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Dear fellow Democrats, 

  We are writing to you for your help. Our letter is  not at  the bidding of the governor or the party leadership.  We are  officers, committee people and volunteers of the  Democratic  Party, but we write to you as Democrats. 

  We believe that our state is facing a serious financial  crisis that could result in thousands of layoffs,  abandonment of Pennsylvanians who desperately need vital  health and social services, and long term trends that will  plunge this state into greater levels of poverty and  inadequate services than we have ever witnessed. 

  We believe this is happening because thirty Republican  state  senators are holding our government and the people of our  Commonwealth hostage with their unreasonable and  incomprehensibly cruel demands. 

  We believe this is happening because a considerable number  of people who have always opposed our party have  proclaimed  any tax increase as a rallying point to express their  animosity toward the governor, our party, or state  government in general. Moreover, they have seized  the  initiative. 

  The budget crisis is real. The only viable and  relatively  painless solution is to accept the original proposal of a  one-half of one percent (0.5%) state personal income tax  increase. (The media, however, has consistently  referred to  it as a 16% tax increase, that is, the percentage  difference  between 3.07 and 3.57, which is technically correct, but  deliberately misleading). 

  There is no other *realistic* solution to the current  crisis. Our party has already yielded to Republican  intransigence and still may yield again. 

  Yet, in the midst of one of the greatest economic crisis  since the Great Depression, the Republican Party of  Pennsylvania is openly pursuing a budget that will lay off  thousands of workers, eliminate programs and services that  are vital to our fellow Pennsylvanians, and dump on our  local governments all the financial obligations of  maintaining our communities that they, the senate  Republicans, refuse to undertake for the greater  good. And  nobody calls them on it. 

  Time is of the essence. We need to reach out to  Democrats  and mobilize our energies. *We are asking you to  circulate  this letter (or something similar) among other Democrats,  and to contact your legislators immediately, Democratic  and  Republican, expressing support for a 0.5% tax increase*. 

  If the Republicans succeed in saddling this state with  their  budget, which, unbelievably, they may, the result will be  disastrous, and the repercussions will be felt for a long  time. 

  We are Democrats because we believe in the greater  good. We  believe in sharing the burden in order to lighten the load  on everyone. 

  How can we sit by and watch services eliminated to the  poor,  to the elderly, and to families in need? How can we  sit by  and watch the crushing effect such a budget will have on  our  working families? Thousands of people will be laid  off, and  a rippling effect will claim as many more jobs in the  private sector. We need a fair budget that lays off  no one  and maintains our programs and services. 

  Thank you,
  Democrats from Lower Merion & Narberth, Montgomery  County.