Is Pennsylvania In A Crisis?
Is Pennsylvania in a crisis? This is a question on the minds of many Pennsylvania citizens these days. People in the state are being bombarded by all the television news media stories extolling the job performance that the governor, Josh Shapiro, is doing. And after watching these news stories, one might be lead to believe that all is well here in the state. But doubts abound on the subject of the economy, immigration, pending job cuts, taxes, crime and more.
And if you just peek under all the hype, there are many serious issues that haven’t been addressed. Governor Shapiro has spent a lot of time boasting about how he cut property taxes for Pennsylvania seniors. The bill that was passed expands the Pennsylvania property tax/rent rebate program by 175,000 seniors. While that sounds like a huge win for the seniors, it only applies to around 575,000 seniors out of the total 2.27 million seniors that reside in the state. While this property tax cut is much appreciated by the seniors, the current size of the program is a slap in the face to the more than 1.75 million seniors that get nothing. Keep in mind that property taxes in Pennsylvania are not what you would call low.
And once you look at the state’s economy, concerns grow. Pennsylvania is one of the states that have been losing population. Things have gotten so bad that the state lost one representative in Congress. Too many major employers have moved leaving workers without jobs. The governor speaks proudly of his close relationship with the unions in the state. The state’s website shows dollar amounts and the number of union jobs that have supposedly been created by his policies. Reality is that most of these jobs are the direct result of the trillions of borrowed dollars the federal government is spending via the Inflation Reduction Act that was recently passed by Congress. And while the spending that the act has put into the system has many positive aspects to it, it does come with a serious drawback, namely by creating high inflation. Much talk focuses on how the governor is working to create good paying union jobs by funding apprenticeship programs with the unions. While on the surface, this sounds great, once this is examined under the light of day, this is nothing more than handouts to the unions who are one of the largest supporters of the Democrat party. Once the money the Inflation Reduction Act dries up, there will be an overabundance of skilled union workers here in the state. The most likely result will be that they will grow unhappy with the fact that they can’t get work here in the state and will move to other states where job opportunities are plentiful as has happened in the past.
This leads us to the state of the economy in Pennsylvania. Currently the numbers look fairly decent; but lurking just below the surface is a growing number of looming layoffs. Employers have cut over 8,000 jobs in the first nine months of 2023. This is more than the entire number of layoffs that happened in all of 2022. The largest employers are required to notify the state of upcoming layoffs and that looks to be around 8,600 additional job cuts coming in the near future. Keep in mind that Pennsylvania is suffering from the effects of high inflation just like the rest of the country, but high taxes, especially on gasoline, just add to the pain people are experiencing. Used homes here in the state are in very short supply and are priced out of the reach of a majority of new home buyers. Couple this with the high prices of automobiles and high interest rates that make payments for most new cars above what most people can afford and you have a recipe for a downturn.
And lastly, Pennsylvania also is suffering from the liberal Democrat policies that have been recently enacted. Crime is a growing concern in most of the major cities. Some cities, like Pittsburgh, are looking to divert money from police department budgets, into untested liberal agenda items. Shootings in the cities are happening on a daily basis reaching a scale of near lawlessness in many inner city neighborhoods. And with the liberal Democrat push for equity, many lawbreakers are only getting a slap on the hand. Crime is one of the major issues Pennsylvania voters have on their minds.
So the politicians are attempting to make the citizens of the state believe that all is well while problems are growing to the point they could quickly get out of control. The outlook for the future of Pennsylvania is fuzzy to say the least, but prudence would dictate that people should plan for a downturn.