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Governor Edward G. Rendell
Edward G. Rendell, Pennsylvania’s 45th Governor, began a second term of office on January 16, 2007, following a landslide re-election victory. As Governor, Rendell serves as chief executive of the nation’s 6th-most-populous state and oversees a $27.5 billion budget.
Governor Rendell’s unprecedented strategic investments have energized Pennsylvania’s economy, revitalized communities, improved education, protected the environment and expanded access to health care to all children and affordable prescription drugs for older adults. He championed and signed into law Pennsylvania’s first comprehensive measure to substantially reform the local tax system by providing $1 billion in urgently needed property tax relief to homeowners.
Governor Rendell is building on his efforts to make government more responsible to the public, and more responsive to the public’s needs. He has cut wasteful spending and improved efficiency to save more than $1 billion and is pursuing a legislative agenda that includes commonsense political reforms to put progress ahead of partisanship.
Under Governor Rendell’s leadership, Pennsylvania’s economy has rebounded sharply and continues to expand. Governor Rendell’s economic stimulus plan is investing more than $2.8 billion to create new jobs and revitalize communities. Today, there are more jobs in Pennsylvania than ever before, with a net gain of more than 168,000 jobs since 2003. Pennsylvania now ranks 15th in the nation for job growth, up from 41st at the beginning of Governor Rendell’s first term. And, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate has fallen over a full point and continues to be better than, or on par with, the national average. To ensure that all Pennsylvanians share in the benefits of our growing economy, the Governor successfully championed the first minimum wage increase in nearly a decade.
Under Governor Rendell, student achievement is on the rise at every grade level and in every subject. Pennsylvania’s public schools now have the resources to invest in proven education initiatives like pre-kindergarten, full-day kindergarten and tutoring. Pennsylvania has gone from one of the nine states in the country that failed to fund pre-kindergarten to a national leader in early childhood investment, and for the first time ever more than half of Pennsylvania kindergartners are in full-day programs.
Governor Rendell is also making Pennsylvania a leader in pursuing energy independence – creating jobs in the emerging alternative energy economy while developing effective strategies to reduce dependence on foreign oil and save families money.
Governor Rendell championed a dramatic increase in the number of older Pennsylvanians who receive affordable prescription drugs through Pennsylvania’s PACE and PACENET programs. He also saved older adults thousands of dollars a year that they would have been forced to pay under the federal Medicare Part D prescription drug plan.
In addition, Governor Rendell won passage of the landmark Growing Greener 2 environmental investment package. The $625 million initiative is cleaning up rivers and streams, improving parks, returning abandoned industrial sites to productive use, protecting open space and preserving farmland.
Governor Rendell has accomplished all of this while being a careful steward of the commonwealth’s finances. When he became Governor, the commonwealth faced a projected budget deficit of $2.4 billion. As one of his first acts, Governor Rendell cut government spending to close that deficit and implemented programs and policies to apply business principles of productivity and cost-savings to the operation of state government.
From 1992 through 1999, Governor Rendell served as the 121st Mayor of the City of Philadelphia. Among his many accomplishments as Mayor, Rendell eliminated a $250 million deficit; balanced the city's budget and generated five consecutive budget surpluses; reduced business and wage taxes for four consecutive years; implemented new revenue-generating initiatives, and dramatically improved services to the City's neighborhoods. The New York Times called the Philadelphia renaissance under Rendell “the most stunning turnaround in recent urban history.” Before serving as Mayor, Rendell was elected district attorney of the City of Philadelphia for two terms from 1978 through 1985.
The Governor, who served as general chair of the Democratic National Committee during the 2000 Presidential election, has always been active in the community through a variety of memberships on boards, and also teaches government and politics courses at the University of Pennsylvania. An Army veteran, the Governor is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (B.A. 1965) and Villanova Law School (J.D. 1968). He was born on January 5, 1944.
The Governor and his wife, First Lady Marjorie O. Rendell, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, have a son, Jesse. They celebrated their 36th wedding anniversary on July 10, 2007.
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