Jan 7, 2011 4 min read

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Ed Rendell’s biggest regret in eight years as Pennsylvania’s governor is signing the government pay raise of 2005, he said Thursday in an interview with Capitol journalists less than two weeks before he leaves office.

In a 70-minute session, Rendell also passed out an itemized comparison of his campaign promises and his track record on each one, said he regards his public school initiatives as his proudest accomplishment and complained that extreme partisanship has turned government service into “a terrible business.”

Rendell said he acceded too quickly to pressure from the Republican-controlled Legislature to support the raises as part of a state budget deal during the first of his two terms. He said he had opposed a similar increase in 2004 and should have stuck to his guns.

“I was too easily persuaded to do it because I was told that, unless I did it, we wouldn’t get legislative cooperation for the remaining time” in his governorship, he said. “I shouldn’t have done it.”

The legislation, approved without a hearing or debate, gave lawmakers raises of as much as 54 percent and boosted pay for judges and top executive branch officials, including the governor. The law quickly turned to political poison, and lawmakers repealed it later in 2005, but angry voters nonetheless turned 24 incumbent legislators out of office in the 2006 election.

Rendell said he harbors no regrets about supporting the legalization of casino gambling because it generates jobs and revenue for valuable programs, nor about the fact that none of the budgets he signed was passed by the July 1 deadline, saying the delays often produced a better deal in negotiations with the Legislature.

“I know you guys didn’t believe this, but I told you all along I was more interested in the final product than my favorability rating,” he said. “I don’t give a hoot what people say about me.”

Rendell, 67, will be succeeded by Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett on Jan. 18 after having served the maximum tenure allowed by law.

Rendell said he expects to remain busy after leaving government – largely working on the book he is writing about his career, delivering paid public speeches and doing “something in TV.” He said he is through with running for elected office.

“My business has become a terrible business,” he said, referring to policymakers in Washington and in statehouses. “Far too much partisanship. The first thought of 90 percent of the people in the state capitols is how we screw the other side, not how we benefit the people.”

As an aside to his list of accomplishments, Rendell noted that his administration has not been stained by corruption.

“With 12 days to go, let the record note that not one member of the Rendell administration has been arrested or indicted with anything having to do with corruption in terms of their service in the administration,” he said.

A former Rendell Cabinet member, Stephen Stetler, faces corruption charges stemming from his 16 years as a state representative as part of an ongoing probe by Corbett’s office that has resulted in the arrests of 25 lawmakers and legislative aides from both parties. Stetler stepped down as state Revenue secretary after he was charged in December 2009.

Rendell said his administration increased spending for public education and school property-tax relief by billions of dollars, including the state’s first investment in pre-kindergarten instruction, expanding full-day kindergarten enrollment and providing laptop computers in core-subject classes for all high school students.

With a national economy increasingly driven by technology, “what we have done, I think, is going to inure to the benefit of millions of young people as they go into the job market,” he said.