|
straight talk on
governor's new budget
Most middle-class,
working families in Pennsylvania
want the same basic things in their
lives. A place to call “home,”
a better life for their kids, and a
good job that lets them put some
money away for when they retire.
They don’t expect anyone to simply
hand it to them. They want to
earn it – and they are willing to
work very hard to own their piece of
the American Dream.
As your State
Senator, I believe that government
should help working families realize
their dreams, not make it any harder
than it already is. That’s how
I decide whether to vote for a bill
or against a bill that comes before
the Senate. Will it help
middle-class, working families or
will it hurt them?
In the weeks ahead,
that’s exactly how I will be looking
at the Governor’s new state budget.
I sit on the Senate Appropriations
Committee and will be questioning 21
of the Governor’s cabinet
secretaries about how they want to
spend 27 billion of your tax
dollars.
Pennsylvania working
families have to live within their
means. State government
should, too. That means the
new state budget must set our
priorities straight. We must
choose between what we need to do
and what we want to do. Just
like every family budget, there is
never enough money to do all the
things you want to do.
The state budget
should also reward middle-class
families that work hard but still
struggle to pay their bills.
Even credit cards have limits.
We expect the people of Pennsylvania
to pay their own way, so why
shouldn’t state government?
In his budget
address, the Governor warned
lawmakers that we will be looking at
a budget deficit of $2 billion when
we end this fiscal year in June.
Our 1st priority must be
to close that deficit! Before
we can even discuss new programs or
new spending, we must decide how to
balance the budget without adding to
the heavy tax burden that
middle-class families are already
struggling with.
Rising health care
costs are one of the biggest worries
facing families today. I
commend Governor Rendell for talking
about health care and offering a
solution. He’s not waiting for
someone else to start the dialogue.
My only concern is that the special
interests will soon start attacking
his plan, before it even gets a fair
hearing.
We should be fighting
for health care, not fighting over
health care. If the special
interests have a better plan to make
health care more affordable for
working families, they should put it
out there just like the Governor
did. Unless the special
interests want to be part of the
solution, they will continue to be
part of the problem.
### |
