A 4% Operating Budget Cut = Closing A Penn State Campus?

Excellent observations from Bob Howard:

What about Governor Corbett’s budget message?
I had the opportunity to attend Governor Corbett’s budget address during a joint session of the PA General Assembly in Harrisburg yesterday.

Summary:
Corbett followed through on his campaign promise to balance the budget without tax increases.

Summary Comments:
"Unlike the past eight years that earned a fiscal grade of F, this budget puts the taxpayers first and deserves a solid B for not increasing taxes, reducing expenditures, and putting the taxpayers' interests first," said Commonwealth Foundation President and CEO Matthew J. Brouillette. "But much more can be done to limit state government to its core functions and begin reducing Pennsylvania's ranking as the 10th highest tax burden in the nation."

What does it take to get an A+ from the Commonwealth Foundation? To earn an A+, the Commonwealth Foundation recommends the complete elimination of "corporate welfare" programs; a more fiscally conservative revenue projection; reducing welfare fraud and abuse; and better financial planning for the coming pension, retiree health care, and Medicaid funding crises.

If you are one of the Pennsylvania voters who voted for a balanced budget without a tax increase now it is your turn to support the cuts. Here is what you are up against.

Penn State President Spanier declared that “Abraham Lincoln is weeping today” and he whined another 55 minutes about how a $182 million cut would result in cutting programs, freezing salaries, laying off staff, and perhaps even closing one of its 24 campuses.

This might be a 50% cut in state funding but this cut represents about only 4% of Penn State’s $4 billion plus operating budget. I bet a lot of Pennsylvanians will feel differently when they realize we are only talking about 4% of Penn States operating budget.

I talked to one newly elected representative who responded that it appears Penn State has some decisions to make. Voters are tired of sending money to Penn State year after year while tuition climbs faster than inflation and the University adds studies that parents find offensive and don’t result in real world jobs. Private worker’s salaries have been stagnant while University salaries and spending have continued to climb. It is time for Penn State to join the real world.

Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg called the proposed cuts devastating, vowed to take his fight to Harrisburg and signaled a willingness to promote student advocacy efforts with lawmakers. NOTE: PITT IS THREATENING TO SEND STUDENTS TO HARRISBURG! ARE YOU PLANNING TO REACT AND SUPPORT WHAT YOU TOLD CORBETT YOU WANTED?

By the way I am a Penn State grad. Every time I get a call from Penn State I inform them that I gave by force when I paid my taxes. If they persist I tell them to call me back after an independent investigation of Mann’s environmental fraud at Penn State. If they persist again I donate to Grove City College to honor Grove City College’s commitment to education not compromised by Federal or State funding.


Bob Howard

Pima County sheriff should remember duty

From the Arizona Republic. Somewhat lengthy, but a must read:

On Saturday afternoon, with his friend Gabby Giffords in surgery fighting for her life, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik railed against the tense partisan politics - "the anger, the hatred, the bigotry" - that prompted the mass murders outside Tucson, in his view.

And, jarring as such claims may be, we understood. Or tried to understand, despite the spectacle of a lawman - an official whose very job it is to dispassionately gather facts and to maintain order and calm - tying the attack on Rep. Giffords and others to political speech in Arizona, which he considers prejudiced and bigoted. There is no evidence that the state's politics in any way contributed to this atrocity.

Was Dupnik unnecessarily inflammatory? It seemed so. But it came mere hours following a horrific, bloody mass murder. If you weren't on edge, you weren't being human. But then, on Sunday, the venting continued anew. And a horrified nation began paying closer attention to the Pima County sheriff.


The world's eyes, once again, focused on Arizona for the worst of reasons. And Dupnik stood before the cameras interpreting the shootings as politically motivated, despite an increasing weight of evidence depicting the shooting suspect, Jared Loughner, as a mentally ill young man who rambled incoherently about pervasive bad grammar and other apolitical obsessions. Even Dupnik has observed that Loughner had made death threats against others and that they had been investigated by police.

Still, Dupnik used the opportunities to blame Arizona's lax, new gun laws and, again, the angry "rhetoric" of talk radio. The shootings were spurred, he suggested, by "the rhetoric about hatred, about mistrust of government, about paranoia of how government operates."

Dupnik took up his cause again on Monday. And, in response, we have to say at last . . . enough. Enough attacks, sheriff. Enough vitriol. It is well past time for the sheriff of Pima County to get a grip on his emotions and remember his duty.

With each passing hour, we learn more about the 22-year-old suspect. And everything we learn adds to the profile of a deeply troubled young man detached from reality. There is nothing to date that suggests any partisan motivation for his crimes, whether right-wing or left.

Dupnik needs to recall that he is elected to be a lawman. With each additional comment, the Democratic sheriff of Pima County is revealing his agenda as partisan, and, as such, every bit as recklessly antagonistic as the talk-show hosts and politicians he chooses to decry.

From: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2011/01/11/20110111tue1-11.html