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Harrisburg set the bar for lollygagging pretty high when it took 80 days to hammer out a compromise in this year’s budget wars. At the rate they’re going, it will be another 80 before the compromise – announced Sept. 18 – becomes law.
Maybe 11-1/2 weeks is the new minimum for getting things done.
The reason the compromise isn’t sticking? It’s a patchwork quilt of ragged ideas basted together with frayed threads. It’s the legislature and governor collectively tossing a penny into a well and wishing $1 billion would appear. It’s a bunch of cowards backstabbing a budget dragon with rubber knives rather than facing it head-on with hard steel and harder resolve.
There were three simple choices: cut programs and services, raise taxes, or a mix of both. Cutting loses votes; many cheer the idea, but the cheering stops when you talk about cutting something they benefit from. Raising taxes has become an intractable anathema to many Americans, rejected without debate. It doesn’t matter what the money goes toward, if the increase is modest, if you personally can afford it, or if it is temporary.
The compromise tried to pretend there was a fourth choice: Cut a little, and raise money through a hodgepodge of irrationality.
Raise taxes on cigarettes and start taxing cigarillos, but leave cigars and smokeless tobacco tax free? Add a tax on tickets to live entertainment and things like zoos and museums (many are nonprofit), but leave movie theater tickets alone? Lease more forest for natural gas drilling, add table gambling to casinos, and tax gambling income from small games run by (again, mostly nonprofit) entities like fire companies holding fundraisers?
Part of the problem is that public details are incomplete, thanks to endless hours of behind-the-scenes vote swapping. Tuesday, the AP mentioned a “four-hour closed-door caucus meeting.”
GOP refused proposed tax hike
All because legislators – primarily Republican senators – didn’t like Gov. Ed Rendell’s initial proposal to increase the state income tax for three years from 3.07 to 3.57. I didn’t like it either.
But three and a half months after Gov. Cheesesteak floated the tax hike, it is becoming easier to accept that simple, temporary solution over the jigsaw puzzle of inequity unfolding as Harrisburg carves out this compromise. You can hate Rendell, hate tax hikes, or both, but give him credit for hitting the budget shortfall head on.
The legislature, in contrast, skulks about behind closed doors pinning extra fees on some while leaving others exempt. They trim the budget to 1 percent less than last year, but don’t explain what will get cut. They put their trust in the pixie dust of increased gambling and increased land access for giant natural gas companies. The goal, of course, is to be able to go back to constituents and say “We spared you a tax hike!” while still increasing the amount the state takes in. It’s magic! Shazam!
Please. Pennsylvania is now in its 93rd day without a budget. It is already 12 days after a “compromise” was reached but not enacted. School districts are living literally on borrowed money, day-care centers are closing, and services are being cut statewide by social agencies, thanks to missing state funds. Meanwhile, of course, the governor and legislators have not missed a paycheck or perk. Talk about magic.
Next time, skip the games. Cut services or raise taxes to present a balanced budget by June 30. Then buck up, explain your choices to voters, and take your lumps.