Editorials from around Pennsylvania

Editorials from around Pennsylvania:

___

KEEP EYES ON THE BALL

May 29

Two events last week related to former state Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s tempestuous and truncated term of office offer a lesson for all public officials who have a difficult time separating governance from politics.

Friday, a three-judge panel of the state Superior Court unanimously upheld Kane’s Aug. 15, 2016, conviction in Montgomery County Court for perjury, false swearing, obstructing the administration of law, official oppression and criminal conspiracy. She was sentenced Oct. 24, 2016, to 10 to 23 months in prison, but has remained free pending appeal. And she still can petition the state Supreme Court to hear an appeal of the Superior Court decision.

Earlier in the week, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced that bishops of six Catholic dioceses, including Bishop Joseph Bambera of Scranton, had agreed not to contest the public release of an impending grand jury report on sexual abuse by clergy and the dioceses’ handling of those cases.

Kane, who had handled child sexual abuse cases as an assistant district attorney in Lackawanna County, launched that important investigation in 2016.

As the first woman and first Democrat to be elected state attorney general, Kane had an opportunity to take the office in new directions that were not priorities for the long line of Republican men who preceded her in office.

But, like many politicians at many levels, Kane could not resist the temptation to use her power for leverage against her political opponents. She dove down the rabbit hole of political and personal retribution, foolishly leaking secret grand jury information from an old case to damage the credibility of political enemies within the office, and then lying about it.

She was absolutely correct when she complained that she had encountered a deeply entrenched “old boy network” upon taking office. And she performed an invaluable public service by exposing high-ranking public officials, including two Supreme Court justices and a Corbett administration Cabinet official, who used a state computer network to distribute pornographic, misogynistic and racist material.

But Kane failed to recognize that, in politics, winning is the ultimate revenge against political enemies. And given her groundbreaking status, that especially was true in her case.

The tragedy of Kane’s case is that, if she had attended to business after winning, such as the grand jury investigation of clerical abuse, rather than pursuing the best of three falls with her political enemies, she would be in her second term and pondering a run for higher office rather than scrambling to avoid prison.

The lesson is for public officials is to keep their eye on the ball and recognize that good governance is good politics. Kane’s myopia should help other officeholders sharpen their focus.

-The Times-Tribune, Scranton

Online: https://bit.ly/2ssYudW

___

BEING ON TIME NOT GOOD ENOUGH THIS BUDGET YEAR

May 30

The news Sunday that a lack of shouting in Harrisburg might bring with it the first on-time, controversy-free state budget of the Wolf administration is a modest glimmer of hope.

Merely passing a budget on time, and seeing Gov. Tom Wolf for the first time in his term signing it, would be nice but not sufficient.

To make this a truly good budget year, Republican leaders in the Legislature and our Democratic governor should waste no time in agreeing to school funding - a state budget responsibility, more than one-third of state spending most years, called for specifically in Article III, Section 14, of the state constitution.

School districts, which rely on state funds, must pass their budgets by June 30. It’s a disservice to school boards and their constituents when state leaders enact a budget right at the deadline or late.

State lawmakers should make it a priority to agree to a specific education budget by June 15, promising to iron out any remaining disagreements without touching school spending.

School districts, and the children learning in their buildings, deserve the stability of their state funding being a known quantity.

While they’re at it, state leaders should do as much as possible to move toward the more equitable formula recommended in the 2015 report of the Basic Education Funding Commission. The formula this bipartisan group advised would recognize needs and growth, giving the Reading School District nearly $118 million more and about $10 million more to the Wilson School District. The state is moving all too slowly toward reaching the commission’s goal of an education funding formula that takes reality into account, rather than the so-called hold-harmless approach that protects school districts with declining enrollments from reductions in aid. This delay is depriving school districts of the funds they need and their children deserve.

So why is Pennsylvania likely to see a smoother budget process this year?

The cynical answer is that Wolf faces re-election in November, giving him a strong incentive to find a way to agree, playing to Pennsylvania voters’ traditionally low expectations by keeping the ship of state sailing smoothly through calm waters.

A better explanation is that conditions are better. The economy is humming, with the state unemployment rate below 5 percent. Revenue projections are modestly above estimates for the first time in Wolf’s tenure, with personal income taxes leading the way.

House Majority Leader Dave Reed recently summed up the change well: “You’re not talking about billion-dollar deficits anymore.”

Policy differences remain. Wolf wants to add two sources of revenue that Republicans rejected in past negotiations: a new tax on natural gas extraction and a $25-per-person fee for state police coverage in areas without their own full-time police forces.

