Tom Corbett, who will be sworn is as governor on Jan. 18, is nearing completion of his cabinet, this week filling the key positions of insurance commissioner, secretary of the Department of Public Welfare (DPW), and secretary of the commonwealth.
The prospective insurance commissioner is Harrisburg lawyer Michael Consedine, while the DPW secretary-designee is Gary Alexander, a former secretary of the Rhode Island Department of Health and Human Services.
The secretary of the commonwealth, who oversees all of the state's licensing boards, will be Carol Aichele, a Chester County commissioner.
The three above named appointees, along with incoming Secretary of Health-designee Eli Avila, will fill the four cabinet positions most important to the Pennsylvania Medical Society.
The incoming department heads will have their hands full. Already a bill has been introduced that would require every department of state government to cut its budget by 10 percent as a means of addressing the commonwealth's $4 billion budget shortfall.
While a pure across-the-board cut like that may not be in the cards, it sends a strong signal as to how the no-tax-increase Republican governor and legislature will seek to balance the budget.