A Hunger for Fairness: Pennsylvania’s New Tax Imagination

The line at the gas pump is quiet, but the numbers climb quickly. Inside the corner store, a hand-lettered sign apologizes for another price increase—eggs, again. Outside, late-winter wind skims along the Susquehanna, tugging at coats as commuters scroll headlines about markets, mergers, and bonuses measured in more zeros than most will see in a lifetime. In Pennsylvania, tax season is less about forms than about a feeling: that the math doesn’t always add up.

At a diner off Route 30, the coffee is strong and the opinions stronger. A retired steelworker folds his receipt into a neat square. A nurse between shifts shakes her head at the cost of heating oil after the last cold snap. “It’s not that we don’t want people to succeed,” one patron says, tracing a finger through a ring of condensation on the table. “It’s that the rules ought to work for everyone.”

That sentiment—less about envy than equilibrium—now has numbers behind it. In a survey of more than 3,000 adults conducted by PDFExpert.com, Pennsylvanians ranked a Billionaires Tax as the top new levy they would introduce in 2026, followed by a Price-Gouging Tax and an Employee Turnover Tax. At a moment when rising prices and housing shortages dominate dinner-table talk, the findings suggest a state thinking less about how much it pays and more about who should pay—and why.

Across Pennsylvania’s varied landscape—booming neighborhoods in Philadelphia, tech corridors in Pittsburgh, and towns still navigating post-industrial reinvention—the call for a Billionaires Tax carries a particular resonance. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said wealth inequality should be the first target of any brand-new tax. Addressing inequality was also the most acceptable reason to introduce a new levy, cited by 30 percent. The desire, as several respondents framed it, is not to punish success but to “reinvest in the roads, schools, and systems that made that success possible.”

Close behind is a Price-Gouging Tax, shaped by lived experience. When winter storms rattle supply chains along I-76 and I-95, or when essential goods spike during disruptions, 38 percent said companies driving up prices deserve a financial penalty the most. Nearly half—48 percent—said rising prices would be the single issue they would fix with a new tax. “You can handle a bad week,” one respondent noted. “It’s when someone profits from it that it feels wrong.”

Then there is the quieter frustration of churn. From hospital floors to warehouse shifts to small-town storefronts, high employee turnover has become a familiar strain. An Employee Turnover Tax, respondents suggested, would push companies to invest in training and retention rather than cycling through workers. Fourteen percent said businesses skimping on training merit penalties, and 14 percent pointed to overworking staff. The through line is stability—of paychecks, of service, of community.

The broader appetite for accountability is unmistakable. Seventy-six percent said companies should be taxed for practices that hurt productivity or workers. Sixty-two percent believe their state is missing important taxes that would improve life locally. Housing affordability, corporate behavior, environmental impact, hidden fees—each earned its share of support, mapping a portrait of citizens who see fiscal policy as a lever for fairness.

“The findings suggest Americans are really just looking for fairness in the things that affect them most,” says John Woods, vice president of marketing for PDF Expert. “That’s exactly what people expect from tax paperwork, too: fewer steps and easier forms.”

Back at the gas pump, the numbers finally stop ticking. The driver caps the tank and steps into the wind, receipt fluttering in his hand. In a state stitched together by rivers and rails, by grit and reinvention, the conversation about taxes is not abstract. It is rooted in grocery aisles and pay stubs, in heating bills and help-wanted signs. And if Pennsylvanians could draft a new line into the code, they would begin, it seems, with a simple premise: that prosperity should circulate like the river—flowing forward, but belonging to everyone who lives along its banks.

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