This may be casting the net too wide, but Gov. Ed Rendell and every state legislator should be fired. Sure, I realize that some of our elected representatives and senators are on board with the current budget proposal, but that isn't enough. There still is no budget and many of us are starting to pick out Halloween jack-o-lanterns. We have waited three months for approval of the budget - the state constitution dictates it be passed by June 30 - and yet we still have nothing to show for it. Real people are hurting, and your partisan bickering is crushing us.I challenge each elected official working in Harrisburg to forgo his/her per diem until the budget is actually passed, and pay back your previous expense checks. If this is unacceptable, then I ask you to resign. There are plenty of Pennsylvanians who would gladly do your job and earn your paychecks (including many of us breadliners). It's becoming more and more obviously you are unable to perform the most basic duty expected of America's Largest and Most Expensive Full-Time State Legislature.
The time for games is over. Republicans and Democrats, do your job or get out. Otherwise, everyone's favorite Pink Pig will return during your 2010 re-election campaigns to sling (or roll in) some mud.
My sentiments exactly. In fact, I'm planning to write an editorial on the matter this week.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the O-R should have a ticker on its editorial page that tallies the number of days of the budget impasse.
ReplyDeleteMike, while I applaud your interest in making changes in personnel in Harrisburg, I'm pessimistic anything will happen. The same things have been said before, doing XXX and YYY and ZZZ, the voters should throw the bums out. Does it happen? No.
ReplyDeleteWell, actually it did happen, to a limited extent. A few years ago after the middle-of-the-night pay raise, voters were angry enough to throw out about 50. A new crop of legislators came to the public, saying we will make changes in Harrisburg. Within a year, they too faded into the woodwork, following lock-step with the entrenched legislators already there. The aurora of political life, the buildings, per diem payments, etc. must be intoxicating.
And, voters just have a too large of appetite for the cardboard checks, the familiarity of a name, and lack interest in learning how to make changes. The system really seems to be filled with potholes, but considering the alternatives in other countries, ...
You're right with everything you said. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't do everything in our power to throw these current bums out. And then, push to downsize this bloated Legislature and enact term limits. Sadly, those last two options are under control of the very legislators who want to keep their jobs. But we should at least do out part to force out the people who want to keep the status quo.
ReplyDeleteThe budget impasse is over. Did it drag on long enough to cause pain that will linger to the next election? Perhaps we should have hoped it dragged on longer, so the pain and nonsense would be fresher in the minds of the voters. Or, will the voters have amnesia at the next cycle?
ReplyDeleteI think we both know the answer to that question.
ReplyDeleteWas the final overage tally 101 days? That is an easily "sloganable" number... hopefully we get some clever campaign messages out of that
ReplyDeleteAs you'll see in my most recent post, I'm very fond of "Pay raises and Pink Pigs for EVERYONE!!"
ReplyDeleteI figured the budget would be 1/3 smaller than last year's... since they've eaten up a third of the fiscal year already...
ReplyDeleteI told Jesse White to print two copies of the budget so they'd have a head start next spring.
Budget 101: Start early :-)
The governor submitted his budget in early February, so that means it took them more than eight months to come to an agreement...
ReplyDeletehttp://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2009/02/02/daily28.html