{"id":24926,"date":"2015-03-07T12:42:56","date_gmt":"2015-03-07T17:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=24926"},"modified":"2015-03-07T12:47:44","modified_gmt":"2015-03-07T17:47:44","slug":"wolfs-budget-proposal-brings-out-the-silly-from-both-sides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=24926","title":{"rendered":"Wolf’s budget proposal brings out the silly from both sides"},"content":{"rendered":"

And…York area senator trash talks our senators, again<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong><\/span>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"TimesPoliticsUnusual\"<\/a>It was a bit frosty in Harrisburg this week \u2014 and I don\u2019t just mean the \u201cmy gosh will this awful winter ever end\u201d kind of frosty, but a less than warm reception to Gov. Tom Wolf\u2019s first budget proposal and, because it is the time for giving (at least to political columnists), more Republican on Republican violence, this time targeting two of Chester County\u2019s state Senators.<\/p>\n

First, not to shock anyone, but Gov. Wolf would like to raise the income and sales tax to help close a budget gap and better fund education. His budget would also cut business taxes in half and finally do away with the stock and franchise tax, which earned a few muted cheers from the right.<\/p>\n

Sure, he hinted that this might be his plan all last year while running for governor (and yes, in fairness, it did seem a bit like something out of former Gov. Ed Rendell\u2019s playbook), but the state\u2019s GOP responded in typical Rumpelstiltskin fashion, stomping, fuming and basically going off on the rookie governor.<\/p>\n

Not to pick on him, but Chester County\u2019s GOP Chair Val DiGiorgio\u2019s official statement on the budget was pretty much in the sweet spot of state-wide Republican response:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis morning Governor Tom Wolf unveiled his massive $33.8 billion dollar budget \u2013 a plan that is bad for our economy and the residents of Chester County,\u201d DiGiorgio said in a statement. \u201cWhile I applaud the Governor for agreeing with the Republican Party\u2019s long-standing goal to reduce corporate taxes and make Pennsylvania more economically competitive, the rest of his budget is a return to the failed policies of the left \u2013 higher taxes and massive increases in government spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

This might not be the best tactical play by the state\u2019s Republicans \u2014 especially after four years of the equally \u201cfailed policies of the right\u201d that have left Pennsylvania staggering economically while neighboring states are faring better.<\/p>\n

While Wolf can\u2019t anything done without the buy in of some GOP members of the legislature, it is too easy for him to point out that the current financial mess that is Pennsylvania comes on the heels of four years of Republicans running the legislature and the governor\u2019s mansion. The pension mess? Largely a GOP-caused problem, too (Gov. Tom Ridge and the GOP-majority legislature passed the bills that crashed the pension funds into a fiscal iceberg, back in 2001).<\/p>\n

Wolf can, and is beginning to, say \u201cfine, don\u2019t like my plan? Come up with a better one on your own. Oh, wait that was the last four years, which is why I got elected in the first place.\u201d\u00a0He basically did so on Friday though spokespeople \u2014 after state GOP senators (see below to see why it\u2019s evident they\u2019re not the most astute group around) sent out letters to school districts warning them not to expect anything like the state funding increases Wolf is proposing:<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, the Republican leadership is just saying no to challenging the status quo by putting forth the same old Harrisburg obstruction instead of real ideas to help Pennsylvania\u2019s struggling public schools,\u201d Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan said. \u201cGov. Wolf has proposed a bold and expansive plan to reinvest in our schools and our economic future. The Governor called for robust debate and collaboration in his budget address. \u00a0This is the opposite of that. This is a political stunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from being poor politics \u2014 the GOP letter was, well, kind of dumb. There\u2019s not a single school district, superintendent or board of education member anywhere<\/em> in this state who trusts anything<\/i> the legislature or the governor says. Not. One. Word. Ever.<\/em><\/p>\n

In fact, some of the districts, seeing the likely prospect of a lengthy stalemate will be budgeting for as little state aid as possible, assuming, with good reason that our legislature and governor will fight like three-year-olds and continue 20-plus years of both parties putting politics over the welfare of the state and its citizens.<\/p>\n

So while the budget and its responses signal that there will be months of pointless posturing instead of real negotiation, we can only hope that sanity will start to creep in and both sides will need to realize that compromise must happen.<\/p>\n

