We are all busy. Families, careers, earning a living, retirement and a host of other things absorb our energies and resources. We strive to be productive, law abiding citizens. We participate in the electoral process. We pay our taxes. We fully expect that our elected representatives will do what is in the best interest of the community. At least, that is what I expect. While no one or nothing is perfect there are issues that win priority over others. There in lies the rub. Who is choosing the priorities. For this post I am going to focus on local/state government. As “Tip” O’Neill, one time Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives under Ronald Reagan, once quipped, ” All politics is local.”
On the state level, priorities are determined by our elected representatives. These are the people who are typically impossible to have a face to face conversation with. To me they are completely inaccessible. They do not hold neighborhood or town hall meetings. If you call their offices you have to run the gauntlet of secretaries and aides who never can directly connect you to your elected representative. If you send an email, text or letter you may get a delayed response. They love to have their pictures in the paper handing out taxpayer dollars or backslapping with their contemporaries. All of this is nonsense. All of this is unacceptable.
Now, their first priority is themselves. PA State Representatives and Senators are paid $90,335 a year. They are given a $178 a day stipend for any days in session. They are in session somewhere between 50 and 70 days per year. That’s right! They have a cadillac health care and pension plan that most folks can only dream about. This is a sweet deal, but wait, there is more. They are allowed to take gifts from interested people including lobbyists. If the gift is over $250 they must report it. Again, nonsense and unacceptable. Just recently PA State Representatives and Senators received a 5.6% increase in their salaries beginning in 2022. Chew on that awhile. Let it sink in.
So, back to setting priorities. Elected representatives are heavily lobbied by the business/corporate community. As a result, many of our elected representatives have prioritized the practice of corporate welfare. This corporate welfare priority takes many forms some of which are quiet convoluted. It is baked into legislation or handed out as low interest/no interest loans, grants, tax credits and tax deferments. Pennsylvania has some famous corporate welfare tools such as the Delaware Loophole, Keystone Opportunity Zones, City Revitalization and Improvement Zones and Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA). These are the tip of the iceberg. There are scores more. They give taxpayer money to already profitable entities. Many require the approval of local planning and zoning boards
In February of 2021, Penn Future issued a report that backs up several other independently verified reports regarding Pennsylvania subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. They report that for FY 2019 Pennsylvania doled out 3.8 billion in corporate welfare, fossil fuel subsidies. Again, the fossil fuel industry is wildly profitable. They do not need taxpayer money! Recently, Governor Wolfe signed HB 732 which became Act 66. This bill provides corporate welfare to attract big petrochemical plants to PA. It grants 25 year tax breaks and other incentives to, again, profitable businesses.
Naturally, there are cheerleaders for corporate welfare. Businesses increase profits at taxpayer expense They play communities and states against each other. They go where they get the sweetest deal in terms of subsidies and regulations. Sometimes this means going to Mexico or China or ??????? Politicians play up the jobs creation/economic development while saying virtually nothing about the subsidies. When questioned, God forbid, they have a hissy fit and become defensive. This is not a good look and it does not inspire confidence in their leadership abilities.
Research this topic. Ask why school funding is never adequate or equitable? Why is the physical infrastructure a mess? Why are government agencies understaffed and underfunded? Why are state parks and forests behind on maintenance? Why are our laws/regulations not being properly enforced? Why is acid mine drainage still fouling waterways? There are many questions in need of answers.
I maintain that if we stop giving billions out in corporate welfare we can start addressing people problems. If we adequately staff, train and fund agencies, we can catch tax avoiders and cheats. We can fine and collect from polluters. We can root out fraud schemes in welfare, housing and medicine and much more.
Stop corporate welfare. Make it an issue.