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Pennsylvania's population is shrinking as working-age families move away to other states. State policymakers' most important challenge is how to make our commonwealth more competitive and attractive to families, workers, and job creators.
Unfortunately, Gov. Josh Shapiro's recently proposed state budget takes Pennsylvania in the wrong direction.
Chock-full of startling spending increases and a myriad of new initiatives, Shapiro's proposal would explode the state's budget deficit and invite massive tax hikes on working Pennsylvanians. His plan completely ignores our actual structural deficit and, instead, is an unserious wish list of left-wing priorities.
In just a few years, Shapiro's massive budget would drain our state's checking account and illegally pilfer our emergency savings, or "Rainy Day Fund." Shapiro claims his proposal does not raise taxes, yet it relies on new vice taxes to balance the budget and forces future tax hikes on working families.
Shapiro radically understates the size of budget deficits under his proposal, providing unrealistic projections -- curiously, absent of increases in education spending beyond 2025 -- to hide the cost to taxpayers. His proposal would result in a budget gap of more than $6 billion--a cost of more than $2,000 per family of four.
Further, Shapiro missed an opportunity to prioritize students, leaving out any funding for Lifeline Scholarships. Meanwhile, Shapiro's plan proposes massive increases for school districts but significant cuts to public cyber schools.
In short, his proposal does not address Pennsylvania's economic competitiveness or the outmigration that drains our working-age population. Instead, his plan would exacerbate these trends.
Shapiro thinks the biggest problem is that Harrisburg doesn't spend enough of your tax dollars. He relies on a series of fallacies and outright misinformation to claim taxpayers don't spend enough.
Pennsylvania ranks among the higher tax-and-spend states. The commonwealth ranks among the highest in public school spending, at more than $22,000 per student, following "record increases" each of the past three years.
The Keystone State ranks second among corporate welfare programs -- doling out more than $1.4 billion. Pennsylvania's mass transit agencies, like the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), rely more on state aid than most nationwide.
While public university enrollment is declining, Pennsylvania has great private universities and more students enrolled in private universities than most states, ranking above the national average in higher education grants to students.
Lawmakers must take a different route, namely, policies that make Pennsylvania more attractive to families and businesses. This starts with insisting on a balanced budget that prevents tax hikes on working families, alongside expanding educational options and funding that follows students.
Rather than, as Shapiro suggests, copying the failed policies of New York, California, and New Jersey (states in economic decline and bleeding residents), we should imitate growing, prosperous states like Texas, Florida, and North Carolina.
What does an alternative look like?
Instead of asking how to spend more tax dollars, we must make Pennsylvania more competitive for job creators.
Instead of billions more for buildings and bureaucracies, we must focus educational funding on kids, break down arbitrary district barriers, and expand educational opportunities for all children.
Instead of increasing institutional subsidies for universities with declining enrollment, we should put all state higher education funding into student aid, allowing students to find the best post-secondary educational options for them.
Instead of more corporate welfare subsidies for politically connected companies, we must lower taxes and remove unnecessary red tape for all businesses and working families.
Instead of making drivers in rural areas pay higher taxes for wasteful transit agencies in Philadelphia, we must make SEPTA more market-oriented and reliant on riders, focusing taxpayer subsidies on fare assistance for low-income riders.
Instead of carbon taxes that will raise energy costs for families and businesses, we must unleash our energy sector with permitting, regulatory reform, and infrastructure to bring our natural gas to markets.
Ironically, many of these ideas are policies Shapiro campaigned on but has abandoned in his partisan budget proposal.
If Shapiro would return to his campaign promises that have bipartisan support, he could achieve his favorite catchphrases of "getting stuff done" and making Pennsylvania "competitive as hell."
And in doing so, Shapiro and lawmakers could deliver prosperity, competitiveness, and opportunity to Pennsylvania families, businesses, and students.
Nathan Benefield is the senior vice president of the Commonwealth Foundation.