Posted: | February 18, 2022 03:09 PM |
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From: | Senator Lisa M. Boscola |
To: | All Senate members |
Subject: | Sales Tax Holiday |
In the near future, I intend to introduce legislation to provide a two-month sales tax holiday to consumers in Pennsylvania. Everyone is hurting from the effects of inflation. It was reported that in January of 2022, the annual inflation rate in the US accelerated to 7.5%. This is the highest since February of 1982. The tax holiday is intended to help provide some temporary relief to everyone. Whether it is working families, recent college graduates or retirees, price increases have negatively impacted everyone’s bottom line. I believe we can do something to help Pennsylvanians. The Commonwealth is on sound financial footing per the recent budget address from the Governor. We are going to run a $2+ billion dollar surplus in this budget (2021-22) and the Governor projects a similar surplus next year (2022-23). By suspending the sales tax in Pennsylvania during the months of June and July of 2022 we can spread the impact over two budgets. The June suspension would influence 2021-22 budget projections and the July suspension would impact 2022-23 budget. This legislation would not affect the 1% and 2% local sales taxes that Allegheny and Philadelphia County currently have. Please join me in co-sponsoring this legislation to keep money in the pockets of Pennsylvanian’s during a time that we can afford it in Harrisburg. |