PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE EDITORIAL: The Corbett administration is in the unusual position of having to borrow $700 million from the state treasury’s short-term investment pool to cover current expenses in the General Fund. Gov. Tom Corbett’s aides call it a temporary cash flow problem, but the state isn’t usually short on money in the first quarter of the fiscal year.
Although it’s better for the state to borrow from itself than the private market, it’s a rare event, most recently done in December 2013 and in the depths of the Great Recession in February 2009. But what financial disaster bedevils Pennsylvania in September 2014?
The General Fund would be in better shape if Mr. Corbett had gone after more revenue from shale gas drillers — a severance tax like that of other states, instead of a mere impact fee. But that remedy was elusive in the $29.1 billion 2014-15 budget, which was chock-full of one-time revenues and accounting gimmicks… (more)
EDITOR: Tom Corbett was not about to tax his largest source of political donations.
