strategy Group. Hunter is a graduate of Widener University in Chester, PA with a B.A. in Political Science. Hunter and his wife reside in Pennsylvania, with their two children and two rescue dogs.