The Weight

Take a load off Corbett, and you can put that load right on me.

PA governor Tom Corbett has vowed not to raise state taxes, to reduce spending, eliminate a deficit, turn water into wine, lower corporate taxes, layoff employees, and yet somehow increase the commonwealth's tax revenues. Changing water into wine might actually be the most doable of the group after the layoffs.

Many level-headed people have noted that reducing the number of individuals employed while also reducing corporate taxes is probably NOT going to lead to an increase in tax revenue. Just doing a simple bit of associative math, it seems more than probable such a policy would fail. Less People paying Taxes + Plus less Tax Revenue from Corporations= More Tax Revenue? I don't need to be an accountant to tell you that kind of math simply doesn't add up.

So now, for at least the second time in less than 7 days, another Western PA municipality is announcing their plan to raise property taxes in order to offset the cut in state aid to their school districts. So while Corporate Corbett may be right that he personally did not raise state taxes, these local hikes are a not too distant product of his slash and burn education budget.

The same schools that were good enough for his own two children to attend are now left to be the bad guy while he bathes in gas drilling money at the gubernatorial mansion.