In the heat of budget season, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and legislative Republicans are weighing a major tax cut on Pennsylvania corporations, a point of rare bipartisan agreement between them.

Pennsylvania's 9.99% tax on corporate net income is the second-highest in the country, and while a cut has support on both sides of the aisle, debates continue over how much to trim it and how quickly. 

There are several related bills moving around the Capitol but no clear consensus. The proposals would lower the rate to 7.99% by 2025, down to 6.99% by 2027, or to 5.99% by 2025 with conditions.

Gov. Wolf has his own plan to lower the rate from 7.99% in 2023 to 5.99% in 2027. Legislation introduced by Democrats to advance his plan includes provisions designed to prevent corporations from taking deductions on costs like management fees that lower their overall tax burden.

Matt Smith, president of the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, opposes those provisions but supports the tax "phase-down." 

Spotlight PA explains the tax, the loophole, the arguments for and against lowering the rate, and the arguments for leaving it alone. 

THE CONTEXT: The arguments for lowering the levy are familiar: Supporters say Pennsylvania's rate is too high and drives away business. 

And those in favor of keeping the rate where it is reject the premise that breaks for wealthy companies will "trickle down."

State Rep. Sara Innamorato (D., Allegheny) would rather see funds appropriated to small business grants and loan products that would "help our independent businesses and our main streets thrive."

Marc Stier of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, a project of the progressive Keystone Research Center think tank, examined the potential impacts of a state House bill — opposed by Innamorato and a handful of other lawmakers — that would whittle the rate down to 7.99%.

According to Stier's findings, the bill would cost Pennsylvania $600 million in revenue per year once the reduction reaches 7.99%, and only generate roughly 23,000 jobs over 10 years. The study estimated that only 20% of those jobs would go to current Pennsylvania residents. 

SPEND SHIFT: The state university system is considering changing how it splits hundreds of millions of dollars in annual funding, the goal being to better support first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students, the Post-Gazette reports. Enrollment and retention are front of mind.

WASTE NOT: Every year, college students in the Lehigh Valley move out and leave "staggering heaps" of stuff behind, The Morning Call reports. Local universities are finding new ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle. 

TICK TOCK: Activists have delivered a six-foot-long clock to the state Capitol, a ticking reminder that scientists say dramatic steps must be taken by 2030 to avoid a climate change catastrophe, per StateImpact.

BIG BREAK: Health-care giant UPMC broke ground this week on a new, $1.5 billon hospital project in Pittsburgh, calling it the largest such project going in Pennsylvania and the largest in city history, via TribLIVE.

MAP MORPH: What would Pennsylvania look like if you put it through one of those distorting AI-image machines that turns non sequiturs into visuals? Probably like this actual map of "Pensilvania," circa 1755.