Mike Sturla was in town yesterday.
He wants you to do him a favor. He wants you to go to the window, open it up and start yelling, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
Sturla, a state rep from Lancaster County, is the chairman of the state Democratic Policy Committee. He was in town for a public hearing on Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget he hosted along with state Rep. Margo Davidson, D-164, of Upper Darby. You can read about that here.
After the hearing, he stopped by for a visit with our editorial board.
Sturla is in a tough spot. He doesn’t like Corbett’s budget even a little bit. He believes it is going to have disastrous effects across the state in terms of education, child care and public welfare.
And he knows there’s not a lot he can do about it. Republicans control both the state House and Senate. And Sturla believes the bare-bones spending plan is going to sail through the Legislature after some minor adjustments.
That’s why he’s depending on the public to raise their voices in protest.
He has an interesting take on Corbett’s no-tax mantra and recurring theme that “the money just isn’t there.”
Sturla believes this is largely because of Corbett’s own actions and the way the budget has been crafted, condensing several items into a single line-item in the fiscal plan.
He claims Corbett simply refuses to take advantage of opportunities to bring in new revenue. Of course Exhibit A in this case would be the new “fee” the governor recently signed on the extraction of natural gas in the state’s Marcellus shale regions.
Simply put, Sturla believes it was a giveaway. He points out even Grover Norquist, the guy who crafted the no-tax promise, has labeled Corbett’s “fee” a tax.
More importantly, Sturla points out what the state lost under the Corbett-endorsed plan. He expects the fee to raise about $180 million, while a tax, similar to one used in every other state that deals with natural gas extraction, could produce a multi-billion dollar gusher of new revenue in the state.
Corbett has put out his austere spending plan and touted it as a “no-gimmicks” plan. He’ll have a hard time convincing Sturla of that.
“This budget had more gimmicks than any budget I’ve seen in 22 years,” Sturla pointed out.
He laments that Corbett is viewing his role as governor as an administrator, and not a leader.
He’s warning of the bloodlettting to come – education, public welfare, social progrmas.
Sturla warns that people should not believe it’s only troubled districts such as Chester Upland here in Delaware County that are in danger. He believes as many as 50 districts are lined up behind Chester Upland on the critical list.
And Sturla knows there’s not a thing he can do about it. That’s why he wants the public to raise their voices.
Or live with the consequences.
Comments