Rendell lays out ambitious 2d term
Universal health insurance, transit funding and ethics are on his agenda.
By Amy Worden and Mario F. Cattabiani
Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG - Seeking to bury any image of himself as a lame-duck governor, Edward G. Rendell took the oath of office yesterday and promised a bold second-term agenda to curb rising health-care costs, solve the state's transportation-funding crisis, and make government more open and accountable.
"I believe that we have put Pennsylvania firmly on the road to enduring progress. But today is not the time to rest on our laurels. There is much yet to be done," said Rendell, bracing against a stiff January wind and wearing only a navy-blue suit.
Lawmakers and others from both parties said the Democrat's ideas defy the notion that second-term governors lack ambition.
"The governor will never be considered a lame duck, nor will he allow anybody else to consider him a lame duck," said House Speaker Dennis M. O'Brien (R., Phila.). "He is going to advance proposals, I would say, throughout the next four years that are going to challenge us all."
In what has become a tradition, Rendell, 63, was sworn in by his wife, Marjorie O. Rendell, a judge on the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Their son, Jesse, held the family Bible, on which Rendell also took his oath for second term as mayor of Philadelphia and first oath as Pennsylvania's 45th governor.
Rendell said he would try to build on the achievements of his first term, highlighting his efforts to reduce government spending while investing in education and economic-development programs. His 10-minute speech was interrupted by applause about a dozen times by a smaller-than-expected crowd of about 1,500 people, including federal and state lawmakers and well-wishers.
The low-key and abbreviated ceremony stood in contrast to the huge inaugural celebration of 2003 that featured fireworks and a 5,000-person parade including the Mummers and Punxsutawney Phil.
Earlier yesterday, Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll was sworn in for her second term in a ceremony in the Senate chamber.
"There is no incentive for us to be merely one of 50 states. Our goal must always be to be the best of the 50," said Knoll. "... Let us vow that everything up until now has been the first draft, and it becomes our job to improve on it."
Rendell promised to roll out a diverse package of proposals during the next month that will call for major new investments in education, alternative-energy development, transportation and the economy.
The governor also said that today he would reveal details of his "Prescription for Pennsylvania," a plan to offer affordable health care for all Pennsylvanians while reducing "the crushing burden of spiraling health-care costs."
Rendell further pledged to find ways to address the transportation-funding crisis that has left mass-transit agencies with perennial budget problems, and highways and bridges in desperate need of repair.
"Ours can be a commonwealth that provides a financially sound system of mass transit and a first-class network of highways and bridges," he said.
Rendell's proposal to sell or lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike as the primary way to raise transportation funds has drawn fire from the Turnpike Commission and elsewhere.
Rendell also said he would champion changes already under way in the legislature that were born out of citizen uproar over the ill-fated legislative pay raise of 2005.
Rendell said he would support a new open-records law, restrictions on campaign contributions, merit selection of appellate judges, term limits, and reducing the size of the legislature.
"The easiest thing in the world would have been to coast forward. Instead, he has an incredibly aggressive and ambitious agenda for the next four years," said David L. Cohen, Rendell's former mayoral chief of staff. "Anyone who thinks he is going to be a typical second-term governor has another think coming."
Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.), chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, said Rendell "is going to work every minute that he is in office over the next four years to make a difference in the state."
Rendell won a decisive victory in November - in what he said was his last campaign for public office - taking 60 percent of the vote to Republican challenger Lynn Swann's 40 percent.
Rendell enters his second term in a rosier economic climate than in 2003, when he warned in his inaugural speech of a fiscal crisis that would entail "short-term pain" of spending cuts and tax increases.
Indeed, Rendell's first budget called for spending cuts and a hike in the personal-income tax. But, Rendell noted yesterday, he sought and won support in the legislature for sizable public investments in education, economic development and the environment. In addition, Rendell secured his slot-machine gambling proposal to fund reductions in property and wage taxes.
But before getting down to the business of his second term, the governor and his wife were joined by several thousand others to usher in his new term Philly-style, with an inaugural ball at the Farm Show Arena.
Headlining last night's event were rocker Jon Bon Jovi and Grammy Award winner Jill Scott. Other performers with Philadelphia connections included the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Trammps, Frankie Avalon and the current Philadelphia singing sensation 12-year-old Bianca Ryan, who won NBC's America's Got Talent.
Speech's Highlights
Initiatives Gov. Rendell proposed in his inaugural speech yesterday:
• A health-care plan to make affordable insurance available to all Pennsylvanians and to control runaway costs.
• Strategic investments in education, alternative energy sources, transportation and the state's economy.
• A new open-records law to replace the current law governing public access to government documents.
• State limits on political campaign contributions.
• Replacing the current system of electing state appeals court judges with a system in which an independent panel of experts would review and recommend candidates for governors to consider appointing to those posts. Such a change would require amending the state constitution.
• Giving citizens control over legislative redistricting, currently the domain of the legislature, and establishing term limits for every elected state office. Both proposals would require constitutional amendments.
SOURCE: Associated Press
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Contact staff writer Amy Worden at 717-783-2584 or aworden@phillynews.com. |
