PA Budget Secretary Defends Spending Plan, Minimum Wage Hike
The Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg.
Credit: PA Internet News Service
Pennsylvania Budget Secretary Jen Swails spent three hours defending Gov. Tom Wolf’s spending plan – a proposal many Republicans criticize as lofty and unrealistic – before the House Appropriations Committee last week.
The meeting concluded three weeks of hearings with different state agencies over how Wolf’s $37.8 billion proposal, partly funded by a 46% personal income tax increase on the top third of earners, would be spent. The governor’s concurrent call to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next seven years percolated to the surface of the hearing often.
Pennsylvania Collects $2.7 Billion in February 2021, 28.4% More than Anticipated mychesco.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mychesco.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Those state lawmakers who insist on maintaining poverty-level wages for hundreds of thousands of workers already have defied empirical evidence that raising the minimum wage would not destroy businesses.
Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office said Tuesday that raising the state’s minimum wage would stimulate economic growth, even though it increases costs for employers.
HARRISBURG The filing season for 2020 Pennsylvania personal income tax returns will begin on Friday, Feb. 12, the Department of Revenue announced. The st