Pa. is poised to fall off budget cliff

Pennsylvania is staring at a fiscal cliff.

It’s easy but perilous to ignore state budget minutiae amid a contentious presidential election. Right now is when the state budget needs the most sunlight. That’s always tough to find in Harrisburg, which makes lawmakers’ abbreviated schedule ( they meet Wednesday for the last time until after the election) particularly risky.

After the shutdown in March, revenues cratered, and Harrisburg passed a fivemonth budget that flat- funded most state agencies ( except education). It bought time to get a clearer economic picture, and for the federal government to provide fiscal relief for state and local governments.

That federal help never came, and our budget expires at the end of November. If we don’t start looking at the budget in a newway, this recovery could be slower andmore painful than the one that followed the 2008 Great Recession.

First, we can’t keep throwing money into the same old buckets. COVID has forced a radical realignment of priorities, and Pennsylvania’s budget should reflect that. Industries across the commonwealth have not fared equally — restaurants and hospitality have suffered mightily, for example. Arts and culture organizations are looking at a year or more of virtually no income. More than a million Pennsylvanians could be facing eviction come January. Targeted stimulus spending could help, but any flat budget ignores the radical shifts that a COVID and postCOVID economy demands.

Second, the state needs to be more transparent about what cuts we’re likely to see if federal help doesn’t come soon and to give Pennsylvanians a clearer voice in the process. That transparency was lacking when the five- month budget passed in June. State law requires that Pennsylvania balance its budget, and yet we’re currently looking at an approximately $ 4.5 billion deficit.

Finally, the state needs new revenue. If Republicans retain control of either theU. S. Senate or theWhite House, federal relief is no more likely to come than it has been in the last seven months. Even if Democrats win both, relief is unlikely to come before February. So lawmakers in Harrisburg must find new revenue and fast.

The usual tricks and sleights of hand that comprise many budget seasons are not going to cut it this time. Without radical transparency and a willingness to consider innovative funding sources, lawmakers will doom this recovery to be longer and more painful than the last one.

— The Philadelphia Inquirer

Trout habitat in peril

Here we go again. For several hours Thursday, a stretch of prime trout habitat in the Bushkill Creek ran dry, as backup pumps at the Hercules Cement plant in Stockertown failed to keep resupplying water to the streamfromnearby quarries.

A similar event in June left the stream bed bare, killing an estimated 2,000 brown trout, along with baitfish and other aquatic life. Unlike that event, which was caused by a lightning strike, Thursday’s episode came about during a four- hour repair period planned by Hercules. The company had secured three diesel pumps to fill in for the regular electric pumps that send water from nearby quarries back into the creek. Hercules Environmental Manager Keith Williams said the backup pumps weren’t powerful enough to overcome elevation changes between the quarries and the creek.

Members of TroutUnlimited, who monitored the creek Thursday, said the number of fish killed this time was probably lessened by the damage caused by the June washout, noting that it can take three to five years for a trout population to recover after a large kill. Chapter President Joe Baylog said a washout is particularly stressful at this time of year. Spawning season is approaching for brown trout, when eggs are laid in the creek bed.

Hercules officials say that sinkholes in the creek, which drain the waterway when the pumps are shut down, pose long- term problems for maintaining water flow. Recurrences are likely to wipe out a trout habitat that existed long before humans began damming up the Bushkill Creek for grist mills and mining.

This is a public- private dilemma, and all parties need to come up with a plan for a long- term solution, before the taxpayer is left holding the plug for a disappearing, oncevibrant waterway.