Jan 22, 2015 3 min read

Gov. Tom Wolf took his oath of office Tuesday, outlining some rather lofty goals: creating good-paying jobs, equalizing educational opportunity in public schools and providing a “government that works.” He plans to achieve these goals by levying a new tax on the gas industry, instituting a graduated state income tax and increasing funding to schools.

Of course, the governor cannot accomplish anything without the cooperation of the state Legislature, and because it is controlled by the opposite party, odds are much in favor of gridlock. This does not bode well for a state facing a projected $2 billion budget deficit and a much greater pension crisis.

It might be in the governor’s interest at first to concentrate on a few more practical and achievable goals – ones that are likely to garner bipartisan support. He might start with cleaning up Pennsylvania’s roadsides.

“… I want to restore the belief that Pennsylvania is not just another state,” Wolf said in his inaugural address. “Pennsylvania is something bigger, and something better. It’s an idea. Pennsylvania is an idea that all things are possible.”

Unfortunately, the idea that impresses many non-Pennsylvania’s as they drive through this commonwealth is Pennsylvania is filthy.

We call our attention to the carcass of a deer killed sometime last Friday. Five days later, it still lay where it expired, along state-maintained Franklin Farms Road, at the entrance to North Franklin’s township building and police department. The state Department of Transportation is responsible for removing deer carcasses from state roads. We learned from a call to the township building PennDOT had already been called twice, to no avail.

If the problem is there are too many carcasses and too few contractors to collect them, the governor should press PennDOT to address that. Call it job creation, if you must.

Litter along our state roads is abominable, and it is apparent that removal of it is last on the list of priorities. It should not be. Regrettably, Pennsylvania does not have a “bottle law,” requiring a deposit on beverage containers. If it did, half the roadside litter would disappear. But our Legislature is not the least bit interested. The governor should call attention to the problem and its consequences and do all in his power to encourage local efforts to address it.

Perhaps the greatest social problem we face today is drug addiction. Addicts become criminals in order to support their habits, and we have experienced escalation of petty theft and burglary and a disturbing trend toward more violent drug-related crimes, of which the latest incidents of home invasions are evidence. Yet, treatment of addiction is also low on our government’s priority list. Our politicians think nothing of spending millions and dishing out many more millions in tax-break incentives to attract business and industry to the state, but offer little or nothing for addiction treatment centers.

What company would choose to move to a state infested with crime and litter?

We appreciate Gov. Wolf’s desire to think big, but we hope he does not ignore the small things that can make huge differences.