Marc Collazzo’s Promises to the 170th
JOBS
Collazzo Will Put Jobs and Families First
Marc Collazzo understands that creating high-quality; family-sustaining jobs must be priority number one in Harrisburg. Unemployment rates in the United States have reached a staggering 9.5%, with half a million of our fellow citizens having simply given up on searching for a new job to support themselves and their families. Sadly enough, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate stands at nearly 9%. While still slightly below the national average, we can and must do better.
As a state legislator, Marc will go to Harrisburg with one thing on his mind: jobs. Marc will support innovative new incentives to draw businesses back to our area to employ Pennsylvanians. Marc believes that it is difficult to attract new businesses, retain current businesses, or convince employers to hire new workers as long as Pennsylvania’s highest-in-the-nation corporate tax rate remains at 9.99%. Lowering the corporate tax rate to make Pennsylvania’s business tax rate competitive and attractive to investors and private industry is the only way to enhance the climate for creating new jobs.
Marc understands that businesses that are seeking a place to put down roots and hire workers seek to do so in states with healthy budgets, responsible spending habits, reasonable regulation, and a stream-lined governmental bureaucracy that works as a helping hand and not a hindrance to job creation and business development. A September 2009 Forbes magazine/Tax Foundation ranking of America’s most business-friendly states put Pennsylvania at 33rd when it comes to creating a business and jobs-friendly environment. We can do better.
Among the top-ranked states for business include those with the most highly educated workforce that is prepared to meet the challenges of the future. Marc will work to ensure that job training programs, workforce development, state universities, and our community college system are all prepared to play a role in elevating Pennsylvania’s job creation environment in the next decade.
LOWERING TAXES, RESTORING ACCOUNTABILITY
The Collazzo Plan for Reducing Sales, Property, and Income Taxes
The citizens of Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties deserve an honest discussion on taxation. Taxes help finance our roads, schools, and infrastructure, which must be maintained to create a family and business-friendly Pennsylvania. However, a fiscally responsible candidate knows that taxpayers should keep more of their income and have peace of mind knowing that their homes will not be taken away because of skyrocketing property taxes. Unlike his opponent, Marc understands that higher sales taxes means less revenue for business owners along with higher prices for families like yours.
Marc Collazzo will make a difference in Harrisburg because he’s the type of accountable, responsible candidate who will cut taxes, maintain core services, and restore fiscally conservative principles.
Opposing Sales Tax Hikes and Fighting for Consumers, Small Businesses
• As a concerned citizen, Marc Collazzo stood up last fall and opposed Mayor Nutter’s 14% sales tax increase in Philadelphia while our current legislator voted in favor of increasing the state sales tax on Philadelphia residents, even when he promised he wouldn’t. As a state legislator, Marc Collazzo will fight against higher taxes. He’s made a pledge to oppose new tax increases and will focus on trimming wasteful spending in Harrisburg. Unlike other candidates, he’ll stick to it.
• Marc Collazzo promises to oppose reauthorizing Philadelphia’s eight percent sales tax increase when it comes up for a vote during the next legislative session.
Stopping Skyrocketing Property Taxes and Protecting Homeowners, Seniors, and Families
• Marc Collazzo will support legislation freezing property taxes when senior citizens turn 65 years of age. Ensuring that seniors’ property taxes will never climb above the rate they stand when the homeowner turns 65 is a crucial step in protecting those who have worked their entire lives to support their families and neighborhoods from losing their homes because of irresponsible government policies that lead to escalating property taxes.
• Marc Collazzo will be a vocal opponent of Mayor Nutter’s proposal to increase Philadelphia property taxes by 9.9% this coming year. This massive increase will lead to citizens either losing their homes or moving out of Philadelphia, neither of which we can afford or should tolerate. On his first day in office, Marc Collazzo will introduce legislation capping property tax increases in each municipality in Pennsylvania to prevent local governments from enacting massive tax increases on the backs of local taxpayers.
Lowering Income Taxes and Protecting Our Pocketbooks
• Marc Collazzo will work to rollback Pennsylvania’s Personal Income Tax (PIT) from 3.07% to 2.8%, as it stood during the prosperous 1990s. Working families are struggling to survive in our current economic climate. Lowering the income tax will ensure that Pennsylvania workers are able to keep more of their rather than sending it to finance the Harrisburg bureaucracy.
• Marc Collazzo will oppose raising our income taxes. When Harrisburg Democrats proposed increasing income taxes by 16% in 2009, our current state legislator remained silent and failed to voice his opposition to higher income taxes. Marc Collazzo will oppose future income tax increases as our State Representative and will never waver in his support for safeguarding your hard-earned tax dollars.
SPENDING CONTROL
Collazzo Calls for Kitchen Table Conversation on Runaway Spending
Around kitchen tables throughout Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, families are being forced to make difficult choices about their own spending priorities. Should they go on a summer vacation or finance their car repairs? Will college tuition increases mean that they have to put off remodeling the house until next year? Should they dip into their retirement accounts early to pay the mortgage or should they hold out as long as they can on what they have?
