On this, they agree: Josh Shapiro and Doug Mastriano want lower corporate taxes in Pa.

Republicans and Democrats in Pennsylvania’s General Assembly, after arguing about the odds for years, placed a big bet last month on reducing how the state taxes corporations to lure more businesses to the state.

Josh Shapiro and Doug Mastriano already want to up the ante.

Shapiro, the state’s attorney general and Democratic nominee for governor, put an even more aggressive reduction at the center of an economic plan he released last week.

“We want to wage an aggressive campaign all across this country to bring businesses here and show them that we’re open for business, we have a bureaucracy ready to work with you, a governor ready to work with you, and a tax environment that is going to be among the best in the nation,” Shapiro said last week at a campaign stop

His opponent, Doug Mastriano, a Republican state senator, also cites a reduction in the tax as a key part of his plan for the state.

Shapiro and Mastriano did not detail how they would get their proposals passed in the General Assembly if elected in November. But both have acknowledged that economic issues are very much at the forefront for general election voters.

A Fox News poll released last week, which showed Shapiro up 10 points on Mastriano, 50% to 40% with the rest undecided or not expecting to vote, made that clear.

Fifty-two percent of those polled said their family’s financial situation is worse now than it was two years ago, while 10% said it is better, and 37% said it is about the same.

There was a significant difference between supporters of Shapiro and Mastriano. Just 28% of Shapiro voters said they are worse off, while 82% of Mastriano voters said they were worse off.

It took Gov. Tom Wolf, a term-limited Democrat, eight years to pass a reduction in the corporate net income tax.

Pennsylvania’s CNIT is currently 9.99%, the second-highest in the country. Reducing it would remove money from the state budget in the hope that creating a friendly business environment will prompt corporations to conduct business or expand operations in the state.

Wolf included in the final budget of his second term a CNIT reduction that was similar to what he proposed in 2015, in the first budget of his first term.

The deal Wolf negotiated with the Republicans who control the state House and Senate will reduce the 9.99% rate by 1% in January and then by 0.5% every year until 2031, when the rate will be 4.99%, among the lowest corporate levies in the country.

Shapiro called last week for a bigger decrease in a much shorter amount of time — to 4% by 2025 — as a centerpiece for his campaign’s economic plans.

Shapiro, in a second campaign stop last week, vowed to make it easier for companies to obtain permits, tax credits, and other state-controlled measures to boost business, creating more jobs.

Mastriano also promises to reduce the CNIT. In an interview Monday with a conservative Philadelphia radio station, Mastriano said inflation and gas prices are the first- and second-most important issues in the state.

A spokesperson for Mastriano’s campaign, in an emailed response to questions, suggested Shapiro and Wolf “only pretend to care about businesses when they need to win elections.” Mastriano’s plan would cut the tax to 2.4% by 2026.

His campaign did not provide specifics on how he would accomplish that but also vowed to “slash job-killing regulations that have previously hindered economic growth.”

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Shapiro’s campaign, pressed for specifics, said he “will look to a broad range of options to lower the corporate tax rate to 4% by 2025 while ensuring the fiscal stability of the Commonwealth.”

Both candidates are experienced legislators — Shapiro served four terms in the state House — so they know any policy proposal they make on the campaign trail will likely be altered in negotiations with state legislators.

One element of uncertainty is out of their hands — the state legislature’s Senate and House Appropriations Committees will have new leaders next year. Those positions will be vital if the Republican Party maintains power in the General Assembly.

State Sen. Pat Browne of Allentown lost the May Republican primary, as did State Rep. Stan Saylor of York County. They did not respond to requests to comment.

The Democratic minority leaders on those committees said they were open to Shapiro’s pitch.

State Rep. Matt Bradford of Montgomery County said Republicans and Democrats have agreed on lowering the taxes but not about how to do that.

Democrats push for closing loopholes that allow some corporations to shift profits out of state to evade taxes. Republicans focus on a lower rate encouraging more businesses to locate in the state or expand here.

“I think the Republicans are on the wrong side of tax policy from a pro-business growth perspective,” Bradford said.

The estimation by the Democratic staff of the House Appropriations Committee is that the current reduction plan will subtract $126 million from the fiscal year that started this month. That grows to $774 million by the fiscal year 2026-27.

That does not account for anticipated economic growth prompted by the reduction.

Bradford is frustrated by what he describes as 95% of the corporations who pay the tax subsidizing the 5% who shift profits out of state. He said pro-business activists in chambers of commerce around the state share that view privately with him.

Wolf pushed for more “combined reporting” — which would require corporations to disclose more information about profits — “and still feels that it’s needed,” said Elizabeth Rementer, a spokesperson for the governor. But Wolf got some of the reforms he was seeking “and overall this CNIT reduction plan will still ensure tax equity and fairness,” she said.

State Sen. Vince Hughes, minority leader of his chamber’s Appropriations Committee, said further reduction to the CNIT might be viable but only if it was “married to” other economic measures to help people deal with inflation, gas prices, and a stagnant minimum wage.

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He wondered if Republicans can look past “culture war” politics — banning books in school libraries, LGBTQ rights, abortion access — to see the opportunity.

“The Republicans are going to have to figure out their politics,” he said. “They’re not necessarily focused on real policy stuff that impacts real people’s lives.”

Timothy Vermeer, a senior policy analyst with the Center for State Tax Policy at the Tax Foundation in Washington, testified about the corporate tax reduction in Harrisburg in June and offered cautious praise for the deal after it was signed into law.

He predicted Republicans will favor an even lower rate next year but not the expansion of who pays the tax, as Democrats want.

“The questions is, what are the trade-offs?” Vermeer said. “Pennsylvania has labored for a long time to earn the title of being a bad place to do business. To reverse that kind of perception, you really have to signal that you’re serious about this.”