Study finds Pa. tax system ranks as one of the most regressive
Fetterman opposes efforts to exclude Trump from 2024 ballot and a top House Republican still objects to Pa.’s 2020 vote
WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania’s tax system is the fourth-most regressive in the country, according to a report issued last week by a progressive research group.
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy cited the Keystone State’s flat rate income tax of 3.07% as the driving factor in a system that taxes the poorest 20% of Pennsylvanians an average of 15.1% of their income but the top 1% just 6%.
Making things more inequitable is the fact that local income taxes are levied on wages, not the capital gains that usually are paid by wealthier taxpayers, the report said.
“When you ask people what they think a fair tax code looks like, almost nobody says we should have the richest pay the least. And yet that’s exactly what we see in a significant way in Pennsylvania,” said Carl Davis, research director for the institute. “There’s an alarming gap here between what the public wants and what state lawmakers have delivered.”
Florida’s was rated as the most inequitable tax system, according to the group, followed by Washington, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Nevada. The states with the most progressive tax systems were Minnesota, Vermont, New York, California and New Jersey, the progressive group said.
Removing Trump from the 2024 ballot is ‘unhelpful,’ Fetterman says
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who won his Senate seat over a candidate running with Donald Trump’s endorsement, said efforts to remove the former president from the ballot are “incredibly unhelpful.”
Mr. Fetterman told The Daily Beast that he disagreed with the actions in Colorado and Maine to remove Mr. Trump from the 2024 ballot. Those efforts are tied to the 14th Amendment’s provision disqualifying anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. Mr. Trump was impeached on charges that he incited the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“I just want to just go on the record to say how incredibly unhelpful it is to have other states removing him from the ballot,” Mr. Fetterman said. “All of that is a gift to Trump. And all it does is just make him more popular and strong. That’s just going to energize his base — it’s just not helpful.”
Mr. Fetterman said, “The only way that we’re going to put him away is going to be in an election.”
The senator defeated celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, who had been endorsed by Mr. Trump, in 2022.
The third anniversary of the Capitol riot was two Saturdays ago. President Joe Biden traveled to a site near Valley Forge to pro-claim that “democracy is still a sacred cause,” and Pennsylvania Democrats marked the occasion as well.
“Three years ago, some fellow Americans threatened the peaceful transfer of power,” said U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall. “They attacked cops, the people’s seat of government, and our Constitution. Freedom-loving Americans don’t want our democracy to fail. Nor do I. And I’ll never shirk my duty to protect this country.”
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who was at the Capitol on that day three years earlier to certify the 2020 presidential election, blamed Mr. Trump for the riot.
“Three years ago, at the encouragement of the former president, a violent mob stormed the Capitol and tried to stop our democratic process in its tracks,” he said. “Our democracy is only as strong as those willing to defend it and we must remain vigilant against further attacks to undermine our democratic values.”
Top House Republican defends vote to overturn Pennsylvania’s 2020 election
The No. 4 House Republican, GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York, joined a majority of her colleagues after the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and voted to reject Pennsylvania’s state-certified electoral votes.
She defended her position last Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I voted not to certify the state of Pennsylvania because, as we saw in Pennsylvania and other states across the country, that there was unconstitutional acts circumventing the state Legislature and unilaterally changing election law.”
In actuality, the Republican-controlled state legislature had voted in 2019 to expand the state’s mail-in voting law, though many in the party switched sides on the issue as Mr. Trump disparaged absentee voting. Republicans just now are embracing the option.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the law before Election Day 2020.