HARRISBURG, FEBRUARY 6, 2007 – Governor Ed Rendell painted a clear picture of the challenges facing Pennsylvania, but all of the Commonwealth’s elected officials should muster the courage to present the solutions, state Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione said today.

     “What comes through loud and clear from the governor’s budget address today is that the federal government is ignoring its responsibility to American families in favor of a badly planned war and reckless tax giveaways to wealthy Americans,” Tartaglione said. “If we don’t put aside labels, turf, and politics to sit down together and share responsibility, American communities will collapse as we try to prop up foreign countries.”

     Giving top priority to education, health care, transportation and energy development, Rendell has shown that his aim is true, Tartaglione said. 

     “Clearly we have made progress in the past four years with education funding and we have temporarily staved off a crisis in public transportation,” she said. “But with every two steps we take forward, the federal government pulls us back one with dramatic cuts to vital programs, unfunded mandates, and huge deficits.”

     Tartaglione recently wrote a letter to Rendell urging a summit of state and federal lawmakers to reassess responsibilities and reasonable funding levels.  “The substantial decrease in federal tax dollars coming back to Pennsylvania as a result of the costly foreign policy of the Bush Administration and the Deficit Reduction Act is having catastrophic effects on our state’s domestic policy and our ability to adequately address the needs of our citizens,” she wrote.

     “I applaud the Governor for mentioning the problem in his address,” she said. “But before we consider raising taxes on Pennsylvania families, we should communicate our concerns face to face with our federal delegation.”