Proposed 52% tax on skill games praised and slammed at hearing

(The Center Square) – The biggest proposed new moneymaker in Pennsylvania government may also launch one of the sharpest debates of the 2026 budget process, and that is setting the appropriate tax rate for tens of thousands of unregulated “skill games” that are raking in cash around the state.

Revenue Secretary Pat Browne told lawmakers on Tuesday he thought the 52% tax rate proposed by his boss, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, was “consistent and fair tax policy” because other very similar machines already get taxed at that rate. Pushback came from state Rep. Jamie Barton, a Schuylkill County Republican, who told Browne the proposal reminded him of the saying “Pigs get fat and hogs go to slaughter.”

A high tax rate, Barton indicated, would likely dampen the activity rather than set up the state to make money from it.

The back-and-forth came during the third week of budget hearings in the state Capitol. The hearings that follow the governor’s early February budget address end the opening ph...