{"id":1659,"date":"2014-05-03T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-05-03T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=1659"},"modified":"2014-05-03T15:17:51","modified_gmt":"2014-05-03T19:17:51","slug":"spring-brings-out-the-senseless-in-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=1659","title":{"rendered":"Spring brings out the senseless in politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

May brings flowers and Silly Season, Part I<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"TimesPoliticsUnusual\"<\/a>Ah yes, it\u2019s May. The blooms are on the trees, warm sunshine is here (that is when we don\u2019t get washed away by five inches of rain), the birds are singing and Spring is in the air.<\/p>\n

Oh, and the crazy is really ramped up in the political world. From the 158th state house district to Gov. Tom Corbett, the red mist has fully descended on political operatives, candidates and supporters, prompting them to rush right through the silly to the bizarre and, at times, incomprehensible.<\/p>\n

Lets start with the big guy, Gov. Tom \u2014 who was in the area Wednesday for an alleged question and answer session with the Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce, more on that down the page.<\/p>\n

Corbett\u2019s media minions were (possibly literally) frothing at the mouth with serious allegations of plagiarism by Democrat Tom Wolf for allegedly plagiarizing \u201cA fresh start\u201d from a fictional campaign on the TV show, House of Cards. No, seriously, this is actually what had many Corbett operatives\u2019 respective undergarments in a tightly wadded bunch this week.<\/p>\n

Let us, for the moment, forget how deeply and profoundly silly this is (or for that matter how deeply lame Wolf\u2019s motto is \u2014 is Pennsylvania running out of political consultants with an IQ above 100?), this is not the smartest thing for Team Corbett to get all hot and bothered by.<\/p>\n

Why? Because some obnoxious columnist might point out the governor and his pals in the legislature have a plagiarism problem of their own, and one that is arguably a bit more troubling. You may or may not have heard of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).<\/p>\n

ALEC, largely backed by conservatives and business interests, writes legislation and sends them off to legislators with the idea that they adopt them. That, in an of itself, is no big deal \u2014 a lot of organizations do this, it is a normal part of the legislative process, and one seen from small townships to every level of government \u2014 those \u201cmodel\u201d laws are usually just a starting point, they get reworked, tweaked, sometimes entirely rewritten and modified to match local needs.<\/p>\n

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‘I will be elected as Rose Queen of the Tournament of Roses Parade before the state legislature adopts a 10% extraction tax.’<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But here\u2019s the problem: the Pennsylvania state legislature has on more than one occasion passed ALEC-written legislation with virtually no changes. A prime example: the VoterID law, which ended up being shot down by the state Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Corbett signed that law \u2014 tacitly, or worse \u2014 endorsing a lazy approach from one of the highest-paid legislatures in the nation. Whether it was a good law or a bad one (I tend toward thinking the latter), the issue to me is that our highly compensated legislators didn\u2019t actually write it and the governor rubber-stamped that behavior.<\/p>\n

So, to then rip on Wolf for using a bland, hackneyed campaign slogan that happened to be used by a TV campaign (and dozens and maybe hundreds of others) is more than a little hypocritical.<\/p>\n

As for Corbett\u2019s performance Wednesday, meh.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t help that he was given softball question after softball question by Sue Schick, the CEO of United Healthcare. Instead of the unrehearsed give and take \u2014 and dare I say it, passion \u2014 we saw from the governor earlier in the year at an event in Caln, Corbett had little to say beyond his normal stump speech: which is boiled down to \u201cmore jobs, less taxes.\u201d Yawn.<\/p>\n

A lot of questions were left unasked \u2014 first and foremost: would the governor have any flexibility on an a natural gas extraction tax as many of his fellow Republicans in the legislature are now calling for?<\/p>\n

Although he alluded to the poor revenue numbers \u2014 likely meaning that the budget he presented in February would run a $1 billion deficit \u2014 he wasn\u2019t exactly forthcoming on what cuts he would make, assuming any tax increase is off the table, to close the gap. If expected mild funding increases for school funding are replaced by cuts, a number of local school districts could be feeling the pain, and potentially, since they are required by law to finish their budgets before the state, could see budget deficits for the 2014-15 school year.<\/p>\n

As the extraction tax continues to be an issue, and a clear differentiator in the fall election, it will be interesting to see how Corbett manages it.<\/p>\n

Along the same lines, I\u2019m not sure it is smart politics for Rob McCord to hammer his fellow Democrats for not supporting a 10% extraction tax. Even those with only a minimal memory of Pennsylvania politics know this: I will be elected as Rose Queen of the Tournament of Roses Parade before the state legislature adopts a 10% extraction tax. In other words, neither is ever going to happen. So, no, don\u2019t ask me when I plan to shave my legs.<\/p>\n

