Everything in Its Own Time

I am no fan of big government. While I’m also no fan of cutting everything to the bone, I’m of the firm belief that there is no such thing as a free ride. Typically when a conservative brings this line of thinking up, it is followed by a tirade about entitlement programs and the abuse thereof. Not this time.
As a Pennsylvanian, I’m regularly finding myself defending our new governor for proposing a budget that is bluntly far more onerous in its own ways than any of the disastrous ones that were shoved down our throats by the previous administration – and that’s saying something! While I have no real problems with the higher education cuts that should force our universities to tighten their belts, the K-12 cuts are, at least for me, indefensible. I’m not saying there should be absolutely no cuts to public schools, but the radical ones being suggested are over the top. Motives are meaningless, whether it is to weaken public sector unions, to force the closure of failing schools, or both.

The fact that a great deal of this budget argument is hanging from the governor’s refusal to tax Marcellus Shale operations in the Commonwealth only exacerbates the situation, primarily because not unlike the TARP and other Federal bail-outs, there are no strings attached. There is no excuse for giving anyone a free ride, including corporations. If you want to encourage industry by offering tax cuts, that’s fine. However, stop doing it without setting specific requirements to get those tax breaks. This particular situation screams for this sort of arrangement because unlike incentives offered to other industries, the game is here. The resources these corporations want aren’t going to pick up and leave the state. We have what these companies want, and they should pony up to get it. We should not give them tax breaks in the hope that they decide to move corporate operations from Texas to Pennsylvania (or expand to do so.) These companies should be told that they must employ a specific number of Pennsylvanians, and build a specific amount of corporate infrastructure facilities in the Commonwealth to get those tax breaks. And just to be clear on this one, those requirements don’t hurt any corporation. Last time I checked, when companies expand, their stocks tend to go up. Their investors get bigger returns. It might not be immediate, but it does happen. Forcing a company to flourish in your own backyard to enjoy the benefit of lower taxes isn’t painful to industry.

And let’s be a little more practical here. In what universe does it make sense to radically cut education spending, and increase the probability that future generations will be incapable of contributing meaningfully to society, just to give some tax breaks to a corporation? We’ve been there and done that on the local level in my own backyard. Sony corporation was given wonderful tax breaks to move to our region. The local school districts surrounding the plant suffered a bit for it. What was the result? Sony now complains that they are having trouble finding competent employees to do their work. Graduates of the local schools have trouble passing their English and Mathematics exams. Maybe those tax breaks really weren’t so great after all. I don’t know about the rest of the conservatives in our Commonwealth, but I’d rather see industry move here not only because of the resources coming out of the ground beneath our feet, but also out of our classrooms.