The 435 seats in the U.S. House are redistributed among the 50 states at the start of each decade according to national population shifts. Pennsylvania lost two seats following reapportionment from the 2000 census. The AP reports that recently released federal estimates show the state's current 19-member delegation could be slashed by one after the next head count.
Locally, the population losses continue to mount. Just over the last year, Pittsburgh lost 1.7% of its population. These losses have a huge long-term affects. Pittsburgh has lost over half of its population since 1950, going from 676,806 to 316,718 today. There were more people living in Pittsburgh in 1900 than 2006.
What to do? Certainly PA’s business taxes don’t help. I understand that the combination of PA’s Corporate Net Income Tax and Capital Stock & Franchise Tax makes PA’s total business tax load higher than every other state that touches our border. Perhaps in place of targeted business tax abatements in KOZ areas, a general state business tax reduction would be more beneficial and induce more businesses to stay here.
1 comment:
Unfortunately, as long as people continue to elect Democrats (and even a lot of the Republicans around here), this will never happen.
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