November 23, 2007
This week, as we celebrate Thanksgiving, let’s be ever-mindful of the many blessings we all share as residents of this great Commonwealth.
At the same time we need to always look to improve in areas like jobs and economic growth. To keep families strong we must keep families together by providing jobs so that our young people don’t have to move to other states to find those job opportunities. What’s the answer? Less government control and involvement is always the recipe. Instead of creating an atmosphere of corporate welfare, let’s get back to the basics and make business tax rates lower, for example. Government schemes like Keystone Opportunity Zones and business development grants do nothing more than perpetuate the whole idea of corporate welfare. Millions of state taxpayer dollars have been given away in even more direct forms of corporate welfare in recent years. Why do we allow ourselves to be the victim of blackmail used by corporations on a continuous basis
(example: Express Furniture threatened to relocate its headquarters from Pittsburgh to some other state if they didn’t get their way in ‘07)? This mere threat which resulted in the company staying in Pittsburgh and moving into a bigger building on Pittsburgh’s west side cost the Pennsylvania taxpayer $4.5 million dollars in loans, grants and tax credits!!!!!!!!! I would argue that we would all be better off if this money could be applied to lowering the state business tax rate (second highest in the nation at 9.9%) rather than continously buying in to corporate welfare. It has to stop somewhere and, yes, there is a better way to create jobs and drive the economy. Furthermore, this and other bad practices are having an impact on economic growth overall. From 2005 to 2006 Pennsylvania’s Gross Domestic Product grew at only half the U.S average (1.7%). If PA had grown at the U.S. average, an additional $7.5 billion in wealth would have been created in the commonwealth last year! Note: Domestic poduct is the total value of all goods and services produced in a state of time. Additionally, PA ranked 44th out of 50 states in economic growth during this time. Because of slower growth compared to the rest of the nation we are robbing our citizens of a more prosperous future. Armed with strong faith and family from the day of that first Thanksgiving until now, it is our heritage to do better.
Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless-
Dave Huffman
Editor, The Daily Grit
November 12, 2007
As a member of the Williamsport School Board, yours truly has observed first hand the implications of the No Child Left Behind legislation that is now a federal program up for renewal. Surely, the intent of this legislation has been most honorable. Unfortunately, adjustments need to be made to make this program better. More flexibility for state and local education is the biggest improvement that could be made, including standards for performance. The sinngular standards for performance greatly reduces schools’ ability to adapt curriculums to meet the needs of special populations (just one example). There also needs to be a limit on what the federal government can expect in terms of unfunded mandates as local governments are simply overburdened now with high taxation. The flexibility needs to include provisions that do not rely so heavily on testing to reach AYP (annual yearly progress) goals that are unrealistic and cheat our children on receiving a well-rounded education, with districts teaching to the test at the expense of the “educational experience.” There needs to be some realization that testing is not the only way to create systematic accountability for our schools. Learning involves so much more that what is defined by the “so-called experts.” We can still get results with a less stringent set of rules and expectations that are more realistic and less intrusive. Focus should be on teacher motivation and taking advantage of student communication skills
(at times lost in this computer age) and creativity (revitalization of the arts versus so much emphasis on math and reading). Our federal experts need to listen more to the wants and needs of our local experts. After all, it is the local people that are the “true”
experts. We don’t need Washington D.C. running our schools unless we want to give in to a strong federalist government, something our founding fathers wanted to avoid at all costs!
What do you think? Take time to give me a quick response right now. It only takes a minute.
Sincerely,
Dave Huffman
Editor, The Daily Grit
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