Two Years of Reform and Restoration of Fiscal Responsibility for Pennsylvania under Corbett

             When Tom Corbett, a Republican, took office as Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania two years ago, the state faced a budget deficit of over $4 billion in the midst of a severe recession.  He promised to eliminate the deficit without raising taxes.  Corbett kept his promise.

            Working with the Republican legislature, Governor Corbett balanced Pennsylvania’s budget – without raising taxes.  They even managed something rare in recent state history: they approved these budgets on time.  In fact, the Governor and General Assembly have approved on-time balanced budgets, while cutting taxes, two years in a row.  Although the state is still suffering through the recession, along with nearly all of the other 49 States in the Union, and unemployment remains high, Pennsylvania has enjoyed the fastest job creation of any state.

The so-called education spending cuts for which Corbett is criticized were not significant cuts, but the expiration of the Obama stimulus that Governor Rendell had put on education to free up the rest of the general fund money to spend; I know from serving as an elected school director at the time that school districts were warned in advance of the temporary nature of the stimulus money, but most incorrectly expected the restoration of the money anyway and spent accordingly.  I also know that school districts could afford to cut waste, fraud and abuse and prioritize their spending.

Corbett has compiled an impressive litany of significant accomplishments in his first two years as Governor: Reforming welfare reform by cracking down on fraud and by counting assets in determining eligibility, reducing business taxes, including the elimination of Pennsylvania’s onerous estate tax on family farms, reforming unemployment compensation, enacting small business regulatory reform, approving environmentally-responsible natural gas extraction regulation and assessing a principled impact fee without imposing a gas-extraction tax on top of the high taxes Pennsylvania businesses already pay, increasing significantly the number of state troopers, implementing major prison reform, banning bath salts and texting while driving, expanding the Castle Doctrine, enacting a voter identification requirement and approving tort reform.  He has opted out of the state health insurance exchanges that are part of President Barack Obama’s federalization of health insurance, thereby sparing businesses from the employer mandate to purchase health insurance, as well as the expensive Medicaid expansion under that plan.  In addition, Corbett exhibited strong leadership during the floods from Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy.

            Much work remains to be completed over the next two years, however.  Corbett has sued the NCAA to keep the fines it imposed on Pennsylvania State University in the Commonwealth.  He has proposed the privatization of both the state lottery to ensure the dwindling program provides a sufficient amount of the funds promised for senior citizen programs, and the state-owned wine and spirit stores, which the Governor regards as a conflict of interest because the same state agency that owns the shops also is responsible for the regulation of alcohol – an arcane regulation regime that deprives Pennsylvanians of as much selection as citizens in neighboring states, at that.  Corbett has also proposed pension reform for state employees, such as replacing the Commonwealth’s defined benefit program with a defined contribution program, in order to close a funding gap of tens of billions of dollars, as well as a major improvement in the Keystone State’s infamously-poor roads and bridges.  

            Governor Tom Corbett has repaired the foundation for Pennsylvania’s fiscal and economic health.  Together with the General Assembly, this reform Governor will continue to restore Pennsylvania to its leadership position in the Union.