John Baer: Pa. budget circus: The Big Top is Back
HEAR THE CALLIOPE music? With 10 days to the annually missed state-budget deadline, the circus is back in town. Those lovable, laughable House Democrats run around spraying seltzer down their pants and pulling their usual pratfalls.
HEAR THE CALLIOPE music? With 10 days to the annually missed state-budget deadline, the circus is back in town.
Those lovable, laughable House Democrats run around spraying seltzer down their pants and pulling their usual pratfalls.
His lordship, the Edward of Rendell, stretches credulity about the state of the state and pretends he still has power by commanding lawmakers to remain in Harrisburg until a budget's done.
And Senate Republicans, in the third ring under the big top, work whip and chair to try to tame any big-tax cats.
So, you know, send in the clowns.
The House Democratic "leadership" last week tried to pass about $300 million in taxes on natural gas and tobacco products. Hey, who likes big tobacco or power companies? Even the Senate-of-no wasn't calling the bill DOA.
And while $300 million is a long way to filling a $1 billion-plus budget hole, it's a start. Yet the bill didn't have enough Democratic votes. So why put it up?
"I figured I had the votes," says House Appropriations boss Dwight Evans, adding: "Obviously, I was disappointed."
Cue the incredible stretching man.
His Edness, after this flop, says he's "heartened" by the tone of budget talks and even willing to compromise on his requested $354 million education hike.
But Ed says a lot of things. Such as that Pennsylvania has "the best economy of any big state in the union," according to the Wall Street Journal.
But the WSJ report he cites was a news piece last Nov. 12 on a study by the Pew Center on the States that put us among the top 10 states in fiscal stability.
Rendell press secretary Gary Tuma, when asked about this, says that Pennsylvania and Texas were the only large states in the center's top 10.
So, Ed thinks Texas Gov. Rick Perry succeeded in seceding from the union?
"OK," says Tuma in an e-mail exchange, "so we are one of the top two states."
Yeah, in a study released last November based on data as of last July.
Today, of the six largest states, two (New York and Texas) have lower unemployment rates than Pennsylvania; three (California, New York and Illinois) have higher per-capita incomes; and Pennsylvania's 9.1 percent unemployment rate is the state's highest in a quarter-century.
And Ed's edict that all lawmakers stay until a budget's done? Why - to create the illusion that rank-and-file members have a say in shaping a deal? Spend $38,000 per day on those tax-free per diems?
First, the Republican Senate won't stay unless a budget agreement's at hand. Second, why waste more tax dollars on some show of activity?
Look, I get that most states are in trouble and many are in worse shape than Pennsylvania. I also still expect a budget resolution sooner rather than later.
But don't you wonder what "leaders" do all year to make ready for their sole annual responsibility? Clearly, preparation or innovation isn't involved.
Cuts in agency staff, costs and services? That's butchery, not art. Creative answers such as layoffs, closed parks, less to libraries, reduced social services to counties?
It's never about slashing the massive PR apparatus of the government and the Legislature or consultant contracts or outside legal and bond work, or any of the billions of dollars in suggested savings in every efficiency study before and after the 1996 report of the Improve Management Performance and Cost Control Task Force (IMPACCT) Commission established by former Gov. Tom Ridge.
So because there's no planning or novelty, we regularly arrive at a place where the choice is higher taxes or deeper cuts in programs serving people.
Why? Too many in power are more interested in keeping their jobs than in doing them. Too many are content to blame performers in one of the other rings.
And this circus has no ringmaster and too many clowns.
Send e-mail to baerj@phillynews.com.
For recent columns, go to