Twelve Days To Get It Right!

The Pennsylvania legislature has twelve days to pass an appropriate budget – one that respects revenue shortfalls of about two billion dollars.

It would be tempting to say that our national fiscal crisis is the cause of the Pennsylvania legislature’s last-minute approach to fiscal responsibility. But, Pennsylvania has not passed a budget on time for the past seven years. And, no one knows how to hold the legislature or the governor accountable for failing year after year in this fundamental legislative duty.

Activists who have been tracking the budgetary process tell me that fiscal conservatives are holding out to embarrass the governor – by failing to pass his budget on time for eight years in a row.

What folly! How can legislators who use “constituent services” as state-paid perpetual campaign operations possibly think they can embarrass a governor who takes limitless but perfectly legal campaign contributions from all sides of every legislative policy issue before him?

But, back to our main worry: given Pennsylvania’s history, sometime during the Fourth of July weekend, when voters and environmentalists are preoccupied with family gatherings, both the governor and legislators will pass another midnight oinker.

Remember the illegal pay raise of 2005? In 2005, elected officials voted for an illegal pay raise for themselves – in the middle of the night, during Independence Day celebrations. Never mind this august body already bought the love of state and municipal employees by voting outrageous pension increases for themselves and government workers (shadow campaign staff) in earlier years.

My fear: Instead of serious, deliberative across-the-board budget cuts and elimination of outdated state boards and agencies to close the $2 billion budget gap, they will yield to the temptation of liquid and black gold. The legislature and the governor will take the easy way out and close the budget gap by expanding gas and oil drilling. This would be a huge mistake – although in the short term, coal, gas and oil drilling will prove to be a cash cow for both local and state budgets.

I’ll cede one point to my friends who are part of the League of Conservation Voters: given the horrendous catastrophe along the Gulf Coast, that there is NO WAY the legislature or the governor could pass a bill that would expand drilling of the Marcellus Shale on a normal business day, when their words, their motives, their decisions could easily be scrutinized by voters and community leaders.

Of course, the legislature won’t dare to expand drilling in the Marcellus Shale while we are watching -- especially now that our eyes and ears are glued to media reports of the damage -- the evidence of recklessness by drilling operators and government inspectors who allowed the Gulf Coast catastrophe to happen.

But, studies have proven time and again that the Pennsylvania legislature is the least accountable state government in the United States. And, they make their most harmful decisions when they know Pennsylvanians aren’t watching.

If we stop watching, anything could happen.

So please, before you go on vacation, set your RSS news feeds to track the progress of the Pennsylvania budget process. Please be in touch with your state representative, your state senator, and the governor. And, tell all of these players you are taking your i-phones to the beach and to your mountain cottages.

Please ask the Governor, and all our elected officials to exercise a common sense budget: one that cuts across the board – including the salaries and perks of elected officials.

If voters don’t demand a fair, honest budget that reflects declining revenues, but still protects our forests, our water supplies, and our natural habitat, how can we expect our elected officials to do the right thing?