2018 General Election Elected 58 – 41
Tom Wolf of Mount Wolf
Sounds like the title of an Anthony Trollope novel. (A nineteenth century British novelist, Trollope wrote The American Senator in 1877, but did not write about an American Governor. Trollope was a senior official in the British Post Office who, among other things, introduced mail boxes to England. He would have loved the idea that Mount Wolf was founded by a post master, Tom Wolf’s ancestor.)
In Tom Wolf http://tom.wolfforpa.com/, Pennsylvanians get a man who prepped at The Hill School, graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth, received an M.Phil from the University of London and a PhD from MIT. His has a political science doctorate. His dissertation on the US House of Representatives was voted best of the year by the American Political Science Association. Tom Wolf ought to be teaching at Harvard rather than running a company or a state. Harvard thought so. They invited him to interview for a tenure track position, an invitation he turned down.
Instead Tom Wolf started work at The Wolf Organization — a family building materials company — managing a True Value Store that they owned. In 1985, he and two cousins bought the company. In 2006, they sold it to a private equity firm. After the equity firm ran it into the ground, instead of running for governor as he had planned, Tom Wolf bought the company and prevented bankruptcy. During his hiatus away from the family business, he served as Secretary of Revenue under Governor Ed Rendell.
Tom Wolf ran for Governor in 2014, beat strong opponents in the Democratic primary and beat the incumbent governor in the general election to become Pennsylvania’s 47th governor. What kind of governor has he been?
Two years ago — a year into his term, a Philadelphia Magazine columnist was not impressed. Too stubborn, unwilling to compromise with his overwhelmingly Republican legislature. Why not agree to the “pension reform” the Republicans wanted plus privatization of the Pennsylvania state liquor stores in exchange for the funding Tom Wolf ought for education. The funding which would come from a tax on extracted Pennsylvania gas. Tom Wolf said he would not cave, would not accept the agreement.
Where is Pennsylvania now? Pennsylvania still has a Republican legislature. Raising revenue is still a problem. Republicans in the House of Representatives prevented every tax increase proposed by anyone for the 2017-2018 budget
Tom Wolf found revenue from gambling — allowing satellites of existing casinos and internet gambling as well as from a revamped state lottery. He borrowed from the tobacco fund to close the previous year’s deficit. This was not glamorous work.
Tom Wolf found that mysterious line item in the budget called “waste” and eliminated it. He saved money by increasing efficiency. He created an Office of Transformation, Innovation, Management and Efficiency. He succeeded in avoiding costs and saving resources. Public services advocates are not complaining about the consequences of Tom Wolf’s cost savings. You could say he brought business acumen to government successfully. That’s different from what is happening in Washington.
Tom Wolf did not lose liquor stores to the private sector. Liquor stores are still under the authority of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. In 2016, a new law gave the Control Board the authority to raise prices, which had stayed the same since the 1990s. In August of this year, Pennsylvania raised the price of 422 items sold by the state liquor stores. Call this retail politics.
Tom Wolf has not gotten his tax on the extraction of gas. Pennsylvania remains the only state exploiting Marcellus shale which does not tax extracted gas. Call this wholesale politics.
The deal that Tom Wolf rejected would have provided $400 thousand for education. Tom Wolf touts an increase of $800,000 for education during his tenure. He recently welcomed the state supreme court‘s decision requiring a revision in the state funding formula to make education resources more equitable. Getting increased education funding is a big deal. Distributing state support for education equitably will be a big deal.
Tom Wolf now has a sophisticated pension reform. Pew said the proposal would achieve full funding of the state’s pension system, lower costs, reduce risk for taxpayers, and move some of the risk to individual public workers depending on the choices they made. Pew predicted that this would be one the most comprehensive and impactful reforms any state has implemented — saving Pennsylvania $5-$20 billion over 30 years depending on investment performance. Finding something that everyone would agree on required grinding it out.
Tom Wolf has dealt with other issues, too.
Healthcare. Tom Wolf has joined Democratic legislators in opposing the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. He has opposed the President’s sabotage of the Affordable Care Act by sponsoring public awareness so that Pennsylvanians can shop for health insurance. If he succeeds, he will maintain Pennsylvania’s low 5.6% uninsured rate. Also on the health front, one of his early victories was legislation in support of the availability of marijuana for medical purposes.
Infrastructure. The Republican US Congress has abandoned the care of roads and bridges and other crucial networks that hold us together, Tom Wolf touts Pennsylvania’s successful support of roads, bridges, and clean water. New bridges, new building can be glamorous work. Fixing the old ones is not so glamorous, but Tom Wolf seems to get it done.
Tom Wolf http://tom.wolfforpa.com/has been a work horse on behalf of programs that liberals value. He’s done it without raising taxes (though he would have if he could have) and he is improving people’s lives. Help him keep doing that. November 2018 is far enough away so that monthly contributions, even small ones, are very useful.
