Jill+Felming-Salopek+Questions+Gov.+Corbett

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=New governor talks taxes, Education= Gov. Tom Corbett addresses questions from Jill Fleming-Salopek, chair of the English department at Steel Valley High School in Allegheny County. ( Staff photo by Roger Vogel ) ||

= By BRUCE SIWY  = =// Published in the Daily American  //= =// April 8, 2011  //= = = = = =SEVEN SPRINGS-—Tom Corbett made his first visit to Somerset County as governor Friday morning at Seven Springs resort for the Allegheny League of Municipalities’ spring conference.= =The former Pennsylvania attorney general and Allegheny County municipal official gave his diagnosis of the state’s problem — spending — and touched on his plan to erase the commonwealth’s $4.2 billion deficit.= =“What this whole budget is about is jobs,” Corbett told the audience. “I want jobs for Pennsylvanians.”= =He focused on regional Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling. The growing industry is a development that has garnered international attention of late, culminating as the featured cover story for Time magazine this month.= =Corbett defended his controversial anti-tax stance as the best way to make the state more attractive to drillers, who paid the commonwealth more than $100 million in 2010 through royalties and sales and use tax returns.= =“I made a pledge to not raise taxes,” Corbett said. “I’m going to stick to that because I want to keep businesses in Pennsylvania.= =“I don’t believe that a culture of taxation creates wealth. It just pushes the money around.”= =He said excessive tax or regulation could prompt drillers to move operations to places like Ohio, West Virginia and Arkansas.= =“We’re in competition,” he said. “The rigs and capital will go to where they can get the best deal. We have to resist the temptation for a quick fix when we need a (long-term) fix.”= =Corbett also received questions and criticism about his education spending. He said school districts across Pennsylvania should have been aware that federal stimulus money — which had been used the past two years to supplement state subsidies — was only a temporary funding source.= =“They need to live with the same fiscal realities that you do,” he told the crowd of mostly municipal officials. “The school districts have to take some responsibility.”= =Corbett added that he supports legislation that would allow property tax increases above the rate of inflation only if approved by voter referendum.= =He said his overall goal is to reduce government expenses to sustainable levels. He noted that state spending increased 32 percent — from $22 billion to $29 billion — during the eight-year term of his predecessor, Ed Rendell.= =“You have to set the priorities,” Corbett said. “If you don’t have the money you can’t spend it.= =“We’re broke — it’s that simple.”=

= //Jill Fleming-Salopek is the Chairperson of the T.E.A.C.H. Committee// =

= RELATED STORIES = =Corbett Gives Energy Exec. Authority Over Environmental Permitting= =Marcellus Shale Tax a Must For PA.= =America is Not Broke=

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