A CLEAR CHOICE: PROTECT CHILDREN OR OUR POLITICIANS' ASSES

Commonwealth revenue officials have reported that contrary to expectations, Pennsylvania is actually running a budget surplus as the end of the 2010-2011 fiscal year approaches. That means that there will be money left over to transfer to the 2011-2012 budget. Pennsylvania's governor and the state legislature are considering what to do with the surplus and one suggestion under consideration is to sock the money away in a rainy day fund.

Rain is falling in a torrential downpour outside my house as I type this entry, and our governor and Pennsylvania legislature are poised to make draconian cuts in 2011-2012 educational spending that will negatively affect our children for the rest of their lives. Today is exactly the kind of day that rainy day funds are meant to address, so if Pennsylvania suddenly finds itself running a budget surplus, our elected officials had better plow every dime of that surplus back into preparing our children for their future and not into a fund meant to protect politicians’ rear ends at some date down the road.

In robust economic times budget surpluses should be set aside to avoid catastrophic cuts in spending during the worst of economic times. That's what I call prudent fiscal policy. We are now living in the midst of bad economic times. If our Commonwealth does not use Pennsylvania’s budget surplus to avoid catastrophic cuts in education today, our elected officials will have failed in their duty to properly educate our children for no other reason than pure selfishness. If that’s the kind of failure and selfish attitude we want to pass onto our children, God help them all!