Columnist Urges PA. Dem. Legislators to Show Some Backbone (in return for their gas tax votes) [View all]

[JPZenger]

http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/06/post_8.html#incart_river_default

By long-time Harrisburg political columnist John Micek

Excerpt:

"...House Democrats have been asked to put up 60 to 75 votes of the 102 votes needed to get a transportation-funding bill to Corbett’s desk by June 30. Tax-averse House Republicans don’t want to go anywhere near the highway bill because it includes steep hikes to license and registration fees and moving violation fines. As an added bonus, plans favored by both the Corbettistas and the Senate GOP also call for uncapping Pennsylvania’s wholesale gasoline tax, which will almost be certainly passed along at the pump.

...If House Democratic leaders are smart and aggressive, and there’s some evidence of the former, but precious little of the latter, they will demand something in return. That something, logic dictates, should be an up-or-down vote on the state’s participation in the federal Medicaid expansion. Corbett has resisted.

Interest groups ranging from the hospitals to even some chambers of commerce are now pushing for it, arguing that it will bring tens of millions of dollars into the state, create jobs and drive down the cost of uncompensated care, which causes higher insurance bills for just about everyone.

But “instead of having no power, which is how they are acting, they have all the power,” said one Democratic strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Without them, nothing gets done.”