Editorial: Irish trip during budget impasse is tone-deaf for lawmakers

On Sunday, Pennsylvania leaders were overseas.

A certain amount of business travel is to be expected for elected officials. Legislators regularly traverse the state for in-person events and hearings in various areas, as well as moving to and from their home seats to Harrisburg. They may have to go to Washington to testify. They may need to go to other cities, even those abroad, for conference or research purposes.

But it is rare that a requirement of the job is a National Football League game in Ireland.

A Spotlight PA report details that at least four state lawmakers were in Dublin for the Pittsburgh Steelers-Minnesota Vikings game. State Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R-Hempfield), state Rep. Joe McAndrew (D-Penn Hills), state Sen. Devlin Robinson (R-Bridgeville) and state Rep. Mary Jo Daley (D- Montgomery) all say they were paying their own way.

There were administration officials, including Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Rick Siger and others on a separate trip from the lawmakers. It was funded by the government and included meeting with Irish companies.

Ward told Spotlight the legislators’ trip was about supporting Irish investment in Pennsylvania and taking advantage of the time off to combine work and a love of the Steelers. It’s true the House was out of session until this week. It’s true government officials are allowed to be people who get to do things normal people do — and plenty of black-and-gold-blooded Steelers fans were in Ireland for the game.

But it is just as true that completely permissible things can have a bad look based on timing.

For instance, the lawmakers were not the only ones “off” as of Sunday. On Friday, furlough notices started to roll out to 125 Westmoreland County employees. While the lawmakers were socializing, Armstrong County is preparing to shutter seven of nine senior centers — furloughing eight employees and eliminating 500 meals for the elderly. Allegheny County is slashing spending and freezing hiring.

This is not about individual issues cropping up in three very different counties. It’s about the state government not passing the budget.

It was due July 1, but as has become downright traditional for Pennsylvania, that deadline was blown without much thought. On Wednesday, it will be three months overdue, and the impact is becoming increasingly obvious.

So, no, there’s not a statutory or legal reason a Pennsylvania legislator shouldn’t jet off to a foreign country to see a state team playing on the international stage.

But there’s also no reason Pennsylvanians — the people whose lives are being impacted by the government’s failure to do its job — have to like it. It feels brazen. It smacks of Marie Antoinette eating cake and Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

Overall, the trip is fine. The timing is tone-deaf. And the explanation sounds like justifying a field trip to Walt Disney World by citing the educational value of “It’s a Small World.”