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Would it be a good idea to …
… gather people’s money-saving suggestions for state government and then put the best ones into practice?
Ostensibly, state Sen. Scott Wagner, a York County Republican, aims to do exactly that using a website, SenatorScottWagner.com/SavePa, promoted since early January as a clearinghouse to help lower the commonwealth’s spending.
It remains to be seen if the site yields any practical solutions or instead serves as a partisan tool to skewer Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget priorities.
“We’re calling on the governor to first address the spending side of the equation before reaching into the wallet of taxpayers,” Wagner’s website states. “That’s where we would like your input. …”
The senator “will review all suggestions and will highlight them on this site,” his message states.
To get the ball rolling, Wagner offered four potential money-conserving actions including “eliminating prevailing wage mandates.”
As of Friday, no submitted ideas from the public were evident on the site. A corresponding Twitter hashtag, #SavePA, had drawn comments, several of them sarcastic and few providing reasoned strategies in 140 characters or less.
Of course, identifying a great idea will be fruitless unless it also can be implemented, no small task these days in the Hatfield-McCoy climate of Harrisburg.
Simultaneous to Wagner’s effort, the Governor’s Office of Transformation, Innovation, Modernization and Efficiency, known by the shorthand GO-TIME, continues to look for ways to streamline government operations. Wolf expects the office to identify during this fiscal year some $150 million in efficiencies and savings.
Do you have a whiz-bang notion to share that might shave Pennsylvania’s expenses?
Could Luzerne County’s government benefit from similar, highly publicized efforts to solicit input from its employees and residents?
Or do you consider “government savings” an oxymoron?
Give us your feedback by sending a letter to the editor or posting comments to this editorial at timesleader.com.
Likewise, tell us your ideas for improving the community and making area residents’ lives better. Maybe we’ll spotlight your suggestion in a future editorial and ask readers, “Would it be a good idea to …”