PA State Senate advances GOP tax cuts bill

The Pennsylvania Senate on May 7 approved legislation that Senate Republicans say would reduce taxes for working families, job creators, and energy consumers by roughly $3 billion a year.

Specifically, Senate Bill (SB) 269, sponsored by State Sen. Chris Gebhard (R-48), would reduce the Personal Income Tax (PIT) rate from 3.07 percent to 2.8 percent, according to a joint statement released Tuesday by PA Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R-39), Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R-41), and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Scott Martin (R-13).

“The Senate Republican Caucus’s top priority has been and continues to be strengthening Pennsylvania by positioning and empowering Pennsylvanians, their families and their businesses to succeed,” Sen. Ward said. “Today, we take the next step in our relief efforts, by directly returning money to Pennsylvania families by taking steps to reduce the personal income tax by nearly 10 percent.

“This budget season we will continue to prioritize Pennsylvanians families starting with a $3 billion tax cut,” she said.

Additionally, the Republicans said that an enacted SB 269 would eliminate the Gross Receipts Tax on energy, effective on Jan. 1, 2025, to provide consumers some relief from high energy costs.

“We fundamentally believe when you allow taxpayers and consumers of electricity to keep more of what they earn, they can best decide how to reinvest that into our economy,” said Pittman. “Lower tax structures help to further grow an economy, and in this case, would lift all boats.”

The bipartisan, veto-proof legislation would represent the largest tax cut for working families in the Commonwealth’s history, saving taxpayers more than $13 billion over the next five years, say Senate Republicans, who noted that the tax cuts would benefit all Pennsylvania families and inject an additional $3 billion into the state’s economy.

They also pointed out that their bill is in sharp contrast to Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s calls for $3.2 billion in new government spending, as well as legislation introduced by House Democrats to nearly quadruple certain taxes paid by small businesses.

“There has been a lot of discussion about $3 billion of additional spending,” Pittman added. “Our point of view is if we’re going to invest $3 billion, we should invest it back into the taxpayers.” 

The Senate Republican leaders also stressed that the tax cuts continue their efforts to protect taxpayers against unnecessary tax increases, new spending, and unchecked government growth.

“Putting this money back in the pockets of consumers, taxpayers and job-creators is the best and fairest way to address the challenges we face,” said Martin. “Rather than increasing the size of government and picking winners and losers with massive new spending and programs, we are investing money in all Pennsylvanians and sending a strong signal that our Commonwealth is open for business.”

SB 269, which was sent to the PA House of Representatives for consideration, is supported by Americans for Prosperity Pennsylvania, which earlier today thanked the lawmakers for working toward “historic tax cuts and looking out for every Pennsylvanian wallet.”

“This is the kind of leadership we need in the Commonwealth. Onward,” the group tweeted today on X, formerly Twitter.