A+land+of+magical+thinking+on+budget+cuts

Gov. Corbett is still pushing to amputate $1 billion from schools so gas goes untaxed.
=By Karen Heller= =//Published in the Philadelphia Inquirer//= =//6/22/11//= = =

=Harrisburg is magic. It's Neverland. //I know a place where dreams are born, and time is never planned//.= =The legislature is creating a Pennsylvania where, as one capital wag says, it will be harder to vote, harder to get an abortion, yet so much easier to shoot someone.= =We may have a "castle doctrine," but the pending commonwealth budget promises less wealth to the common man through severe cuts to education and social services.= =Our governor, a man of few words yet major cuts, engages in magical thinking.= ="I believe in Pennsylvania and I believe in Pennsylvanians. And in those beliefs is a certainty that the best way to embrace innovation - the best way to make us competitive - is to make us competitive in education," Corbett said six months ago.= =But that, fellow Pennsylvanians, was long ago in a kingdom built on wishes, hollow platitudes, and special interests' fairy dust.= =Now, Corbett has ordered more than $1 billion in cuts from basic education, though the state has a $540 million surplus and bursts with natural gas he will not tax.= =Gov. Frackenstein believes you can cut education funding - actually, //cut// isn't accurate; these are amputations - and still have a bright future.= =Remember back when he ran on this platform: "Tom Corbett believes in Pennsylvania's education system and will make funding our schools a top priority."= =On Monday, Silent Tom - you might want to sit down for this - spoke to reporters, announcing that he would veto any budget a cent over his proposal. "I can stay here as long it takes to pass a budget at $27.3 billion," he promised, though by //long//, he meant until "July 1, or 2, or 3," ignoring the multi-month fights in the Edwardian age preceding him.= =Corbett pooh-poohed the notion of taxing or imposing an impact fee on his friends in the natural gas industry. "I think it's more important to come up with a good policy rather than jamming one through under budget-deadline pressures," he said, though the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission report is due precisely one day after the budget deadline. During the battle of 2003, babies were conceived and born before the budget passed. Yet funds were secured for education, and the Earth did not collapse to its molten core.= =In the Kingdom of Shortsightedness, it's far better to be prompt than to derive a steady revenue stream from itty-bitty companies like Exxon, Chevron, and Shell.= ="The data show that nothing will be gained by undoing the reforms of the past eight years," wrote Donna Cooper, former state secretary of policy and planning under Gov. Ed Rendell, in Monday's Inquirer. "Corbett and others are using revisionist history to try to rationalize radical cuts to public education, sending districts in Philadelphia and elsewhere scrambling. But he and his fellow revisionists are dead wrong."= =In Philadelphia, we scramble and tax to provide education funding when Mayor Nutter and Council should have done more to cut the city's operating budget and end the odious DROP program - so emblematic of everything that isn't working and the way entitlements of city workers trump the needs of 1.5 million citizens. The result has been a Festival of Dissent with daily protests against the taxes and for the schools.= =I was for the soda tax. People who use public schools should contribute, drinking soda is voluntary, and taxing bad-health products makes sense. The beverage industry's $10 million gift to Children's Hospital to prevent obesity was an admission of not only the drinks' health consequences but also pure politics at play. It's pay to make a tax go away.= =Then, again, I don't drink soda. Which is basically the who-cares attitude many Harrisburg legislators have about urban public schools.= =I'm against the property tax because those of us who chose to remain and invest in Philadelphia recently received a whopping 10 percent "temporary" increase. Now, we're getting a 4 percent increase on top of that in a city that doesn't assess homes accurately and fails to collect almost $500 million in unpaid property taxes. The plan seems to be one punitive measure on top of another punitive measure on top of a mess of stupid and incompetence.= ="We will lead with clear minds, full hearts, and eyes set toward new generations of Pennsylvania's true and sustaining greatness," our governor once said.= =//Just think of lovely things, and your heart will fly on wings. Forever in Never Never Land.//= =It's enough to make you move to a state rich in natural resources that can fund new generations of greatness.= =But, then, gee, we already live in one.= = = = = =News= =home=