Pennsylvania's Four Year Long Nightmare is Over- Congratulations Governor Wolf

Election Night 2010 was an awful experience for me. Up until then, I pretty much had been used to winning elections, but on that night, my boss, the then-Majority Leader of Pennsylvania's House, got swept up in the Republican wave and lost. The then-Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, had thrown a lot of mud our way in the process, and he was elected Governor, while we lost. It was a somewhat traumatic night for a younger version of me.

That's nothing compared to what the Commonwealth went through over the last four years. Tom Corbett was an utter embarrassment. He bankrupt schools, literally, while giving away our natural resources for a super-low "impact fee" that even would make Texas blush. He attempted to grandstand on the embarrassing Sandusky-scandal, until it blew up in his face. We had wells on fire in movies (yes, burning water). We had our universities cutting sports, raising tuition, and narrowing study options. It took an all-at-once gas-tax increase to pay for the awful state of our roads. We fell to the bottom in job creation, education, and the state of our budget. In fact, one-term Tommy Corbett leaves us with a $2 billion hole in the budget. Oh, and he used state employees for political work too.

That ends today at noon though, as Tom Wolf becomes the Governor of Pennsylvania. I must admit I wasn't always in love with his candidacy (I was a Schwartz backer in the primary), but Wolf proved himself to be a most competent and capable individual. Besides, you don't need to "love" a Governor, you need to have confidence in them and respect them. Governor Wolf more than meets that standard.

So what are my hopes for our new Governor? I'll keep the bar reasonable here, he's inheriting a mess. I'm hoping he:

1. Restores education funding as fast as possible. I think this is most important. This is what he was elected to do. Our children deserve a governor who advocates for them.
2. Moves past the impact fee, into an extraction tax. I'm not expecting the Moon here, but he can at least meet the standards of Texas and Alaska. I personally think that with our current energy economy, the time is ripe to ban fracking or pass a moratorium, but a responsible tax that helps produce revenue to closer our $2 billion hole is good enough.
3. Expands Medicaid under the normal system. There have already been issues with Corbett-Care, and there's no reason to continue under the privatized system (especially since an insurer administered the program before).
4. Addresses the pension issues. No, i'm not for doing anything to hurt public workers, but the reality is that our Democratic Mayors are even struggling with pension payments, and it's putting them in a very bad spot. Even just some mild reforms, not the insane cuts Republicans will want, would help.
5. Doesn't give away too much in budget negotiations. Republicans will want liquor privatization and massive pension reform. I'm not saying he can't negotiate a deal and compromise a bit (more liquor licenses, beer in gas stations, etc.), in fact he should. I just hope it's not a total sell-out to deal with the absolute mess he inherits in the budget and the legislature.

I must confess i'm worried. Not that wolf isn't trustworthy, he is. I'm worried that the disaster he inherits and the very conservative legislature will hurt the state, and his tenure in office. I'm hoping I'm wrong there. It seems to me that we got an A+ caliber person and business man to run the state, so i'm hoping that translates into a four years that make people proud to say they're from Pennsylvania.