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In a recent article covering the budget impasse and this year’s ill-conceived Republican attempt to again repeat the mistakes of the past four years, reporter James O’Malley cites a state GOP release saying the Wolf budget was rejected by a vote of 0 to 193. That is patently false.
Democratic legislators voted against a Republican amendment that raised the same taxes as the Wolf budget, because that amendment did not include the restoration of basic education funding, or property tax relief, or structural deficit elimination, or higher education funding restoration, or social service funding restoration, or pension relief, or job creation incentives, or a multitude of other improvements to help Pennsylvania move forward that are in the Wolf budget package.
The Republican spin doctors seem aghast that Democrats didn’t blindly vote for tax increases without first determining where the dollars would go. Maybe the Republicans who have blindly voted for the past four years’ budgets that have resulted in higher local property taxes, higher college tuition rates, a drop from seventh to 48th in job creation and multiple state credit rating downgrades think that is OK, but we Democrats don’t.
We need to engage in good-faith negotiations and come to an agreement of how to improve the fiscal health of the commonwealth, not blindly raise taxes without guarantees of investment in education and property tax relief for Pennsylvania homeowners.
Additionally, the ill-informed quote by state Rep. Aaron Kaufer, R-Kingston, that Democrats are neglecting the pension problem in Pennsylvania is laughable. The Republican pension “reform” proposal didn’t pay off the unfunded liability any sooner than current law does, and it did nothing to provide any budget relief in the near term. Instead, it took away $35 billion in future retirement benefits from workers while adding $25 billion more in 401(k) administrative costs over the next 35 years and used any future “savings” in a manner prohibited by law (something even the bill’s actuarial note warned against). It was more of the right-wing ideology that Rep. Marty Flynn, D-Scranton, pointed out was also at play with the Republican budget versus any sort of fiscal responsibility.
Let’s get to the negotiating table and vote on sound fiscal policies that move Pennsylvania forward with a budget that eliminates the structural deficit, actually funds education and provides property tax relief for the citizens of the commonwealth.
And let’s leave the gimmicks and fiscal mismanagement of the past four years behind us.
Mike Sturla
State representative
and
Chairman, House Democratic Policy Committee
Lancaster