The bill would phase out pension taxes, raise a tax break for low and moderate-income workers, and send out tax rebate checks.
It passed without floor debate despite Republican concerns the checks could cost the state a projected income tax cut.
Representative Andrew Fink:
“What are they afraid of? What was I going to say in the four minutes it was going to take me to give a speech that was going to make them so sad. What was going to happen? They weren’t going to get the votes?”
Democratic Floor Leader Abraham Aiyash says conversations over helping families have been going on for months.
“If they had great ideas to solve this issue, then we were going to welcome that but instead the conversation was about pretending that we were trying to increase taxes.”