Onorato still snipping Corbett over tax pledge

Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania governor, Dan Onorato, continues to complain about what he sees as shifting positions on taxes from his opponent, Republican Tom Corbett. Onorato says Corbett’s statement that he would consider raising unemployment compensation taxes is a contradiction of his earlier pledge not to raise taxes.

For the past week, Democrat Dan Onorato has hammered away at Republican opponent Tom Corbett for saying he’d consider hiking employee contributions into Pennsylvania’s unemployment compensation fund.

During the first gubernatorial debate, Attorney General Tom Corbett said he’d take a look at upping employee contributions, but he’d avoid increasing the amount companies pay into the fund.

Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato said he’d consider both, in order to help pay back the billions of dollars Pennsylvania has borrowed from the federal government to pay unemployment compensation.

Onorato says Corbett’s suggestion is the latest violation of the Republican’s vow not to raise taxes.

“The no tax pledge is purely a political stunt for him, because he signed it and got the press,” he says. “But when he starts talking about governance, the first thing he said is, he would look at raising a tax on employees. And if he doesn’t see that as a violation of a no tax pledge, he simply doesn’t understand how state government works, or the tax pledge was actually an irrelevant document that he just did for a PR stunt.”

Corbett’s spokesman says the employee contribution isn’t covered by his tax pledge

Earlier this year, the Republican said the pledge didn’t cover increased fees on vehicle registration and other items – despite saying the opposite a few months beforehand.