Lawmakers Urged to Improve PA’s Business Competitiveness and Permitting Process
The Huntingdon County Chamber of Commerce joined the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business & Industry and other chambers across the state to send letters to Governor Shapiro and members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly in support of policies to improve our business tax competitiveness and permitting reform.
While lawmakers came together in a bipartisan effort to advance significant tax reform during the last session, there is still more to be done to increase Pennsylvania’s tax competitiveness. We’ve asked that lawmakers improve the treatment of Net Operating Losses (NOL), which will allow employers to offset tax liability losses from the previous year. Pennsylvania is one of two states that are below the federal limit of 80%. Our 40% rate is a deterrent to doing business in PA. Twenty-five states have no cap at all.
A major tax reform goal was realized last session through the enactment of Act 53, which allows the reduction of Pennsylvania’s Corporate Net Income Tax (CNI). At 9.99 percent, PA had the second-highest rate in the nation. Now at 8.99 percent, PA’s CNI is set to be phased down gradually each year until the rate reaches 4.99 percent in 2031 – but should we really have to wait nearly a decade to realize the full benefits of this reform? We are urging legislators to accelerate the phasedown to keep jobs in PA, and to increase investment and economic opportunity. Once the phasedown is complete in 2031 and Pennsylvania reaches a 4.99 percent CNI rate, a Tax Foundation analysis shows Pennsylvania will leap from 44th in corporate tax structure to 27th. In terms of overall competitiveness, Pennsylvania will have improved from 29th place to 17th, and will have gone from the second highest CNI rate in the nation to the eighth lowest, based on current rates.
The second letter we sent to lawmakers and the Governor urges the administration to fix the state’s dysfunctional and unpredictable permitting system. PA has two often lost out on investment to other states due to our inadequate permitting structure. We need a more efficient and modernized system. The state has lost huge investments in the next generation of steel mills, a major petrochemical expansion, a semiconductor manufacturer, and other manufacturers that produce life-sustaining medicine and consumer goods due to the permitting process, a process that can take years.
During a call this morning with the Pennsylvania Chamber and others, we learned that since our letters were sent earlier this week there have been significant improvements in the right direction.
Read the tax reform letter here.
Read the permitting reform letter here.
