The Pennsylvania State Police is one of the largest police forces in the United States, with more than 4,200 troopers, 1,800 civilian employees and an annual budget of more than $1.4 billion.

Yet as budget hearings got under way in Harrisburg this week, the House Appropriations Committee decided not to conduct a budget hearing for the agency.

That is extraordinary given that the agency is mired in budget controversy, and Gov. Tom Wolf has proposed a highly controversial plan to cover it with assessments on every local government in the state based on population, income demographics and each government’s use of state police. For example, a city like Scranton’s contribution would be more than $300,000.

Because hundreds of local governments in Pennsylvania do not fund their own police departments, hire other local departments or join regional departments, state police also serve as local police in much of the state. That is not their mission.

And the over-extension unfairly burdens taxpayers who fund their own police departments, because they also must pay for the free riders who use state police.

And, the cost is so great that the state government poaches nearly $700 million a year for state police from the Motor License Fund, which by law is supposed to be used for road maintenance and improvement.

Beyond that, this is an era of extremely high scrutiny of police operations. The state police face a lawsuit alleging racial profiling of Latino drivers, a claim also being investigated by the Office of Inspector General. And the agency only resumed collecting demographic data about its traffic spots after news accounts revealed that it had stopped doing so.

Any agency’s budget is integral to all of its operations. An agency that spends $1.4 billion a year and which intersects with innumerable matters of public importance should not be given a pass on answering for itself in budget hearings.

— The Citizens’ Voice,

Wilkes-Barre/TNS