Harrisburg Shareholders Report Is Bleak By Sen. Scott Wagner
I would like to give everyone an end of year report on Harrisburg and some observations I have made since I joined the PA State Senate in April of 2014.
My belief as a private sector business owner is that it is critical to tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.
In other words, this is my report to the shareholders of PA.
I have 35 years experience in the private sector so I feel I have a high level of common sense.
I tell people I have been in the Harrisburg sausage factory for 20 months.
I have searched high and low to find the health department inspection report to tell me when the last health inspection took place (I think it has been some time since the last health inspection – possibly over 25 years ago).
Sausage routinely drops on the floor in Harrisburg.
The standard practice is to pick up the sausage on the floor and put it back on the packing line.
What the heck…. no one will notice.
For almost 40 years things have been done in Harrisburg the same way – so why change?
Or more simply put…..Harrisburg is a rudderless ship without a real captain.
In the private sector business world the owner is usually in the building – this is not the case in Harrisburg.
I want to be clear to everyone……people from both political parties are responsible for the current mess in Harrisburg.
There are countless things that are simply wrong.
For example, there are almost 1,000 people receiving annual state pension payouts that are over $100,000 per year ………..in fact the top two pension recipients are both former Penn State Administrators.
The top person receiving a government pension gets $477,000 per year.
The number two person receiving a pension gets $455,000 per year.
Even more disturbing is that of the top 25 people on the list of almost 1,000 people receiving annual state pensions of $100,000 or more per year, 13 are former Penn State employees.
This year’s budget is expected to give Penn State – $263 Million Dollars.
Last year Penn State received $214 Million Dollars.
The current practice in Harrisburg is to give Penn State more money each year so the fat cats get fatter.
Does anyone see this as simply wrong?
Here is another example – In the last 12 months two former Senate employees left the Senate and cashed in on unused vacation days, sick days and personal time – the first person walked away with a check for $112,000 and the second person walked away with $110,000.
In the private sector business world most companies have a use it or lose it policy.
Does anyone think this policy is being abused and wrong …….and should the current Harrisburg policy be stopped?
Everyone is watching the current budget disaster.
In this year’s budget, the Philadelphia school district will receive $101 Million Dollars more in funding than they received last year.
I can absolutely guarantee you that not one nickel of the additional $101 Million Dollars will find its way into the classroom.
Did you know that Philadelphia school teachers do not pay anything toward their health insurance?
In the private sector business world most employees pay 23 -25% of their monthly health care costs.
Some private sector employees pay more than 25% toward their monthly health care costs.
The additional $101 Million Dollars going to the Philadelphia Schools will get sucked up by rising health care costs and wage increases and step up salary adjustments that the union will demand.
Of course the rest will go toward pensions…..simply put….. the children in Philadelphia that this money is to help….. …..get shafted once again!!
Harrisburg has given truckloads of money to Philadelphia Schools over the last 12 years.
Have the drop-out rates fallen? Have graduation rates risen? The answer is NO!!
For almost 30 years I have collected phrases that have been helpful to me in business.
Here are a few – if only they could be applied in Harrisburg.
1. My Favorite – “Align your expectations with reality”.
2. “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
3. “If it doesn’t get measured – It can’t be managed!”
4. “If you don’t give enough attention to what deserves attention – at some point it will take a lot of attention.”
No one takes ownership in Harrisburg – why would they – it’s just a job.
There is zero accountability.
When I say you don’t know what you don’t know, it applies to many people in the Capitol who come out of high school or college and got a job in government without any real world experience……it also applies to many elected officials.
These same people are inside the Capitol cooking up regulations and policies.
These same people are working on the budget and calculating tax increases.
These same people have never experienced a recession in the private sector business world when major cutbacks and decisions had to be made to survive and not end up in bankruptcy.
On measuring – I can tell you this – not ONE single thing is measured in Harrisburg like we do in the private sector business world.
Harrisburg is a monster that will continue to eat money by the truckloads and will get fatter if we continue to feed it!
I have been through at least five recessions over my private sector business career – surviving a recession meant cutting expenses and making tough decisions including layoffs of personnel – it was not a time when price increases could be passed on to customers.
Harrisburg needs to…..and must go on a diet.
The time is now to trim the trees in Harrisburg.
Everyone talks about corruption, disclosure and conflict of interest in Harrisburg – here is an example of one of the worst cases and it is state wide.
In PA we have 500 school districts.
Each school district has an independent volunteer school board. Most school boards have nine members. These school boards negotiate wage increases, benefit increases and finally the same school boards set the step up program.
What is the step up program? It works like this.
– A teacher comes out of college and receives a starting salary of approximately $50,000 per year
– This teacher needs additional education credits to advance their career
– The number is around 24 credits
– As credits are earned the teachers annual salary goes up
In my home district after filing right to know requests, I discovered one teacher who started with an annual salary of $50,000 and within five years earned all 24 credits and fast tracked to a $90,000 annual salary.
And by the way the costs for the extra credits are paid for by the school district.
I will wrap up on this point.
As I mentioned earlier most school boards have nine board members. I can guarantee you this – at least one third of the members and maybe up to two thirds of the members on the school boards state wide are either teachers, married to a teacher, have children who are teachers, or have a brother or sister who are teachers.
The PSEA (Pennsylvania State Education Association) has a tremendous amount of power and influence in Harrisburg……they have been very clever to make sure that friends of teachers are loaded on school boards across PA.
Does this smell like corruption and conflict of interest to you?
You tell me….
Sen. Wagner represents the 28th District in the Pennsylvania Senate.