Your Letterss: Monday

Meet deadline

In a recent column, Sen. John Wozniak, D-Westmont, wrote that the consistent failure of Pennsylvania’s elected officials to pass a timely budget is not a sign of inept legislators, but of a vibrant democracy.

While his mini civics lesson does an admirable job of putting the budget process into a larger historical context, he fails to account for the very real suffering that the lack of a budget causes for the numerous state employees who must continue to work without paychecks.

Wozniak rejects the idea of withholding elected officials’ paychecks until a budget is passed. Without a trace of irony, he claims that this would give the governor a political advantage over the “regular folks” in the legislature who are struggling to make ends meet. Granted, with an average salary of $78,314 our legislators are far from rich. But if you factor in the thousands more in benefits they enjoy, they are in a much better position to weather a few missed paychecks than the state workers who are squeezed in these annual budget theatrics.

I am all in favor of a healthy budget debate but, unlike Wozniak, I think it should be concluded before the deadline. If I blow a deadline at my job, I expect serious consequences. My boss would not celebrate my failure as a sign of a healthy, democratic workplace.

I don’t think the citizens of Pennsylvania should swallow this either. Adopting a budget is the most basic function of a legislature; why do we tolerate less?

Stephen Kochersperger Boalsburg