A bit of history: Gov. Ed Rendell and State Rep. Dwight Evans tried very, very hard to jam a 10% extraction tax through the legislature. As the kids say these days: \u201cEpic fail.\u201d While many GOP legislators would have gone for a tax in the 4 to 5% range, Evans and Rendell would not negotiate. At all. The result: no tax, just a variety of impact fees.<\/p>\n

So, in the greatest tradition of primary candidates trailing by double digits, McCord is embracing this utterly failed and doomed strategy that will only appeal to the extreme left of the Democratic Party. While there seems to be enough public consensus that some sort of tax should be levied \u2014 and it seems likely a Democratic governor would be able to cobble enough votes to get a 4% tax passed \u2014 10% makes it impossible for Republicans to support and tough for some Democrats in the legislature to back.<\/p>\n

Desperate move? Yeah, a little.<\/p>\n

Of course, this time of year doesn\u2019t just bring out the worst in statewide candidates, but also those running for the state legislature.<\/p>\n

Our local poster child are the comments of Republican Roger Howard \u2014 battling Cuyler Walker for the GOP nomination for the 158th District State House seat \u2014 on the Race Horse Development Fund.<\/p>\n

Howard, I think, misunderstands both how the fund works and public school funding program and how extra funds would be allocated.<\/p>\n

Again, a history lesson. Way back in 2004, when I was running for State Representative, I was one of the few Democrats not waving the pom-poms and cheering for the slot machine bill, as advocated by Gov. Rendell. Aside from the fact that I thought \u2014 and said so at the time \u2014 the revenue estimates were wildly optimistic (numbers beyond what Atlantic City was bringing in at the time), I thought that the potential long-term damage to the horse racing industry would be extensive, if not fatal. And as horse breeding and racing was and is kind of important to the state\u2019s economy and even more important to the local Chester County economy, I was worried about the long-term impact of the bill. I\u2019ll also note: without the RHDF, there wouldn\u2019t be a horse racing or breeding industry left in this state and thousands of jobs would have been lost \u2014 and a scary amount of revenue would be missing from an already broke treasury.<\/p>\n

Without that money, the entire industry is placed at peril \u2014 and a ripple effect, from feed stores, to carpenters would see financial hits. It\u2019s not hard to see that the impact on the state\u2019s economy would be large \u2014 it would hit local property values and school tax revenue, as well as state revenue from a $4 billion industry in the state, with a much larger price tag that the roughly $250 million expected to be paid out to horsemen.<\/p>\n

Second, slots revenue is declining, so this is, at best, a questionable revenue stream to begin with.<\/p>\n

Third, Howard\u2019s funding number for the individual districts is wildly optimistic, based on the total number of districts that would qualify under the plan he supports \u2014 211 school districts \u2014 and doesn\u2019t account for the basic education subsidies (not to mention the hit in local real estate tax revenue) that would likely have to be reduced, because of the drop in net tax income to the state. A minor side effect: more than 300 school districts that get more than 35% of funding from the state would likely see overall declines in funding \u2014 hitting the commonwealth\u2019s most struggling districts harder.<\/p>\n

Frankly, I don\u2019t understand why Howard picked this \u201chill to die on\u201d \u2014 with the strong influence of the horse community in the 158th, this is the political equivalent of dousing ones self with gasoline and standing at the intersection of Routes 926 and 82.<\/p>\n

Why not, instead, rail with some justification about how QVC got more than $8 million in \u201cfilm\u201d tax breaks? There\u2019s a government subsidy that clearly doesn\u2019t pass the smell test \u2014 and one where Howard might have gotten traction rather than derision.<\/p>\n

There probably a dozen state subsidy programs \u2014 totaling more than a billion dollars \u2014 that deserve scrutiny, so why Howard picked this one is beyond me.<\/p>\n

Whatever the reasons, like McCord\u2019s stance on gas extraction, this policy statement doesn’t appear to be moving the voters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May brings flowers and Silly Season, Part I By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times Ah yes, it\u2019s May. The blooms are on the trees, warm sunshine is here (that is when we don\u2019t get washed away by five inches of rain), the birds are singing and Spring is in the air. Oh, and the crazy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,8],"tags":[132,526,1203,41,1099,527,712,1100,45,340],"class_list":["post-1659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-featured","tag-158th-district","tag-2014-15-budget","tag-extraction-tax","tag-gov-tom-corbett","tag-race-horse-development-fund","tag-revenue","tag-rob-mccord","tag-roger-howard","tag-state-legislature","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}