By Dick Miller
WE CONNECT DOTS: As citizens of both this country and this state, we would get a double benefit if Gov. Tom Wolf and Presidential hopeful Donald Trump talked to each other.
One campaigned successfully and the other is on a similar course for a much larger prize. Common themes like self-made-man, using-my-own-money, don’t owe anybody currently appeals to disenchanted voters.
Established remnants of both political parties learned too late that voters would not swallow false and hollow promises one more election.
Wolf and Trump are both leaders of our times even though neither has a clue.
Wolf did not seek, but did accept large contributions for his campaign. He dumped $10 million into his election effort in 2014, literally buying a primary victory over three better-known and adequately financed candidates.
Wolf demonstrates that winning in that manner is no guarantee to successful governance. Trump needs to find ways to prevent painting himself in the same corner and yet still win.
If he continues to make the same mistakes that Wolf has, Trump’s accomplishments will be as paltry.
Gov. Wolf claims his election was a mandate to raise taxes to properly finance public education. If so, voters forgot to read in legislators, some who are members of his own party. Because of a heavily gerrymandered re-districting of legislative seats, lawmakers also won by lopsided margins.
More likely, Wolf won governorship, defeating incumbent Tom Corbett because Corbett was considered incompetent. Legislators, mostly Republican, won because of favorable voter registration numbers.
Gov. Wolf claimed he had a mandate for higher taxes to pay for better public education. Lawmakers believed they were being sent to Harrisburg to hold the line on taxes. Both claimed mandates from the voters when highest purpose was they cancelled each other.
That silliness has not passed even though Gov. Wolf is now in his second full year of his term. For a record-setting time the state officially functioned without a budget. In mid-March, Wolf permitted a butchered version of a financial plan to become law without his signature.
Wolf has now introduced his next proposed budget to take effect July 1. He calls again for tax hikes he did not get last year. Presently he is traveling about the state, hoping to sell his budget through the people.
Wolf refuses to challenge lawmakers on their home turf. While he is getting local press, Wolf’s comments do not draw a response from the legislator.
Best of all, Wolf does not get his tax increase and local school boards are forced to raise property taxes. Local legislators get no blame and continue to get re-elected.
This is an election year for all 203 House members and 25 of the 50 state senators. If they think they were elected in 2014 on a “no tax” platform, why would they change now? There is no evidence that Gov. Wolf attempted to get any new legislative candidates who share his values.
Momentum remains with Wolf. A recent college poll, taken before the Governor caved on the latest budget version, showed at least half of the voters continue to hold the legislature responsible for the state’s late budget. The Governor gets about a third of the blame.
According to Chambersburg Public Opinion, “More voters believe that elected leaders should compromise than believe they should stand firm on principles even if a budget does not get passed.” That margin was 79 to 17 percent.
Meanwhile, credit-rating agencies downgrade Pennsylvania’s financial status almost weekly. State pension funds are underfunded between $60 and $110 billion, depending on who did the analysis. The 2016-17 budget deficit is estimated to be $2 billion.
Our state has no reserve. We are one of five states with no rainy day fund.
Harrisburg needs adult supervision.
Some 13 Democrat House members who broke from their caucus to support the last Republican-crafted budget claim the Wolf administration was less responsive to their constituent problems. Naturally, Wolf denied these charges.
Voters want compromise?
A handful of conservative Republican legislators want to pre-empt Gov. Wolf by introducing bills that would reduce tax rates. This changes the dynamics from a no- tax-spread-to-a-tax-increase to a wider concern “we want a tax cut, they want a tax increase.”
Bottom Line: In short, state Republican leaders have not softened their position and Gov. Wolf learned little his first year. Trump is heading in the same direction only his thorns will come from members on both sides of the aisle.
