Editorials from around Pennsylvania

Editorials from around Pennsylvania

___

’GROUND ZERO’ AT THE VA, Jan. 3

Despite intense public scrutiny and leadership changes at the top of the VA, a whistleblower says patient care has not improved at a troubled Phoenix facility, which two years ago became the focus of criticism.

A Department of Veterans Affairs employee, who initially called attention to the Phoenix VA in 2014, says appointment delays persist at what he calls “ground zero” of “the worst example of VA health care in the United States.”

This, on the heels of an inspector general’s report, which found poor scheduling practices that extended beyond the Phoenix VA hospital, The Washington Free Beacon reports.

The Phoenix VA became a flashpoint for “change” after accounts from whistleblowers that VA employees kept secret waiting lists and that veterans had died waiting for appointments. The scandal led to legislative reforms and the appointment of Robert McDonald as the VA’s secretary.

But problems continue.

“I think that the VA is so corroded and corrupt at this point it doesn’t matter who the figurehead is,” says Brandon Coleman, who had worked as an addiction therapist at the Phoenix VA.

What’s revealed, once again, is a culture within segments of the VA that’s resistant to change, let alone corrections. Unless veterans are given realistic health care options outside the VA to reduce wait times, nothing is going to change.

- The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

___

REVIVING THE PASSENGER RAIL IDEA, Jan. 2

If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. But for Northeastern Pennsylvanians, the more fundamental problem is simply getting to New York City.

Driving to New York rarely is a joy ride due to congestion, coupled with the costs of bridge or tunnel tolls and parking.

Buses are a reliable option but travel times have increased in recent years due to congestion around and in New York City.

Trains are available, but only by first finding other means to get to stations in New Jersey or upstate New York.

Passenger rail from Scranton has not been available for about 45 years. And, about a quarter century’s worth of discussions, feasibility studies and political advocacy to revive it all have come to nothing, even though local development officials once targeted the restoration to 2007- a decade ago.

Yet the idea lives. Larry Malski, the president of the Northeast Regional Railroad Authority who has shepherded the restoration of freight railroads in the region, insists that passenger rail is a real possibility. The authority plans a new study to update cost estimates for reconstruction of the needed rail lines through the Poconos into New Jersey, and for operation of the passenger service.

Malski is not alone in his optimism. U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Moosic, also is on board.

He is a newly appointed member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, the chairman of which is U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, a New Jersey Republican from the district on the opposite side of the Delaware River that includes the proposed rail route. Due partially to Frelinghuysen’s advocacy, restoration of 7.3 miles of track is underway.

Meanwhile, a consensus has emerged in Congress for increased transportation infrastructure spending. President-elect Donald Trump has advocated a $1 trillion program.

For Northeastern Pennsylvania, the issue is not simply convenient travel but economic development, the opportunity to use rail to better connect the region to booming New York City and northern New Jersey. Doing so would create job opportunities in those areas for local residents, and make Northeastern Pennsylvania more attractive to companies in those regions.

Reviving the passenger rail idea is a good step. Here’s hoping, at the dawn of a new year, that the renewed effort produces more than a study.

- The (Wilkes-Barre) Citizens’ Voice

___

BELLIGERENCE POOR POLICY FOR NETANYAHU, Jan. 3

It might be impossible to calculate how much the failure to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict has cost the United States in blood and treasure.

The ongoing conflict helps anti-American terrorists recruit and provides an excuse for hostile regimes in the region to justify their enmity of the United States.

For decades, the United States has favored and worked for a two-state solution to the impasse while maintaining support of Israel.

That posture is especially true of the Obama administration, which has advocated the two-state solution while committing to Israel a record $38 billion in military aid over 10 years.

In furtherance of the two-state policy, the Obama administration recently abstained on a United Nations resolution condemning settlement construction in the West Bank, rather than vetoing it.

That produced from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a cascade of belligerence that has characterized his relationship with President Barack Obama, despite the administration’s deep support for Israel.

As Secretary of State John Kerry put it in response to that belligerence, “if the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic, it cannot be both, and it won’t ever really be at peace.”

That perpetual lack of peace is a matter of deep concern to the United States. Israelis are free to chart their course and choose their leaders, but blind acquiescence to Netanyahu’s belligerence is poor policy for the United States.

- The (Pottsville) Republican Herald

___

GAS TAX THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON TAKING, Jan. 1

Pennsylvania’s gasoline tax is the gift that keeps on taking.

Motorists were greeted this week with more pain at the pump when the state’s tax on gasoline increased by 8 cents, making it the third time in four years that the tax has been raised.

At 58.3 cents per gallon, Pennsylvania now has the highest gasoline tax in the nation.

It’s a legacy of former Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett, a Republican, who signed into law Act 89 of 2013, an infrastructure bill passed in the Republican-controlled Legislature with bipartisan support, that lifted the oil franchise cap on gasoline, allowing for the skyrocketing tax rate.

That franchise cap was lifted gradually over the past four years, increasing the gasoline tax by more than 27 cents.

While the additional money- along with more vehicle fees and higher tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike -is helping PennDOT improve roads and bridges across the state, one must ask when will it be enough?

It must be a difficult pill to swallow for conservatives that Republicans, the party of fiscal responsibility and lower taxes, went along with Act 89 that has been a defacto back-door tax increase on the state’s motorists.

Meanwhile, Corbett at the time denied it was a tax increase at all as he ran for re-election and lost in 2014.

We’ll let you be the judge of that the next time you fill up your gas tank.

- The (Washington) Observer-Reporter

___

MORE MUST BE DONE TO PROTECT THE JERSEY SHORE FROM FLOODING, Jan. 3

At long last, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and New Jersey are starting work on a comprehensive back bay flooding plan, but they are lumbering along waiting for bags of cash from the federal government and thinking about work as though they have the luxury of time on their side.

They don’t. The winter and spring storm seasons are just ahead, and damage bills will be piling up. Even some high tides send bay water sloshing into streets, homes, and businesses. If there’s another extreme weather event like Hurricane Sandy of 2012, the state could be devastated once again.

The lesson of Sandy should have been that any damage that can be prevented should be.

But at a recent public meeting on the overarching study, the Army Corps said the plan could take three years to develop. Bay dwellers shouldn’t have to wait for the federal government to come back with a full-blown plan when there are precautions that can and should be accelerated now.

Environmentalists have long recommended building more wetlands to soak up storm surges and tidal flooding.

The smart planning group, NJ Future, says the state can create a conservation zone along the shore, where it would limit development. That’s a good idea, because it is already hard enough to protect existing structures.

The state and towns should upgrade building and zoning codes with an eye toward resilience, and stop coddling developers who don’t want to invest in safer structures.

The state and towns should insist that new bulkheads are high enough to withstand storm surges as well as increased flooding. Even a moderate rain can send water levels high enough to cause problems.

Towns have to build better drainage systems. Antique storm sewer systems are partly to blame for so much of the bayside flooding along the Jersey Shore.

These good ideas and others have been swamped by Gov. Christie, who has been an on-again and off-again climate change denier, depending which office he was seeking. But the good news for beach lovers is that Christie will be out of office in 2018.

For too long, back bay areas have been ignored, and yet those areas contain the highest density of year-round residents.

By 2050, the mean high water line along the coast is projected to rise 18 inches. There just might be enough time to stop new building, protect existing structures, and even let some buildings in the most flood-prone areas return to nature.

Waiting for the federal government, soon to be controlled by President-elect Donald Trump, a climate change denier who is hostile to protecting natural resources, is pure folly. New Jersey must rely on its own wealth of talent and knowledge of the shoreline to protect itself.

- The Philadelphia Inquirer

___