Friday, May 18, 2007
Misguided Governor
The latest labor force statistics have been released and the news for Pennsylvanians is not good—the state lost 2,100 non-farm jobs from March to April. In response the Governor chose to boast about the year-over-year gains of nearly 47,000 jobs (0.8 percent). While the gains made from April 2006 to April 2007 are positive, they lag the national growth rate of 1.3 percent.
Significant losses were felt in the Construction industry as well as in Leisure and Hospitality, and Manufacturing, which continues its downward spiral. The strongest industry in Pennsylvania continues to be Education and Health Services, which posted a 0.3 percent gain from March and 2.7 percent since April 2006.
But growth in Education and Health Services can be misleading since this industry is highly dependent on government spending. Furthermore the Governor has been going around the state handing out large checks to select industries and has announced yet another corporate giveaway program called the “First Industries Fund”. This Fund will continue his policy of funneling taxpayer money to businesses without seeing any appreciable returns. Picking and choosing industries to subsidize continues to be a losing proposition for taxpayers.
If the Governor were serious about “our commitment to economic and workforce development” he would begin by taking the shackles off all business by eliminating the capital stock and franchise tax, reducing the corporate income tax, and eliminating onerous regulations such as mandated wages and compulsory unionism. True economic freedom, and not shell games, will enable the Commonwealth to grow opportunity as well as jobs.
Significant losses were felt in the Construction industry as well as in Leisure and Hospitality, and Manufacturing, which continues its downward spiral. The strongest industry in Pennsylvania continues to be Education and Health Services, which posted a 0.3 percent gain from March and 2.7 percent since April 2006.
But growth in Education and Health Services can be misleading since this industry is highly dependent on government spending. Furthermore the Governor has been going around the state handing out large checks to select industries and has announced yet another corporate giveaway program called the “First Industries Fund”. This Fund will continue his policy of funneling taxpayer money to businesses without seeing any appreciable returns. Picking and choosing industries to subsidize continues to be a losing proposition for taxpayers.
If the Governor were serious about “our commitment to economic and workforce development” he would begin by taking the shackles off all business by eliminating the capital stock and franchise tax, reducing the corporate income tax, and eliminating onerous regulations such as mandated wages and compulsory unionism. True economic freedom, and not shell games, will enable the Commonwealth to grow opportunity as well as jobs.
