There may be blood

When Gov. Corbett takes an axe to the state budget in a few months, he will have to take such big sweeping strokes if he really wants to avoid tax hikes than many oxen will be gored. And I predict it will be more than liberals and social service advocates who scream in protest.

Government programs tend to build private constituencies, as I was reminded in this piece in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It profiles the muscular lobby of developers, bond lawyers, financial analysts, design firms and construction unions that have fought off attempts in Missouri to curtail tax-increment financing of development projects.

Share your guesses as to whom will be lobbying to protect their pieces of the American dream in the Pennsylvania budget battle next year.