March 27, 2014

The Intelligencer: Total Republican control produces Harrisburg scam

media mention

(Original Post)

Posted: Thursday, March 27, 2014 12:15 am

By Joe Frederick

The Republicans have been in complete control of Harrisburg since 2011. The governor is a Republican, and both the state House and the state Senate have Republican majorities (and there are no filibusters in the Pennsylvania Constitution). So what have they done with their complete monopoly of political power in our commonwealth over the past three-plus years?

Our legislators, along with Gov. Corbett, tried to strip local townships and municipalities of their zoning rights when they passed their fracking law, Act 13 — parts of which were found unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court.

State pension liabilities are an anchor around the neck of citizens and business alike, with those liabilities continuing to grow from $40 billion to $50 billion with no resolution in sight. There remains no long-term solution to funding our public schools or dealing with the formula for the distribution of taxpayer funds to charter schools, many of which are the target of federal corruption probes.

Infrastructure in Pennsylvania is deteriorating at an alarming rate, from our roads and bridges to our electrical grid and mass transportation. A transportation bill recently passed will make Pennsylvania among the highest fuel tax states in the country and the one with the highest motorist fees in the nation. The folks who drive to work every day will be hit the hardest with an increase of almost 29 cents per gallon over time. Food prices will rise because of increased transportation costs, thus affecting the average taxpayer along with some of the most vulnerable people in our state, including seniors, children and the low-income wage earner.

The sad reality is that Act 13 and the recently passed transportation bill, when viewed together, are the clearest evidence of the Republicans’ anti-family values. They tried to strip citizens of their local rights and give tax breaks to multibillion-dollar businesses, while sticking the regular folk with a tax bill for the infrastructure those businesses use to take our shale gas to market. Republicans in Harrisburg aren’t looking out for you and me or our beautiful commonwealth. They are looking out for the special interests that give them money to get re-elected.

A recent report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and Citizens for Tax Justice showed just how much our all-Republican state government is out of touch with its citizens. It pointed out that most of the highly profitable Fortune 500 companies — including Pennsylvania–based PPL, H.J. Heinz, Airgas, Hershey and Comcast — are paying little or nothing in state income taxes thanks to loopholes, tax breaks and accounting gimmicks. The 269 companies examined collectively avoided paying $73.1 billion in state corporate income taxes. Business tax cuts were supposed to stimulate job growth in Pennsylvania, but the commonwealth still ranked 48th out of 50 states in 2013.

This governor and the Legislature have not advanced a solution for the state liquor stores. A political charade was perpetrated on the people of Pennsylvania by state Sen. Chuck McIlhinney, whose Law and Justice Committee held hearings on privatization. But the senator received many thousands in campaign contributions from beer distributors and other privatization opponents. To be truthful, this was not illegal. Perhaps that’s part of the problem. The donations are a perfect example of business as usual with this crew of politicians. Always put the interests of business ahead of the interests of the people. And why not? That’s where the campaign money comes from. The hell with the little guy.

As far as I’m concerned, the real crime will occur if we, the people, don’t fix things in November.





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