Pennsylvania’s do-nothing GOP-controlled legislature is hurting not only our schools and students, but also homeowners and taxpayers
Some in Harrisburg have high hopes that we won’t see a replay of last year’s state budget fiasco, which dragged on for nine months without a deal.
But nothing much was solved by last year’s state budget standoff, and the underlying problems remain.
Gov. Tom Wolf
Many GOP lawmakers and their leadership don’t want public schools; they don’t want to pay their fair share of taxes; and they are intellectually and temperamentally incapable of proposing realistic alternatives to solve these and other growing public policy problems — for which they themselves incidentally are largely responsible.
Further, they really don’t care about any of this. They simply want to embarrass Gov. Wolf.
These Republicans aren’t in Harrisburg (or Washington) to fix problems, but to create them.
So problems only get worse.
Simply stated, these do-nothing GOP lawmakers don’t belong in government.
To that end, Gov. Tom Wolf should help them along, and see to it that as many of these pieces of deadwood as possible are voted out of office this November, and returned to private life.
As we saw with last’s year’s budget standoff, the public doesn’t much care about policy differences, or political brinksmanship between the parties.
The public does care that we are paying these lawmakers upwards of $100,000 (and more) a year to sit on their overpaid rear ends to do nothing.
Gov. Wolf this year has the advantage by one simple metric: most of the Republicans in the legislature must stand for reelection this November — but not Wolf.
This is the only fact that much matters as we go into this budget season: all 203 state representative seats are up for election, as are 25 of our 50 state Senate seats.
So Gov. Wolf’s smart political play is to let the budget fight drag on so that an angered public votes out as many GOP incumbents as possible.
A report issued this week titled “Continued Cuts: Losing Confidence, Losing Learning,” by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA) and the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO), underscores the deep problems we now face in Pennsylvania.
And the report explains that Republican inaction is making our problems worse.
Gov. Wolf has this year again asked the legislature to return some $250 million in appropriations to our public schools that were removed by Republicans since 2011.
But that number is not enough.
Beginning in 2011, the Republicans under Governor Tom Corbett gutted the state education budget so thoroughly, and our public schools were thrown into such a deep hole, that they’re having a hard time climbing out of it.
“Based on our survey, we estimate that in 2016-2017 the increased cost of mandated expenses will exceed $600 million, not including any cost of living salary adjustments. Thus, even under Governor Wolf’s proposal to add $250 million in basic and special education revenues to next year’s state budget, the vast majority of districts report they could not restore the cuts they have been forced to make since 2010. It’s basic math.”
What’s the upshot?
“More districts are planning local tax hikes, borrowing funds, dipping into fund balances, and delaying payments to vendors. Most importantly, the number of districts projecting cuts to staff (46 percent), increases in class size (34 percent) and cuts to educational programs (50 percent) continue to rise,” the report relates
And that’s not even mentioning the growing unfunded pension liabilities, which Republicans also don’t want to deal with in a realistic fashion.
“The huge jump in PSERS (Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System) is driving us over the edge,” the PASA report quotes Coudersport Area Schools Superintendent Alanna Huck as saying. “We’re just not able to raise revenue to cover that kind of cost increase.” In Coudersport, teachers now fill in as cafeteria aides and coordinate to staff the otherwise shuttered library, the report relates.
That’s right: not surprisingly, our schools are falling apart, and our are students left holding the empty bag.
But that’s not the worst of it.
Because of inaction in Harrisburg, local school districts are being forced to raise local property taxes.
“In response to increased mandated expenses and uncertainty about future state revenue, more districts are planning to raise property taxes this year (85 percent) than last year (71 percent). If enacted, this will be the seventh consecutive year in which over 60 percent of school districts have raised property taxes to meet educational needs.”
In other words, the dithering Republicans not only are destroying our schools, they’re driving up property taxes.
How did the Republicans attempt to handle that problem last year?
In November 2015, the GOP-controlled state Senate pushed a bill that would have replaced local property taxes with a mix of income and sales taxes.
Trouble was, no one believes that these revenue streams will adequately replace the $14 billion that property taxes provide our schools.
Then there’s the equity and fairness issue: should those owning real estate — arguably the most affluent in our society — not pay any taxes at all for schooling?
Doesn’t a democratic society have a broader interest in educating our children?
That November 2015 Senate bill to outlaw property taxes lost by a single vote. Lieutenant Governor Mike Stack cast the vote to break a 24-to-24 tie.
No doubt the Republicans will try a similar vote again.
But it won’t solve anything, if we want to educate out kids and get our schools on sound fiscal footing.
There have also been weak calls for superficial school district consolidation.
Pennsylvania school districts were last consolidated in a meaningful way in the 1950s and 60s, when some 2,500 districts were joined into the 500 we have today.
