The 2014 Pennsylvanian Gubernatorial Election and Liberties Beyond

Due to the political attack ads and misleading information from both sides of the political aisle characterizing the 2014 Pennsylvanian gubernatorial race, PA voters remain uncertain of who to vote for in the Tuesday election. However, one thing is clear; voting for Wolf will affirm his planned disastrous economic policies of instituting a progressive income tax that differs from PA’s 3.07% flat rate tax, a 5% severance tax on PA fracking, and disregarding the current $49 billion public pension crisis, which will ultimately reverse the economic growth made under Governor Corbett. Instead, PA voters should consider the record of Governor Corbett whose economic policies have decreased the PA unemployment rate from 8 percent when he took office to 5.7 percent in September and have resulted in 180,000 additional jobs to PA’s economy. After all, should voters vote for Wolf, a candidate with unspecific plans to increase the size of the PA government through massive taxation?

During Governor Corbett’s tenure, he balanced “four budgets without raising broad-based taxes” and passed a “$29 billion budget.” Under Wolf, what we will see are higher taxes accompanied with larger spending that will result in the same unsustainable fiscal crisis seen under previous Governor Rendell. Corbett has also upheld his promise of refusing to raise new taxes except lifting the cap on the gasoline tax and supporting the impact fee on gas wells to provide local revenue.

Furthermore, while claims from teacher unions, teachers, and students alike assert that Corbett has cut $1 billion in funding from PA schools, the evidence portrays the contrary. Under Governor Corbett, “state education funding has increased by about $1.5 billion since he took office,” and he signed “legislation earlier this year to create a Basic Education Funding Commission to recommend a fair school funding formula.” However, Corbett should have strived to ensure a fair funding formula for schools in PA earlier in his term and will surely proceed through this process as the second governor of PA.

Nevertheless, in consideration of all these successes under Governor Corbett, I urge PA voters to vote for Tom Corbett as the next Governor of Pennsylvania. However, if you still have doubts, please research each candidate thoroughly to make an educated vote. Nonetheless, Wolf’s policies will decrease long term growth in PA and ensure that future Pennsylvanians will have to deal with the terrifying public pension crisis.