Stopped by Cross Keys in downtown Lancaster to say hello to the proprietor, Jerry. And let me alert you caffeine-heads to something here I like to call a little slice of heaven. A 16 oz. medium roast coffee made from Indonesian beans and a succulent cinnamon-apple muffin cost less than $3, and you’ll be hard pressed to find a better snack. Flippin’ awesome.
I’m gonna WAM you all with this one …
Something that went mostly unnoticed last month when Gov. Ed Rendell unveiled his $29 billion budget proposal was his idea to eliminate something called the Community Revitalization Program, worth about $36.5 million. You may know the program by its nicknames - WAMs (Walk Around Money) or pork barrel legislation.
The Nest is talking to legislators tonight about the idea to throw WAMs into some trash cans (ironic imagery since WAMs once paid for trash cans in Lancaster city). To be fair, WAMs have funded what some would call worthwhile causes like fire engines or libraries. For every worthwhile cause, though, you can probably find something such as exhibits for the Lancaster Science Factory or a soccer field for the Donegal Girls Soccer Booster Club that might raise an eyebrow or two. After all, those are state tax dollars going to pay for such things.
Want more? How about $5,000 for Fourth of July fireworks in Marietta. Or $50,000 for architectural designs of the Lancaster Art Museum under construction on North Queen Street? How ’bout $100,000 to Lancaster city for Celebrate Lancaster and a film festival?
Should tax dollars go to pay for such projects?
WAMs have become political footballs during closed-door negotiations in years past; sometimes used as carrots to motivate negotiations among the governor’s office, legislative budget negotiators and so on. WAMs are probably responsible for more vanity check presentations with smiling lawmakers draping their arms around community leaders than any other program.
More in tomorrow’s Intell.
Let’s take our daily tour of the political continent. Souvenir “Where’s My Stimulus Money” bumer stickers sold at the giftshop:
*State Sen. Lloyd Smucker says he wants to cut state spending … unless of course cuts mean sacrifices in his home district. Smucker lashed out at the Rendell administration and Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak for proposing to cut $2.2 million in state subsidies to Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology.
From Smucker’s news release:
“When I challenged the state Education Secretary to justify the cut, all he could say was that was the way it has traditionally been done. No policy reason. No financial or program analysis. No finding of any deficiency. No apparent concern over the consequences that a more than 20% reduction in funding might have. Just a mindless budget game,” Smucker pointed out.
“In prior years, the legislature would put this money back in. This year, no one knows where money will come from for program restorations. Even though federal stimulus dollars are now being targeted to other higher education institutions, Thaddeus Stevens is just not on the Administration’s priority list,” he stated.
Smucker notes that while everyone would love to have the money back in Stevens’ hands, he says “no knows where the money will come from.”
Well, yeah. State revenue is $2.3 billion short compared to costs. Rendell and many Republicans in Harrisburg have talked about shared sacrifice. And I’ve heard from more than one Republican talk about the need to cut state spending, but whenever there’s a proposal to cut something in a lawmaker’s special area, in this case a prominent educational institution in Smucker’s district, the lawmaker often fights to restore the cut.
So which is it? If you’re not willing to sacrifice, how can a lawmaker tell another to accept budget cuts in an area that might have serious consequences in their home district?
*Venerable columnist John Baer of the Philadelphia Daily News says U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter may have another path to re-election in 2010 rather than duke it out in the GOP primary.
*There’s a compromise in school graduation requirements, the Associated Press is reporting.
*Finally, U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts cites a letter he received that said wealthy people won’t be able to give to charitable causes if President Barack Obama has his way. Actually, you still could give to charitable causes if you were willing to sacrifice, but I digress.
Here’s what Pitts said on the House floor today:
Gail, from Lititz, Pennsylvania wrote to me about a provision in the President’s recently released budget. She said ‘God has blessed us abundantly in many ways. In turn, we have been able to bless others…We donate a very large percentage of our income to the hungry, homeless, orphaned, and widowed.
We are in the top tax bracket. Any increase in our taxes or decrease in our deduction – will not hurt our standard of living – it will indeed hurt the very people that the government is trying to help.’
When Alexis de Tocqueville wrote with great praise for America, he cited our civic institutions, like churches and other non-profit organizations as the basis for our strength as a nation.
President Obama is woefully misguided if he thinks reducing the tax credit for charitable donations will help America. During an economic recession, our churches and other community organizations assist many individuals quicker, and more effectively than government programs. Like Gail has pointed out, it is a mistake to change our tax policy to reduce funding for these organizations when their help is needed most in communities across America.”
