Here's my list of top 10 things to look forward to in a Trump Administration

I have always considered myself an eternal optimist; and maybe a bit sarcastic, too. I even won an award from the Optimist Club when I was in junior high school. It's just the way I am. So I couldn't resist contemplating what might be good about a Trump Administration.

Here's my list of top 10 things to look forward to in a Trump Administration

10. No one will make fun of me for saying anything incoherent or stupid for the next 4 years because no matter what I say, it will sound more coherent than the big guy. I mean, think about it: you know...I can't...well folks...you know what I'm talkin' about...sad, isn't it...look...lets face it...the liberal media...well, I dont have to tell you...they can't...well Twitter...I mean I've got yuge hands...and so spectacular...am I right...right, so fabulous.

9. Roads and infrastructure will improve greatly. The little bit that has leaked out about Trump's infrastructure "plan" is that it relies on private sector investment which, in turn, only works if the private sector can get a return on their investment through a toll, raised sewer rate or a parking fee. The problem for those who voted for Trump thinking they were going to get the spoils is that proposition only works in heavily populated areas (blue states) like places where Trump wants improved infrastructure next to his investment properties. The great thing for me is that I live in one of those areas.

8. I won't need to heat my house anymore. With Chinese hoax fake news, climate change accelerated to a break-neck pace. All I'll need is a coal-fired air conditioning unit.

7. I can finally stop sending my hard earned tax dollars to the red states. The majority of the states that did not vote for Donald Trump pay more into the federal treasury than they receive back from the federal government in terms of grants and subsidies. The majority of the states that did vote for Trump currently receive more back from the federal government than they pay in. Trump has said that he is going to significantly lower taxes and cut subsidies. That has to calculate into me paying less and the red states getting less.

6. Trump says he's “gonna get tough on trade imbalances with China”. No China trade means no Walmart which equals the return of all the small family-sustaining, “mom and pop,” Main Street businesses that were wiped out by Walmart.

5. No more having to get up early in the morning wake my kids and get them off to liberal public school. I'll be able to keep them home where they belong, on the internet, and learn them good myself with a government voucher. Thank God I won't have to pay school taxes anymore.  And the government will even buy me the computer!  That way, after the kids go to bed I can surf the Internet for interesting things like cats and roosters and chicken parts for free.  Heck, the kids will even be around to sign for packages when I'm not home. What a time saver!

4. The air I breathe and the water I drink will be clean again. Not because we have done anything to actually clean it up, but Trump will have eliminated any regulation or definition that declares it unfit. Those damn regulations have been killing jobs and profits across the nation for far too long--gone. As long as we're all employed at minimum wage jobs, who cares if we're drinking tainted water and breathing sulfur dioxide fumes. It will now all be considered clean.   Easy --the air I breathe and the water I drink will all be clean again; done.  So much for the liberal, mumbo-jumbo scare tactics supported by the media. I drink beer and have an air conditioner in my window; who needs a babbling brook and a lame yoga instructor telling me to breathe in the fresh air anyway.

3. No more health insurance premiums until or unless I get sick. Trump said he is going to repeal Obamacare but keep the parts that the people like. The most liked aspect of Obamacare is the provision that prevented insurance companies from denying coverage because of a pre-existing condition. The least-liked portion of Obamacare is that it requires everyone to buy insurance. Therefore, if the requirement to buy insurance is eliminated under Trumpcare but the provision to ensure that insurance companies cover me even if I have a pre-existing condition remains under Trumpcare, that means that I can wait until I get sick to buy insurance. And since one of the other complaints about Obamacare was that premiums were going up, I can rest assured that under Trumpcare the insurance that I buy on the day I get sick will cost less. Win! Win! Win!

2. ISIS will be eliminated in the next 100 days. Trump has said that he will eliminate ISIS "fast... really fast".  France has arguably been one of the most vulnerable targets of ISIS in recent years.  Trump can't eliminate ISIS unless he eliminates the organization worldwide. That means France will become a much safer place. Which means that thousands of Americans can enjoy the beaches in the south of France while they live in exile for the next four years.

1. I will never need to look at another picture of Donald Trump again for the next 4 years. Why so, you ask?  Because Trump has ordered that the media refrain from displaying unflattering images of him.

Case closed.

The 2015/16 Budget Season is almost over, well… not really

The 2015/16 Budget Season is almost over, well… not really. The June 30 deadline has passed and Republicans in the House and Senate have shown that they have a plan (or at least a rigid ideology) and they are sticking to it.

For the past four years, Republicans who controlled the legislature in both the House and Senate, along with a Republican Governor, passed one irresponsible budget after another. As a result, Pennsylvania plummeted from seventh in job creation to 50^th, dead last, the structural deficit grew, education funding was slashed, the state’s bond rating was downgraded multiple times, more than 20,000 teachers and school staff were laid off and are still out of jobs, student test scores dropped, a reasonable tax on the severance of Marcellus shale gas never materialized and local property taxes skyrocketed.

When the results of the Republican’s policies were crystalized in last year’s gubernatorial election, even Republican legislators looked for someone to blame for the abysmal state of affairs. Gov. Corbett became the face of the failures that Republican legislators had promoted and voted for in lock step. Even Republican legislators claimed Corbett was to blame and they were spared the wrath of the voters. You would think they might have sensed the public’s dissatisfaction with their failed policies. But now they are continuing down the same path; lowballing the state’s deficit, over-projecting future revenues, looking for one-time revenue sources and accounting gimmicks, digging their heels in on ideological issues, and refusing to address the budgetary issues that Pennsylvanians want addressed.  The status quo that got us to where we are today is alive and well in the Republican caucus but Pennsylvania cannot afford to continue down the road to ruin.   

