OBSERVER-REPORTER: What [Gov.] Corbett has done – even if he’d rather not have it bandied about in public – is propose that the lowest-paid state workers – people such as secretaries, nurses’ aides in state hospitals and janitors – have their pay cut by 4 percent in the first year of their next contract and then get 2 percent raises in each of the next two years…
First, the governor should be pressing state lawmakers to do more to rein in their annual operating costs, which are in the neighborhood of $300 million. While the governor pursues huge cuts in education spending, his budget proposal barely puts a dent in legislative costs. Corbett’s bid to cut the aforementioned union workers’ pay would save the state $6 million; his proposed cuts for the Legislature are only $4.3 million. And he makes no effort to reclaim any of the lawmakers’ slush fund, which is close to $200 million…
And Corbett’s refusal to even consider imposing an extraction tax on the booming Marcellus Shale industry – as every other state with significant Marcellus operations does – borders on the fiscally criminal… (more)
