WARNING: Fiscal Cliff Ahead

The CPBJ’s Eric Veronikis on Monday wrote that Sen. Joe Scarnati is sounding the alarm about the state’s looming budget deficit: upward of $3 billion by some estimates inside the Capitol.

This should not be a surprise to anyone even remotely paying attention during the budget battle of June and July, when we at the Commonwealth Foundation were warning about the increase in spending in the current budget.

Unfortunately, some lawmakers — Senate Appropriations chairmen Armstrong and Fumo in particular — think a tax increase next year is the only way to fill that budget gap. Of course, both Armstrong and Fumo negotiated, voted for and urged others to vote for the budget that is headed fast toward a tax-revenue cliff. But now that both senators are retiring at the end of the year, the only thing missing in their response to the projected budget deficit is, “Good luck y’all in cleaning up our fiscal mess.”

Well, we’ve already started a list of ideas of things to cut from the budget rather than looking for taxes to raise. Indeed, raising taxes on an already over-taxed state is the last thing our policymakers should be considering. But given the track record of Harrisburg, citizens and job creators ought to start getting ready for a massive tax increase in 2009.

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Matthew J. Brouillette is president and chief executive officer of the Commonwealth Foundation and first posted this at the Central Penn Business Journal’s
Capitol Domes blog.