There’s also likely to be disagreements about how to improve the safety of public schools, with proposals including restrictions on gun purchases, more police in schools and allowing teachers to be armed.

Our leaders can have those arguments but should have them soon, in a way that won’t disrupt the learning inside those buildings we’d all like to see better secured against violence.

-Reading Eagle

Online: https://bit.ly/2J0EOJx

___

STATE HAS PROVEN IT CAN GO WITHOUT SHALE TAX FOR NOW

May 27

A severance tax on the Marcellus Shale gas-drilling industry has been one of Gov. Tom Wolf’s major priorities since he became Pennsylvania’s chief executive in 2015.

If he’s re-elected in November, it’s likely that that so far elusive goal will remain one of his agenda items, going forward.

State residents interested in legislative goings-on in Harrisburg understand why the Democratic governor has failed in that tax plan, even though other Marcellus states have such a levy in place: The Republican-controlled General Assembly has remained fearful that implementing the tax would lead to a driller exodus, or at least dampen prospects for expanded drilling.

Opponents of the tax argue that Pennsylvania already imposes an impact fee on drillers - a fee that they liken to a severance levy.

Still, analysts have contended that the effective rates of natural gas severance taxes in states such as West Virginia and Texas outperform the Keystone State’s fee. And, those analysts contend that future production increases will only widen the gap between revenue generated in those states from the industry and what Pennsylvania will take in by way of its fee.

Amid that debate in this election year and during this time of ongoing 2018-19 budget preparation are pronouncements by Wolf and lawmakers that Pennsylvania’s fiscal picture has improved, with incoming revenue remaining strong.

It’s safe to say that Wolf’s latest severance-tax proposal, included with his 2018-19 spending plan delivered to the Legislature in February, is dead, and that it won’t be given consideration in future years either - whether he’s re-elected or not - as long as the state’s financial condition continues to improve.

But news on the shale-drilling front merits watching - developments related to both the rise in oil prices and from decisions in the industry now proving to have been unwise.

On the industry’s positive side, shale drillers are reported to be ramping up production in places other than the West Texas oil field that became the country’s drilling center after oil prices began to tumble in 2014.

That price tumble made fracking and horizontal drilling less economical and resulted in companies curtailing investments.

Only now is the industry said to be recovering, thanks to $70-a-barrel crude prices.

However, many shale companies continue to struggle, according to a May 18 Wall Street Journal article, which reported that of the top 20 U.S. oil companies that focus mostly on fracking, only five managed to generate more cash than they spent in this year’s first quarter.

The article reports that the top 20 companies by market capitalization collectively spent almost $2 billion more during the quarter than they took in from operations, largely due to bad bets hedging crude prices.

“Seeking stability after years of wild fluctuations in crude prices, many operators entered into derivatives contracts in late 2017 that effectively ensured they could sell some of their 2018 output for $50 to $55 a barrel,” the article says. “Now that prices have risen to more than $70 a barrel, many are failing to capture the value of the rally.”

Pennsylvania lawmakers’ severance-tax caution is playing out to be good judgment for now. There’s enough evidence for Wolf to concur.

The proposed severance tax might make sense sometime in the future to bolster the state’s finances, but it’s not a necessity now.

-Altoona Mirror

Online: https://bit.ly/2ssBwDI

___

IN WAKE OF ATTACKS, STATE PROBE OF SCI-SOMERSET NEEDED

May 26

Would you want to be a guard at the State Correctional Institution at Somerset?

Given the recent history of that facility, we would suspect that applicants for openings are few, and the state Department of Corrections should be launching a full investigation of all safety procedures there.

This past week, the prison was on lockdown for several days after an inmate reportedly attacked a guard.

Canie Griffith, 30, was charged with aggravated assault, assault by a prisoner and simple assault for an incident that occurred on May 18.

The guard spent last weekend in the hospital, DOC Press Secretary Amy Worden told reporter Randy Griffith.

The guard was attacked while sitting at a desk in one of SCI-Somerset’s housing areas, the DOC said.

Griffith, who was serving a lengthy sentence after pleading guilty to robbery and other charges in 2016, was moved to SCI-Huntingdon after the incident to await arraignment.

This was the latest in a string of attacks and other troubling incidents at SCI-Somerset:

-On Feb. 15, corrections officer Mark Baserman suffered fatal injuries when he was attacked while working in a “day room” at the prison. Inmate Paul Kendrick, 22, of Pittsburgh - who was already serving a life sentence for a fatal shooting - has been charged with murder for allegedly beating and kicking Baserman and another guard. Baserman died several days later at Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center.

