Short posting, for two reasons. I'm busy as hell right now writing a book; and Jon Geeting pretty much says everything that needs to be said in his new Keystone Politics blog post:
Why Didn’t the Philadelphia Delegation Offer to Trade Alcohol Reform Votes for School Money?
He's spinning it off a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial today by Patrick Kerkstra: Ineffective Philly Leaders.
You should read both. Here is the Inquirer link; read it first. Then read the Keystone Politics link, here.
The point? Philly's almost entirely Democratic legislative delegation voted in lockstep against liquor privatization to satisfy organized labor, and missed a chance to compromise with Governor Corbett and Republicans to get desperately needed State money for Philadelphia's schools. As Geeting put it,
The only reason the Democrats aren’t offering Tom Corbett this trade is
that they are putting coalition management concerns – placating the
United Food and Commercial Workers union – ahead of adequate school
funding for kids. Which makes sense in a perverse way – UFCW members
donate money and this is a voting issue for them, while poor kids in
Philly aren’t legally allowed to vote and can’t donate money to
Democrats because their families are poor. The coalition management
calculation is obvious, but the moral calculation is even more obvious.
Consumers and city school districts could get a badly-needed win if
Democrats would simply vote their districts rather than subsidizing rural Republicans’ drinking habits.
This is a voting issue. If your legislator screwed up on this vote, tell them, NOW, that if they screw up again in September, they've lost your vote.
Gotta go. I'll be back shortly with some news about where this blog is headed; major changes coming because of major changes in my career.
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