Published in the Bucks Local News, by Jeff Werner

March 21, 2014

Pennsylvania has come a long way in three years and the future is looking brighter, Lt. Governor Jim Cawley told members of the Lower Bucks County Chamber of Commerce on Friday.

Pennsylvania is creating jobs, putting people back to work, investing in its infrastructure, boosting education funding to record levels and putting programs in place to improve healthcare access and affordability, the Middletown Township resident told members of the chamber.

“In the three years that Tom Corbett and I were hired to do a job, we faced some significant challenges - challenges that we know all too well,” he said. “We all saw an economy that was the worst in our lifetimes. We had a severe economic downturn, we had limited revenues and those federal stimulus dollars that had propped up the economy had disappeared entirely.

“The Governor and I went to Harrisburg with a mission,” Cawley continued. “It was a mission simply to reform the way our government was conducting business, to restore fiscal discipline and perhaps, most importantly, to partner with the private sector to create opportunity to put Pennsylvanians back to work.

“And I’m proud to say we have been able to do a lot of that,” he said.

As of today, Cawley told the chamber that Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in five years, the Commonwealth’s workforce is six million strong and growing and in the years since the Corbett Administration took office, the private sector has created more than 140,000 jobs.

“And there is more good news on the way,” promised Cawley, adding that Pennsylvania alone is poised to create as many as 76,000 new jobs this year.

“We didn’t get here simply by good will,” he said. “We got here because we had to make some tough choices. We got here by eliminating a deficit of $4.2 billion. And that was what the state’s bill was on the day Tom Corbett and I took office,” said Cawley.

“The challenge we had was made even more significant because we made a very simple promise. We weren’t going to raise people’s taxes. So we had to eliminate that deficit without raising taxes,” he said.

The administration cut costs, trimmed programs and saved dollars, he said. In the Department of Public Welfare alone, Cawley said $1.9 billion in savings was achieved through cost savings, avoidance and recovery and addressing waste, fraud and abuse “while still making sure we provided for those who most need it in a quality way.”

Cawley said the administration also forced government in Harrisburg to do something “all of you do in your business and personally – simply live within your means.”

Cawley said the administration challenged state government “to stop mortgaging our children’s future. And by doing so we were able to pass three state budgets - something other administrations had been challenged to do. We passed three state budgets on time without raising taxes and by improving the efficiency of state government,” he said.

But the administration didn’t go it alone, he said.

“This was a bipartisan effort,” he said. “Republicans and Democrats alike joined together in order to make Pennsylvania’s future perhaps a little bit brighter. And I thank them for their leadership in continuing to move our state forward.

“With their help and with the help of our many Bucks County colleagues we have been able to do some significant things,” he said.

The most significant, he said, was the passage of the $2.3 billion transportation package which he said will “transform our Commonwealth.

“It will make our roads and our bridges state-of-the-art. We will be able to enter the 21st century with an infrastructure that will support the workforce of the 21st century,” he said.

The plan invests heavily in state roads, bridges, mass transit systems and in multi-model transportation networks, all of which will create 50,000 new jobs in the short term through construction projects.

In the long term, Cawley said, “It will empower our Pennsylvania to be internationally competitive.”

And it will be felt almost immediately in Bucks County.

The package allots $215 million for a major roadway reconstruction, roadway widening and bridge improvement project on U.S. Route 1 involving 2.8 miles of roadway and 11 bridges between Bensalem and Middletown.

In addition, 30 miles of Street Road will be resurfaced from Bustleton Pike to the I-95 overpass in Bensalem and Lower Southampton townships.

"After tackling that tough issue and moving down the path of prosperity we decided we wanted to continue to move in that direction. And that’s what this budget is all about. It’s about creating jobs,” said Cawley, referring to Corbett’s proposed 2014-15 budget.

“It’s about making an historic investment in education for our children. And it’s about enhancing health and human services in the Commonwealth,” he said.

Investments in job creation, in education and in health care are investments state government should and must make, said Cawley. “And the 2014-15 budget continues to make those investments even though we don’t have as much as we’d like to,” he said.

On the economic development and job creation front, the budget sets the stage and makes it clear to the rest of the world that Pennsylvania is open for business, said Cawley.

First and foremost, it restructures the corporate tax structure with a continued phase out of the capital stock and franchise tax by 2016. It also outlines a way to lower “the highest corporate income tax in the nation at 9.99 percent” over a series of years to make the Commonwealth more competitive, he said.

“We’ve already done some significant things by eliminating the inheritance tax - the debt tax - first on the family farm and then on the family business,” he continued.

Those changes, in addition to other initiatives, have resulted in a reduction of $1.2 billion in taxes on business in the Commonwealth since the start of the Corbett Administration, said Cawley.

“We want to make sure in any way we can that we send a signal that state government should be considered as a resource to establish a business or to grow a business. But we also want to make sure that we have skilled Pennsylvanians,” he said.

The budget invests $470 million for job training in two core areas – the life sciences and the technology sector through reduced interest rates on small business loans, and the Make It In Pennsylvania program, aimed at ensuring the resurgence of a bygone industry in the state, one that used to be and can be proud again – manufacturing, said Cawley.

On education, Cawley said this year alone the Commonwealth will invest $10.1 billion in public education.

“I know many have heard the old chestnut of how public education has been cut under the Corbett administration,” he said. “Let me be very clear. This year we are spending more state tax dollars on public education than we ever have in our history – ever.”

And, if the legislature passes the budget proposed by the Corbett Administration, that investment will increase by $369 million, said Cawley.

“We are going to invest that money in our Ready to Learn block grant program,” he said. “That’s going to be driven directly to the classroom. It will not be driven to a formula that can be swallowed up in bureaucratic red tape, salary and benefits and pension obligations. Its’ going to be driven directly to the classroom to allow districts to change for the better the educational opportunity and experience of our children.”In addition, said Cawley, the budget increases funding for early childhood learning by $10.8 million.

“We’re spending more for the three to five year old age range to give those children a leg up. It will benefit them for the rest of their educational experience,” said Cawley.

“And, for the first time in six years, we’re going to increase by $20 million our investment in special education,” he continued. “It’s something that’s long overdue.

“We are making sure that we create a citizenry - a work force -that is ready to meet the demands that you create in the work world of the 21st century,” he told the county’s business leaders.

The budget, said Cawley, also focuses on providing access to quality, affordable healthcare by creating the “Healthy Pennsylvania” program.

“We improve access by driving in additional funding to improve healthcare services to underserved and rural populations. We invest $9 million in our Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). It allows 10,000 more of our children to be covered by quality, affordable healthcare.

“We also insure quality by investments in long term care and support systems for seniors and people with disabilities,” said Cawley. “And we’re providing for availability and affordability by reforming our Medicaid program and we’re continuing to do something really important - relaying on the private sector to create healthcare.

“Three years ago Tom Corbett and I went to Harrisburg on a mission,” said Cawley. “It was very simple - to make Pennsylvania a better place to live, to work, to raise our families and grow old in. I got to tell you, as a homer I also went there to make Bucks County a better place to live, work, raise our families and grow old in.

“Working together, both the folks you send to Harrisburg and all of you, we’ve been able to accomplish a lot,” said Cawley. “But while we have, and while this budget provides us with the opportunity for even more, and while we have a great history in this state and in this county, our best days lie ahead so long as we have the courage to make the difficult decisions in order to get there.”

(Jeff Werner, "Lt. Governor Cawley tells Lower Bucks Chamber: ‘Pennsylvania’s best days lie ahead if we have the courage to make the difficult decisions’, 3/21/14)