PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Survey Conducted by CompetePA
by David N. Taylor,
Executive Director, PA Manufacturers' Association
Pennsylvanians strongly support the bipartisan, pro-growth business tax reforms introduced in the state House and Senate, a recent survey reveals.
Endorsed by the CompetePA coalition, the legislation would:
Uncap NOL carryforward – allowing businesses to apply all of their recent operating losses against their current and near-future tax liability, as is law in 48 other states; and
Enact a Single Sales Factor – assessing Corporate Net Income (CNI) tax liability solely on in-state sales, eliminating the tax on in-state hiring and investment.
The bill's Senate sponsors are Sen. Pat Browne (R-Lehigh) and Sen. Wayne Fontana (D-Allegheny), with Reps. Mike Gerber (D-Montgomery), Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny), Todd Eachus (D-Luzerne), and Dave Reed (R-Indiana) leading the effort in the House. CompetePA includes over 120 Pennsylvania employers and business organizations, including PMA.
To gauge public opinion on the state's economy, the Pennsylvania Business Council (PBC) ordered a survey, which was conducted by Susquehanna Polling & Research. By a tremendous margin, respondents believe the single most important problem facing Pennsylvania today is the economy, jobs and unemployment. In a survey of 700 voters taken last month, 36 percent said their greatest concern is economics and jobs – more than twice the number who cited the second most frequent response: "taxes." Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed support enacting a Single Sales Factor, while more than half of those surveyed support uncapping NOL carryforward.
"This polling shows that Pennsylvanians, in very large numbers, want the state government to take action to help employers and to create jobs," said PBC President & CEO David W. Patti. "A majority of Pennsylvanians support tax changes that would help firms with operations and facilities in Pennsylvania better compete with out-of-state competitors." The complete results of the survey, which has a margin of error of 3.7 percent, are available online at www.pabusinesscouncil.org.
"There is tremendous bi-partisan legislative support for these tax changes," Patti noted. "More than half of the Senate and about two-thirds of the House have signed-on as co-sponsors of legislation to enact these very same tax changes. These bills are supported by PBC and a vast array of companies and business associations working together as part of the CompetePA coalition. We want lawmakers to know that their constituents support the adoption of this legislation."
At the end of April, Pennsylvania's Department of Revenue reported total overpayments from taxpayers had reached $437 million.
"As elected officials in Harrisburg debate how to stimulate Pennsylvania's economy, the business community is united behind the pro-growth CompetePA agenda," said Frederick W. Anton III, President and CEO of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association. "Improving the state's economic fundamentals will help bring us in line with our competitor states, which have been consistently outperforming us. The bipartisan Browne-Fontana/Gerber-Turzai legislation is the stimulus Pennsylvania's employers are asking for."