Gimmicks won’t put teachers and school support staff like nurses and counselors back in our schools. Avoiding a Marcellus shale severance tax at all costs won’t improve the scholastic climate for all Pennsylvania children and pretending that you can eliminate local property taxes without replacing the revenue won’t provide property tax relief for homeowners throughout the state.

After years of budget cuts and accounting gimmicks, even former Corbett Budget Secretary Charles Zogby conceded that the Legislature and Gov. Wolf would need to generate more revenue for this year’s budget to balance.

Holding the budget process hostage by falsely claiming they need pension “reform” to balance the budget is little more than a bait and switch scam. Act 120 of 2010 “reformed” the pension system by capping and reducing benefits, increasing employee contributions, eliminating early withdraws and more. That has already saved millions and the revised plan is 100 percent solvent and costs three percent of payroll to maintain.  It is the unfunded liability in the old system that is the cost driver and Republican proposals do little or nothing to fix that. Some of their 401 (k) proposals actually make the problem worse. 

Republican plans to sell off one of the state’s most valuable assets, our liquor stores, provide questionable one-time fixes but come with future revenue losses and the increased social costs that occurred in other states that privatized. Even those who do support those ideological issues, but are serious about budget realities, understand that they are one-time funding sources that provide no long-term answers to the state’s budget problems.

The people of Pennsylvania elected Governor Wolf to serve because they wanted change. They want to see a real difference in how Pennsylvania conducts its business. Gov. Tom Wolf has taken an innovative approach that would improve the way the state conducts its business and, in turn, refocus efforts on schools that teach, jobs that pay, and government that works. He has proposed restoring education funding, implementing a fair Marcellus shale tax and providing property tax relief for homeowners. Unfortunately, Republicans continue to perpetuate the status quo and continue to stifle legislative efforts that would move Pennsylvania forward and provide meaningful solutions to our problems.

The people of Pennsylvania did not reelect Tom Corbett. They also did no reelect his policies and agenda, but you would be hard pressed to tell that if you look at what the Republican legislature promoted as a budget this year. This session is shaping up to be like a second term of Corbett without Corbett around. Maybe the real problem is the Republican dominated House and Senate.

Gov. Wolf understands that the people of Pennsylvania elected him because they didn’t want another four years of those same failed ideas and policies.

Looks like it could be a long hot summer… 

“Republicans say they will go at it alone on budget”

I would have never seen that coming…oh, wait…I did.

(http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/democrat-predicts-drawn-out-budget-battle-1.1860480) 

Governor Wolf gave his budget address on March 3. Immediately after, Republicans took to the microphones decrying the fact that the new governor was proposing to do something different than they had done in consort with former Governor Tom Corbett in the prior four years.

Pennsylvania was facing a projected $2 billion structural deficit and Republicans felt confident that the governor would be forced to renege on his campaign pledges to restore funding for basic education and start turning the ship that was heading for the abyss. Surely, the governor would have to hunker down and look for gimmicks and one-time fixes just to get by and make it through another year while he waited for the economy to turn itself around.

While the structural deficit projection for this year has dropped to about $1.5 billion, if it is addressed by gimmicks and one-time fixes again as legislative Republicans propose, we are staring at a $2 billion structural deficit again next  year. You can only transfer balances between credit cards and put off paying bills so long until the gig is up. We already know the consequences of these maneuvers…state bond rating downgrades, job losses, higher local property taxes and lower student performance.

Instead, Wolf is demanding that the legislature take action with proposed meaningful solutions to address the deficit and reinvest in education, restore former cuts to human services, provide a fair tax structure to encourage business growth and jobs, and deliver on property tax relief for homeowners. After four years of Republicans gimmicks and their current stance of perpetually neglecting the issues instead of facing them, one could speculate that they are ideologically opposed to the notion of fiscal responsibility. Proposing their own budget that ignores the fiscal crisis, points to the fact that they are more focused on philosophical wins for the fringe of their party than they are on producing a fiscally sound budget that prioritizes Pennsylvania’s citizens.

If the Republicans in the House and Senate want to debate ideology and pontificate about union busting, the perils of a living wage, the pitfalls of people actually having access to affordable healthcare, executive orders and booze in convenience stores, they have the power to call session days all summer long. But for them to refuse to deal with the fiscal issues of the state until their ideological needs are met is simply irresponsible.

It could prove to be a long summer. 

Gas industry should pay fair share in Pa.

The natural gas industry’s drilling of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale provides economic benefits to the state including job opportunities and a reliable domestic energy source. That has been true in every state where the industry exists. A recent study by the American Petroleum Institute stated that the natural gas industry is responsible for $34.7 billion to the state economy and Pennsylvania’s shale gas production has increased exponentially over the past few years. Yet Pennsylvania is the only major gas producing state that does not charge a severance tax.

The industry generously profits from the Commonwealth’s natural resources. A reasonable severance tax would help address the state’s needs and invest in one of our greatest resources: Pennsylvania’s children. The opposition to a commonsense severance tax is being fed to the public directly from the industry and their paid operatives and fails to acknowledge the inherent need to fund Pennsylvania’s schools and take care of our environment.

