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Our Opinion: Sound off to Harrisburg; tell lawmakers that school closures and other disruptions are unacceptable

March 16, 2016

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Make a ruckus that can be heard from here to Harrisburg.

Let the state’s elected officials know you will not stand for public schools in Pittston and elsewhere to prematurely close – tossing students’ and staffers’ lives into turmoil – because the political parties have so far failed to agree on a Pennsylvania budget. Call your lawmaker, or write, and demand a speedy resolution.

Likewise, register your dissatisfaction that the inexcusably long budget stalemate also threatens to shut down Penn State University’s agricultural extension programs, such as the one based in West Pittston.

Farmers are fed up. School officials flabbergasted. (“Every superintendent is in panic mode,” Pittston Area Superintendent Kevin Booth told an audience Tuesday night). Parents are becoming perturbed. Certain graduating seniors understandably grow anxious.

About the only place in which people seemingly lack a sense of urgency about settling this matter appears to be under the Capitol dome. Gov. Tom Wolf hinted Wednesday at another possible release of limited funding, a second stopgap measure since December to keep programs operating.

That’s insufficient. Pennsylvania needs an approved spending plan. The irony isn’t lost on taxpayers that even as they prepare to meet an April 18 state tax-filing deadline, their elected officials have failed to meet their deadline – of June 30 last summer – for returning tax dollars to counties, public schools and other state-reliant programs that serve the people.

We surveyed online readers at timesleader.com regarding how lawmakers “should solve Pennsylvania’s prolonged budget standoff.” Thirty-nine percent of respondents chose this response: “Approving a mix of both tax hikes and cost-cutting.”

Translation: Compromise.

Use the information supplied here to connect with Gov. Wolf and the region’s contingent of state lawmakers. Let them clearly hear how you feel.

• Gov. Tom Wolf

717-787-2500 or governor.pa.gov/contact/Pages/contact.aspx

• Sen. Lisa Baker

717-787-7428 or senatorbaker.com/contact-me-2/

• Sen. John Blake

717-787-6481 or senatorblake.com/contact/

• Sen. John R. Gordner

717-787-8928 or senatorgordner.com/contact-me/

• Sen. John Yudichak

717-787-7105 or senatoryudichak.com/contact/