"Government has to be run like a business," said Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley during a public business roundtable discussion hosted by state Rep. Jerry Knowles, R-124 Wednesday at the West Penn Annex Building.

The discussion, which evolved around the state budget, education and their impact on local business, was attended by Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-122, and Rep. Tarah Toohil, R-116, and state Sen. David Argall, R-29, along with several business leaders and a number of citizens.Cawley pointed out that the state's economy is still in flux and Pennsylvanians are struggling."The last thing we wanted to do was add to their burden by increasing their taxes," Cawley said. "In January, our projections weren't as positive as we hoped. We are about $500 million under what our revenue projections were; with an eye of being toward as much as $700 million of our conservative revenue estimates for the year. So we were faced with a couple of difficult choices for last year. Again, we are faced with these choices this year."Pointing out that if they would have raised taxes last year, Cawley stated that the average family of four would have paid in excess of more than $900 more in state income tax."If we would have done the same thing this year, that same family would be paying an additional $300," he added. "Taxes would have gone up for that family by $1,200 in two years. But, the truth is, that $900-plus is a recurring number."He said they also promised that while working to control spending, they wouldn't be asking Pennsylvania residents to dig deeper in their pockets with more taxes."We are forcing government to live among its means. That is what we did last year. For the first time in over 40 years, the budget of the state was smaller than its predecessor year. And this year, with the recommended proposed budget of Gov. Tom Corbett, we are going to go two years in a row with the budget being smaller than before; because what we are recommending is a $20 million cut in spending over what we cut last year," Cawley continued."This includes having, unfortunately, to reduce the workforce of the state. We simply can't afford any longer to pay things we just don't have the money for. The bottom line was this ... Our choice was to restore fiscal responsibility in Harrisburg and not raise taxes. We are all challenged to do more with less. That was our course."We owe it to ourselves to set a course to get out of this and to empower the private sector to create family sustaining jobs."Cawley pointed out his and Corbett's idea of the government helping is by becoming a silent partner and simply getting out of the way."One of the things that has come through loud and clear was to turn to groups like this," said Cawley. "We are on the course of completely phasing out the capital stock and franchise tax (CSFT) in this state. We are one of the few states in the nation that charges both a corporate net income tax (CNIT) and a capital stock and franchise tax."Pennsylvania's corporate net income tax is the highest in the nation, at 9.99 percent."If we are going to get to that bright new horizon, economically, we have to make tough decisions," he added. "If we do that and stay on course, by January of 2014, the CSFT will be completely eliminated."We believe that will spur on a great deal of growth and opportunity and job creation for the state. We also knew that changing the taxation structure alone isn't the only way in which we can help."Cawley announced Corbett's Job First PA Program, which involves four programs: Pennsylvania Inc.; The Comprehensive Job Matching System; Keystone Works; and The Targeted Industry Certificate Program.Cawley, who also discussed educational spending, said that in 1995, the total amount of money that was spent on basic education in the state was $13 billion. In 2010, that number doubled to $26 billion. In 2000, there were 113,000 public school teachers teaching 1.86 million students. In 2010, there were 127,000 public school teachers teaching 1.78 million students. That is a decline of 80,000 students. So in 15 years, the state doubled the amount of money that is spent on education and increased the amount of public school teachers, but the amount of students went down by 80,000."Maybe we need to look at reforming the charter school system, look at cyber charter school, empowering Pennsylvanians with home schooling, and yes, offering educational scholarships, if that's the case," Cawley said. "We also have to make sure we have greater accountability for the money we are sending. That is why we are recommending a report card for our schools and greater evaluation tools for our teachers and administrators."Cawley said that funds coming from the state are currently limited and legislative initiative grants are not likely.During the second half of the roundtable, the attendees had a chance to ask Cawley some questions.Frank Staudenmeier, Schuylkill County chairman, mentioned that we should be concerned about our kids and need to provide a good steward for community, environment and government. He also stressed the importance of empowering partnerships between the public and private sectors.According to Cawley, Corbett said Pennsylvania faces many challenges and the best way to improve the state's economic standing is to empower the private sector to create family sustaining jobs."Maybe the traditional ways in which we've always done these things don't work for us anymore," said Cawley.