Corbett dips a toe back into jobs controversy

Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett struggled mightily this month to distance himself from comments suggesting that some laid-off workers would rather collect unemployment checks than go back on the job.

Tuesday morning, he dipped at least a toe back into the controversy.

Speaking to reporters after a campaign stop in Delaware County, the Republican nominee for governor noted that newspapers across the state are carrying line after line of help-wanted ads.

"Are there jobs out there? . . . How would you interpret that?" he asked.

Corbett reported seeing one newspaper page that he said promised thousands of jobs listings in print and online.

"You guys asked me if there are jobs out there," he said to a pair of reporters. "If I am a common citizen, the average citizen, and I look at a newspaper . . . and I see jobs - what's the answer to that question."

Asked if he was implying that the unemployed were not taking advantage of these listings, he replied that no - adamantly no - he wasn't saying that.

"That statement is in the past," he said. "We're beyond that. We're talking about creating jobs for the future."

Corbett's comment drew a rebuke from Democratic gubernatorial nominee Dan Onorato.

Onorato, who two weeks earlier had jumped on Corbett's comments about jobless workers, said the latest remarks showed his opponent "still doesn't get it" that unemployed people are desperate to get back to work.

In his remarks Tuesday, Corbett said that what he really wanted to talk about - what he had gone to Archway Press Inc. in Sharon Hill to say - was that he intended to create jobs as governor by cutting state spending, swearing off any new taxes, and untangling red tape that impedes business growth.

He noted that Pennsylvania has 591,000 people who are unemployed - an unemployment rate of 9.1 percent, highest since the early 1980s.

"We are near the bottom in job creation and near the top in taxes," he said.

Speaking from a lectern in the print shop, Corbett addressed a half-dozen shop employees, the ownership team and a gaggle of his own aides.

"Everywhere I go," he said, "I hear people telling me that they are paying too much in taxes. That's why I signed a no-new-taxes pledge. . . . I always ask, has anybody seen a tax increase that has helped grow the economy."