Hits and misses
HIT: It seems fitting that students from Jefferson-Morgan and Washington attended the Jan. 25 matinee showing of “Hamilton,” considering the namesakes of their high schools play huge roles in the smash-hit musical. In reality, it was an opportunity for students who may have never seen a Broadway musical to enjoy the performance for only a Hamilton – $10. They were among the 2,700 students and teachers from 42 Title 1-eligible high schools to attend the performance in what has become a ritual for the musical as it tours the country. They were even treated to a question-and-answer session with the cast as part of the matinee. It’s nice to see that the production team is able to use the musical’s popularity to reach a different demographic of students who can dream of one day performing on stage, whether it be on Broadway or at their high school theater.
MISS: Kentucky’s governor, Republican Matt Bevin, thinks that America is on a snow-slickened slope toward becoming a nation of softies. Bevin was doing a radio interview this week when he lamented that schools were closing because it’s cold outside. “I mean, what (happened) to America. We’re getting soft,” said Bevin. We would advise the governor that it’s not just cold out. It’s brutally cold – the coldest weather some places have seen in years. We’ve opined before that schools are perhaps going a bit overboard in imposing two-hour delays and closures for rather run-of-the-mill winter weather, but when the polar vortex makes an appearance, you have to protect the kids. And as the Louisville Courier-Journal noted in a story about the governor’s radio interview, Bevin is the same guy who loves posting photos of himself on social media but has blocked hundreds of constituents from his social media pages because they’ve been critical of him. So, who’s the snowflake, really?
HIT: Maryland’s minimum wage is $10.10 per hour. Ohio’s is $8.55. West Virginia’s is $8.75. Every one of the six states that borders Pennsylvania has a higher minimum wage than our $7.25 per hour. It’s been stuck at that level for a decade, and it’s time the commonwealth’s workers got a raise. Gov. Tom Wolf recognizes this, and he proposed this week to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $12 per hour. When adjusted for inflation, that would put the minimum wage on par with where it was in 1968, when $1.60 could purchase $11.46 in today’s dollars, and the labor market was similarly tight, with unemployment in the range of 3 percent and 4 percent. The Wolf administration says an increase in the minimum wage would help get some workers off public assistance and give a boost to economic growth. We’ll see whether Wolf gets $10.10, but an increase in Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is well overdue.
HIT: Ten states have legalized marijuana for recreational use by adults, and many other states, including Pennsylvania, are considering it. To gauge exactly how interested the commonwealth’s residents are in having marijuana be available without a proven medical need, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is undertaking a listening tour across the commonwealth. He has already stopped in Pittsburgh, and is due to visit all 67 counties in Pennsylvania before he is done. The question of whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use is well worth considering. Last year, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale reported that making recreational marijuana use legal, with its sale closely regulated, could yield $500 million in new tax revenue. That is, as they say, nothing to sneeze at. We will be interested in what Fetterman hears on his tour.