State workers are pawns in Rendell power grab

I received a letter today from a state worker who is not amused by the bickering going on between Gov. Rendell and the Legislature over the 2007-08 state budget.

While the six-day budget impasse is typical of Harrisburg since Rendell became governor (five years in the governor’s mansion, five missed budget deadlines), the continuing deadlock will hit home for 25,000 state workers who have received letters telling them to stay home on Monday.

Here's how the budget stalemate looks from a state worker's perspective:

Where does the name "Pennsylvania" get its name from? "Penn's Woods," right? Pennsylvania is known for a whole variety of trees. But one type of tree that you will never find growing in PA is the money tree. There is a group in Harrisburg that believes that money grows on trees. Maybe I have a bunch of these trees in my basement under high-intensity lamps, making my electric meter go wacko.

I AM NOT MADE OUT OF MONEY! I am forced to live on a budget. I have a small car (fortunately paid off) with lots of miles — a replacement car is not in the budget. I have basic cable ($16 with tax) — more channels are not in the budget. (Digital cable starts off at $52 per month and that will be required in 2009.) I have dial-up Internet — broadband is not in the budget. I live in a two-bedroom house with one bathroom in a noisy neighborhood — anything else is not in the budget. I let my subscription drop on various magazines — they are not in the budget.

I am a state employee, working for PENNDOT. I will be one of many furloughed next week. I am a union member (AFSCME). I am a conservative. I am a Republican. For years, I was an Independent. A couple of years ago, I became a Republican so I could vote in the Primaries.

My blood boils when politicians try to pull the wool over my eyes. When a certain person said that I was confused when I voted against ACT 1, I knew exactly what I was doing. I don't let anybody try to tell me how to vote except God Almighty! Need I say more?

No, this state worker doesn’t have to say anything else. It’s clear that state workers are pawns in Rendell power grab.

The current budget impasse is a poor reflection on all elected officials in Harrisburg. The state finished the most recent fiscal year with a $650 million budget surplus and still can't come up with a compromise plan to keep state government running.

The bulk of the blame goes to Rendell, who is addicted to spending and raising taxes. The House Democrats are No. 2 on the list. They are puppets who dance to Rendell's tune. They're so enamored or afraid of Emperor Rendell that they won't do what's right for their constituents.

Almost everyone in the Legislature is willing to approve $27 billion in general fund spending for the fiscal year that began July 1, but Gov. Rendell wants more. Rendell is trying to blackmail the Legislature into approving his very expensive plan to bail out mass transit and his alternative energy programs. (The Rendell apologists will tell you that the Emperor's electricity tax is so small, nobody would mind paying it. With Rendell's record on taxes, any tax is too much.)

So far, there are few takers in the Legislature, especially the Republican-controlled Senate, which is sticking to its "No New Taxes" budget. And that means "no" to something Rendell is calling a "service benefit charge" on electricity. That's a euphemism Rendell is using these days for a new tax on electricity to fund alternative energy projects.

This is the time to contact your state legislators and tell them that you support the "No New Taxes" budget voted out of the Senate. It's time to take away Gov. Rendell's credit card. He's already run up enormous debts this state will never be able to pay off.

Taxpayers need to contact freshman House members who ran on a reform platform in 2006. What happened to promises of fiscal responsibility?

Why is every single Democrat in the House so willing to rubber-stamp Rendell's tax-and-spend agenda?

You need to let lawmakers such as David Kessler and Tim Seip in Berks County or Barbara McIlvaine Smith in Chester County or Rick Taylor in Montgomery County that you're watching them and they will be one-term lawmakers if they don't start looking out for the people who elected them.

Rendell is holding the budget hostage and is using thousands of state workers as human shields. The Democrats in the state House are Rendell’s accomplices.

Why can't Pennsylvania live within its means? Why do politicians have to spend every penny that goes to Harrisburg.

Why isn't anyone talking about returning the $650 million surplus to the taxpayers?