Columnist: PA's bleak future

John Baer is in a foul mood.

He says it right up front in his latest column, "I'm in a bad mood 'cause we're in a sorry state," which examines long-term trends concerning Pennsylvania's future.

From the Philadelphia Daily News political columnist's latest offering:

Sorting through relatively new research by the Pew Center on the States, operated under the umbrella of the independent, nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts, I find we got troubles - right here in Pennsylvania.

And that starts with "t" and ends with "s" and stands for "trends."

If you can't handle any more bad news, you might want to avoid Baer's column, which concludes that Pennsylvania is at the bottom of the barrel in most economic indicators compared to other Mid-Atlantic states.

But what really has Baer depressed is that the trends have been around for years and nobody, not Gov. Ed Rendell and certainly not the most expensive state legislature in the country, has done anything to reserve these trends.

From Baer's column:

I understand that our state didn't get where it is overnight. Our size, inbred parochialism, excessive local government and underperforming Legislature are drawbacks.

But these trends aren't new. The nation's largest full-time Legislature with the nation's largest staff could have spotted them years ago and reacted with, say, better-targeted job training, real incentives to keep smart young people and enhanced educational goals and results.

That it didn't is retroactively depressing - and doesn't do much to improve my mood.

Read the full column (but only after you put away any sharp objects) at the newspaper's Web site.