Putting Pa. gov’t on a strict diet
Lancaster New Era
Editorial
June 12, 2007
State Sen. Mike Folmer, whose 48th District includes the Elizabethtown area, rode into office in 2006 on a wave of promised reform.
Folmer’s defeat of powerful Senate Majority Leader Chip Brightbill, along with the election of several new legislators, signaled a change in the go-along-to-get-along way of doing business in Harrisburg.
Now Folmer, a Republican from Lebanon County, seems to be growing comfortable with the label of reformer.
Folmer, along with Sen. Bob Regola (R-Westmoreland), are sponsors of the Taxpayer Protection Act and Amendment to tightly cap state government spending.
The legislation would limit increases in General Fund spending by the lesser of 1.) the average change in personal income, or 2.) the inflation rate plus population growth for the three preceding years.
If this formula were applied to the 2007-08 budget, the spending increase would be held to 3.2 percent — far less than the average increase of 7 percent over the past four years. Still, spending would go up by $823 million.
The measure also would provide that, whenever tax revenue is greater than expected, 75 percent of the surplus will be returned to taxpayers through a reduction in the Personal Income Tax. The other 25 percent would be placed in the state’s Rainy Day Fund for future economic downturns.
A related amendment offered by Sen. John Eichelberger (R-Blair) would prevent state government from reducing funds to local governments — school districts, counties and other municipalities — for services mandated by the state.
As the bills were written, there was a loophole that would allow the state to push our spending down to the local level and result in higher local taxes,” Eichelberger explains. “My amendment should take away the incentive for the General Assembly to do that.”
The conservative Commonwealth Foundation praises the Folmer/Regola bills as moving Pennsylvania one step closer “toward getting on the road to fiscal and economic health by placing reasonable limits on the annual growth in spending.”
In other words, a spending diet.
The two bills were reported out of the state Senate Finance Committee last week. “The Taxpayer Protection Act and Amendment will finally force policy-makers in Harrisburg to begin to prioritize their spending choices and start eliminating wasteful and harmful government programs,” said Matthew J. Brouillette, president and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation.
Brouillette is correct, but there is still much to do in Harrisburg — property-tax reform, open-records reform, doing away with unfunded mandates, reducing the size of the Legislature.
These two bills will help get us there, and they deserve serious consideration by the entire Legislature and the governor.
We’re not quite ready to say Pennsylvania is on the road to reform, but it’s pointed in the right direction.