But that effort took the serious work and political capital of two successive governors, Democrat David Lawrence, and Republican Bill Scranton.
It took years of bi-partisan work by a blue-ribbon panel of prominent citizens and educators who gave a damn, and who actually cared about our students, and our property owners.
It took lots of work, planning, and care, which today’s Republicans seem incapable of.
As for planning, the PASA report quotes Elizabeth Forward School District Superintendent Bart Rocco: “We use five year projections in our cost analysis for building our budget. How do you gauge what five years is going to look like without a timely state budget? I don’t know about five minutes from now.”
So this isn’t only a fight to the death involving Gov. Wolf and others’ political careers.
It isn’t only about the fate of our public schools, or the rate or method of taxation.
The two political parties as they now stand aren’t going to solve our problems.
The two sides are too far apart. They are not only separated by money, but by ideologies.
As they’d say in the Wild West, Harrisburg isn’t big enough for both of these political ideologies.
One of them has to go.
Gov. Tom Wolf should insist on fixing these problems, even if that means scores of deadwood lawmakers get tossed from office this November.
Both sides are the problem. Republicans don’t seem to have any idea how to fix it other than to change pensions. Wolf’s only plan is to throw more money at it in the form of higher taxes that many people cannot afford. Neither will work by themselves in the long run. It’s going to take both measures, along with other things likely, to fix the mess.
I also have to wonder how much of it was caused by Rendell taking casino money that was supposed to go toward lowering property taxes and carving out money for public transportation, tourism promotion, and other pet projects of his.
A typical partisan screed that I have come to expect from this tabloid. You seem to have trouble comprehending that the Republicans are doing the will of their constituents. That’s right, there are people who don’t believe that you can just throw bushels of money at the schools and things will get better.
The problem is that Wolf and his liberal elitist allies like this e-rag don’t have the word compromise in their vocabulary. The Republicans will pass a budget on time but Wolf is going to veto it again because it won’t give him everything he wants. Then it will be the Democrats that look bad.
They had a school consolidation plan that would have saved a lot of money…. But didn’t use it
Or is it a do-nothing governor?????
The only real solution to this problem is to fire all the staff ,and teachers and to un-certify the teacher union re higher them with no benefits and 1/3 the pay. if not PA will go bankrupt and we all lose.
I am retired on a fixed income and pay $6000 a year in property taxes to the Pocono mountain school district,which btw has dolled out another $50,000 to the superintendent. She now make $250,000 a year, more than the chancellor of the New York school system and that is loaded with 1.9 million children.
Our school district has just over 9,000. This is GREED,CORRUPTION AND EVER INCREASING TAXES at work.This will never change as long as we the property owners are their piggy banks. Also the Pocono mountain school board has been ordered to re higher 82 teacher and staff with all back pay , benefits and pension which will add about $42 million to our tax bills and this is not counting the $198 million in pension shortfalls that we also are going to be required to pay.
The state pf PA has a pension shortfall of almost $80 billion for state workers and teachers and support staff. who do you think is getting stuck with this bill people.
I for one do not believe the current line of senators and representatives have our best interest at heart. They have been promising something we all know will never happen PROPERTY TAX REFORM. This has been promised for almost 38 years just like TRAIN. We cannot kick this can down the road anymore, something needs to get done,and SOON, or more people will walk away from their properties. We also need to stop these tax breaks given out to big business as we the home owners have to cover their perks. And we get nothing for this except higher taxes.
Pensions do need to be reformed, and they will be when there are enough taxpayers who have had enough of liberals feeding at the taxpayer trough.
Wolf smashed Corbett in an election year when Republicans were cleaning up virtually everywhere else. I’d say that means that he–and his voters–should get something more than outright submission to the legislature.
In response to the conservative, pro non-Union teachers and non-Union public employees comments above. It’s not the union teachers or union employees that are causing the problems. It’s people like yourselves who are the problem.
Like it or not these problems require additional revenues to fix. Raising the sales tax from 6% to 7.5% is an additional 30 cents on a $20 purchase. How the hell is that breaking anyone? It should also be expanded to cover everything but clothing, most food and prescription medication.
When I worked with sales tax in the Dept of Revenue, we had a handbook hundreds of pages long covering what’s taxable and what is tax exempt. Thousands of businesses are collecting sales on items that are exempt, and not charging tax on items that are taxable. There are probably 20+ lawyers on staff who do nothing but explain what’s taxable and what isn’t.
As long as you people continue to believe that a severance tax on natural gas drilling is going to drive drilling out of the state, our problems will continue. The fact that Shell Oil is definately building a massive plant in Beaver County to use gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale layers to produce products gurantees a market for natural gas decades into the future. Wake up.