Despite claims to the contrary, natural gas companies remain strongly profitable. In 2013 the market value of natural gas produced in the Keystone State was $11.8 billion compared to $4 billion in 2011. Drillers paid just 1.9 percent of that in impact fees. As the industry flourishes, the PA Department of Revenue reports the industry’s corporate net income taxes paid in 2013 fell below pre-Marcellus drilling levels in spite of increased production.

The industry and its special interest allies continue to perpetuate the myth that Pennsylvania’s favorable tax climate is the cause for Pennsylvania’s low natural gas prices; but the facts show otherwise. The reality is that an estimated 80 percent of the natural gas produced in PA is exported out of the state and thus any additional cost due to a severance tax would be paid mostly by non-Pennsylvanians. Furthermore, Pennsylvania’s residential prices in February 2015 were 53 cents higher than West Virginia’s and our commercial prices were 54 cents higher.

The Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce, Commonwealth Foundation and others special interest groups claim that a severance tax would negatively impact Pennsylvania’s competitive edge to attract more gas drilling. Drillers haven’t left Alaska, Texas, North Dakota, West Virginia or any other state with gas reserves that are taxed. The total energy under the ground in Pennsylvania is estimated to exceed the energy value of Saudi Arabia. Pennsylvania has the natural resources with an estimated 1.925 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas in the Marcellus Shale and would still be offering a competitive business environment for the industry. At the same time that a small impact fee went into effect in Pennsylvania in 2012, Pennsylvania jumped from seventh to third in the rankings of natural gas producing regions. Unfortunately, the majority of that impact fee revenue stays in localities with gas wells and does not apply to areas with pipeline and compressor station disruptions.

In 2009, Chesapeake Energy said, “We gladly pay a severance tax in every state where we’re active, except in New York and Pennsylvania.” The industry needs to make a reasonable investment in the Commonwealth, the same as all hardworking Pennsylvanians do, to improve our educational system and our future. As Governor Tom Wolf has repeatedly warned, we cannot continue to do the same thing and expect a different result. The last administration’s policies had a devastating effect on the Commonwealth and we are working hard to reverse that and turn Pennsylvania back into an innovator and leader in energy as well as education. We need to work with the Governor to break the cycle of placing oil and gas interests ahead of Pennsylvania’s children and our environment.

A budget that serves the citizens of PA into the future or one that caters to the special interests of the past?

That is the central question surrounding this year’s budget proposal.

In his budget address, Governor Wolf laid out a plan to move Pennsylvania forward by investing in education and jobs to drive the state’s economy in the coming years.

Despite the partisan rhetoric in the post-budget address spin room, I hope the Republicans will accept the “fresh start” Pennsylvanians called for this past November and finally produce a budget that fixes our structural deficit instead of adopting yet another gimmicky budget to maintain the status quo.

The evidence is undeniably clear; what was done in the past four years has not worked. PA went from 7^th in job creation to 50^th; education test scores went from consistently rising to consistently falling; the state’s bond rating was downgraded multiple times; PA’s resources were exploited; and after several years of failed attempts, many PA workers simply stopped looking for a job.

All citizens of PA need to ask their legislators….

• Will you vote for property tax relief for me or will you continue to protect the bottom line of special interests?
• Will you vote for funding for schools that get results for the children in my community or will you continue to protect the special interests?
• Will you vote for quality Pre-K for kids so they are ready to start school or will you continue to protect the special interests?
• Will you vote for community colleges and job training that train workers for family-sustaining jobs or will you continue to protect the special interests?
• Will you vote for solving pension issues or will you continue to protect the special interests?
• Will you vote for increasing the minimum wage so that no one who is willing to work full time has to live in poverty or will you continue to protect the special interests?
• Will you vote for a truly balanced budget or the cost of structural deficits of the special interests?
• Will you vote for fair corporate tax rates for all businesses or special rates for some special interests?
• Will you vote for taxing Marcellus Shale like every other state with natural resources or will you continue to protect the special interests?
• Will you vote for paying appropriately for charter schools or will you continue to protect the special interests?
• Will you vote for freezing college tuition costs or will you continue to protect the special interests?
• Will you vote for expanding health care for access to all working families or will you continue to protect the special interests?

Governor Wolf’s bold budget proposal will put Pennsylvania back on the right fiscal path and benefits the citizens, not the special interests, of Pennsylvania.

 

 

 

Corbett, Republicans ignored the problem for four years

During his recent mid-year budget briefing, Corbett administration Budget Secretary Charles Zogby said the cost growth in the 2015-16 state budget, which was cited as the reason for the projected $2 billion deficit, is nothing new. Which begs the question: Why didn’t they do something to deal with it, instead of ignoring it for the past four years?

If Zogby and others knew the one-time revenue fixes used to balance the last four state budgets would not solve the state’s overall fiscal problem, that begs more questions: Did they use those tactics merely for “window-dressing” of the budget or were they simply being irresponsible with your tax dollars?

Another example of the Corbett folks simply ignoring the problem with state finances is that everyone knew Act 120 of 2010 included mandated cost increases in the out-years, yet Corbett actually proposed reducing the payments to balance the budget instead of meeting the obligations.

While Zogby might be continuing the false claim that the Corbett administration didn’t raise taxes on middle-class families, the fact is those families did get hit with higher taxes, such as property tax increases and higher gas taxes.