Families like yours are making difficult decisions like these because of the tough economic times. Unfortunately, our state government seems content with continuing to spend money we don’t have without prioritizing how to most effectively spend your money while delaying difficult decisions for future generations.
Marc Collazzo believes it is time for Harrisburg to have a serious “kitchen table” conversation about how to reinvigorate our state’s economy, restore fiscal accountability, reduce taxes and spending to responsible levels, and restore trust in our state government.
Marc Collazzo believes that Harrisburg must go on a spending diet and is proposing a 10% across-the-board spending reduction in all areas of government spending with the exception of public safety and classroom instruction in our schools. Much like the families throughout our district, state government must have a kitchen table conversation about which programs and projects we can afford and which ones we cannot.
Common sense, realistic budgeting is necessary for each of our families and it ought to be for Harrisburg as well. Marc Collazzo will fight for spending restraint and responsibility as your State Representative.
IMPROVING K-12 & HIGHER EDUCATION
Collazzo Urges Return to Education Excellence
As a product of our local grade schools and public universities, Marc Collazzo believes that Pennsylvania should strive for a return to excellence in education. As a father and President of a school for autistic children in Northeast Philadelphia, Marc will work to enhance educational opportunities for our kids, drive additional state dollars to the Philadelphia school system for improved classroom instruction, emphasize the importance of increased school safety, and will be a diligent watchdog against the bureaucratization of the education system.
As your state legislator, Marc Collazzo will:
• Safeguard tax dollars and eliminate unfunded mandates so that funds are spent on classroom instruction that benefits our kids rather than on administrative bureaucracy. Marc will also oppose further unfunded federal mandates that cause increases in our local property taxes without the consent of local citizens, taxpayers, or school officials.
• Support the continued expansion of charter schools that provide safe, effective, and proven alternatives for our children and families.
• Work to restore cuts made to the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program which decreased the incentives available for parents to have a greater choice in which schools are best for their children. The EITC, according to the Commonwealth Foundation, saves taxpayers $500 million per year and gives parents greater options for their children’s education. This program ought to be restored, expanded, and extended to thousands of additional Pennsylvania families in coming budget years.
• Fight to restore almost $300,000 in cuts made in 2009 which resulted in the elimination of the office of the Safe Schools Advocate for Philadelphia. The Safe Schools Advocate office helped oversee an 11 percent drop in crime in Philadelphia’s schools during the 2008-2009 school year. The office’s functions were handed over to the heavily bureaucratic Department of Education in Harrisburg rather than a locally administered office tending to Philadelphia schools.
• Unequivocally oppose any effort to remove Pennsylvania’s four state-affiliated universities; Temple, Penn State, and Lincoln Universities or the University of Pittsburgh from being de-funded by the Commonwealth and ignored in the state’s requests for federal funding assistance. This proposal was first made by Harrisburg Democrats in 2009 and was not opposed by our current legislator. As a graduate of Temple University, Marc will work to ensure full, continued support for these outstanding institutions of higher learning.
ENVIORNMENT & ENERGY
Collazzo Vows to Fight for Clean Air, Water, and Conservation
Pennsylvania is home to some of America’s most pristine natural wonders, gorgeous open spaces, diverse wildlife, and unmatched outdoor recreational opportunities. Our state parks were awarded in June 2010 with the 2009 National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management by the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration in partnership with the National Recreation and Park Association. Pennsylvania’s parks will bear the title of “Best Parks in the Nation” for the next two years.
Our citizens ought to be proud of our state park system and our 120 parks operating on over 283,000 acres of land, the opportunities they provide for our families and children, and the tourism dollars they help generate each year. As a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Marc Collazzo will work tirelessly to ensure that our state parks maintain the “Best in the Nation” status, serve as an advocate for keeping our water and air clean, and support public policies that mitigate sprawl in communities throughout the Commonwealth.
Additionally, Pennsylvania faces a significant policy challenge in determining the most sensible way by which to tax natural gas extraction in the Commonwealth’s gas-rich Marcellus Shale, which stretches across western, central, and northern Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia Daily News reports that 3,400 drilling permits have been awarded for businesses large and small within the past two years. Despite this, our state’s taxpayers receive no fiscal benefit from those companies who are seeking to profit from natural gas extraction aside from drilling permits.
Harrisburg is presently debating whether or not to impose a natural gas extraction fee on companies drilling in the Marcellus Shale. While some suggest that natural gas extraction should remain untaxed in any form, others argue for overwhelming taxes which could reduce the number of jobs created by the companies in this field doing business in Pennsylvania.
As your State Representative, Marc Collazzo will work side-by-side with representatives of the natural gas industry and budgetary experts in Harrisburg to reach a middle ground guaranteeing that Pennsylvania taxpayers will receive a fiscal benefit from companies extracting our state’s very valuable resources without crushing jobs in this budding industry. Additionally, Marc Collazzo recognizes that the most important challenge facing lawmakers is developing a solution that protects the wellbeing of all Pennsylvania families while safe-guarding our land, air, and water quality.
