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Eyeing the mansion, Gerlach takes aim at Rendell’s tax-hike proposal

Ed Rendell is still the Governor of Pennsylvania. In today’s edition of the The Patriot-News, I explored the way Keystone State policy politics are being shaped by the savvy and combative Democrat, especially as Rendell asserts himself boldly in the current budget process.

Unlike New York, where a power vacuum in the Governor’s office and the state Senate has created a wacky circus, Pennsylvania still relies on Rendell to set the agenda—good or bad—around which state legislators rally, or riot, depending on whether we’re talking about the House Democrats or the Senate GOP.

When Rendell proposed a three-year hike to the personal income tax Tuesday, it was not only going to serve as another loud “talking point” for budget talks. It was also going to be a campaign issue for Gubernatorial Wannabes to use to let Pennsylvanians know where they stand.

The first and loudest to take aim at Rendell’s half-percentage point tax hike was Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-6), who “denounced the big-government mentality of Washington taking root today in Pennsylvania with Governor Ed Rendell’s announcement of a planned $4.5 billion income tax hike, a 16% increase during one of the worst economic downturns in decades.”

“This is no doubt a difficult period for Pennsylvania,” Gerlach said, “but we should be talking about how government can live within its means, cut spending, root out waste and find ways to get our economy moving again to create jobs – not raising taxes.

“Raising taxes on Pennsylvania families and businesses, and creating a new natural gas tax on an industry that will severely jeopardize the creation of thousands of new energy jobs shows just how much the wrong-headed tax, borrow and spend mentality of Washington is rooting itself in Pennsylvania,” he added. “Big government is not the answer to our problems and it will kill jobs across the Commonwealth. State Republicans have shown that difficult but necessary spending cuts can be made to balance this budget without tax increases, and I urge Governor Rendell to take a second look.”

Gerlach is seeking to position himself in a potential GOP primary against state Attorney General Tom Corbett and former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan as the “only potential Republican candidate at this point who has experience and a record dealing with fiscal issues including tax relief and budget reform—as both a state and federal legislator.”

Gerlach’s exploratory campaign is due for final evaluation this summer, when Gerlach aides say the Congressman will decide whether or not to move forward with a formal bid.

From the sound of things, the Congressman looks to be pushing hard for a statehouse run.

June 16, 2009 at 7:36 pm

--Laura Vecsey

Tags: Ed Rendell, Jim Gerlach

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