Pa. political elites take their party to NYC

You would think a state that makes you visit three different places to secure beer, wine and liquor would know how to throw a party. Apparently not.

Yes, it’s once again that festive time of year when our elected representatives, along with assorted other movers and shakers in Pennsylvania politics gather to slap each other on the back and make merry.

And what’s wrong with that? Nothing really. We like a good party as much as anyone. All except for one thing. As they have done for decades, the swells — Pennsylvania’s elite — collectively thumb their nose at the rest of us schlubs by gathering not Philly or Pittsburgh — hell not even in Harrisburg or Punxsutawney. No they make the trek 190 miles north to gather in New York City.

Yes, this past weekend once again our statewide inferiority complex is underscored by the annual gathering called the Pennsylvania Society.

That is not a typo. You read it right. The Pennsylvania Society meets in the New York City. The Big Apple. No wonder so many people back here in Pennsylvania get themselves twisted into a pretzel over this annual exercise in having your nose rubbed in it.

And we’re not the only ones that feel this way.

This is not the first time we have wagged our finger at this annual excess. It’s one thing for Pennsylvania’s power players to be wined and dined by lobbyists and others looking to bend the ears of those who write our laws. In fact, as sad as it sounds, we’ve come to expect it. Yes, there is more than a little wink-wink, nod-nod in all this glad-handing and back-slapping. We’re not saying there is any quid pro quo in all this frivolity; we’d also be fools to believe that those who are shelling out big bucks to foot the tab for this ritzy shindig don’t expect to get a little bang for their buck.

It’s called influence. And it don’t come cheap. In Pennsylvania, or New York.

The truly galling thing in all this continues to be the fact that all of this money is being spent not here in the Keystone State, not helping the bottom line of these folks’ constituents, but rather in the Big Apple.

They put the Monongahela, Susquehanna and Schuylkill in the rear-view mirror and set sail for the weekend in the Big Apple.

The Plaza and Waldorf-Astoria’s gain is Pennsylvania hotels’ loss. It takes a special kind of gall to pull off that kind of insult to injury.

Meet the Pennsylvania Legislature, one of the biggest and most expensive such cabals in the nation. And what do we get for it? A balanced budget? A decent, fair education funding plan? Stable property taxes? A solution to a ticking time bomb that is our two massively underfunded public employee pension plans?

Not exactly. We get to buy wine in some supermarkets. Welcome to Pennsylvania, Land of Giants.

All of this must be especially galling to the 450 state workers who recently received layoff notices from their jobs at the state Department of Labor & Industry. They’ll be out of work effective Dec. 19. They’re pawns in just one more standoff between Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Republicans in the state Legislature.

They probably will be doing their holiday partying in slightly less extravagant digs closer to home than their elected representatives.

Come February, Wolf will once again present a spending plan which will immediately be greeted with guffaws from Republicans in Harrisburg.

They don’t like the governor’s penchant for seeking new taxes to fund programs, in particular his gambit — which he now has tried unsuccessfully twice — to raise both the sales and personal income taxes.

In recent years we have lauded the governor for eschewing this annual exercise in excess that amounts to a huge slap in the face of Pennsylvania taxpayers. Once again this year the governor is stepping up, donating $10,000 to each of three state food banks in lieu of rubbing elbows with the elites in the Big Apple. We wish more of his counterparts did likewise.

At a minimum, they should move the party back here to Pennsylvania. Spread the money around. Alternate it in different parts of the state each year.

Maybe they could event add a few “commoners” to the guest list.

After all, eventually, they’re the ones who pick up the tab.