This is a quick one because I have to go to work. But I couldn't pass this up:
Norquist Says Corbett’s Fee Becomes A Tax If It’s Levied Statewide
Governor Tom Corbett (R-PA) apparently escapes the Wrath of Grover since his proposal for an impact fee on gas drilling would only apply to counties and not the whole state.
Set aside for a moment that every politician who signs on to the no-tax pledge of Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform should be confronted with questions about his oath of public office and to whom he or she owes their loyalties.
How is it not raising taxes when the state's governor performs cuts everywhere-- and forces the responsibility down to local governments to replace the funding? What kind of sleight-of-hand is this?
In this case, Norquist is happy that Corbett's county-by-county approach makes government smaller. What it really does is fragment our social contract as a nation and we become a federation of states (if that) instead of the United States.
Just saying.
Btw, Michelle Rhee is getting involved in education in Pennsylvania, no doubt a help to Gov. Corbett as his administration moves to install "executive advisers" from the business world into Philly school admins, to draw back the schools' already severely defunded finances.
Shades of Snyder, Walker, Kasich... anyone noticing a pattern here?