Transportation Funding
Our roads and bridges are not only costing us millions in delays and vehicle repairs but they are dangerous as well. Fifty years is the average age for a Pennsylvania bridge and PennDOT classifies more than 4000 bridges as structurally deficient. These deficiencies cause rerouting, shipping delays, and hazardous situations on a daily basis.
Restraint in Spending
The Governor’s budget builds on his first two spending plans that combined to erase a $4.2 billion deficit caused by the recession and the end of federal stimulus money. It hasn’t been easy or painless. According to his Budget Office, 260 line items in the annual budget have been eliminated since Governor Corbett took office.
Governor Corbett’s third budget proposal continues a restraint in pubic spending that over the past two years eliminated a $4.2 billion deficit without raising taxes.
“We stopped our fiscal cliff before it even had a name,” Governor Corbett said in his address before the General Assembly on February 5. “And we didn’t do it by raising taxes and increasing spending.”
The Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association announced its support for Governor Corbett’s 2013-14 budget.
“Governor Corbett’s budget plan sets the course for expanding Pennsylvania’s economic growth,” said PMA Executive Director David N. Taylor. “It continues his leadership of fiscal discipline and recognizes that private sector job growth is essential for the future prosperity of our commonwealth.”
The only things standing in the way of the private management of the Pennsylvania Lottery are reviews by the Attorney General, Treasurer, and Auditor General. They each have 30 days to review Governor Tom Corbett’s decision to hand the administration of the Lottery over to Camelot Global Services. Their review is limited to the scope of their offices.
“The Attorney General reviews it for its legality, the Treasurer on its financials,” said Jay Pagni, a spokesman for the Department of General Services. “None can review on policy.”
By: Dave Taylor, Executive Director, PMA
The Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, and on behalf of Pennsylvania’s manufacturing employers, emphatically supports voluntary union membership and an end to coercive payments to unions in our commonwealth.
The 2013-14 legislative session, with 23 new lawmakers, began on January 1 under a constitutional requirement that swearing in occur the first Tuesday in January. The new members will have little time to adjust to the rules and routine as they will have to embrace transportation funding, liquor privatization, another tight budget, and we at PMA hope they will tackle key business issues left over from last year.
Governor Tom Corbett announced on Wednesday, December 12, 2012, that Pennsylvania will be one of more than 30 states that will allow the federal government to operate its expanded health exchange.
New Report Details the Significant Economic Impact of Questionable EPA Regulations on Pennsylvania
Lawmakers sworn in on January 1st to kick off the 2013-14 legislative session have an opportunity to act with no delay on a pro-growth agenda already vetted by industry, labor, and both political parties. The agenda was approved in August by the Governor’s Manufacturing Advisory Council (GMAC).