Penn ACTION joined labor union activists launched a “Quack Attac” to in Williamport to protest Tom Corbett’s proposal to increase the pay roll taxes on workers for purposes of repaying a $3 billion debt owed to the federal government for unemployment compensation.
Corbett, who earlier this year took a no-tax pledge, has consistently denied the payment made by workers into the unemployment fund is a tax.
But Marc Stier, leader of Penn ACTION said “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck –it’s a duck!” “Tom Corbett cannot mask a payroll tax hike imposed on working people simply by calling it another name. He can’t have his duck and eat it too,” Stier said.
Patrick Gleason is a spokesperson for Americans for Tax Reform, the group that authored the no-tax pledge Corbett signed. agreed with Stier. Speaking about the Corbett’s proposal, Gleason said, “It is what is commonly known as a payroll tax, and this is not a matter of dispute.”
Corbett and Governor Chris Christie of New Jersery were greeted by a coalition of citizen and labor
activists armed with rubber ducks, hand-made signs and assorted other web-footed paraphernalia as the two Republican leaders converge on the Lycoming County Republican campaign headquarters for a Monday morning rally.
Media coverage of the event can be found here. Video of Corbett waffling on his tax pledge can be found here.