Corbett Blames Dems that his agenda is a smoking pile of rubble (but Repubs control both Pa. Houses)

http://blog.pennlive.com/capitol-notebook/2013/07/corbett_blames_house_dems_for.html#incart_river_default

Excerpt of column by John Micek:

"Well you saw this one coming. With his spring agenda pretty much reduced to a smoking pile of rubble, Gov. Tom Corbett is blaming House Democrats for the collapse of his efforts to raise new money for road and bridge repairs.

More astute readers may recall that House Dems withheld their votes on a highway-funding package, complaining that it didn't contain enough money for mass-transit agencies.

Unable to muster enough votes in their own caucus, majority Republicans tried to muster 65 to 70 House D votes to get a highway funding bill to Corbett's desk by June 30. There was also the small matter of highway funding being tied to approval of liquor privatization, which made for bumpy relations with the Senate, which preferred a bolder $2.5 billion package to the smaller $1.8 billion proposal favored by Corbett."
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It is absurd that Corbett blames Dems for the lack of passage of any of his bills. The Republicans have a large majority in the House, and control the Senate. Most of the problems have been with the House, because it has a large rightwing teabagger contingent. The Republicans could pass anything they want with purely republican votes. To the best of my knowledge, there is no filibuster process in PA. and the minority party cannot stop the majority party from voting on any bill.

What happened was everyone wanted the Transportation bill, but the House Republicans wanted the Dems to take all of the blame for the tax increases. The Dems were willing to do the heavy lifting -- up until the time the House Republicans slashed proposed funding for mass transit.

The Pittsburgh area mass transit system has been in a funding crisis for the last couple years, with severe cuts in service. The Philadelphia system will soon be in a crisis after they spend down their reserves, and they just enacted a big fare increase. Many of the mass transit bridges and tunnels also need a great deal of work. However, most people who ride buses, trolleys and subways don't vote Republican. One Republican House member said spending state money for mass transit was "welfare."

To top it off, the Legislature couldn't get the Fiscal Code adopted on time, because at the last minute the PA. House hid a provision at the end of the bill that would help legalize high interest predatory payday loans, and then went home. The Senate struck the provision, but the House hasn't been back to pass the revised bill, and they may not do it until Sept. That Fiscal Code bill also includes the provisions that are supposed to help solve the funding crisis in the Phila. School District.

Because there was no action on pensions, many school districts are burdened this year with dramatic increases in state-mandated pension payments.