The Government of the Commonwealth

A great thing about this blog thing is when you fell like you are just yelling at the wall your online buddies pick you up. As Jane pointed out we have a great blog community going on in our corner of the world.

The one thing I have noticed in almost all the stuff I read lately is liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican most of us think the government of the Commonwealth needs some improvement. And that's putting it mildly. Forget specific policies such as minimum wage, tax cuts, etc. The process is the problem. There is some hope. The pay raise thing set off a firestorm but it doesn't end there. The few people who showed up to vote in the primary threw out a bunch of long time state legislators including the top 2 guys of the Republican leadership in the state senate. Many other tribunes of the people chose to retire instead of facing the wrath of the voters. The job is not done. There are many problems with the way the state government conducts business. Lobbyist don't have to disclose how much money they spend and on who? They legalized slot machines and promised that that it will solve all our funding problems for a myriad of problems, then created 14 agencies to regulate it all. There are some technical issues in the state house that keep bills from being voted up or down.

The biggest problem with our legislature and the US House of Representatives is gerrymandering. A couple of states have taken redistricting out of the politicians hands. It will be a cold day in hell when that happens here but we can try. Why should districts be drawn to favor one person or one party over another?

My friends at Penn Patriot have some suggestions and give a list of groups all over the ideological spectrum that want some changes:

Please support these reform groups that are advocates for state government reform
Common Cause Pennsylvania
Commonwealth Foundation
League Of Women Voters
PA Citizens For Legislative Accountability
PA Council of Churches
Rock The Capita
Stop the Illegal Pay Raise, INC
Young Conservatives of Pennsylvania (YCOP)
Democracy Rising