Meanwhile, legislative Republicans and Corbett also gave away the store to the tune of $2 billion in corporate tax breaks instead of fixing our ongoing structural budget deficit problem. Those tax breaks didn’t result in more jobs as promised, instead Pennsylvania’s job growth plummeted from 7^th to the bottom of the pack at 50^th.

Zogby went on to admit that one-time budget fixes don’t work, yet he continues to push for more one-time revenue gains like selling the liquor stores, electric competition and pension reform. Those ideas simply won’t solve Pennsylvania’s structural budget deficit.

Finally, Zogby now admits that legislative Republicans and the Corbett administration created a structural budget deficit of $2 billion, yet here are just a few of the things that incoming Speaker of the House, then House Majority Leader, Mike Turzai said about the budget during final passage on June 30^th:

“We have been nothing but responsible.”

"We have been fiscal stewards.”
“We have been about governing.”
"Let us talk about responsible governance.”
“We have been prudent, fiscally responsible, and prioritized state spending on the most vulnerable in our society.”

 “We are fiscally prudent, recognizing we have a responsibility to the taxpayers.”

 

Maybe not so much …

Bad Republican fiscal policy got us into this budget mess

After attending today’s mid-year budget briefing by Budget Secretary Charles Zogby, the multi-billion dollar budget deficit that Pennsylvania is facing is not unexpected given the past four years’ budget messes and the bad news is not likely to end.

The Independent Fiscal Office’s latest report revealed a multi-billion dollar budget deficit that was reaffirmed today by Secretary Zogby and points to a dreadful fiscal crisis for our new governor. It is certain that the extent of the gap is massive and we cannot continue with the same fiscal policies of the past four years and expect anything other than a continued deficit projection.

I see three main points concerning the budget deficit:

1.    Gov. Tom Corbett’s fiscal year 2014-15 budget was based on one-time revenue sources that the administration now admits was bad policy.

2.    The Corbett administration already borrowed to meet operational expenses and projections indicate the state will be cash flow negative from January through March 2015.

3.    The Republicans that control the House and Senate marched in lockstep with the Corbett administration on fiscal policy for the last four years. They also need to be held accountable for this failed fiscal policy and be willing to work to change it in a bipartisan manner that produces solutions.

Additionally, our state has fallen from the top 10 in job creation to last in the nation over the past four years.

This budget situation also has bad ramifications for policy proposals, such as infrastructure, jobs and equitable education funding, because most initiatives need state money to implement.

The Wolf administration offers a different fiscal policy that received a strong mandate in the recent election. This most recent forecast makes it even more obvious that we need to follow that change in policy.

I’m definitely ready for a fresh start, which begins Jan. 20.

The state checkbook is out of money!

Bad Republican budgeting maneuvers that have crippled the state’s ability to meet its obligations during the past four years have led the state to borrow money from itself.

What's that you ask? How does Pennsylvania borrow money from itself?

Well it goes something like this: the state's checkbook (the General Fund) is what Pennsylvania government uses to pay its recurring bills. This week, the General Fund ran out of money so the state Treasurer had to create a $1.5 billion line of credit out of a cash investment fund operated by the Treasurer. Of that line of credit, $700 million was immediately used. Kind of like using your credit card to pay your mortgage.

The administration has stated that this will actually save the state money, which is laughable. If this were actually true, it should be common practice every month and why hasn't Governor Corbett done this sooner? Ha!

In fact, actual loans to be used for the General Fund have only been done four times.  Even if these types of loans were common, it still begs the question as to whether they should be used for General Fund purposes at all. In this case, using them is an indication of an underlying symptom of inadequate and negligent budgeting. There are only a handful of valid reasons for using the Short Term Investment Program (STIP), but a failure of leadership is not one of them.

If the budgeting process was done correctly, with an accurate revenue forecasting methodology, and a realization that new revenue was needed instead of asking working families to pay more and school districts to make due with less, this whole line of credit would be unnecessary. The Corbett Administration claims they needed to do this to advance funding to Philadelphia schools, but these schools need this money because they were underfunded by Governor Corbett. It is like blaming someone else for your bad budgeting.

But you don't have to just take my word for it that these were terrible budget decisions.

The Independent Fiscal Office and the nation’s three major credit rating agencies have all noted that choices made in recent Pennsylvania budgets are creating a structural budget deficit that cannot be solved with the one-time fixes proposed and passed by the Corbett Administration and Republican controlled House and Senate.

It seems that Governor Corbett and his Republican friends prefer budget gimmicks that set up the next governor for a deficit from day one.

It's time for a fresh start.

"Opportunity" for education dollars, hurt by tax breaks

Crafting a state budget is all about priorities.

For four years now, Gov. Tom Corbett and his Republican colleagues leading the House and Senate have shown that giving tax breaks to some multi-national corporations, while refusing to tax others at all, is their priority and that funding public education is not.

Since he took office, Corbett has provided more than $2 billion in big-business tax cuts. Not to mention allowing multinational corporations to continue using the Delaware loophole to avoid paying taxes while, at the same time, refusing to implement a shale gas severance tax.

