State budget mess: Un-pass our legislators

AS I OPEN yet another e-mail with a plea for emergency financial help from a dependable and worthy organization that serves those in need, or a letter indicating that another community organization may close without immediate assistance, or answer a call from a friend trying to raise funds to keep a child-care center open, I'm appalled that,

as the weekend neared, state legislators still hadn't passed a budget.

Yes, they managed to pass a stop-gap budget ensuring that state workers, including themselves, would be paid for the duration of the delay, but somehow they skipped everyone else.

And the damage to everyone else will not be repaired when a budget is passed - for some, the failure of our elected officials to pass a budget by the legal June 30 deadline, the damage is irreparable. Others may recover - but not for years.

WHAT DAMAGES, you ask?

As organizations that serve those in need close or cut back due to nonpayment of state funds, it's not only those they serve who are put at risk - the staff providing the services are forced to join the ranks of the unemployed. An interesting irony, since the federal stimulus funds the state has acquired are supposed to be used to create jobs and reduce unemployment. Yet the irresponsible behavior of our legislators have cost jobs and increased unemployment.

And who do they blame for all of this? The Department of Public Welfare - claiming that the fraud of a few is the reason the commonwealth is in trouble.

Please! The meager support we provide those in need cannot compete with the support we provide to the state's corporate sector. For example, not too many years ago, the state gave Comcast $30 million to build the biggest high-rise in Philadelphia as their corporate home. And the city, now struggling to keep public services functioning, provided Comcast with a 10-year tax incentive. The actions were taken to maintain jobs, according to those supporting these actions.

You can criticize these actions, but is does no more good at this point to condemn the Comcast abatements than it does for legislators to cast aspersions on earnest measures employed by DPW. While polarizing one another, we're missing the fact that our biggest problem is that there isn't the necessary political support for a coherent vision and theory of action for increasing stability and sustaining growth in the state.

Ironically, corporations, even little non-profits these days, are evaluated on the basis of their ability to plan across a span of at least three to five years, and their ability to demonstrate capacity for follow-through and midcourse corrections. Our legislature, however, is satisfied year after year after year to engage in short-term horse-trading and petty political brinkmanship under the guise of a budget process.

Rumor had it that the legislators really wanted to delay passing a budget until closer to the November elections - so that everyone could use the blame game to election advantage. Some claim the budget may be passed before the G-20 international economic meetings in Pittsburgh over the weekend to save political face. In either event, our state's most vulnerable citizens and many of those who care for them have been held as political hostages. This is unforgivable.

Perhaps we should use this election to make our own statement, and elect a new group of legislators who are capable of passing a budget efficiently and on time given the year they have to do it.

Yes, our legislators do have a full year, but gamesmanship and political maneuvering make it more advantageous to those seeking election to delay passage and ignore their responsibility.

Perhaps a new group of elected officials might realize that they work for the citizens of the state, and that the process of government isn't to be dedicated to political gain and personal re-election. Perhaps it is time we passed legislation that sets term limits for elected officials.

But the tragedy that has affected so many Pennsylvanians from every corner of the state should not be ignored.

We can no longer afford apathy - we must respond, demanding that our elected officials earn not only their salaries but also our respect.

They call for the accountability of others - but it's also time for us to hold them accountable.

Marjorie Dugan is a public-policy consultant in Philadelphia.