He's led the state for four years, but in just 18 days, Gov. Tom Corbett's term will be finished, so is Pennsylvania a better place, worse, or about the same?
Dealing with a looming budget deficit, raising taxes and being the first governor to lose a re-election bid since two terms were allowed will be part of the governor's legacy, but one political science professor said he feels education cuts were an issue Corbett couldn't bounce back from.
It's no secret that Corbett took over in Harrisburg during a time when the commonwealth was in the read.
"When Gov. Rendell left office, he did leave behind a significant fiscal problem for Gov. Corbett to deal with," said Chris Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown.
So Corbett had to find a way to balance the budget early, and it was education that ended up on the chopping block.
"Those decisions that concentrated significant reductions of education budgets in the state really did never resonate with Pennsylvanians," added Borick. "What happened is, it really set a tone of negativity among many Pennsylvanians for the Corbett administration."
Borick said Corbett did do positive things in the state. He said Corbett literally paved the way to smoother roads by helping to get a $2.3 billion transportation bill passed.
"It is raising some gas tax in the state," said Borick. "It's raised some fees, but many analysts in transportation policy would say the infrastructure absolutely needed that influx of revenue."
Borick said Corbett will get mixed reviews when it comes to fracking and job creation in the state, but the real Corbett legacy won't be known until years later.
"Was Gov. Corbett's failure to win re-election a sign of a new difficult period for governors to govern in Pennsylvania," added Borick. "Maybe we'll see similarities in the Wolf administration."
Borick said Gov.-elect Wolf will be dealing with the same budget problems as Corbett did four years ago, but it will be how the budget is handled that may set the two men apart.
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