In an attempt to cover their tracks, Corbett and the Republicans are now trying to include funding for pensions as part of their calculations of education funding levels. But that's not flying with the parents and taxpayers in Pennsylvania who understand that funding for old pension obligations doesn't help a single student learn to read, write or solve a math equation. It never has, nor should it now be, included in the bottom line. For comparison sake, the total education spend, not including pension costs, (... because historically, no other administration has ever included pension costs when calculating levels of education funding) for 2008-09 -- the year before federal stimulus funding -- was $9.36 billion. Meanwhile, total education dollars spent in 2014-15, not including pension costs, (... because historically, no other administration has ever included pension costs when calculating education funding levels) is $9.18 billion. Clearly less funding, yet Corbett and the Republicans in an attempt to call a lame duck a swan, try to tout this as an increase.

Simply put -- Corbett and the Republican-led House and Senate have cut education funding in Pennsylvania by about $3 billion total over the past four years.

Those funding cuts at the state level have drastically impacted Pennsylvania's 500 school districts, which have been forced to lay off 20,000 employees, cut programs, increase class sizes and hike local property taxes.

But wait ... that's not enough tax breaks for corporations or enough defunding of public education for Corbett and his Republican privateers. To make matters worse, the 2014-15 state budget continues $150 million in business tax credits for the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) and the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) ... or what some like to describe as "the faux voucher program that masquerades as choice."

Some Republican echo chamber organizations continue to tout these programs as vehicles for "saving tax dollars." Their argument goes something like this ... if corporations (remember, they are people too) can pay their taxes to private schools instead of to the state so that a handful of kids can attend the private schools of their choice, the rest of the taxpayers in the state will actually save money. I know ... it makes no sense ... but that's what they are claiming.

However, providing those tax credits to businesses doesn't relieve the school district of their educational expenses or the rest of the taxpayers the burden of paying for the lost revenue.

Those scholarship recipients aren't leaving Pennsylvania classrooms in groups of 25 or 500, which would lead to one less classroom or one less school building. On the contrary, the buses still run past the child's house that opted for the taxpayer-subsidized private scholarship (and in some cases the public schools incur additional costs to transport that scholarship student separately to their new private school). Meanwhile, the same costs still accrue for the public school ... a teacher might have one less kid in their class (although they most likely have 10 more due to the Corbett education cuts), the cafeteria worker still prepares the same lunch (less one serving), the principal still oversees the same number of teachers (although probably 10 less as a result of the Corbett education cuts), the janitor still cleans the same school building, and there are still the same numbers of teacher's aides and nurses … check that, the Republicans cut reimbursement for nurses and teacher's aides so they are no longer a part of any equation anyway. But ... the same lights are still on in the same classroom, the same public school building is still heated to the same temperature by the same boiler, and the same roof still needs the same repair.

So where are all these "savings" other than lurking somewhere in the ideological minds of the faux voucher advocates.

The reality is, these business tax credits don't save any taxpayer dollars. In fact, they are an extra cost to Pennsylvania's pocketbook. The $150 million of taxes otherwise due to the state would be better spent in the public classroom for the basic education or special education line items.

But as we've already discussed, those aren't priorities for Gov. Corbett or the Republican-led General Assembly.

Gov. Corbett's "family budgeting" is hurting PA

Four years ago, Gov. Tom Corbett unveiled his first state General Fund budget proposal and likened it to a belt-tightening family sitting around the kitchen table making decisions on where to save and where to spend.

So let's take a look at how that family budgeting idea compares with this year's House Republican budget proposal.

Simply put: this budget plan is based on either delaying paying the bills or simply not paying the bills at all. Not many Pennsylvania families can balance their budgets in that way.

For example, the PlanCon reimbursement program for new school building construction is behind by $1.2 billion and the 2014-15 Republican budget allocates only $10 million to it. That's like making a single payment on a 120-year mortgage. On that schedule, schools in the program will have to wait 120 years for a new building. Are you kidding me?

The Republican budget plan also suggests putting off this month's payment of $394 million to Pennsylvania's managed care organizations which help to meet the health care needs of some of our state's most vulnerable residents. Cash-strapped families know what happens when you put off making a monthly payment. You're faced with interest and late fees. And make no mistake about it, when the MCOs come calling for their bills to be paid, they're going to charge the state more money to make up for it.

As for higher education funding, four years ago the state cut their budgets 19 percent and that cut has continued year after year after year with so-called "flat funding." For families with students in college, that would be like telling the school: "We'll pay tuition for 4 out of 5 semesters and call it even." How do you think that would go over at Pitt or Penn State?

Standard & Poor’s warned that Pennsylvania’s credit rating would suffer if the Republicans continued to use one time gimmicks to “balance” the budget. This Republican budget is based on $700 million in one-time accounting gimmicks that supposedly balance the budget this year, but will lead to a $2 billion structural deficit in next year’s budget. That's an irresponsible way to budget, even for fiscal conservatives.

I just can't go along with the idea of fixing a budget deficit by creating a bigger one for the next guy to worry about.

Republican budgeting has led to $1.4 billion deficit

Gov. Tom Corbett and his Republican friends -- who lead comfortable majorities in the state House and Senate -- have had four years to take Pennsylvania in a new direction.

Unfortunately for Pennsylvanians, that direction is deep into the red, headlined by a $1.4 billion General Fund budget deficit. We are one of only 11 states nationwide with a deficit. That’s what happens when you give tax breaks to some multi-national corporations while refusing to tax others at all. 

If the state budget deficit wasn't enough, funding cuts at the state level have drastically impacted Pennsylvania's 500 school districts, which have been forced to lay off 20,000 employees, cut programs, increase class sizes and hike local property taxes. But the governor continues to claim he didn't raise taxes?

