AS OUR STATE officials put the finishing touches on the budget — we hope — you need to consider that it has been more than 100 days since the date they were supposed to have the new budget in effect.

Just think what happens if you don’t pay your state taxes for more than 100 days. Maybe we should all try that.

A wise man once said that in every country you need a revolution every 200 years. It’s pretty evident that we need one here in Pennsylvania. If not a revolution, at least an evolution.

It is ludicrous that we have 253 members in our General Assembly — 50 senators and 203 representatives — and all receive big salaries and phenomenal benefits.

And yet when it comes to serving the people we found out how much they cared when they failed to pass the budget by the mandated time, which hurt citizens of all ages and cost some people their livelihoods.

It is time to start a “Reform Party” and give control of our state back to the people. Each district needs to find a Reform Party candidate who agrees with the concept that you will be seeking a job you want to lose.

By putting enough Reform Party people in the General Assembly, you would then vote to form a Constitutional Congress — I’m sure the citizens would then vote for it — to completely change the constitution of our state. The big proposed change would be that we cut the number of legislators from 203 to 100. Keep 50 senators. And all would be part-time employees of the state who would meet one month in the spring — when they work on the budget and GET IT PASSED — and two weeks in the fall to enact any other action. If there is an emergency session or vote needed, everything can be done through the Internet from the state officials’ homes.

Other states have part-time officials who run their business quite nicely and only meet for a short period each year.

Now I have to warn you, once we alter the government to make it more efficient, there will be some changes. They won’t be able to hand out all those ridiculous state “proclamations” to every person who ever helped an elderly person cross the street or every team that won a state basketball game.

Whereas the cost of those things alone to taxpayers has to be staggering and whereas they are usually a joke and whereas I can’t stand that every sentence starts with “Whereas” — it’s time to get rid of them.

All 253 of our high-paid state officials have let us down on the budget process. Not to properly serve the people of this commonwealth and have that budget ready by June 30 is not only the height of incompetence, it is the height of arrogance. They obviously think they can do anything they want and not pay the piper for it.

Most officials will claim that they were not on the budget committees so they are not at fault. If it were me, I would have been in the face of every member of those committees every day demanding that they do their job or resign. But then again, I’m not a person who likes to sit back and get paid for doing nothing.

It’s time for massive reform in the state of Pennsylvania. Let’s get the Reform Party rolling.



The Herald’s Lynn Saternow writes this column each Saturday for the Opinion page.