DN Editorial: An Empty Shell: A poll shows that voters want Gov. Corbett to go. ASAP.

THE LATEST dismal poll numbers about Gov. Corbett's job performance prove that you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Only 20 percent of the voters believe that he should be re-elected, according to the latest Daily News/Franklin & Marshall poll.

Sounds about right.

Corbett won in 2010 on the strength of his no-new-taxes pledge. But that was really just a shell game. We now know he meant only state taxes.

Lots of local governments in Pennsylvania have had to increase their taxes to fill in the holes left by Corbett's slash-and-burn approach to state programs, particularly education.

In Philadelphia, the Nutter administration has raised property taxes three years in a row for the schools. This budget season, it agreed to take a one-point increase in the sales tax, due to expire next year, and apply it to the schools. The mayor is also pressing the Legislature to pass a $2-a-pack increase in the tax on cigarettes sold in Philadelphia - again, to help the schools.

Still, it hasn't been enough to make up for the sharp drop in state aid. As everyone knows, the school district is still in desperate need of money and has resorted to laying off thousands of workers to make up the difference. It also is seeking wage and benefits concessions from the teachers and other unions.

The Philadelphia School District may be the sickest patient in the ward, but the beds are crowded with districts from all over the state that have had to cut services and increase taxes to make up for the state's retreat from education funding. As a recent report by the Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth noted, virtually every district in the suburbs has raised local taxes as well - sometimes two years in a row, in addition to cutting services.

No wonder that the latest F&M poll listed education funding as voters' No. 1 concern, even ahead of unemployment. Gov. Corbett made sure the problem was on everyone's minds.

The governor's people have argued that he had to make tough decisions when he first took office because of the lingering effects of the Great Recession. Tax revenue was down; federal stimulus money had run out. His hand was forced by economic realities.

That would be a fine argument, except that not every state program took a hit. The governor has given major tax breaks to business, lowering one key business tax by several hundred million dollars and promising to cut the Corporate Net Income Tax in a dramatic way going forward.

And what about the $1 billion in subsidies he offered the Shell Oil Co. to build an ethane processing plan in Monaca in western Pennsylvania? Like we said, it's a Shell game.

Lest we forget, Corbett not only cut state funding for basic education, he also slashed state aid for colleges and universities by 22 percent during his first - and possibly last - term.

He can't even count on being bolstered by his fellow conservative Republican base; according to the F&M poll, only 30 percent of Republicans approved of Corbett's performance. The rest have joined Democratic and independent voters in concluding that Corbett's tax-cutting shell game fools no one.