Pennsylvania Needs a New Car

By Russ Diamond

...on the need for a limited, citizens' constitutional convention for Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania's institutions of government remind me of those junkers.

Allegations of public corruption in the Legislature, the Luzerne County judicial scandal, and seven straight years of budget debacles due to a Governor playing politics have left the citizens of this Commonwealth in the breakdown lane far too often. A recent Franklin & Marshall College poll indicated that zero percent of Pennsylvanians believe the legislature is doing an excellent job. Zero! Prospects for actual justice are unclear due to scandal and questionable Supreme Court rulings on the slots bill and the pay raise. The Executive annually toys with people like they're pawns in his personal chess game.

Pennsylvania state government has been belching blue smoke, leaking oil, and backfiring for far too long. It seems to be perpetually stuck on the side of the road and no amount of duct tape or wire ties will fix it. Even if we could jury rig it and get a few more miles down the road, that would do nothing to restore the confidence of Pennsylvania's citizens. As with any election year, 2010 fills citizens with hope. But like any junker, state government will run no better simply because we put a new driver behind the wheel.

Pennsylvania needs a new car.

The path to that new car is through a limited citizens constitutional convention where the people--not politicians or special interests--can gather and seriously discuss structural reforms to the institutions of government while protecting individual rights. I'm pleased that other statewide candidates have recently joined me in my call for such a convention. But as with most other issues, the devil's in the details. I have yet to hear any details whatsoever from them on how they would put a convention together.

I've been researching and talking about how to construct a convention since 2007, when a bill I authored was introduced in both the state Senate and the state House. Those bills, SB340 and HB1929, represent the only legitimate, workable plans before the General Assembly to resolve Pennsylvania's crisis in confidence. Unfortunately, that legislation is bottled up in committee--another victim of our broken system. I've posted numerous improvements to the legislation on my campaign website and am working with the sponsors and cosponsors on how to move forward during the upcoming legislative session.

During a convention, Pennsylvanians can shop around for the options they want on their new car. Some will want a term-limit option. Others would prefer the part-time legislative package, while different shoppers will seek a two-year budget process under the hood or an independent redistricting system. The possibilities are endless, and we have 49 other states' experiences from which to learn.

But unless we actually hold a convention, we're going to get stuck with the junker. We might get a better driver or two, but that won't do much good if we're still sitting along the road waiting for a tow truck. We need a new car.

This is the primary reason I'm running for Lieutenant Governor, and why this race is so important to Pennsylvania's future. With eight other candidates in the Republican primary, voters may tend to simply roll the dice. But this is not the time to play games. The government we leave for our children and grandchildren must be one that is decidedly better than what we have now.

Unlike the reasons for not replacing my junkers over the years, the cost of a convention is a relative bargain. With a price tag of $25-40 million, it pales in comparison the cost of running the General Assembly for a single year ($300+ million) and to the last reported amount of legislative surpluses ($201 million). SB340 and HB1929 designate those surpluses as the source of funding for a convention, so no new taxes are required.

No other candidate for Lieutenant Governor is qualified to lead Pennsylvania on this quest for a new car. It's not because they're bad people - it's simply because no one else has put the time, effort, and research into the issue of a constitutional convention. Even those who have recently echoed my call have a steep learning curve to overcome.

Finally, don't take my word on the point that a convention is warranted at this time. Ask the 26 state newspapers, six leading columnists, the leaders of the Commonwealth's four major good-government groups, and Pennsylvania's top two political analysts why they have all endorsed the idea since just November 2009. If that's not enough, the same Franklin & Marshall poll mentioned above also indicated that 72 percent of Pennsylvanians support a convention as a way to tackle what's wrong with Pennsylvania state government.

Many say that 2010 is a Republican year. That's all well and good, but the political pendulum swings to and fro. Despite the best intentions of the new drivers we put behind the wheel, what happens when they're no longer in office? It's not enough to change the people in Harrisburg - we need to change the system.

Pennsylvania desperately needs a new car. Because that car may need to last a century or more, we need to elect people who've done their homework on how to do the smart shopping.