Corbett's Budget and education cuts - Merged threads (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh: transplants, employment)

[BrianTH]

I honestly don't know what it will take to get consolidation through the political process. Maybe it will take a court order, or something like that.

[WonderingWanderer]

Originally Posted by psulions2007

What we need to do is reduce the size of the legislature... actually, PA just needs to have a unicameral legislature like Nebraska. There is no reason a state needs a bicameral legislature except to give more paychecks to more political cronies.

Then PA can recall Corbett.

That's it.

[fisheye]

We have know of problems for some time: http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_61.htm

This isn’t just because of our current Governor. We just kept our eyes closed and said full steam ahead. The day of reckoning is here. So, what do we want to do - shoot the messenger.

My biggest problem is that we need gains in the private sector - if we want the public sector to continue down their golden path. That is not happening. We have outsourcing, downsizing, immigration (legal and illegal), technology, robotics and temporary workers. Government cannot print money just to pay their own wages - they depend on the private sector to produce real product to make our money worth printing.

If jobs and pay continue to disintegrate in the private sector; government has to adopt similar cost cutting measures. It is a dangerous spiral - it could lead to more competition for the few available jobs. We actually need some form of national game plan - I do not see that happening.

[rsrobbins]

Outsource your higher eduction by going to an university in Germany. BBC News - Germany top for foreign students

You can learn a little German from your Amish neighbors.

Viel Glück!

[Duderino]

Originally Posted by pman

you misunderstand the information you are posting. most corporations are s-corps or LLC's so they can pay the personal income tax. it says less that PA is business friendly than how effectie a disinventive the 9.99% cni is to being a Corp to begin with.

Fair enough, although I do not understand why the source would not have explained that notable caveat. I do not claim to be a tax expert, but aren't you still hinting at the fact that some companies do try to evade the CNI tax (which, from what I gather, would be lower than the PI tax)? If so, that really doesn't contradict my point.

[toobusytoday]

A rebuttal by Pitt's Chancellor. Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg | University of Pittsburgh (http://www.chancellor.pitt.edu/state-budget/ - broken link)

In practical terms, the proposed cuts are a renunciation of the commitment made by the Commonwealth to Pennsylvania families with college-age children in the mid-1960's, when Pitt and Temple, followed later by Lincoln, joined Penn State as state-related universities. That earlier action was driven by the belief that creating larger numbers of reasonably priced, but high-quality, university opportunities was not only critical to the individual aspirations of the daughters and sons of Pennsylvania but was a key to our collective, long-term well-being. In fact, this drive to keep bright young Pennsylvanians in Pennsylvania might be viewed as an early, preemptive strike against what we now call the “brain drain.”

[swirling_vortex]

On one hand, the cuts are a bit hard to swallow. Seeing as how Pennsylvania hasn't really had an industry of some kind to take over what was the coal and steel industry, I think Corbett could probably look at other areas to cut instead of focusing specifically on education.

On the other hand, if Penn State is threatening to close down branches because of losing some state funding (which isn't that big overall), then I'd suspect there's a lot of waste and money being spent on frivolous things that Penn State isn't addressing. Considering how they were freezing salaries and raising tuition with the addition of stimulus funds, I really can't find much sympathy unless I can see some concrete numbers on Penn State's expenditures. The education-government complex really has to be addressed or higher education won't be affordable to anyone.

Edit: The Commonwealth Foundation rates his budget B, a vast improvement over the Fs from the previous administration.

http://www.commonwealthfoundation.or...dget-address-b

[blauskies]

Originally Posted by swirling_vortex

Seeing as how Pennsylvania hasn't really had an industry of some kind to take over what was the coal and steel industry, I think Corbett could probably look at other areas to cut instead of focusing specifically on education.

I was born, raised and educated up through college in PA, when I graduated I had to leave PA because I could not find a good job in my field. This was a while ago and it has never changed.

The state has a very rough time keeping college educated natives in the state and luring good companies there. In my opinion, Shale Gas is not a great solution as it comes with some baggage on the environmental side. Sure it has only created jobs but at what cost? Go to the Coal Regions and see what excessive mining has done, they reaped the land and left, populations declined after that and these areas failed to bounce back with anything to match it.

I use to laugh when I saw that Tom Ridge commercial of him sitting in a college class room with a bunch of students, it was a "Pennsylvania" commercial, the camera focused on the back of him and the narrator was saying something about "where do people find educated individuals or education", something of that subject. Ridge turns around and say's "In Pennsylvania" or something like that. I was living in another state at the time when I saw it which made me laugh even more. Now reading this news just further reinforces my assumptions. Wish I could find that commercial but it's not on Youtube lol!

[mufc1878]

one good idea he does have is privatizing the liquor stores.

[Rtom45]

Perfect example of brain drain:
My daughter has her BS from PSU and MS from Lebanon Valley - she's teaching in Denver.
My son has his BS in chemical engineering from PSU - he's working in Pasadena.
Anybody care to guess what the Penn State graduate population is in the Washington DC area?