BCT Editorial – 6/26/08

This page was last updated on June 28, 2008.

Building a future; Editorial; Beaver County Times; June 26, 2008.

The editorial subtitle is “State must be careful to use debt constructively.”

The editorial refers to New Jersey “Gov. Dave Corzine.” Unless NJ has a new governor or Mr. Corzine changed his given name, the NJ governor is Jon Stevens Corzine.

Back in 2006 we read another editorial sticking up for Mr. Rendell’s debt proposals.

The editorial said, “Rendell didn’t take the state’s low debt load as an excuse to borrow irresponsibly. He always includes a way to pay for bond issues he proposes.” What the editorial failed to note is Article VIII, Section 12 of the PA Constitution requires the governor to submit a “balanced operating budget.” Since another editorial on a different topic acknowledged “the state must balance its budget every year,” it’s clear the Times was trying to give Mr. Rendell credit for something he was required to do by law.

Getting to the core of the editorial, I don’t know as much as I probably should about the details, but it’s clear a chunk of the borrowing is for items that are not commonwealth responsibilities.