In response to the conservative, pro non-Union teachers and non-Union public employees comments above. It’s not the union teachers or union employees that are causing the problems. It’s people like yourselves who are the problem.
Like it or not these problems require additional revenues to fix. Raising the sales tax from 6% to 7.5% is an additional 30 cents on a $20 purchase. How the hell is that breaking anyone? It should also be expanded to cover everything but clothing, most food and prescription medication. When I worked with sales tax in the Dept of Revenue, we had a handbook hundreds of pages long covering what’s taxable and what is tax exempt.
Thousands of businesses are collecting sales on items that are exempt, and not charging tax on items that are taxable. There are probably 20+ lawyers on staff who do nothing but explain what’s taxable and what isn’t.
As long as you people continue to believe that a severance tax on natural gas drilling is going to drive drilling out of the state, our problems will continue. The fact that Shell Oil is definately building a massive plant in Beaver County to use gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale layers to produce products guarantees a market for natural gas decades into the future. Wake up.
Wolfs budget calls for raising taxes. Remove the tax raises and his shoddy budget plan will be passed.
A good percent of Wolfs voters pay no taxes. They leach off the tax payer. STOP THE WELFARE VOTE. If you leach off the tax payers, you should NOT be allowed to vote. This Country survives only because of the hard working tax payers. Not because of the parasitic welfare leaches.
Our Government would be far better if only the tax paying working man had the vote.
NEWSLANC EDITOR: Department of Commerce: Welfare Statistics
Wolf will be another one-term Tommy. He won because he wasn’t Corbett.
Wolf stood before *all* the voters of Pennsylvania, not just a small cluster in some gerrymandered district. That should give him a lot of leverage. It’s a two-way street. The legislators must work with him too. For example, he ran (and won) promising a tax on the gas frackers. Many in the legislature oppose the idea. A genuine compromise might look like this: a tax of fracking, but at a lower percentage rate than Wolf originally wanted. Both sides move toward the middle.
Well, that’s the plan, isn’t it? An undereducated populace who buy into right wing bullshit? Keep ‘Em dumb and misinformed. You will see a massive brain drain to other states and the pond scum of people with teaching degrees educating our youth.
Why can’t we go with 7% tax.? Cut out school taxes and property taxes? The school board gets us on taxes everytime they need money. That way everybody pays.
The GOP legislators are doing exactly what they are supposed to do. Great job blocking Wolf’s tax hikes.
Wolf is going to be gone when his term is up as well. Leaving it drag on till a month before school lets out then caving anyway. Look, we don’t to give a crap that you politicians hate each other. We hate all of you. Come to a mutual agreement or look for another job. I hear McDonald’s is paying $8.50 an hour
I am a Democrat and I want HB 76, the bill that eliminates local school tax on property, passed. You are playing party politics if you think Democrats want to keep the unfair and punishing school tax levied by so many Pennsylvania local governments in place.
I will happily pay more state income tax rather than any school tax levied on my property.
Furthermore, your rant implies that only the affluent deserve to own property in PA. That implication is very disturbing.
Do-nothing GOP legislature??? It’s do-nothing Wolf. The legislature passes valid budgets and he vetoes them. Also, the GOP legislature just passed the education funding formula bill that Wolf took forever to sign and then takes credit for it. What a loser!
The reality is that both sides don’t give a damn about the taxpayer. HB 76 is a good bill, but god fordid if we change these wonderful taxing plans in PA. They are working so well for the elderly and the young. The elderly are so cash strapped by these property taxes that they are losing there homes and the young people are forced to move out of state to make a start. KEEP IT GOING. GREAT JOB!!!!
A high school diploma from a PA public school is a JOKE! My 8th grade classes were more challenging in the late 70’s in Ca. The bar is so low here, it’s RIDICULOUS!
Good analysis. The legislature’s vandalism of our public schools makes me ill.
The liberal Left, with Wolf (aptly named) at the helm, wants to continue to raid taxpayers pockets so their agenda can be funded. We’ve had enough. Unfortunately, Democrats from welfare-dominated districts, keep getting themselves re-elected, based on promises of the continued flow of free stuff to deadbeats. If you are a chronic freeloader, then you should have to relinquish your voting rights, since you contribute nothing to society. Then, perhaps the legislature will be cleansed of these tax-and-spend ghouls, who prey upon people who still have enough pride to work for a living.
You people who are talking about the Democrats and not the repugs who refuse to make big corporations pay their fair share of taxes are delusional. Hey everybody is allowed their own opinion.
The gop is holding this state hostage just like their counterparts in D.C. and how’s that working for the country?
The rest of the world is laughing at us. But I guess that’s fine with you.