Solobay: Budget Leaves Too Much Left Undone

Editor's Note: State Sen. Tim Solobay released the following statement about the budget unveiled Monday:

Today’s vote might help get this budget passed on time, but it’s nothing to be proud of.

It takes a shortcut to the deadline and leaves too much left undone. Passing this budget on time is like showing up for work in your pajamas. Yeah, you're on time, but maybe you shouldn't be using the snooze button so much.

This budget shifts the real work to schools, hospitals, social service groups and thousands of working families, who will now have to struggle with crowded classrooms, higher taxes and the consequences of thousands of people falling from social safety nets onto the streets.

The Senate should have gotten to work on this much earlier and taken a view of the big picture. The administration spent too much time playing word games with taxes and fees and assessment and such.

With the natural gas industry paying new workers $70,000 per year, it’s no time to shortchange education and job training unless you own a local motel doing big business with out-of-state workers.

Everyone involved in the Marcellus Shale exploration and nearly every Pennsylvanian understands that a fair fee on extraction is the best way for the state economy and the industry to grow together in a safe and prosperous Pennsylvania.

Given the choice between laying off teachers or closing a notorious corporate tax loophole, this budget comes down on the side of big corporations. 

When everyone’s school taxes shoot up, and the newly homeless show up in crowded emergency rooms and our counties face service shutdowns this year, I don’t want to be the one standing there saying…’hey, we got it done on time.’

We should get it right. 

There are better choices for Pennsylvania.