Published: July 11, 2009 12:22 am      

Rendell defends tax-hike proposal

“You want to know what this is all about?” Gov. Ed Rendell asked Friday at Greater Johnstown High School. “Just look behind me.”

Sitting behind the governor was a group of preschool youngsters with signs praising the school district’s Pre-K Counts program.

Rendell came to the high school to discuss education funding in the still-unsettled state budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

The governor told those in attendance that a budget proposal put forth by Republicans in the state House would eliminate the statewide Pre-K Counts as well as various other programs relating to education.

It achieves a balance without adding new taxes or expanding existing ones.

Rendell and his Democratic allies in the Legislature are calling for a mix of cuts and tax increases.

“I know that proposing any increases in taxes is not popular,” the governor said.

But he said he cannot justify passage of a budget without a tax hike if that budget puts education at risk.

He said it is necessary for people to look at education programs that no longer will be there if not properly funded.

He said he is not concerned if his tax-increase proposal damages his popularity.

“I really don’t care. I want to do the right thing,” he said.

The governor said his proposal calls for a three-year increase in the state income tax.

He said retirement income and unemployment-compensation benefits are not subject to the state income tax.

A specific amount of the proposed increase was not mentioned Friday afternoon.

Rendell did say that Pennsylvania currently has the second-lowest tax rate in the nation.

Under his proposal, he said it would rank as the third lowest, and the increase would “disappear after three years.”

A state budget with no tax increases would force counties and school districts to hike taxes to maintain needed programs, Rendell said.

“All the Republicans are doing is passing the buck to counties and school districts,” the governor said.

“We face an extraordinarily difficult budget situation as a result of the national recession and we need to work in a bipartisan way to reach a solution. But let me be clear – balancing this budget on the backs of homeowners and students is no solution at all.”

Rendell was accompanied by state Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak and Altoona Area School District Superintendent Dennis Murray. They discussed how a failure by the General Assembly to adequately fund state-mandated services would create the need for tax increases at the local level.

Zahorchak is a former Greater Johnstown School District superintendent. He also is a former principal in the North Star and Shanksville-Stonycreek school districts, both in Somerset County.