State Representative Mike Peifer

By Pat Camuso

“And that’s where we are today; they [Democrats] don’t have the votes in the House now.” Peifer said, “The blue dogs [moderate/fiscal conservative Democrats] are not going to vote for this…”

MILFORD – The only thing that has State Representative Mike Peifer even more disgusted than additional luxury-type taxes is the way that the Governor has handled the whole budget negotiation process from the start.

“Taxes that were added on theater tickets and small games of chance winnings – on our VFWs, Elks Lodges and organizations like that. I never even heard these things mentioned before this deal was cut,” said Peifer.

“There’s always talk about a severance tax, table games, smokeless tobacco has been discussed all year but things like theater tickets and small games of chance were never heard of. It’s like we [House of Representatives] have been excluded; we’ve been getting much of our information in small dribs and drabs from the papers. And when I say we are excluded – we are excluded.”

“I am disgusted with these two taxes. I think it’s horrible that they are even being considered,” said Peifer. “We [House] discussed income taxes, sales taxes, tobacco taxes, table games – all these things have been floated since last February. We know we have a problem but these two taxes are ridiculous.”

“And that’s where we are today; they [Democrats] don’t have the votes in the House now.” Peifer said, “The blue dogs [moderate/fiscal conservative Democrats] are not going to vote for this. That’s why we’re not in this week; they cancelled sessions Monday – because they don’t have the votes now.”

Peifer feels that the cuts should be spread out across the board so no one sector takes a hit. “It’s a $28 million dollar budget, we’re $2.8 million short so let’s cut everybody nine to ten percent. I’m happy with the spending on education; but don’t forget we have everything else – libraries, county reimbursements and everything else. We’re 2.8 million dollars short so cut everybody ten percent. Don’t cut libraries 38 percent; don’t eliminate programs. Cut everybody ten percent and everybody feels the pain. Cut Mike Peifer ten percent – cut everything ten percent. And when the revenues get better we’ll increase everyone.”

“That’s why we [House Republicans] were excluded because we tried everything to get the blue dogs to join us in our efforts and we almost had them several times to bring their 12 votes over with us but we couldn’t do it,” said Peifer. “This is why we have been excluded from current negotiations. It’s so convoluted that its hard to explain.”

“We knew this was going to be tough back in February; we knew we were going to have to make cuts or find new revenue sources or do both – and we have. There is rainy day monies we’re going to use, they did go into the M-Care funds of the tobacco settlements monies; we came up with a tax amnesty period which will generate some money. So we’re trying to find additional revenue. Table games are talked about and there are other options out there but we are going to also have to cut,” said Peifer.

“We have to be creative; we can’t just put up the white flag of surrender and say we’re going to raise the personal income tax and that’s what Ed Rendell wanted. He tried to create such a negative picture to pressure representatives to vote for income tax when in fact, there other ways that we can generate a billion dollars instead of raising the personal income tax. Rendell created a crisis, he’s good at this. He’s talented at being a tough negotiator. Creating a crisis is how he creates his bargaining chips. Holding back workers pay, child-care funding and all that, he’ll create a crisis and wear you out, yeah he’s good at that, but I don’t think people are going to vote for him anymore.”