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The Politics of Budgeting
Posted 12-11-2003
Isn't it interesting when the Democrats are in a majority at any level
of government that it is our fault when there are budget challenges. Yet, in
Washington and Harrisburg where things are screwed up royally, the
Republicans act as if it isn't their responsibility.
Let's look at Harrisburg
first. Since 1996, Republicans have controlled both houses of the
legislature ,and until Ed Rendell took office this year, the Governor's
office was under Republican control. Rendell was handed a $2 BILLION deficit
upon taking office. Now, the uninformed and the right-wingers in the media
are trying to lay it on Ed Rendell's lap. C'mon, is there anyone with a
shred of integrity out there that believes that? If you do, wake up from the
slumber you must have been taking for years. They haven't needed a single
Democratic vote for eight years to get the budget in order, and, if it is
not, it is the responsibility of the party that talks the talk but doesn't
walk the walk.
In Washington, it is more of
the same. The Republicans have controlled the House since 1994, and, except
for a brief interlude of Democratic control in the Senate, they've
controlled it too. Rather than tackling the critical issues like health
care, Medicare, and Social Security during the 1990's when we enjoyed
unprecedented prosperity, Republicans wasted the opportunity with their
obsession about Bill Clinton's sex life. No bigger travesty was perpetrated
than those officials blowing the chance to tackle the important public
policy issues of our time. The reason they didn't, of course, is that they
have no solutions. Their solutions are to hand more goodies to their
corporate sponsors, like they are going to do with the prescription drug
program. With a Republican stealing the Presidency and their party
controlling both houses of Congress, just what have they done? They've run
up the largest deficits in history, increasing discretionary spending by
12%, while cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans.
That brings us to
Westmoreland County. If you read the Tribune Review, you'd think Tom Ceraso
and I were spending money like never before. However, if you look closely at
the county's situation, we have less people working here than four years
ago, and we've equipped facilities with energy efficient lighting, HVAC
equipment, and water fixtures. I've heard continued misstatements about the
county's debt service payments, even though a close look at our annual gross
debt payments of $10.545 million reveals the only debt Tom Ceraso and I have
incurred is the annual payment of $1.676 million from the bond issue earlier
this year. The Vidmer-Marolt team approved every other amount of debt. The
refinancings on the books for 2000 and 2001 were forward refinancings they
initiated against my vote.
Our hands are tied in most
negotiations with bargaining units because out of nine bargaining units,
seven can go to arbitration. So, we have a third-party giving out wage
increases and benefits. Out of the two that can strike, the largest is SEIU
(non court-related). Thanks to outgoing Commissioner Scott Conner those
negotiations got messed up like never before. First, he created an
expectation with the court employees that we would extend the workday. That
caused the union to hold separate votes for the first time in the thirty
years they've been organized. Then, he came up with the brilliant idea to
skip the posturing that goes into negotiations and just put our best offer
forward. Guess what? They always figure there is more money available, and
it did take more money to settle the contract. Of course, Conner took a walk
when things got tough, and he pretended he had nothing to do with the
predicament.
Even the issue of General
Fund expenses has been distorted to make it appear we are big spenders.
Considering tax revenue has stayed essentially flat except the one time ALL
THREE commissioners voted to raise property taxes two mills, we have done a
good job of juggling the complexities of the county budget. Under Marolt,
General Fund expenses went up a whopping 142% from 1986 to 1996. Since 1999,
they've gone up about 11%. Our General Fund expenses in 1999 were $90.8
million. For 2004, they'll be about $101 million.
Anyone see a disinformation
campaign from Republicans and their mouthpieces in the media? Or perhaps, it
is a case of selective memory; they only remember what they want and ignore
the unpleasant details of their own actions. I'm not asking for sympathy,
and I know politics is like smash mouth football. But, the mouth smashing
can go both ways, and the Democrats, myself included, have been too nice.
There is no kinder, gentler America because the Republican Party doesn't
operate that way. Our job, from Washington to Greensburg is to make sure the
public starts paying closer attention to what Republicans do, not what they
say. |