-On Jan. 9, inmate Joshua Steven Perry, 25, was found slain in his cell, and cellmate Dale Michael Wakefield, 25, is headed to trial, accused of murder. Somerset County District Attorney Lisa Lazzari-Strasiser plans to seek the death penalty if Wakefield is found guilty of his charges - which include criminal homicide, assault by a life prisoner and aggravated assault. Guards found Perry with his hands tied behind his back and with a bed sheet wrapped around his throat. Wakefield was already in jail for life for a 2013 Bucks County stabbing homicide.

-On Dec. 3, a corrections officer was attacked by an SCI-Somerset inmate who was having treatment at Somerset Hospital, according to the Somerset Borough Police Department. William Amos Cramer, 26, was charged with attempted homicide, assault by a prisoner, assault by a life prisoner, aggravated assault and simple assault. He was accused of going after an officer with a straight razor, with the intention “to slit the throat of the officer,” borough police said.

Also in December, an SCI-Somerset guard was charged with smuggling drugs into the prison. Shawn Kirkpatrick, 39, of Carrolltown, faces felony counts of drug possession, corrupt organization, criminal attempt to smuggle contraband and criminal conspiracy to smuggle contraband, as our Patrick Buchnowski reported. Police said they searched his home and found a “facsimile pipe bomb, booby trap that contained a firing pin” and “17 prepackaged plastic bags of marijuana.”

Our question to the state Department of Corrections and corrections Secretary John Wetzel: What the hell is going on at the Somerset prison?

Every place of incarceration has troubles from time to time.

Such facilities are not typically housing choir boys and Sunday school teachers.

The SCI system is home to hardened criminals, many of whom are willing to continue beating and killing - especially those facing little chance of release because of past misdeeds.

But this frightening trend at SCI-Somerset demands a response from the state DOC - which is charged with maintaining a safe working environment for its corrections officers and other SCI staff.

SCI-Somerset was home to 2,335 inmates as of March, according to the latest figures available. Although that is 5 percent above capacity, Worden said guards are not at greater risk because of the number of inmates there.

“There is a difference between optimum capacity and emergency capacity on the far end,” she said following the latest attack. “It is a range. Prisons like to be flexible because people are coming and going every day.

“It absolutely did not contribute to this situation.”

Well, if overcrowding is not the culprit, what is?

Safety measures? Staff and officer training? Procedures for inmates?

We call on Wetzel and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to launch a full investigation of the leadership and procedures in place at SCI-Somerset.

The results of that probe must be shared with the public, along with steps to be taken to reduce the risk to guards, staff and even those incarcerated there.

-The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown

Online: https://bit.ly/2JfkVxD

___

RUSSIA’S COMPLICITY: MOSCOW’S LIES ABOUT ATTACK ON MH17 CANNOT STAND

May 29

A Russian missile shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over a conflict zone in Ukraine in July 2014, killing all 298 people on board. That fact has been clear since the attack, but Russia has lied about its military’s role at every chance. Last week’s report led by Dutch investigators pinpoints the source of the missile - an active duty Russian military unit, the 53rd Antiaircraft Brigade - but Russia continues to lie. The United States should join forces with its allies in holding Russia to account.

The surface-to-air missile, known as a Buk-Telar, was provided by the Russian military to separatist forces in eastern Ukraine. It was a part of Russia’s barely disguised support for the civil war, which began after the ouster of Russia-aligned prime minister Viktor Yanukovych and Russia’s annexation of Crimea in February 2014. MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was carrying mainly Dutch, Australian and Malaysian passengers. The motive for aiming at the aircraft has not been established. Some evidence suggests that the missile operators thought they were targeting a Ukrainian military transport plane, and that they were surprised to discover the remains of civilians in the wreckage.

The undeniable fact is that members of the Russian military transported the sophisticated and powerful missile to the Ukrainian separatists, who were engaged in shooting down aircraft belonging to the Ukrainian government based in Kiev. Russian President Vladimir Putin has not changed his story. “The state over whose territory this happened bears responsibility for this terrible tragedy,” he said at the time. On Friday, Mr. Putin said he could not trust the investigation “that is working without us” and that it was “certainly not” a Russian missile that caused this “terrible tragedy,” which might have been caused by Ukraine.

Just as Russia continues to lie about its role in poisoning Russian defector Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England in March, and its cyber-meddling in Western election campaigns, including the United States, it will continue brazen denials of the truth about the downing of MH17. It’s hard to rattle someone who has no moral capacity for shame. But Western nations should keep the pressure on the Putin regime to accept its complicity with this murderous act.

-Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Online: https://bit.ly/2H5d6pk