Corbett's Budget is Cutting Staffing of Attorney General's Office

[JPZenger]

http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2013/06/06/opinion/doc51aff974e3b97070489171.txt

By State Rep. Tony DeLuca

Excerpt:

....Since becoming governor, Corbett has cut state funding to his former post by more than $5 million. Not only has he exacted these harmful cuts, he also negotiated and signed new contracts raising the salaries for union employees within the A.G. office, which increased overall personnel costs, without giving the A.G. the additional funds necessary to offset those increases. Furthermore, it was recently announced that the A.G.’s federal funding will be cut by an additional $5 million.

... the last thing we should be jeopardizing is the investigation and prosecution of criminals. Unfortunately, funding cuts and increased personnel costs have that exact effect because they hamper the attorney general’s ability to properly investigate and prosecute criminal activity. I know this because PA’s attorney general gave testimony before the House Appropriations Committee to that effect. I’m not talking Attorney General Kane; I am talking about the testimony of the former attorney general, Tom Corbett. At a 2010 House Budget Hearing then-attorney general Corbett made an impassioned plea for increasing the Office of Attorney General’s budget, stating that “we (referring to the OAG) can’t get much thinner” and “we are really stretched at this time.”

Due to increases in union contracts, Corbett claimed that the A.G.’s office was “going to lose good attorneys” if it did not receive an increase. He further asserted that if the office was flat-funded, he would “lose 21 positions across the agency.” These losses included agents in the child predator unit, drug law enforcement unit, drug strike task force and the firearm task force. In the years since Corbett’s impassioned plea for funding, he has been responsible, as governor, for millions of dollars of additional cuts far beyond what he received when he was A.G....

It is important to note that when then-attorney general Corbett was arguing that the agency needed more money to do its job properly, the A.G.’s office was receiving $86.5 million in state funding. He testified that if the Attorney General’s budget was reduced by 5 percent ($82 million) “the agency would be a shell.” Three years later Corbett is asking Kane to run the same office with just $78 million in state funds, $5 million less in federal funds and substantially higher personnel costs."

[diabeticman]

1. He's hoping to stop the impeachment coming his way. For those not PA residences Corbett

was AG when the whole Penn State/Sandusky thing was happening. He basically helped to protect Sandusky.

[DCKit]

2. Gutting the AGs office may be his best defense. nt

[Dawson Leery]

3. Tom Corbett, protector of child rapists is playing politics

to disarm the AG's office. His days are numbered and a second term for he would be real upset (both in that it is unlikely most will be upset if he is re-elected.)

[Curmudgeoness]

4. Two can play at this game.

Whatever he wants time and energy spent on would be low priority for me, especially if it is something that would make him look good. And those things that he is not wanting looked into would be what I focus on. And of course, I would blame him for any lack of service on his priorities.