Category: default || By jt3y

The state didn't take long to stick it to the taxpayers after the election, did it?

First came the news that a special transportation commission, composed of PennDOT representatives and elected officials (like J. Barry Stout of the mid-Mon Valley) want to soak us with much higher taxes and fees.

Joe Grata of the Post-Gazette Local Newspaper points out that the entire package --- including a 12.5 cent increase in gasoline taxes, $15 increases in driver and vehicle license fees, and a new 0.9 percent real-estate transfer tax --- would be the largest tax increase for "transportation needs" in the state's history.

Then "Fast Eddie" Rendell vetoed a bill that would have allowed workers to have the $52 occupation tax removed from their checks in small installments, rather than in lump sums.

The governor said the legislation didn't give municipalities "reasonable time periods for implementation of these changes."

An editorial in last night's Daily News lacerated Rendell, calling his veto high-handed and destructive to low-income wage earners, and labeling him "His Excellency." It pointed out that although $52 may not seem like much, for seasonal and part-time workers (it used the example of high school or college kids working at Kennywood), it could swallow most or all of their first paycheck.

That's not a particularly encouraging message to send to a young person, I'll admit. The good news is that the legislature meets again Monday, and might try to override Fast Eddie's veto.

I'm more aggravated about the first item --- the massive dirt sandwich that PennDOT Secretary Allen Biehler and other officials want us to eat. You can read all of the details in the Tribune-Review Greensburg Astonisher.

The money raised would ostensibly fund mass transit improvements, repair bridges and highways, and upgrade traffic signals.

You know, I can't find PennDOT's budget on the PennDOT website. (That's a shocker, I'll admit.) Consequently, I can't see how much that the agency is paying for administrative costs.

There is a spiffy 2005 Annual Report (PDF), but it doesn't say how much PennDOT spends on management, either. (Another a big surprise!)

Still, even without those documents, I can't help but wonder if trimming some layers of management at PennDOT might free up more money for some of these vital transportation projects.

Also, Pennsylvania has the largest, most-expensive state legislature in the country, costing taxpayers about $341 million this year.

It stands to reason that if we cut the General Assembly in half, we'd have $170 million to put toward transportation, wouldn't we?

I suspect we have as much chance of that happening as Port Authority inventing a bus that runs on rainbows and unicorns.

It's much easier to soak the taxpayers. Shucks, we don't mind.

Hey, when's the next election? Two years? Fine. Stick it to us, and we'll be waiting. Just ask these guys.


. . .

In other business: On Sunday, the Local Newspaper has released the results of their comic strip survey. "Doonesbury," "Get Fuzzy" and the resurgent "Sally Forth" are in the "most hated" category, while the favorites include "Blondie" and "The Born Loser."

"Get Fuzzy," once one of my favorites, has been off of its game for a while. But the ongoing "Doonesbury" stories have been sharp --- one is following Alex Doonesbury's problems during her freshman year of college, while the other, more vital one, examines B.D.'s return home from Iraq, where he lost a leg in an ambush.

(For those of you who think that "Doonesbury" is too left-wing, rest assured, there's nothing overtly political about either story --- the Iraq story in particular has been praised by the Defense Department and veterans alike.)

What really blows my mind are the comics that readers say they like best. "The Born Loser"? Good grief --- has anyone, ever, gotten more than a smile out of "The Born Loser"? Other favorites include "Wizard of Id," "Hagar the Horrible" and "Beetle Bailey."

Egad. If "Beetle Bailey" is your favorite comic strip, you probably think Wonder Bread is "too spicy."

Even more depressing: The vow that these results "will be a primary factor ... in helping the (Local Newspaper) decide what changes will be made to the comics."

I await the decision to bring back "Henry" and "Mutt and Jeff." And what about the "Toonerville Trolley"?

Oh, never mind the last one --- I think the Toonerville Trolley is part of the PennDOT tax increases.