Pennsylvania is facing a multi-billion dollar economic crisis the likes of which our state has never seen. We need solutions to protect Pennsylvania's future and economic stability for our children, our grandchildren and ourselves, and we need them now.

This morning, Governor Ed Rendell gave his annual budget address to a joint session of Pennsylvania's General Assembly. But I have a different idea about how to revitalize Pennsylvania's economy.

Taxing Pennsylvania's hardworking families and small businesses, as the Governor pledged this morning, is not the answer. We must fight for best interest of all Pennsylvanians, including the small businesses that keep millions of Pennsylvanians at work.

If I am elected to serve as your next Governor, I will fight for fiscally responsible policies. I will fight to get Pennsylvania back on the right track, and will make job growth and economic stability my number one priority.

With record high unemployment and businesses fleeing our state, millions of Pennsylvania taxpayers are struggling every day to pay their bills and to make ends meet. Harrisburg put off the tough decisions and delayed the inevitable until now when the day of reckoning is upon us. As the governor indicated this morning, the state's annual public pension contribution will grow from nearly $600 million this year to almost $4 billion by 2012-13. We must work fast to come up with real solutions to our economic problems.That's why I have called for a Special Session on Pennsylvania's Economic Recovery to tackle these problems immediately.

Should the Governor choose not to call for a special session, as the next Governor I will on my first day in office invoke the power granted by Pennsylvania's Constitution to convene the legislature for a special session on economic recovery to address our state's long-term fiscal stability and health and give Pennsylvania taxpayers a voice in Harrisburg.

I know that together we can work to ensure prosperity for all Pennsylvanians.