For some reason, I don't think Gov. Tom Corbett will be on hand for Tom McGarrigle's press conference today.
McGarrigle is the Republican chairman of County Council who is running for the 26th District state Senate seat being vacated by Ted Erickson.
McGarrigle raised a few eyebrows when he kicked off his campaign by saying he was in favor of a tax on extraction of natural gas from the state's booming Marcellus Shale region. That is something that Gov. Corbett has opposed. In fact, the governor has gone out of his way to push the idea that the lack of that tax - the state instead instituted a fee - played a role in the state's economic turnaround.
McGarrigle is holding a press conference this afternoon to lay out his plan to use a severance tax on natural gas, with those funds earmarked entirely for education funding in the state.
McGarrigle will hold forth outside the Upper Darby School District Administration Building on Bond Avenue. Upper Darby, of course, is one of the districts that has been hardest hit by cuts in recent years, including a huge outpouring of public anger a few years back when education cuts forced layoffs and curriculum changes. Longtime Republican state Rep. Nick Micozzie, R-163, eventually teamed with Democrat Rep. Margo Davidson, D-164, to find the funding to plug the gap. Many residents still blame Corbett for some of the district's fiscal ills.
We'll be there for live coverage of the McGarrigle presser. Don't look for Corbett, even with his tanking poll numbers and the need for lots of face time in the crucial Philly suburbs, to join him.
Comments