Sorry for my writers block over the last week or so. It comes around this time of year because of activities. I am back now in the saddle, but will probably be spare until the New Year. There are a lot of things perking now.
There was a mention in the Lancaster Paper on the front of the local section today called “Billions Needed for PA Teachers.” This is an ominous problem that I have known of for a while. In 2012, the state will have to start adding $4 billion a year to its revenue streams to meet the commitments that it made for the pensions of retired teachers—4 billion dollars annually. What’s worse? It could be much more if the economy falters. Last year the Public School Teachers Pension Fund went up by 10%. If it goes down, the state is on the hook…er,…I should say that the taxpayer is on the hook. This would represent a 15% increase in the state budget which would mean some mix of increasing taxes or decreasing spending—15%!!! This slow train is coming down the track. So far, Harrisburg is sort of hoping that the laws of physics do not apply in this case. This train is going to hit us hard if something is not done.
Here is the quandary. We have made foolish promises to state employees—particularly teachers. Ones that we are not able to keep. The sorts of promises that have hamstrung American businesses in many parts of the formerly private sector. Legislators from the local level to Harrisburg have made these promises and pushed the cost off into the future—how infantile can we get! Now, judgment day is coming. What will happen? Right now, it looks like nothing. We will look to affix blame whenever the train hits. I wish that I had a good answer. People, good people, have built their lives around these promises. Promises that we obviously will be greatly harmed by keeping.
Here are a few points that we need to consider to avoid more of these slow trains:
1. Governments at all levels must be tethered to reality. Budgets must be balanced. Magic money cannot be invented. The costs of wars and health care reforms need to hit taxpayers in real time. If they are put on some giant credit card (which is what we are doing at all levels of our country now), tax payers do not feel the pain of spending. Like a college freshman with 89 credit card applications in their mail box, they spend now and hope that money appears in the future. This must stop. Politicians must be held accountable for adolescent spending habits. We are their “daddy”, we need to take away the credit card and the keys to the Gran Torino.
2. Education must be liberated from government control. Schools must pay for themselves. Basically, what we are doing now is bailing out education every year with cash infusions that mean that bad ideas are never killed. We funnel money to public schools (an increase of $300 million in this catastrophic budget where billions were cut from other areas to the detriment of things like law enforcement!) and forget that the greatest most effective teacher is the market. If parents had to pay for the education of their students at public school rates here in Lancaster County, the public schools would vanish overnight. In my districts the cost would be close to $15,000. No one would pay that! Yet it is paid because we mask the real cost through taxes and making promises that we cannot hope to pay for.
Well, nothing I have said changes the facts—the slow train is picking up speed. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
