June 5th, 2009

House Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans says a broad-based tax increase is necessary to fill the budget’s $3.2 billion deficit, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

“This is a national recession, and the bottom dropped out,” said Evans, perhaps the most influential member of the House. “Now we are in an economic straitjacket.”

But, said House Minority Whip Mike Turzai, a McCandless Republican: “In a recession, the last thing you want to do is raise taxes, and that’s any tax. We have overspent ourselves into a problem. If Dwight Evans thinks he has the votes for a broad-based tax increase, he is the majority, and he should call up the bill. I don’t believe the votes are there.”