When Desperation Sets In

This is what desperation looks like.

Gov. Tom Wolf recently visited Downingtown Area School District and claimed the no-tax-increase budget he recently vetoed “includes only $8 million for education—that’s less than 3 cents, per child, per day.”

Where to begin? To start, let’s clarify that the Republican budget spends more than $10.4 billion—that’s billion, with a B—in support of public schools. Gov. Wolf’s $8 million figure is misleading because it refers only to the increase over the previous fiscal year. 

The $8 million figure also happens to be false. The budget Wolf vetoed includes $100 million in new Basic Education spending, $20 million in new Special Education spending, $30 million in new early education spending, $50 million in new higher education spending, and $573 million more for school pensions. Sure, these totals are less than Gov. Wolf requested in his March budget proposal—a spending and tax package that was voted down 0-193—but the Republican plan spends money the state can actually afford.

As for the “3 cents, per child, per day” remark? It’s a cute talking point from a governor who, as PennLive recently described him, acts “less like a chief executive and more like a perpetual candidate.”

But it tell us nothing. If, for example, we applied the same math to the mythical “billion dollar education cut” often decried by the governor, it would amount to a reduction of 3 dollars, per child, per day. Keep in mind, too, that this “cut” is a complete fabrication.

Over the past week, we’ve learned the Wolf administration is fixated on tax increases, adept at parroting union talking points, and prone to dividing by large denominators. The time has come to retire from campaign mode and face reality.