HARRISBURG, Pa., Nov. 29, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- In anticipation of the November 30, 2004 release of the tax commission report to Governor Rendell, as required by Executive Order 2004-3, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry thanked the commissioners for their hard work but said that the constraints the governor placed on them led to few meaningful recommendations for changing our existing tax structure in order to make it more competitive in today's global economy.
"The Pennsylvania Chamber has said from the beginning that the shackles placed on this tax commission have hampered the commission's ability to affect any meaningful reform. The narrow charge of revenue neutrality within major corporate taxes and the lack of dynamic modeling have tied the hands of this commission," said Jim Welty, PA Chamber vice president of Legislative and Corporate Affairs. "It was our hope from the outset that the charge of the tax commission would be expanded so that the commission could focus on a more competitive business tax structure by reviewing all relevant business taxes. Instead, commissioners were forced to focus simply on the Corporate Net Income Tax and ignore the other taxes paid by business, like property, personal income and sales taxes. We are truly disappointed that this report fails to address key competitiveness issues related to our ability to attract and retain jobs in Pennsylvania."
Instead, Welty noted, the report will have a negative impact on business if its recommendations related to combined reporting and a tax on pass through entities are adopted. "We believe that our appointee to the commission, Mr. Mike Cortez from Sheetz, Inc. did an outstanding job representing the business community," said Welty. "Unfortunately, there was little the commissioners could recommend to improve Pennsylvania's economic competitiveness other than shift tax burdens among the various types of businesses. In essence, it's as if the commission was asked to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic."
"In light of a recent Forbes Magazine 'Economic Freedom' survey and many others like it that rank Pennsylvania as one of the worst states to do business, we urge the General Assembly to be mindful of the report's shortcomings and approach any legislative initiatives that the administration may advance with extreme caution as certain recommendations are likely to hinder job creation and economic development."
The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry is the state's largest broad-based business association and the fastest growing state chamber in the United States, with more than 10,000 members covering all 67 counties. More information is available on the Chamber's website at www.pachamber.org.
The PA Chamber of Business and Industry logo is available at: http://media.primezone.com/prs/single/?pkgid=353