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State budget process needs an overhaul

Pennsylvania finally has a 2025-26 state budget — a $50.1 billion behemoth approved Nov. 12, the Legislature having missed the constitutionally mandated budget-preparation deadline of June 30 by almost 4.5 months. State taxpayers, who usually are quick to forget the frustrations and hardships tied to budget stalemates like the one just ended, probably already have shifted their attention totally away from what just occurred. They likely will remember even less about the unconscionable, maddening stalemate by the time for them to vote next year. Next year’s elections will decide ...

Airport’s success is gift to region

Count the Altoona-Blair County Airport as an early holiday gift-giver to this region, as well as to potentially many more places far beyond. The gift it has provided ­— this month, well before the placing of traditional holiday gifts under Christmas trees — is the great news about increased passenger numbers already recorded plus predictions that those upbeat numbers will be topped in coming months and, hopefully, beyond. Besides the numbers themselves, though, part of the gift to people who fly into and out of the airport is added confidence that the local air service upon which ...

Let’s lead the way in giving this season

Charities here and elsewhere across the United States might have experienced a mild “mood boost” in June when the Associated Press reported that, after an adjustment for inflation, charitable giving in 2024 was found to have been up by 3.3% over 2023. But just as the busy “make-or-break” 2025 holiday shopping season is about to kick into high gear, perhaps that less-than-robust mood boost of five months ago might have to be replaced by a sense of caution more significant than any existing a year earlier. Much volatility has impacted the business-industrial climate this year — ...

High turnout shows voters are engaged

It isn’t really a surprise when people don’t turn out for an election the year after a president is selected. Especially in Pennsylvania. As a perennial swing state, Pennsylvania is lobbied hard during a presidential year. The ads are everywhere — on TV, on the radio, online and in mailboxes, flooding homes in a monsoon of postcards. So when we come to the off-year, when positions like municipal council seats and judges of election are on the ballot, it’s understandable that people are still exhausted from the year before. The 2024 election was enough to make anyone want to ...

Women most affected in return to work

“Women have fallen behind in the (post-pandemic) return-to-office push, reflecting the barriers they can still hit when juggling careers and families, even after decades of workplace gains.” That was the observation of the Wall Street Journal in a report in its Oct. 25-26 edition. The message within that paragraph is that, although women’s pay has experienced a decline, when stacked against men’s, it is not due to intentional, gross, beefed-up unfairness — less pay for the same work — on the part of companies toward them. Rather, it is the unfortunate impact of shouldering ...

Complete GACTC study important

The Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center did not err in approving a presentation delay until early next year regarding a long-anticipated facility and feasibility study. Because the study is so important to the school’s future and present, it must be carried out in a responsible, comprehensive manner, not haphazardly with questions and issues left incomplete and otherwise not fully addressed. A haphazard study would benefit no one and, worst of all, hurt the school over the long run — and thus the students depending on it to provide them the excellent education and ...