(A brief discussion twixt Baer & Baer's editor, a.k.a. BE)
JB: Yo, boss, know what my favorite part about budget day is?
BE: The end?
JB: Well, that, yeah. But I also like how it shows the great divide in our politics when special interests for and against whatever's proposed come forward with their thoughts and words.
BE: I sense some examples coming.
JB: Well, you've got a Republican Guv who likes small government so naturally Democrats hate his ideas.
BE: Seems about right.
JB: But you've also got the business community singing his praises and the social services community condeming his plans.
BE: Again, pretty predictable.
JB: Here, for example, is what the Pa Chamber of Commerce & Industry had to say about Gov. Corbett's lean, mean, no-tax, big-cuts budget proposal aired on Tuesday:
"Tom Corbett’s continued focus on fiscal restraint, improving government efficiencies and addressing the state’s significant financial obligations are necessary for the Commonwealth to get back on solid economic ground."
BE: Seems reasonable.
JB: Here's what Philadelphia's Community Legal Services said:
"Gov. Corbertt announced today that he intends to eliminate the General Assistance program. This decision is morally and economically wrong. It is the wrong idea at the wrong time and goes after the wrong people."
BE; Definitetly a different take.
JB: How about state Rep. Daryl "The Daryl" Metcalfe, chairman of the House State Government Committee, who says Corbett didn't cut enough?
"The governor’s proposed 2012-13 state budget falls more than $1 billion short in overdue, welfare spending cuts. The governor needs to exchange his butter knife for a meat cleaver and cut even more wasteful and excessive welfare spending.”
BE: Probably popular in many quarters.
JB: Not with unions. There's this from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU):
"Once again, Governor Corbett has shown the citizens of Pennsylvania whose side he’s really on. Instead of fighting for the middle class and working families, he is siding with the 1% and big corporations who aren’t paying their fair share."
BE: This argument sounds familiar.
JB: To my point. Same arguments. Same great divide. Same hard positions. Further fuel for further fights with no compromise and no resolution serving the vast middle of common-sense political thought.
BE: We're doomed, aren't we?
JB: Totally. Grrr.
- Patrick Kerkstra is the name of the writer who covered the incredible nearly half a billion dollar property tax paycheck owed the city that the city refuses to cash.
Where is the moral outrage about that? If we need this money as you say we do, why is Philly not putting these properties up for sheriff sale?
Either we need the money or we don't really need it as much as the Democrats claim. Which is it?— CleanupPhilly - Hey, Baer. One question for you... Why is it that this website doesn't mention Obama switching his opinion on PACs? Is it because it would contradict you liberal drivel about those bad Republican PACs "destroying" our country?— hollandpa
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Other unaddressed critical points are include that Philly is not paying its own fair share and could. Philly is owed $465 million in unpaid property taxes. That is not my opinion, but of a comprehensive investigation by the Inquirer's own Patrick Kerstra. Though Nutter disputes it now, the facts are that Nutter implemented a moratorium on property tax collection sheriff sales, so it is very likely still the same amount.
Sheriff sales to collect property taxes number about 100 a month. With the current overdue back log that will take about 70 years or so to catch up.
Philly can do more to assess and collect well in a way that is fair to everyone and that keeps the state burden down in a recession. Philly has to do its part in funding its own schools. It won't do to have this uncashed paycheck sitting on the dresser for decades.
Before bashing Corbett for making cuts that affect Philly, it's fair good journalism to investigate why Philly has not done its job on getting its own fiscal house standing.