Higher taxes have to happen \u2014 I argue with the \u201cPennsylvania has a spending problem\u201d argument. With 70% of the budget taken up by welfare and corrections, what\u2019s going to get cut? While for years there have been claims of waste and fraud in the Welfare system \u2014 no substantial amount has ever been identified. Had it been, no elected official of either party would be foolish enough not to do something about it, right?<\/p>\n

So, in basic terms, the budget is broken and has been for a decade \u2014 a nasty fact that those left-wing liberals at bond rating agencies keep pointing out. Pennsylvania doesn\u2019t bring in enough tax money to fund its basic needs: public safety, roads and education. All of the sloganeering in the world doesn\u2019t change that fact.<\/p>\n

How to fix that in a fair way that doesn\u2019t single out any one group and provide a stable environment for business and industry to grow should be the focus of both parties. Wolf needs to give in on liquor privatization \u2014 this \u201cmodernization\u201d stuff ain\u2019t going to cut it \u2014 and be willing to show some flexibility on pension reform. The GOP has to go for some tax hikes and a better, less real estate dependent method to fund schools.<\/p>\n

Instead, we\u2019re mostly getting the same old, same old \u2014 punctuated by a flurry of press releases (many of them poorly written by 20-somethings who seem to have learned all of their politics from \u201cHouse of Cards\u201d) denouncing the other side and proclaiming some sort of apocalyptic outcome if the other side gets their way.<\/p>\n

How to fix it? Since most legislators in both parties are largely impervious to losing their seats \u2014 if they do a lousy job, thanks to impressively gerrymandered districts, I\u2019m betting most don\u2019t feel particularly worried about angering the electorate. Until we start to election results that shock \u2014 Republicans defeating corrupt clubhouse politicians in Philadelphia and Democrats beating smug suburban GOP legislators \u2014 there\u2019s no incentive for these folks to change their ways.<\/p>\n

Long term \u2014 we need a better system for redistricting, but I\u2019m not holding my breath on that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

State Sen. Scott Wagner, apparently chair of the \u201cArrogance of Extremism\u201d wing of the GOP trash talked (literally, as Wagner is a tough-talking trash mogul) fellow state senators Dominic Pileggi and John Rafferty \u2014 both of whom represent large swaths of Chester County.<\/p>\n

Wagner \u2014 who represents the 28th District in York County (one of those place in Pennsylvania that gets a whole lot more back in services than it pays in taxes \u2014 the exact opposite of Chester County) went OFF on Rafferty when he didn\u2019t support Wagner\u2019s white whale \u201cPaycheck Protection\u201d bill. Wagner is obsessive about attacking unions \u2014 like off the hook obsessed \u2014 and basically lost it last week when Rafferty and Pileggi, both of whom represent areas with a lot of union members, declined to commit political suicide just to make Wagner happy. Especially when Gov. Wolf would have vetoed it, anyway, had it passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn\u00a0the ten months I have served in the PA State Senate I have found Senator Rafferty to be the most disingenuous member of the Republican Caucus,\u201d Wagner wrote in an email to his constituents. No word on how big a black crayon Wagner used to do so.<\/p>\n

As Wagner aided and abetted Pileggi\u2019s downfall as Majority Leader it\u2019s no shock that he has issues with the soon to be departing (Pileggi is running for Court of Common Pleas in Delaware County \u2014 and nothing short of a comet hitting Media will derail his election) senator.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince losing his leadership post he is a bitter person and will do anything to undermine the PA State Senate’s new leadership,\u201d Wagner said of Pileggi, as if there was a way for anyone to do a better job of undermining the state Senate’s leadership than, well, the state Senate’s leadership.<\/p>\n

Words cannot depict how spectacularly foolish Wagner\u2019s comments are \u2014 especially as it appears that Rafferty will be a strong contender to easily defeat current incumbent Kathleen Kane for Attorney General.<\/p>\n

But if this is what goes for leadership in the state legislature these days, things aren\u2019t going to get better in Pennsylvania, they\u2019re going to get worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And…York area senator trash talks our senators, again By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times It was a bit frosty in Harrisburg this week \u2014 and I don\u2019t just mean the \u201cmy gosh will this awful winter ever end\u201d kind of frosty, but a less than warm reception to Gov. Tom Wolf\u2019s first budget proposal and, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[1111,6754,6833,6093,6832,6831,82],"class_list":["post-24926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-featured","tag-dominic-pileggi","tag-gov-tom-wolf","tag-idiot","tag-john-rafferty","tag-scott-wagner","tag-state-budget-gop","tag-state-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24927,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24926\/revisions\/24927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}