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WILKES-BARRE — During political campaigns, how many times have we heard a candidate say, “I will work for you,” when they ask for your vote?
Well, now is the time to make good on that promise.
Gov. Tom Wolf was in his office Wednesday. He was making calls to legislators, trying to reason with them to get some movement toward a compromise budget for fiscal year 2015-16, which began July 1.
The legislature is not in session. It won’t return until late August.
Wolf has met with several Republican leaders, with no resolution to any key issues.
Both Wolf and the GOP-controlled legislature claim they received a mandate from the voters in the last election. How can they be so far apart on resolving the state’s fiscal dilemma?
“The voters did elect a divided government,” said Jeffrey Sheridan, Wolf’s press secretary. “But they didn’t elect a dysfunctional government.”
Wolf says he has offered compromise on key issues. In return, the Republicans have offered little compromise, if anything at all.
Wolf wants a severance tax on the natural gas industry, which the GOP majority steadfastly has opposed. He said the money raised will go to education. Wolf says Pennsylvania can’t possibly expect a good future until schools are adequately funded.
Other key unresolved issues include property tax reform, liquor privatization and pension reform.
“There have been some meetings,” Sheridan said. “But there hasn’t been much movement on their side.”
Working for whom?
Is this the best we can do? Is this how our elected officials are working for us?
We are more than two weeks past the deadline to pass a budget and nobody is optimistic that an agreement will be reached soon.
School districts are in the process of preparing for the new school year. They have no idea what to expect from Harrisburg in the form of funding. Will it be decreased? Increased? What programs will continue? What will be cut?
The dumbing down of America has been ongoing for years now. If we don’t take education seriously, it will only get worse. We all laugh at those Jay Leno Man in the Street interviews where people can’t identify who the Founding Fathers were or who the vice president of the U.S. is or which continent is home to Paris.
But it really isn’t funny at all.
Neither is the situation in Harrisburg. Where are our statesmen and stateswomen? It’s time for our legislative leaders to lead.
Wolf’s overwhelming election victory has earned him the right not just to be heard, but to be considered. The Republicans have controlled Harrisburg for four years when they had a GOP governor to work with the Republican House and Senate. And what is there to show for it?
Wolf wants property tax reform. The GOP budget does not contain that.
“There’s been no agreement on anything at this point,” Sheridan said. He claims the Corbett years increased the state’s deficit and underfunded education.
Sheridan said there will be no progress until the GOP is ready to engage in meaningful and substantive negotiations.
“The deficit needs to be tackled, schools need funding, taxpayers need relief,” Sheridan said. “The governor is trying to accomplish what the people of Pennsylvania want.”
There is much truth in that statement. Wolf is merely trying to do what the voters of Pennsylvania elected him to do.
Key is compromise
Like it or not — majority or not — Republicans have to come to the table and be willing to compromise.
One Republican sees the importance of negotiating. Rep. Aaron Kaufer, R-Kingston, issued a news release Wednesday with the heading, “Time to Govern.”
Kaufer said agreements have already been reached — that two-thirds of the budget lines in the GOP proposed budget Wolf vetoed — matched or exceeded what the governor had originally proposed.
Kaufer admits major issues remain — public pension reform, property taxes, education funding, liquor privatization, and a natural gas extraction tax — before a budget can be passed.
Kaufer said he likes Wolf. He said he is a “well-intentioned individual.” Kaufer also thinks the members of the legislature are well-intentioned. He said agreements and disagreements are expected.
“It is time to return to the negotiating table, leave the petty politics behind, and put the spin doctors out of practice,” Kaufer said. “There’s a time and a place for politics, but now is not the time.”
Kaufer’s message needs to get through to his GOP colleagues. So far, it appears the governor is the only participant who has made significant concessions to try to gain compromise.
