Our holiday wish list for Pa. legislators

It’s time to Ho, Ho, Ho! Actually, voters in Pennsylvania did their own version of Santa’s greeting, showing a number of incumbent legislators the door back in November. Democrats gave the heave ho, ho, ho to a number of incumbent Republicans.

Republicans said it was the expected backlash against a very unpopular president.

Democrats said it was dissatisfaction with the status quo and inaction in Harrisburg.

With that in mind, we’ve put together a wish list of our own for when legislators return to the state capitol in a few weeks.

First and foremost, we’d like to see more bipartisan dialogue and less strident, partisan standoff.

Don’t say it can’t be done. Sen. Tom Killion, R-9 of Middletown, managed to spearhead legislation that changed state laws when it comes to guns and those convicted of domestic abuse. There are those who said the National Rifle Association, which holds serious sway in that wide gulf between Lancaster and Pittsburgh in the Keystone State, would never allow such a crackdown to become law. They were wrong.

Gov. Tom Wolf, not surprisingly since he was running for re-election, dropped much of his tax-hike talk and got a budget in place on time, something that too often eludes the folks in Harrisburg. It will be interesting to see what kind of spending plan the governor comes up with now that he is free from the thought of running for re-election.

We’re not going to hold our breath waiting for legislators to support increases in either the sales or income tax, but a new debate on a severance tax on the state’s natural gas industry could get very interesting.

The biggest disappointment in Harrisburg this past year is fairly easy. Despite wide support and overwhelming passage in the House, a move to open a window to allow victims of decades-old sexual abuse have their day in court never even got to the floor for a vote in the Senate. Not only did the Legislature not open that window for victims, it also failed to make needed changes in the law for future cases.

McGarrigle had indicated he would revisit the push to help victims as his first action of the new session. We hope someone steps up and takes up the fight for justice.

There are other key issues that will fall into the lap of the new Legislature, most of them are rooted in the old Legislature.

Did you happen to notice that Pennsylvania – specifically our southeastern corner of the state – sent four Democratic women to Washington? That is four more than represented Pennsylvania before the November election.

The way Congressional districts were drawn up was done so specifically to favor incumbent male Republicans. That is until the state Supreme Court tossed the old boundaries as being a classic case of a political gerrymander. Not only that, but the high court drew up new maps of their own. But while they treated the illness, the court’s action did not cure the disease.

The power of redrawing Congressional boundaries, which will happen again after the 2020 census, remains in the hands of politicians. And that’s not a good thing, regardless of which party is in power.

Fixing that, and giving this job to a non-partisan committee, is at the top of our Christmas wish list for our friends in Harrisburg.

Then they can set their sights on fixing the way Pennsylvania funds its public schools, a system that continues to penalize too many kids in less affluent areas for no reason other than their zip code. A lawsuit against the state and the way it doles out education funding is due in court later next year.

While they’re at it, maybe our legislators can take another whack at the bane of every homeowner in Pennsylvania, the property tax. That will be an especially ticklish situation in Delaware County as officials get ready to reassess every property in the county.

Then there is the ticking time bomb in every state budget in recent years – the growing gulf of red ink in the state’s two massive public employee pension plans.

Congratulations to our incoming legislators.

Don’t be Grinches. Roll up your sleeves and arrive ready to work. Or we’ll put coal in your stockings.