Pennsylvanians deserve better from our state legislators

Imagine this happening at your workplace: Your managers cannot figure out what tasks ought to take priority, and what the workplace rules ought to be, so they announce that no official action will occur for a month. Never fear, though: Everyone still gets paid.

Actually, this would never happen at your workplace. Politicians like to boast about how much real-world experience they’ll bring to elective office, but they seem to forget it all once they’re voted in.

So, instead of legislating, the Pennsylvania House is currently playing a high-stakes game of freeze tag. The Democrats and Republicans can’t agree on their working rules, and the two sides don’t trust each other, so House Speaker Mark Rozzi literally locked the House chamber, perhaps to keep the Republicans from staging another late-night photo op like they did earlier this month.

Rozzi said the chamber will meet again after Feb. 27, after three Feb. 7 Allegheny County special elections that Democrats are expected to win — which would, as Spotlight PA reported, “cement the party’s first majority in 12 years.”

In the meantime, the Pennsylvania Legislature is in recess — a word that’s never seemed more apt, given the childish bickering that’s been going on among Democrats and Republicans in the state House.

And the issues that Pennsylvanians care about — property tax reform, education, the environment, the state of democracy, the state economy — remain on the back burner.

Holding a narrow — and likely temporary — majority, state House Republicans seemed to enter the new legislative session with one goal in mind. And that was to push through — as quickly as possible — proposed constitutional amendments in time to get those amendments on the May municipal primary ballot, when fewer Pennsylvanians are expected to vote.

Those amendments would impose stricter voter ID requirements and enable the Legislature to overrule the governor on environmental and business regulations.

Rozzi, a Berks County Democrat who won the House speakership with the support of both Republicans and Democrats, is aiming to get a worthier constitutional amendment passed that would create a two-year window during which victims of childhood sexual abuse — who have aged out of the statute of limitations — could sue their abusers, and those who enabled their abuse, in civil court. Rozzi vowed not to consider any legislation until the General Assembly agreed to pass the litigation window for childhood sexual abuse survivors.

That didn’t happen. So Rozzi recessed the House — in spite of objections from Republicans — and now is on a statewide “listening” tour to get input about the state House from voters and good-government groups.

What Pennsylvanians deserve is a Legislature that tackles property tax and school funding reform in a comprehensive and bipartisan way, so that school districts consistently get equitable state funding, eliminating the need for them to raise real estate taxes that unfairly burden senior citizens on fixed incomes.

They deserve a Legislature that — instead of seeking to expand its power over regulations — ensures that Pennsylvanians, as promised in the state constitution, maintain the “right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.”

They deserve a Legislature that acts to protect democracy and voter access. Rushing constitutional amendments onto the ballots of a low-turnout municipal primary election is not protecting democracy. It’s seeking to subvert it.

They deserve a Legislature that works to ensure that the Pennsylvania economy remains strong and businesses continue to thrive, because workers see the commonwealth as a place where diverse families can flourish and children can get excellent public educations that prepare them for their futures.

Rozzi chose three Republican and three Democratic House members to form a work group aiming at “breaking the partisan gridlock” and hammering out rules that would enable both parties to work together on the abuse survivor amendment.

The Democratic members of Rozzi’s rules group had said they wanted to hear from the public before they agreed to rules. But none of the three Democrats showed up to Rozzi’s listening session Wednesday night in Pittsburgh.

As longtime observers of the goings-on in Harrisburg, we find none of this surprising. But we are nevertheless saddened because we want state government to work for the betterment of Pennsylvanians.

We can and ought to demand better.