Our Broken State Government, and How to Fix It

I don't always watch WFMZ news, but I try to. Local news has a way of keeping political views grounded in reality (it's why I try to read the local paper, too). Tonight was one of those stories though that reminded me of how bad Harrisburg is right now, and how bad we need reform out of there.

East Stroudsburg University, a state higher-ed system school, is something around $5 million in the red for the next year (I didn't write down the exact number). That's terrible, but it's something you trust administrators to fix. What's beyond their control is the part they gave very little screen time to- the drop in state-share funding. At it's height, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania funded ESU at 75%. Today they fund ESU at 20%. This is a trend out of Harrisburg. Whether it's public education, infrastructure spending, the pension system, or anything else, the trend has been to drop the state's share of the funding over the years, because our tax system is too much of a mess to fix. We're failing to fund core government functions that they are supposed to be doing out there- and the legislature has coincidentally been largely Republican from 1994 through today.

What should they do? Constitutional reform to allow a progressive income tax, and therefore giving them a chance to create a system that does away with property taxes, but still funds our schools. In the meantime, they have lots of things they can do. End the Delaware Loophole. Create an extraction tax on natural gas that puts Pennsylvania on equal taxation footing with liberal hotbeds like Texas and Alaska. Legalize Marijuana and tax it. Consolidate the state and local governments and create savings through the a more efficient system. All of these are possible, but don't happen because of a lack of political will.

Harrisburg, do your job. We're watching.