Voters have consistently criticized the legislature for its size and its waste. Legislators defend their girth by comparing themselves to CEOs of corporations.

I prefer to think of Pennsylvania government as a kitchen overrun with chefs. Regardless of how you feel about state government, one thing is lacking from the budget recipe: cutting tools.

My holiday gift to Gov. Rendell, the legislature and the judiciary is a recipe to trim $313,358.707.34 from the deficit:

1. Liquidate non-lapsing leadership accounts: $241.5 million.
2. Reduce legislature spending by 20 percent: $57.2 million annually.
3. Eliminate BIG: $10.6 million one-time refund.
4. Eliminate PSAs: $1.35 million in annual savings.
5. Reduce PHEAA funding by the amount spent on "lobbying fees:" $1 million.
6. Reduce judicial office space spending by 20 percent: Minimal annual savings: $684,000.
7. Reduce Penn State University's annual allocation by the amount of Graham Spanier's annual base salary: $611,367.
8. Reduce Turnpike funding by amount spent on "lobbying fees." Minimal annual savings: $312,000.
9. Refund from Senate members who continue to profit from "unvouchered expenses:" $67,340.34.
10. Rep. Mark Cohen's refund for using tax payer dollars for his book-buying sprees and New York weekends: $34,000.

Eric Epstein is a watchdog and advocate for consumers, good government and safe energy. For more about Epstein, click here.

Here's some more items for your Christmas list to save real dollars in the state budget...

1. Index SERS and PSERS and save $400 MILLION per year while reducing the incredible risk these funds have deployed. Indexing is passive investing, matching the exact allocations in say the S&P 500. Most corporations and the New Jersey pension fund use indexing and save millions per year, while matching the market's index returns. PSERS 42 basis points and SERS 70 basis points. New Jersey 7 basis points. It's real. and big time savings. $400 million per YEAR

2. By indexing SERS and PSERS can eliminate another $50 million in consultants and managers managing managers. $50 million per year.

3. While we are at it, Pennsylvania has more municipal pension funds, than the rest of the nation COMBINED. It's time to roll all of Pennsylvania' s thousands of pension into one maaster pension fund. Do it, and save $1 billion per year, while vastly improving fund performance and eliminating some poor government practices. $1 billion +

4. Mandate all state health insurance into the state's Employee Benefit Trust. Again, Pennsylvania government has more health benefit and benefit systems than the rest of the nation, COMBINED. The Legislative Budget and Finance Committee demonstrated annual savings of at least $1 BILLION per year, with improved performance and huge productivity savings. $1 billion +

5. Sell unused and underutilized state asets. For years, we heard the chorus on privatizing the state stores and producing more than $1 Billion in sale proceeds.

But wait, the state has billions of dollars of unused assets and underutilized assets.

Here's but a random sampling:
A. Sell/lease the rest areas on Interstate 80, 81, 79 and the Turnpike... to someone like McDonalds, Aramark, Burger King, Roy Rogers, Sheetz... $500 million minimum.

B. Sell/lease all the state-owned Radio, TV and Emergency Management Towers in Pennsylvania, reserving an obvious and reasonable leaseback for all the state's needs... $200 to $500 million

C. Sell the naming rights to hundreds of state facilities. Heck, the owners of the Phillies and Eagles, Sixers and Steelers shouldn't be the only ones capalizing on Heinz, Lincoln, Citizens or Wachovia, etc... No one really cares that the Steelers got state-money and named the stadium Heinz Field for a tidy sum. Besides a few strident souls, no one wil really care if the trading posts in some state parks are called, Heinz Trading Post. How about,

Interstate 80 - sponsored by PNC Bank
Interstate 81 sponsored by Comcast
Interstate 79 sponsored by Erie Insurance.

the list is long and glorious... compared to a tax increase.... let's get to work

D. AUCTION the still un-used Slots licenses . My anti-gambling proposal from 2003-2004 still holds true. IF gaming is to occur... we should OPEN - AUCTION off the unused slots licenses on ESPN, LIVE on a Saturday night to the highest responsible bidder. After the bid, the Attorney General AND PA State Police undertake 90 days of brutal backgrounds checks,,,, and then LIVE on ESPN on another Saturday Night, a press conference officially awards the Auction winner(s). Transparent, open and Fun. Comparable auctions in other states have yielded $400 million per license, versus Pennsylvania's paltry $50 million license fees.

Even at half the market rates.... at $200 million per license, with 14 licenses, that would have been over $2.8 billion.....

Thanks for your suggestion. A no tax increase caucus is a great idea. Maybe they can organzie around eliminating the IRRC:

Another relatively secret nest for lobbyists and special interests to achieve goals they failed to achieve in the legislative and normal regulatory process is the Independent Regulatory Review Commission. This year’s appropriation. $2,123,000
 
If special interests don't like what regulators are doing -- let them change the law during daylight hours.

Of course we know the answer to this and it is a shame. But not to fear, they will attempt to raise taxes next year.