And you wonder why Pennsylvania is facing a potential $2 billion budget shortfall?

Gov. Ed Rendell continues to defend the hiring of political crony Dan Surra to a $95,000 patronage job despite a hiring freeze that has left 5,000 other state jobs unfilled.

Rendell himself admitted this week that the state's General Fund deficit will likely reach $1.6 billion to $1.9 billion by the the end of June. Republican lawmakers say the deficit could top $2.1 billion.

"Everyone has to understand that what has happened leaves us no option," Rendell said this week. "We're going to have to cut virtually every program that there is."

But giving a $95,000-a-year-job to an ousted state lawmaker is not among the cuts Rendell is willing to make.

Reporter Brad Bumstead has more on Rendell's hypocrisy and "Go to hell" attitude toward Pennsylvania taxpayers in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

From Bumstead's article:

"Let me stress, I reserved the right when I announced the hiring freeze to make exceptions," Rendell told reporters while visiting the Pennsylvania Farm Show. During a speech at the farm show, he boosted his predicted budget deficit for 2008-09 from $1.6 billion to $1.9 billion.

Rendell said he did not create a special job for Surra, but he acknowledged the DCNR job was not posted and others weren't considered.

The Democratic governor's decision to hire Surra, a Democrat who failed to win re-election to the state House of Representatives in November, has been universally panned by the state's newspapers.

From The Pottstown Mercury:

THORNS to Gov. Ed Rendell for creating a job for a former state legislator, violating a hiring freeze imposed during the current state budget crisis ... Rendell also has slashed hundreds of millions of dollars from the budget to help offset a projected $1.7 billion shortfall this fiscal year. Creating a job for an ousted legislator in this fiscally-stressed environment was a slap in the face to state taxpayers. The governor should know better.