Big Labor is turning on Gov. Ed Rendell.

Specifically, the Service Employees International Union doesn't like the governor's recent hiring freeze, leaving some 5,000 state jobs vacant.

Government jobs has always been the trump card for tax-and-spend liberals like Rendell. Democrats who can't deliver government jobs don't have much else to offer.

But the good times are over for Rendell, who has increased state spending by nearly $8 billion since taking office in 2003.

The state is facing its worse fiscal crisis in 20 years, thanks largely to Rendell's free-spending ways over the past six years.

Pennsylvania has run up a $281 million budget deficit in just the first three months of the 2008-09 fiscal year.

If the trend continues, the state is facing a $1 billion deficit. The only way to make up the shortfall is to cut services (and jobs) or raise taxes.

Rendell pushed through a $1 billion increase in the state income tax as soon as he took office in 2003. He'll probably call for a much bigger tax increase after the Nov. 4 election.

If you like paying higher taxes, keep the Democrats in control of the state House. If you want to stop Rendell, send more Republicans to Harrisburg on Nov. 4.

Follow the link below to read the union's "sky-is-falling" press release about the hiring freeze:

Service Employees Union Blasts Rendell Hiring Freeze