Rendell sounds like a broken record

It was classic Ed Rendell Tuesday as the governor delivered his eighth -- and final -- budget to the Pennsylvania Legislature. Having run out of things to tax, Rendell proposed expanding the state sales tax to cover more items.

Rendell and his lockstep Democrats in the Legislature have repeatedly opposed expansion of the sales tax to cover services when it was attached to a plan to eliminate property taxes. That's what Republican state Rep. Sam Rohrer has been pushing for years.

But now that Rendell has run out of opportunities to raise other taxes, he needs the expanded sales tax to fund his $29 billion spending plan and pay for years of deficit spending.

Despite running up huge deficits in the past two budgets, Rendell wants to increase state spending by $1.1 billion for the 2010-11 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Rendell wants to pay for the spending by using $1.1 billion in federal stimulus funds, which may or may not be approved by Congress. (Imagine what will happen to "stimulus" handouts when Republicans take back control of Congress in November.)

And Rendell is leaving with a final "up yours" to the taxpayers of Pennsylvania.

Having presided over a massive expansion of state spending over the past eight years -- $9 billion and counting -- Rendell warned lawmakers that Pennsylvania is facing a "fiscal tsunami" -- a potential $5.6 billion deficit from the 2011 expiration of federal stimulus money and the ticking time bomb of public pension obligations.

It's basic economics. You can't spend what you don't have and Rendell (with the Legislature as his accomplice) has been spending money the state doesn't have. The chickens will come home to roost. Unfortunately for Pennsylvania taxpayers, Rendell will have flown the coop.

Rendell wants to reduce the state sales tax rate from 6 percent to 4 percent, but expand it to more than 70 services currently exempt (lawyer and accountant fees, dry cleaning, for example) and items such as firewood, candy, gum, bottled water, magazinies and "personal hygiene" products. (Groceries, clothing and prescription drugs would remain exempt from the sales tax under Rendell's plan).

Rep. Rohrer has proposed a similar plan, but it would lead to the elimination of the state's onerous property tax. Taxpayers would come out ahead under Rohrer's plan. Rendell simply wants more money from taxpayers to cover up his deficit spending.

The state finished with a $3.25 billion deficit for the 2008-09 fiscal year and is looking at a minimum $500 million deficit for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

In addition to expanding the sales tax, Rendell wants to extend the tobacco tax to include cigars and smokeless tobacco products and enact a new severance tax on natural gas extraction.

Will any of these taxes pass? Rendell is not running for re-election. He doesn't care. But all 203 members of the state House and 25 of the 50 members of the state Senate face the voters in 2010. How many of them are going to vote for one of the largest tax increases in Pennsylvania history?

Originally posted at TONY PHYRILLAS