No, Tom Wolf Can’t Govern Pennsylvania

[middlefinger]

.

“I can’t cave,” the governor says........ That’s the problem.

A year ago today, as Tom Wolf’s never-in-doubt campaign to unseat Gov. Tom Corbett wound down to its final weeks, I asked a simple question about what would happen after the election: Could Wolf actually govern the state of Pennsylvania?

It wasn’t a mean-spirited question, just a problem of math: Even with overwhelming support getting into office, Wolf — a Democrat, remember — was likely to face an overwhelmingly Republican legislature.

Governing is hard.

Governing when your rivals control one of the other branches of government? Not impossible, exactly, but excruciatingly difficult.

A year later, we seem to have an answer to the question: No, Tom Wolf is not a very good governor.

At least, not yet.

What he is is stubborn.

And that may score him points with his political base — nobody who is deeply invested in politics likes compromise — but it’s not serving the citizens of the commonwealth all that well.

Need an example? Just look at today’s news: Even though his tax hike proposals have been rejected by the legislature, and even though the state budget is more than 100 days late — even Ed Rendell was timelier — Wolf’s inclination is not to budge one inch.

"I think there's a dawning awareness that I'm not going to cave on this,” Wolf told a Pittsburgh radio station today. “I can't cave on this.”

Here’s the problem, though: Wolf hasn’t been asked to cave.

He campaigned on a promise to restore education funding and to pay for it using a new tax on the Marcellus Shale. In August, Republicans offered a deal where they’d approve $400 million in new education funding and the taxes to pay for it — as long as Wolf signed off on a pension reform package for state employees he’d previously vetoed.

It would’ve given Wolf a major victory on a signature issue, but it would’ve required compromising on one of two issues — pensions being one, liquor privatization being the other — that everybody knows he’ll have to compromise on to get any part of his agenda passed. Two months later there’s still no deal.

All of this led to Governing magazine choosing this month to give Wolf a mixed rating for his governorship: “Observers say he could secure new education money using proceeds from a natural gas severance tax and an increase in the personal income tax, in exchange for such Republican priorities as a state employee pension overhaul and a green light for grocery stores to sell beer and wine,” the magazine says.

“But agreeing to such a deal would draw fire from public employee and other labor unions, and so far Wolf hasn't pulled the trigger.”

Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/1...CwSDq1MQ3pc.99

[Pilot321]

He's doing his best Obama impersonation. NEVER negotiate, nor compromise, and then blame the Republicans for being obstructionist because they won't take your schlonging.

[free]

Seems to be a trend in modern politics. The executive, no matter who it is, views him/herself as King/queen, and the legislature needs to stop being a barrier to the agenda and get with the program.

[Pilot321]

Seems to be a trend in modern politics. The executive, no matter who it is, views him/herself as King/queen, and the legislature needs to stop being a barrier to the agenda and get with the program.

I think you are correct. These "executives" don't believe in separation of powers which is the basis for our Republic.

[ideaman]

I don't buy more money is needed for education when a typical education budget is 72 percent goes to teachers pay, benefits and pensions and around 14 percent for the curriculum. The private sector hasn't had a raise since 2009, the middle class is continually dropping. But the teachers continue getting raises and it's only for getting union votes.

[Pilot321]

I don't buy more money is needed for education when a typical education budget is 72 percent goes to teachers pay, benefits and pensions and around 14 percent for the curriculum. The private sector hasn't had a raise since 2009, the middle class is continually dropping. But the teachers continue getting raises and it's only fog
getting union votes.

Its just about all government employees. Regular raises, bonuses, and pension and benefits for life! Then go double dip somewhere else. It is so out of market compared to the private sector who actually pays for all this stuff.

[middlefinger]

I don't buy more money is needed for education when a typical education budget is 72 percent goes to teachers pay, benefits and pensions and around 14 percent for the curriculum. The private sector hasn't had a raise since 2009, the middle class is continually dropping. But the teachers continue getting raises and it's only fog
getting union votes.

last week the stroudsburg budget was in the pocono record $106 million total $40 million for salaries, $30 million for benefits $36 million for everything else

[john9001]

Philadelphia and Pittsburgh put Wolf in office, the rest of the state did not vote for him, he should be recalled.

Governors and Presidents are administrators of the laws that the Legislators have passed, Governors and Presidents do not make laws. (well they try to make de facto laws with royal decrees)

[Qtrborecrazy]

I hope our state Republicans don't sell us down the river like DC did. I plan on calling on monday and remind themof the 28 cent a gallon gas tax.

[free]

I just don't understand why, by law, a budget does not remain in effect until a new budget is passed. That just seems asinine to me.