And so here we are, within days of the budget deadline and the governor and Republican leaders can't figure out how to fix a billion-dollar deficit of their own making.

Now in their fourth year of budget fiascos, they feign surprise that their trickle-down economics aren't working. Sorry governor, you've had three years and three budgets that let you implement your spending priorities. You chose $2 billion in big-business tax cuts over more dollars in Pennsylvania classrooms. You chose to stall on Medicaid expansion instead of accepting Pennsylvania's share of federal dollars and you refused to impose a severance tax on Marcellus Shale natural gas even though every other state with gas reserves imposes one. You don't have the federal stimulus program to blame any more. This is your budget deficit.

Meanwhile, House Appropriations Committee Republican Chairman Bill Adolph is offering some obtuse argument about how our flat income tax as it relates to federal tax rates is causing our budget problem. Again, most other states have a budget surplus, not a deficit. House Majority Leader Mike Turzai believes another thing entirely: that targeted job-creation tax incentives are breaking the state's bank and corporate tax breaks should be across the board. With all due respect Mr. Leader, that's how we got into this predicament in the first place: by Republicans cutting corporate taxes by $2 billion and allowing multinational corporations to continue their tax shifting out of Pennsylvania's state coffers.

We didn’t need to be here … but we are. By implementing fair progressive policies, we could have stopped our slide from 7th to 49th in job creation, and Pennsylvania likely wouldn't be in the budget hole that we are today thanks to the failed leadership of Gov. Tom Corbett and his Republican colleagues. It may be too late to change the governor's fate as a one-term failure, but it's not too late to change the failed policies the governor and the Republican legislature have pursued. We could pass a budget that doesn't rely on one-time gimmicks and selling off assets.

I am not holding my breath …

A light bulb went on, but did he actually see the light?

"It's not fair right now, OK? So we need to address that."

- Gov. Tom Corbett, on education funding, Jan. 22, 2014

There’s been a breakthrough: after 1100 days in office, following dozens of protests across the state, and poll numbers that make the Titanic look recoverable -- in the dark abyss that is Gov. Corbett’s education policy, a small light went on. I’d say it was a 15 watt refrigerator bulb in the cold recesses of a beer refrigerator in the garage, but I digress.

Recently, the governor had sprinted from a Philadelphia public school he was scheduled to visit (the first visit to a public school in the state’s largest district, and one whose chronic underfunding repeatedly makes the national news), because he was notified of scheduled protests inside and out of the school.

See it’s only ok for the governor to use the school as the backdrop for his message and to try to save (or create) a legacy, but when teachers, parents and students want to convey a message at the school they work at day-in and day-out, well then it becomes, in the governor’s words, “theatrics that have been designed by adults.”

A few days later during a non-education related press conference, the governor seemed aware of and even expressed interest in a GOP proposal approved in the House that would set up a commission to develop a formula to distribute money for K-12 education.

And you know how the governor feels about commissions: creating them is his favorite hobby, but taking their recommendations is optional.

The larger irony in this: Pennsylvania had an education funding formula, established in 2008 after an extensive study was completed. However, the state abandoned it, before it was even fully implemented. Care to guess when and by whom?

If you said “2011 when Governor Corbett took office and cut a billion bucks from public schools”-- well you’d be right.

So this notion that Governor Corbett supports a formula just may be because it is politically expedient since his cuts to education are a key campaign issue.

Truth is the governor could invest more money in education today – literally today. Its budget day and the governor could choose to appropriate more state funds for education than pre-stimulus, because despite his claims and excuses Corbett’s number is still below that mark.

So while a light bulb has flickered on, I have little hope he’ll actually step into the light. 

Genuine Outrage II

With the Corbett Administration’s typical impeccable timing – the day following my blog post last week questioning where Sen. Toomey’s new found outrage regarding Pennsylvanians’ health insurance was when the governor was kicking 41,000 working adults off adultBasic; removing 88,000 kids from Medical Assistance; or his denying 500,000+ residents health care at all; not to be outdone—Gov. Corbett’s Insurance Commissioner, Michael Consedine issued a letter, saying both he and the governor “…are deeply troubled by the flawed launch of the federally-facilitated marketplace…”
 

Consedine goes on to say his department has received over 100 complaints from residents.

Well, we already know that the Corbett administration doesn’t have much concern for the impact its policies have had on the health care of over 600,000 (and that’s a conservative estimate) Pennsylvanians.

But Consedine’s letter reminded me of another letter I received last month (Oct. 29) from Labor and Industry’s deputy secretary for compensation and insurance regarding the efforts L&I was making to correct its own flawed launch, and that they are working “diligently to resolved system defects, clean up inconsistent data, and implement improvements.”

So it turns out the rocky launch of health care exchange under Obamacare, which Pennsylvania like dozens of other states, opted to let the federal government operate is not unlike what Pennsylvania’s own Workers' Compensation Program's website  encountered in addition to problems it's phone line had last year.

The difference is scale.

While healthcare.gov is tasked with shepherding millions of Americans through the process of purchasing health care, Pennsylvania’s Workers’ Comp system deals with a fraction of that.

So before Gov. Corbett and his minions cast stones at a program aimed at fundamentally improving the health of our nation, perhaps they should consider Corbett’s own imperfections.

Genuine outrage?

