At last, some realistic talk about the state of state government. Democratic Rep. Todd Eachus, the House majority leader, went before the editorial board of his hometown paper and
laid out the difficult shape the state is in. The deficit is likely to total $5 billion next year, he told the Hazleton Standard Speaker, highway funding will essentially dry up because of the failure of the feds to approve making I80 a toll road. And citizens are in for a hellish year that it likely to include large tax increases and equally large cuts in state spending. While the state's casinos now have table games and there is talk taxing the gas being piped from the Marcellus Shale, Eachus warned: "We can't drill our way out of the problem, or gamble our way out."
