On the same night that Republican Tom Corbett declared in his primary victory speech that if elected governor of Pennsylvania he's taking tax increases "off the table," a funny thing happened in Arizona.

Voters there decided to raise taxes. And it wasn't even close. The "yes" vote for more taxes won by a 64-percent landslide.

Specifically, Arizonans got behind a referendum proposing a temporary, three-years-and-done increase in the sales tax. It will go to 6.6 cents on the dollar, up from 5.6 cents.

The conventional thinking is a Corbett-like renunciation of higher taxes is the surest path to public office.

But even in this era of Tea Party agitation over taxes and big government, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona was an outspoken champion of a "yes" vote.

POPULAR TAX PROPOSALS

Having signed her state's hard-nosed immigration law, Brewer's no liberal. But she was pragmatic enough to see that balancing the budget with cuts alone was not in the state's best interest.

"This," Brewer said after the tax increase passed, "is the beginning of Arizona's comeback."

The vote in Arizona shows that even during hard times people are willing to pay more for government services they value. And a poll  (www.pennbpc.org/poll-pa-vot...) for the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center suggests that Pennsylvania voters aren't all that different from their counterparts in the Grand Canyon State.

It found that 60 percent are open to an even-handed approach of cuts and higher taxes to balance the state budget compared to only 26 percent who favor cuts alone.

So a case can be made that a vote for a tax increase, even in Pennsylvania, may not be political suicide, at least in a statewide race.

The same poll found that a couple of specific tax proposals have widespread support, suggesting that if lawmakers vote for them, they might not fear repercussions.

A proposal to close corporate tax loopholes, for instance, garnered the support of 81 percent of Pennsylvanians polled. In addition, 68 percent favored a tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco products, and 51 percent were open to a tax on natural gas drilling.

The Democratic-controlled state House this week will test the waters of anti-tax sentiment. The House plans votes on the revenue enhancements noted above to raise $300 million to help close a deficit exceeding $800 million.

But even if the measures pass, they might be dead on arrival in the tax-averse, Republican-dominated Senate.

SERVICES PRESERVED

Although Republican Sen. Lloyd Smucker of Lancaster County has never made a no-tax-increase pledge, he said he won't even consider higher taxes until he sees what would be lost if the budget were balanced by cuts alone.

"I think most of my constituents feel government has grown too much," he said.

But would voters be more open to a tax increase if they understood what revenue measures were proposed and what the impact would be on services they count on if more revenue was not sought?

Again, Arizona's experience is instructive. Voters there knew in advance exactly which programs would be slashed if the sales tax failed.

A successful "no" vote would have automatically triggered the layoffs of teachers and state police. It also would have led to larger class sizes and the transfer of thousands of state prison inmates to counties.

Arizonans were shown exactly what $862 million in cuts would look like if they voted "no." As a result, they decided a higher sales tax wasn't so bad after all.

jhawkes@lnpnews.com