Last week while federal HHS secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, underwent another round of mainly disingenuous moral outrage from congressmen and women criticizing the implementation of a plan they been opposing the implementation of for three years, our state’s junior senator, Pat Toomey offered the evidence he’s been hearing from some Pennsylvanians.

No doubt the stories Toomey cited are real; one woman he spoke of is even from Lancaster County. But I find Sen. Toomey’s outrage misplaced and poorly-timed.

See, I didn’t hear a peep from the newly-elected senator in 2011 when Gov. Corbett decided his first action as governor should be the elimination adultBasic -- which if you remember was the low cost health care plan, covering for over 40,000 working Pennsylvanians.  Or a year later when the Insurance Department reported that 40% of those kicked off adultBasic and forced to sign up for new coverage that cost them more; or when 88,000 kids were kicked off Medical Assistance.

Nor have I heard him call on the governor to expand Medicaid, which would be a way to cover over a half million Pennsylvania residents and the easiest way to shrink the list of uninsured Pennsylvania’s by over 50%.

If Pat Toomey (and others) were actually for covering more Pennsylvanians and stimulating job growth in the Commonwealth he’d join with the rest of us calling on Gov. Corbett to expand Medicaid.

While Sen. Toomey was admonishing Sebelius on Capitol Hill, PA’s other Senator Bob Casey was calling on Gov. Corbett to accept Medicaid Expansion, like the governors of Ohio, New Jersey, Michigan and Arizona (see where I’m going here) have.

Sadly, Casey’s request will likely fall on deaf ears, as Gov. Corbett is busy on a 10 day tour of Pennsylvania in an attempt to rewrite his abysmal record of governing over the past 3 years.

It seems like it’s time for another optimistic (albeit inaccurate) email from the governor

Something along the lines of …

With Labor Day behind us, we can etch another relaxing summer free of controversy in our memories and gear up for a productive autumn legislative session with most of Pennsylvania's most pressing issues already resolved through the deft leadership of the Corbett administration in its first 33 months. All we need to do now is fine tune the machine of prosperity. (The drop from 7th in job creation to 49th was part of the plan to make our eventual emergence as #1 even more impressive. Although it may occur long after he’s been booted from office, he will lay claim to the accomplishment now).

Look- there is more state money being spent on education than ever before, and the state has made sure that local districts have held the line on taxes while securing smaller class sizes, higher test scores, and expanding curriculum offerings. More and more kids are performing better at cyber charter schools and its saving taxpayers millions because the tuition is free.

Pennsylvanians are going to work in record numbers, and not just at the minimum wage jobs they found when their unemployment was cut -- these are family sustaining jobs with healthcare benefits, a defined pension and generous vacation time. Things are so good, that workers are complaining that the prevailing wage should be scrapped in favor of higher wages being offered in the open market.

The Commonwealth’s few remaining working poor (so few that it’s difficult to find them these days) have access to affordable healthcare without resorting to Medicaid expansion, and polls show that an overwhelming majority of the residents are happy to send their federal tax dollars to expand Medicaid in other states where they aren't fortunate enough to have a governor with the sense to hesitate on Obamacare.

The extensions for the potential sale of the lottery have also worked like a charm. The extra time has allowed 3 new bidders to enter the fray and the free market has produced a new bid that is more than double the original offer.

The impending passage of liquor privatization is a mere formality now that the details of the new plan that will make alcohol available everywhere in the state, including vending machines on college campuses! Through a deal brokered by the governor himself (another notch in his legendary prowess as a dealmaker), distilleries have agreed to sell liquor to mom and pop operations at the same price the state used to get. In exchange, mom and pop operations have agreed to sell liquor at cost, and since there is already a surplus in education funding, the state has agreed to cut liquor taxes by 50%, meaning the consumer can now buy liquor for about the same price as their favorite mixers.

In a quirky twist of fate, even though manmade climate change doesn’t exist, the prediction of unseasonably warm winters in the future has resulted in a reevaluation of Pennsylvania's roads and bridges and found that since there is no expected “freeze-thaw” cycle for the foreseeable future, the roads and bridges are good to go for at least another 5 years -- maybe even 10 -- if the GOP-controlled House and Senate can push through legislation banning people from voting while allowing a governor to serve 3 terms.

In fact things are going so swimmingly that Grover Norquist has finally conceded that the Marcellus Shale fee is so paltry it should no longer be considered a tax.

And lastly, a new report by the Dept. of Revenue states that 70% of "C" corps paying $0 is just not acceptable - thus effective immediately the Sec. of Revenue will use the power he’s been granted to waive all taxes on the remaining 30% of multi-national corps that pay anything at all!

Well, a man can dream …

Corbett’s fuzzy math

People give Gov. Corbett a hard time for a lot of (well-deserved) reasons.  Sure, there’s the clockwork regularity of putting his foot in his mouth (Latinos, women can close their eyes during ultrasounds, now gay Pennsylvanians have been comparedto children); the rapid turnover of Cabinet Secretaries (these people are even leaving before being confirmed!); yeah he didn’t get any of his self-proclaimed priorities done by his self-proclaimed deadline (transportation, liquor privatization, pensions); and wow, those poll numbers --  so low they could double and 1/2 of Pennsylvanians still wouldn’t think he should be reelected.

But I’ll hand it to the Gov. Corbett, he sends out optimistic emails when most people would be depressed (I guess a South Carolina beach house helps!).

