Gerlach Flattered by Corbett’s Endorsement of 2-Year Budgeting Policy Initiative

By GERLACH FOR PA

EXTON, PA) – Republican Jim Gerlach’s pledge to fix Pennsylvania’s broken budget process by enacting a two-year budgeting cycle is such a bold idea for leading Pennsylvania that Attorney General Tom Corbett cannot stop talking about it.

During his campaign announcement tour this week, Corbett has repeatedly endorsed the proposal first introduced by Gerlach earlier this summer.

“We are extremely flattered that the only specific idea Mr. Corbett has to offer voters is one that Jim Gerlach has been talking about for several months,” said Scott Migli, Gerlach for Governor campaign manager. “I guess that shows that Mr. Corbett has been reading Jim Gerlach’s ‘Pledge to Pennsylvania’ for some ideas about how to put Pennsylvania back on the right track.”

Pennsylvania is the only state without a budget and has failed to enact a budget on time for seven consecutive years.

Gerlach talked about the need for two-year budget cycles in an interview published in the August 21 edition of the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader:

“He said a biannual budget might be an option to consider, as well as mandating a certain amount of money be budgeted every year for the rainy day fund and a state spending cap.” Read the full article here.

The Somerset Daily American also wrote about Gerlach’s plan for two-year budgets on August 29.

“One idea his campaign has looked into is a two-year budget process rather than one.” Read the full article here.

And finally, the two-year budget concept was part of Gerlach’s “Pledge to Pennsylvania” – a 17-point plan for keeping taxes low, creating jobs and restoring accountability in Harrisburg – released on September 10. The seventh item in the pledge was to “Protect Every Tax Dollar by Changing the State Budget Process to a Two-Year Budget Cycle.”

Jim Gerlach grew up in the western Pennsylvania steel town of Ellwood City, and graduated from Dickinson College and received a law degree from Dickinson School of Law.

Over the years Gerlach has built a solid record on fiscal issues in the state legislature and Congress, including voting for the Republican tax relief of 2003, leading welfare reform initiatives under Governor Tom Ridge, and after voting against President Obama’s stimulus package in February, demanded independent oversight of Pennsylvania’s stimulus funding – a commission later created by Governor Rendell.

He has received the public endorsements of former Republican Lieutenant Governor Bill Scranton, as well as Congressmen Todd Platts, Bill Shuster and Phil English.

Jim Gerlach was elected to Congress in 2002 and is now serving his fourth term representing Pennsylvania’s 6th District, which includes parts of Berks, Chester, Lehigh and Montgomery counties. The district is now a majority Democrat district by over 24,000 registrations.

In 2006 alone, with the assistance of extremist groups like MoveOn and Acorn, national Democrats pegged Gerlach as their #1 target and spent over $7.5 million to defeat him in a losing effort. That amount alone is nearly double what has been spent by Democrats against Tom Corbett in his two statewide campaigns.

A copy of Gerlach’s full biography can be found at www.gerlachforpa.com/about/biography.

###

pa2010.com publishes press releases, statements and other information from campaigns and political committees. We also publish legislative releases from candidates considering higher office in 2010 and from incumbents holding those offices. E-mail releases to press@pa2010.com.

September 20, 2009 at 1:58 pm

--pa2010.com Staff