In his annual budget address to the General Assembly on March 3, 2015, Gov. Tom Wolf presented the long-awaited details of his new tax plan for the commonwealth, which includes a new sales tax on legal services. Wolf's proposal would impose a 6.6 percent sales tax on many professional services, including legal services. The governor called his plan an alternative approach to last session's Senate Bill 76, which received bipartisan support and sought to impose a 7 percent sales tax on legal services.

The PBA strongly opposes this aspect of the governor's proposed budget for the very same reasons we fought hard to prevent the passage of Senate Bill 76 last year. For many Pennsylvanians, hiring a lawyer is a necessity and not a luxury. Access to justice is a basic constitutional right that should not be taxed and treated as a commodity. Increasing the cost of effective legal representation by imposing a sales tax would impact persons of limited means who often need a lawyer to do the following:

• obtain workers' compensation or Social Security benefits that have been wrongly denied
• fight a property assessment action by their local government
• deal with a hostile landlord or tenant
• have a simple will written or probate the will of a loved one
• avoid a home foreclosure
• gain court-ordered protection from an abusive spouse or parent
• obtain fair and equal access to fundamental rights

Please take a moment now to reach out to your state legislators to ask them to vote AGAINST this proposed tax. You can use the links below to find the email address for your legislators and to contact the governor.

In writing your message, feel free to use the points above to show the harsh impact any new tax will have on our clients. Of course, feel free to include your own concerns or examples that are pertinent to the issue. Even a very short message expressing opposition is important and effective!

As always, thank you for your continued advocacy on behalf of the PBA!