News & Brews February 11, 2025
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Shapiro names corrections facilities targeted for closure
The AP reports, “Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration is recommending the closure of Rockview state prison and the Quehanna boot camp, both in central Pennsylvania, amid longer-term national trends of shrinking prison populations.” The union representing prison personnel is vowing to fight the closure, even though staff have been promised job offers “at their existing pay and classification at a nearby correctional institution.” Even with the announcement, the closures are not a done deal. The administration noted “that public comment will be accepted for three months before a final decision is made.”
‘School choice revs up again in the states’
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board gives a run down of school choice expansion across the states, noting that “the momentum is continuing this year in some of the laggards.” Pennsylvania gets a call-out not for our progress but for the betrayal of our governor. “[W]ill Pennsylvania lawmakers give scholarships another shot after Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro let them down the last two years?” Unfortunately, Shapiro falls in the category the ed board goes on to describe: “Democrats once competed on education, but these days they are owned by the unions.”
Seth Grove: ‘Government waste is no accident’
Republican Rep. Seth Grove (York County) writes in Broad + Liberty that “[t]he amount of money the federal government wastes in improper payments is astounding … [at] $2.7 trillion in improper payments since 2003.” Annually, this is on average about three times Pennsylvania’s yearly budget. “The outrage from the media-machine” at Trump’s efforts to root out waste “is very telling” and “is one of the most ironic moments in modern American history.” Grove writes that here in Pa., he has worked for years to root out $3 billion in Medicaid fraud. “Attorney General Shapiro was in full support of these bills. However, as titles and allegiances have changed, it is questionable if this is still the case.” Grove concludes that “Pennsylvania needs a DOGE-level shakeup, but it must be coordinated with the executive branch.”
The ‘silent partners’ in Shapiro’s budget
Commonwealth Foundation Senior Fellow in Labor Policy David Osborne writes that between the lines of Gov. Shapiro’s budget address were some silent partners: government unions. “Public sector unions stand behind every special interest group that benefits from Shapiro’s nearly $51.5 billion budget,” Osborne writes. “Teachers, firefighters, police, corrections officers, state workers, transit workers, social workers, childcare workers, and home healthcare workers received substantial attention during the address.” For example, “more funding for in-home health care is the Service Employees International Union’s golden goose.” And hundreds of millions of additional dollars spent on the education bureaucracy gives the Pennsylvania State Education Association “exactly what it wants.”
Dem challenger to Pittsburgh mayor hauls in cash
Democrat Corey O’Connor, who is challenging incumbent Democrat Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, is garnering attention for the amount of money he raised in January. WESA reports, “O’Connor … raised close to $465,000 in only one month, adding to the roughly $250,000 he had raised by the end of 2024. Comparatively, Gainey raised only around $24,000 in the month of January, adding to his campaign coffer of $268,000 that he had raised by the end of last year.” O’Connor has drawn the support of multiple unions, as well as a pro-Israel organization.