In the aftermath of Tuesday’s history-making political massacre of state lawmakers, survivors, victims and observers ruminate on what it all means--especially for you.
True
By Tom Murse
Updated Feb 19, 2007 15:58
But even those who got the boot have more than six months remaining in their terms.
The big question is will they, and the rest of the chastened Legislature, do anything to appease voters when they return to Harrisburg in June?
“A revolt has started,” said state Rep. Katie True, an East Hempfield Township Republican. “The message to leadership should be: taxpayers are watching what we do very carefully, and we have to produce. And we should.”
The biggest unresolved policy issue facing lawmakers, aside from passing a state budget by June 30, is property-tax reform.
“That’s still the remaining giant to be slain,” said Franklin & Marshall College political analyst G. Terry Madonna.
And while they’re dealing with that thorny issue, the major unresolved political issue — November’s races for governor and Legislature — will be hanging like a cloud over the Capitol.
Is this a recipe for gridlock?
“I don’t know. I’m thinking, ‘What property tax program out there could get support?’ and I don’t see it,” said state Sen. Gibson E. Armstrong, a Refton Republican. “It’s impossible to get a consensus when you have 253 people plus the governor.”
State Rep. Tom Creighton, a Republican from Rapho Township, agreed that compromise between the House and Senate — which have been at odds since the get-go — will be difficult.
“We really should be locked in a room and told, ‘You really can’t come out of that room until you accomplish substantive property-tax reform,’ ” Creighton said. “But I don’t see us really resolving property taxes in the fall because everybody’s under the pressure of a campaign.”
When it comes that very issue, Tuesday’s election threw a monkey wrench into the works. The Senate’s top two leaders, David “Chip” Brightbill and Bob Jubelirer, were swept out in results that made national headlines.
Rank-and-file House Republicans already rejected a Senate-approved property-tax bill because they didn’t believe it went far enough. Now, they might be even more unwilling to budge on the issue, said Madonna.
“If you didn’t want to do it three weeks ago, why would you want to do it now?” he asked.
Indeed, that appears to be the case.
“The shift is going to have to be in the mentality of our leaders,” said True. “It’s important that we continue, as we promised, to look at property taxes. The interesting place to watch will be in the Senate.”
So the House is expecting the Senate to compromise.
How does the Senate feel?
Brightbill said today he does not believe the primary election had anything to do with property taxes, and appears unwilling to budge on the issue.
“Tuesday was about the pay raise and about the fact that the newspapers have the ability to cream us when they want,” said Brightbill, who lives in Lebanon County and represents a small part of northwest Lancaster County.
“Tuesday was not about property-tax reform,” Brightbill said.
“The Senate passed a bill and we passed it three times,” he said. “So it’s now 100 percent up to the House. If they can get their act together, we’ll look at what they can do.”
The bill passed by the Senate earlier this month would have used an anticipated $1 billion a year in future gambling revenue to finance tax cuts for millions of homeowners.
It also would have expanded tax breaks for senior citizens and forced school districts to ask voters whether to further cut property taxes by shifting more school funding onto a higher local wage tax.
Benefits were expected to begin trickling out next year and to expand in subsequent years as tax revenue flows from the 14 planned slots parlors.
Rendell supported the bill as a replacement for a failed 2004 law that had been designed to distribute future slot-machine gambling revenue to school districts statewide.
What angers Brightbill is that the bill was a compromise unanimously endorsed by a House-Senate conference committee.
“Their two conferees signed it. I shook hands with their leader at the governor’s house. I don’t know what else to do,” said Brightbill. “They never ran the bill. They now have two options. One option is to provide a viable product. Two is to run ours.”
Analysts and some lawmakers have suggested the House GOP opposition was based on suspicion that its leaders were too cozy with Rendell, and that they were about to hand the governor an election-year victory.
House members instead prefer a plan that would expand the state sales tax to raise more money for property tax reductions. It’s anybody’s guess where the twain shall meet.
“What remains to be seen is who’s willing to compromise and who’s willing to go the extra mile to find a way to bridge the gap,” Madonna said. “No one knows that for sure.”
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