Wednesday (surely, while working from his oceanfront patio refreshed by a gentle sea breeze and a peach wine cooler [likely bought at Charleston’s Total Wines]) Gov. Corbett sent out an email proclaiming how impressive his role has been in Pennsylvania’s recovery.

The email said:

The commonwealth has added back more than 70% of the jobs lost during the recession, with the majority of that gain occurring during the Corbett administration.

But his claims and explanations aren’t quite accurate (although to be fair, I hear most of his fact-checkers are busy vetting new administration officials).  Corbett also said that “Since January 2011, Pennsylvania has created more than 130,000 private sector jobs, our unemployment rate is the lowest it has been since the recession, and the number of people working, at just over 6 million, is at its highest since April 2008.”

For some perspective, over 87,000 jobs were created in the final 12 months of the Rendell administration; and according to the Keystone Research Center’s analysis, only 86,600 jobs were created in the first 30 months of the Corbett administration.  

Put another way, the state recorded as many jobs in the first full year after the recession as it has in the subsequent two and a half years.  Check my math, but it seems like Corbett can only take credit for 48% of jobs created – which is not a majority.

Gov. Corbett was criticized last month for using some less-than-accurate jobs numbers, and since that criticism he’s only inflated them further.  Not to mention his claims are disingenuous, in that he doesn’t mention the 45,000 family-sustaining, public sector jobs lost during his tenure.

Maybe the governor is including the 40,000 transportation jobs that would have been created if the GOP had passed a transportation bill; or the tens of thousands of jobs that would be created if PA expanded Medicaid; or by reinstating the 20,000 education jobs lost due to his budget cuts; or the jobs saved by filling the posts of disgruntled employees’ in the administration; or hiring a single Latino. At this point I’m sure the governor is focused on only one job – his.

GOP policies described by Republicans as “historic,” “commonsense,” “responsible;” but by Dems and ultimately the courts as “unconstitutional”

It’s been a week of historic court decisions – and not just in Washington. Earlier this week, yet another of the Corbett/Turzai–led cabal’s milestone policies was determined by Commonwealth Court to violate the state Constitution. This time it was the Human Services Block Grant program.

Last year’s pilot program, described by GOP leaders as giving counties “flexibility” to spend human services money where they believe it is most needed (with the added bonus of having their budgets slashed 10 percent), evidently was so flexible in its interpretation of state law that it went outside the bounds of the constitution.

It’s easy to lose track of which GOP policies are under court review at any given time since so many laws signed by Gov. Tom Corbett (ehem, former Attorney General –so I must  know the law) end up there.

Among other PA GOP’s classics under scrutiny are 2012’s “Voter ID which is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania” law and Act 13, which stripped municipalities of the ability to approve their own zoning regulations.

And let’s not forget the ongoing hot potato plan to hand over control of our billion dollars in revenue-generating state Lottery to a foreign country which would be permitted to change the gaming environment in the Commonwealth with no oversight or run it into the ground and give it back to us (at a price) with no repercussions, which was rejected by current PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane.

Perhaps if the GOP would just take a second to listen to Democrats upon occasion they could prevent future carpal tunnel syndrome in the governor’s bill- signing hand, because during floor debate for both Act 13 and Voter ID, we questioned the constitutionality. I hate to say “we told you so,” but “we told you so.”

I do have to hand it to the GOP, because they seem to have a laser beam focus on spurring job growth in the legal sector.  

Corbett’s office alone is spending unspecified millions of dollars on outside law firms (from Baltimore and New York) to handle these issues – at a time when the governor has been crying wolf about sorting out “must haves from nice to haves.”

However court scrutiny is nothing new to Gov. Corbett because remember as Grand Poobah Attorney General a whistleblower case was brought against him in federal court alleging he terminated two employees for having the audacity to call for an independent investigation into some AG office operations. The court dismissed one count of the suit, but before closing the case said two counts are viable in the appropriate state court.

…there was also the time he joined 12 other attorneys general on a lawsuit regarding Obamacare, the same Obamacare that was upheld by the US Supreme Court in 2012.

But we know health care has never been Corbett’s forte because his first action as governor was to dismantle adultBasic, the health care program serving 40,000 working Pennsylvanians, paid for partially using funds from PA’s share of the federal Tobacco Settlement and by program enrollees. Corbett then used the tobacco funds for other non-health related issues and that was found to be unconstitutional by a Commonwealth Court judge just a few months ago. 

Of course the GOP’s geography aptitude may be called into question too, as their first attempt at redistricting maps made history by being the first to be rejected as unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court in 50 years!

And just this month, Gov. Corbett’s flipflop on the Jerry Sandusky-induced NCAA sanctions demonstrates his misunderstanding of the law. After originally accepting the “serious penalties” as part of the “corrective process…,” he reversed his stance and opted to sue the NCAA.  That lawsuit has been dismissed by a federal judge, calling it a “fairly easy decision to dismiss.”

Just so I can say “I told you so” – my guess that if the Corbett/Turzai cabal is able to convince enough lawmakers to go along with their liquor privatization and pension schemes to get them to the governor’s desk, they’ll end up in the courts as well with similar consequences.

The truth behind Gov. Corbett and GOP claims about state education funding.

When the GOP claims to have put more state funds into education than ever before, check out the red line on the chart above. The GOP has put marginal funds into ONE education budget line item, while ELIMINATING others.