Governor Corbett and the tea-partiers in the Pa. Legislature have tried all kinds of ways to reduce State spending, including cutting $860 million from public education, making people on medical assistance jump through hundreds of bureaucratic hoops to keep their benefits, and a proposed total 50% cut in funding to state universities over 2 years. They even paid $104,000 a year in state salary to a man who published articles about the psychological benefits of sperm consumption, so that he could find ways to cut federal spending on food stamps.
I swear I'm not making that last one up:
http://thetimes-tribune.com/...
Now Governor Corbett has released his latest Top 12 Ideas to Balance the Pennsylvania State Budget:
12. Invade West Virginia, to take over their gas wells.
11. Charge the State Police rent.
10. Sell cigars with school lunches.
9. Deport everyone who is disabled.
8. Legalize slot machines in nursing homes.
7. 25 DUI checkpoints around each Penn State football game.
6. Accept food stamps as payment for tickets to political fundraisers.
5. Provide incentives for high school students to get pregnant, to grow the tax base.
4. Stop teaching math in public schools and colleges, so no one can question the budget.
3. Outsource the State Legislature to China.
2. Sell naming rights - such as "The Pennsylvania State Budget - Brought to you by Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation.
1. Sell T-shirts with the slogan: "Pennsylvania: Home of Tax Free Fracking."
(The State could also make a fortune by selling bottled water to people living near gas wells.)
This list is partly based upon a similar list written by Mr. Eric Epstein.