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Here’s a plan for saving Luzerne County money
In John Moga’s letter to the editor (March 8), he felt some candidates for Luzerne County Council offered no solid plans for dealing with the financial mess the county is in, which prevented him from signing their nominating petitions. As a candidate for council, I am happy to offer to Mr. Moga my plan to reform the ways we handle our finances and increase transparency.
First, require purchase orders for county expenses of more than $50. Our neighbors in Columbia County already have done this and the system is quite successful. It increases accountability by providing a better record of what we’re spending; and as these orders would require approval, would prevent misuse of taxpayer funds.
Second, empower the taxpayers by authorizing the county to create a website – that any citizen can access – that will document expenses of more than $25. We have a right to know this information, and it could prevent corrupt individuals from pocketing or misspending the people’s money, because if there’s anything shady going on, the math won’t add up.
Finally, freeze property tax rates at their 2010 levels and ensure a clear appeals process be in place one month prior to any future reassessment. We have to help the people who are being taxed out of their houses, and a freeze would allow the county to re-evaluate its methods of handling this issue. The new government has a moral call to make: raise taxes or kick people out of their homes. I will work as hard as I can to prevent the latter from coming to pass.
These plans are available on my campaign website: www.caseyevans.org.
State GOP leaders can construct tax equity
For many years, the message to Harrisburg from the taxpayers has been quite clear. Homeowners want relief from unfair property taxes, and businesses want the nation’s second-highest corporate income tax rate reduced.
The politicians received the message loud and clear, but so far they have chosen not to answer the call.
For example, Gov. Tom Corbett is proposing to cut funding for education for 2012. This will force local school districts to increase property taxes or make painful cuts in spending that affect educational opportunities for students, or do both.
So what could Gov. Corbett and the Republicans do in order to satisfy both homeowners and businesses? They could call a constitutional convention for the purpose of legalizing a graduated income tax for local school districts and for local, county and state governments. What good would that do?
It would enable the tax burden for public schools and necessary government services to be shifted from those who already are overburdened by taxes to those who can easily afford to pay more. Will this happen?
The Republican Corbett administration has all the tools in its hands to accomplish tax reform that would move Pennsylvania forward into the 21st century. The ball is in the governor’s hand. Will he fumble it or complete the pass that will go down in history?
Proposed budget unfair to education and future
It scares me to death to think that Gov. Tom Corbett disregards education as a vital agent in Pennsylvania’s future.
Corbett’s proposed budget beheads education by chopping off 52 percent of public universities’ funding and making extreme cuts to public schools’ budgets. The regressive cuts stymie the intellectual and economic prosperity of the state; without education, jobs will leave the state at an incalculable rate.
His plan is a short-term solution with dire long-term ramifications.
Surely, there are more efficient ways to make up the budget deficits that don’t come at the expense of the state’s youth. The reality of education is that it transcends. By dramatically cutting it, Corbett is putting a foot on progress.
If Corbett’s ambition is to ardently make Pennsylvania “the Texas of the natural gas boom,” then the state should tax this industry. Managing a budget also means producing revenue to operate the government. The Lone Star State understood this and taxed its oilers.
The governor’s Texas-sized pipe dream would give drillers an unwarranted free pass. At a rate that mirrors West Virginia’s, the potential severance tax revenue on gas production in 2010, according to MarcellusGas.org, was approximately $556.6 million. This is more than a half billion dollars that could be used to fix our state’s budgetary deficits.
Corbett has shown that he’s siding with big business while turning his back on two of the largest employers in the commonwealth: No. 7 Penn State and No. 9 University of Pittsburgh.
With the environmental and public health concerns that loom large with Marcellus Shale drilling, now is not the time to give the industry a free pass. If Pennsylvania is going to let natural gas companies destroy its land and pollute its waters, it should at the very least benefit in return, rather than dooming itself to lose educated citizens.
History slipped away from township leaders
Mayor Carl Kuren and councilwoman Mary Yuknavich let slip away another part of Wilkes-Barre Township history. I am speaking of St. Joseph’s Monastery, which the township could purchase, as well as Wilkes-Barre Township High School, which was offered for free.
Why aren’t the townspeople in an uproar over losing two of our biggest assets and historic legacies? People, you should be ashamed of yourselves for letting Kuren and Yuknavich rule you like sheep.
State stores are assets, not a one-time bonanza
Gov. Tom Corbett apparently believes that privatizing the state liquor stores is making smaller government.
State Rep. Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny County, speaking at a committee hearing, estimates that the state would receive about $2 billion for the privatizing of its wine and liquor stores.
Currently, the commonwealth acquires about a half-billion dollars annually in profits from the wine and liquor stores; over five years the state treasury will obtain more than $2 billion in revenue and the infusion of money is ongoing.
Pennsylvania’s Liquor Control Board is a cash cow. Instead of butchering, it should be milked. Likewise, the revenues from the state Lottery Commission and the state Turnpike Commission – another lucrative entity that because of Act 44 of 2007 pumps about $450 million annually to Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation – are cash cows the state needs to develop, not reduce by streamlining. These agencies are self-supporting and do not draw taxpayers’ revenue from the state’s budget.
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