Norquist Says Corbett’s Fee Becomes A Tax If It’s Levied Statewide

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ATR’s Grover Norquist

Here’s a hitch, as Gov­er­nor Cor­bett and leg­isla­tive lead­ers begin nego­ti­at­ing the details of his impact fee pro­posal: Grover Norquist, the admin­is­tra­tor of the Tax­payer Pro­tec­tion Pledge Cor­bett has signed onto, says the governor’s plan would be a tax increase, if it were admin­is­tered at the state level.

Cor­bett wants to admin­is­ter a fee on a county-by-county basis, but many law­mak­ers say the pro­posal would lead to confusion.

The plan, as it stands, is “clearly mov­ing in the right direc­tion,” said Norquist, who heads Amer­i­cans for Tax Reform. He likes the fact that coun­ties, not the state, would decide whether or not to imple­ment the levy.

If this changed to a state-assessed sys­tem, it would count as a tax increase, Norquist said. That wouldn’t nec­es­sar­ily mean Cor­bett vio­lated his pledge, though. “You’d just have to have an off­set­ting tax decrease some­where else,” he said.

Does Norquist’s opin­ion mat­ter? His anti-tax pledge car­ries major clout, both statewide and nation­ally, and he’s aggres­sively weighed in on Mar­cel­lus Shale issues in the past. If he says a statewide fee counts as a tax, it will likely play a role in how many Repub­li­cans sup­port the final bill.

In a twist of fate, Norquist hap­pen to be in Har­ris­burg this evening, for the Penn­syl­va­nia Leg­isla­tive Cor­re­spon­dents Association’s annual Grid­iron dinner.