Nov 26, 2017 3 min read

The entry of Republican Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Mike Turzai into the governor’s race will provide for a spirited debate and offers a mixed bag to Pennsylvanians.

The speaker is to be admired for fighting relentlessly over a period of many years to free Pennsylvania from the grip of the Prohibition-style state liquor store system, an anachronism in a country whose tenets prominently include personal freedom. If gun purchasers were subjected to the same type of restrictions as those who seek to buy alcohol, they would not stand for it and there would likely be an armed takeover of Harrisburg.

Turzai has been an ardent foe of increasing taxes on individuals and business entities, something which on its face is laudable, but which in practice, has served to the commonwealth’s detriment, given his unwillingness to compromise. GOP legislators led by Turzai have not been able to enact spending cuts, thus their refusal to increase revenues has triggered budgets that are balanced through smoke and mirrors, and budgets that are delayed well beyond the now-meaningless constitutional deadline for enactment of June 30 each year. The result has been that organizations that are dependent on state funding have suffered, and the state’s credit rating has been downgraded, increasing its cost of borrowing. It is a particular disgrace that organizations that had to borrow to remain afloat during the 2016 standoff and suspension of their state funding were not reimbursed for interest charges that they had to pay.

This year’s budget fix was a disgrace, robbing Peter to pay Paul, as funds are shifted and tobacco settlement money were assigned to the general fund.

Never to be forgotten is the statement made by Turzai during the 2012 presidential campaign that the state’s voter ID law would ensure that Pennsylvania was captured by GOP nominee Mitt Romney in the general election. This was a clear endorsement of voter suppression for which Turzai has never provided an explanation. I believe in voter ID in principle, but it cannot and must not be enacted if it would serve to disenfranchise those who have the right to cast ballots.

Gov. Tom Wolf was elected governor in 2014 to increase education spending and to enact an extraction tax on Marcellus Shale drilling companies which is commensurate with that which is imposed by every other state that hosts the industry. He has had modest success in the first initiative, and none in the latter, thanks in large part to Turzai and his colleagues who favor drillers over the public.

I do not agree with Wolf on tax policy or the continued survival of the state’s liquor monopoly. I believe that property tax reform and relief should have been enacted long ago. I do appreciate, however, that at a time of hatred, intolerance, and incompetence at the national level, we currently have a governor who is a decent, genial, compassionate, honorable, dignified, and intelligent man who would stand in the way of the extremism that would be likely to rear its head if all branches of state government were to be in the hands of the GOP.

Pennsylvania Election Day 2018 is light years away. As we saw in elections in other states earlier this month, the “leadership” of Donald Trump was repudiated. The race for governor is certain to be an interesting fight as the future of the commonwealth hangs in the balance.