The Governor's newsletter just came out on-line, and he pretty much devotes it to castigating the General Assembly for failing to authorize an expansion of CHIP, the state's rendition of the nationwide Children's Health Insurance Program.

The money to do it is there, but I think the issue is that the state has to change the rules slightly so that all the kids get covered. Everyone thought this was a deal that had been nailed down, but according to this newsletter the expansion still has not been authorized. The Governor is ticked.

Here's why this makes me feel personally better but also really disturbs me. When we were working to raise the minimum wage, we got all sorts of promises via various channels of votes that would come on the minimum wage that didn't come. Obviously, we got our vote eventually, but we had it promised three or four times before that.

It always made me feel like crap. As if we were so small and unimportant to legislative leadership that promises to us weren't even real. It's demoralizing. You think, "a promise is a promise" whether it's to a Senator or a random citizen. Right? Well, that's apparently not how Harrisburg's legislative leadership feels, I thought. We weren't people. They could lie to us with easy hearts.

Well, in the Governor's Newsletter, he says that he had a letter from the caucus leaders on June 30th that promised a vote before business closed. Well, business is closing and there has been no vote. So they even lie to the Governor!

That sort of makes me feel better. If the GOP Caucus Leaders are going to lie to the Governor, then I can't really take it personally (or should that be coalitionally?). Except it also makes me feel like crap, because I don't want a legislature that won't honor its commiments. If you aren't sure you can swing a vote, don't promise a vote! I want leaders who try very hard to honor their word.

I understand that sometimes commitments fall apart, but as many times as our coalition was lied to and here the Governor himself has been lied to, it looks like Harrisburg's current leadership just doesn't take promises seriously.