Tom Corbett.
He may be a great dad to his two kids, but in his role as governor he’s apparently
inspired by Darth Vader.
Corbett's Dysfunctional Fiscal
Family
In Corbett’s fiscal family, rather than valuing his kids’ education, keeping his recently laid-off neighbor off the street, and ensuring his elderly mother has the assistance she needs, he wants to offer billions from the Commonwealth account to some of the world’s most profitable corporations. Corbett likes to describe how he has to play the heavyweight role of dad at the imaginary kitchen table that the typical Pennsylvania family gathers around while discussing financially tough times.
He claims he doesn’t want to spend money his “family”
doesn’t have, but he is ok in with
passing on collecting a Marcellus Shale tax and in offering future
incentives with funds he doesn’t have. Optimistically, Corbett won’t even be
governor in 2017, when his 25
year-long master plan to kiss up to the $31
billion-profit- in-2011 Royal Dutch Shell, is set take effect.
He’s handcuffing Pennsylvanians for a generation and we just
can’t afford it.
It’s
hard to imagine anything that could be more harmful than his flawed
anti-extraction tax, anti-environmental regulation (and anti-local rule) policy
on the natural gas industry and on the out-of-state drillers that neglects to put an
additional $1.1 billion (what PA would collect for the benefit of citizens if
we imposed same tax as WV) -- but
running a close second is Corbett’s strategy to entice Shell to locate
its proposed cracker plant in western Pennsylvania, which amounts to “don’t pay
us, we’ll pay you.”
Both demonstrate Tom Corporate’s backing big business instead
of investing in middle class taxpaying Pennsylvania families.
Attracting new businesses and industries is important, but we
can do it without cutting funding for education, human services and veterans.
Attracting jobs is important, but Corbett’s policies have
already left
tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians out of work, and with his detrimental
and shortsighted cuts to education and work force training, next generation’s
workforce will lack the skills necessary to compete for jobs.
Finally,
on this Shell deal, obviously Corbett knows his 2017 $66 million handout to
Shell needs to be funded somehow, maybe that is why he proposed cutting human
services funding like MH/MR and nursing by approximately $164 million. One year
of cuts to the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable can fund nearly 3 years of
handouts to Shell (if you don’t count the additional tax exemptions due to the
proposed location in a KOZ, he’ll need to make more cuts for that).
Despite his fervent criticism of spending on assistance for Pennsylvania’s low income families, Corbett’s plan amounts to the biggest taxpayer-giveaway incentive package in the history of the Commonwealth -- and it’s for one of the world’s most profitable corporations, not the family sitting around the table balancing its checkbook considering options of how to increase cash flow.
Despite his fervent criticism of spending on assistance for Pennsylvania’s low income families, Corbett’s plan amounts to the biggest taxpayer-giveaway incentive package in the history of the Commonwealth -- and it’s for one of the world’s most profitable corporations, not the family sitting around the table balancing its checkbook considering options of how to increase cash flow.
So this Father’s Day, when dads across the state are being
appreciated for their guidance, their foresight and their commitment to their
families, remember the head of Pennsylvania’s family, Tom Corbett, is giving
away your money to big business.
