Tom Corbett cried wolf until one finally came. 

History will record that Democratic challenger and York County businessman Tom Wolf won the gubernatorial election Tuesday night, but Gov. Corbett, R-Drillers, beat himself.  

The networks called the race inside of 10 minutes after the polls closed. The Associated Press named Mr. Wolf the winner at 8:33 p.m., but it was over four years ago.  

The education cuts in Mr. Corbett’s first budget came back to haunt him. It is well-documented that he slashed education funding by about $1 billion. He increased education spending in his final budget, but the damage had been done.

Northeast Pennsylvania school districts lost nearly $145 million. If you doubt that, tell the taxpayers and parents who got stuck with the bill for the difference. The Valley View PTA organized bake sales and basket raffles to raise $10,000 for basic classroom technology. 

On Monday, the Scranton School District announced that it faces a $10 million deficit. Suggestion: Lay off a thousand janitors, groundskeepers and consultants (nephews, cousins and uncles). 

Mr. Corbett also chose to betray the state’s obligation to reimburse school districts for construction costs, which supporters characterized as the governor heroically holding the line on out-of-control school spending. 

Sounds good, but the money was already spent, with the approval of the state and its promise to pay its share. In fact, Mr. Corbett welched on these agreements like a shifty parent who co-signed a car loan for a party-prone teen. He stiffed Carbondale Area, Mid Valley and Western Wayne school districts to the tune of $2.6 million. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Corbett cut a check for $20 million in state money to help fund a $40 million stadium for the RailRiders, the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. The Yankees are worth an estimated $2.5 billion, collect more than $450 million in revenue annually and spend more than $200 million on payroll each season. 

But hey, it is a really nice stadium. 

In his fourth and thankfully final budget, Mr. Corbett cut funding for regional cancer institutes by 25 percent and eliminated all aid to sufferers of diabetes, epilepsy, lupus, Tourette’s syndrome and hemophilia. He even snuffed “Mr Yuk,” stripping all funding for regional poison control centers.

Even Republicans refused to work with Mr. Corbett, who had a GOP-controlled Legislature from the beginning. He failed to privatize the Lottery and liquor sales. His halfhearted bid to defuse the public pension time bomb fizzled. Mr. Corbett’s sole accomplishments in office are: 

Authorizing the continued importation of wild boars from Europe to Pennsylvania hunting ranches where pretend hunters can shoot helpless animals in a confined space. This the worst idea since electing Tom Corbett. Just ask the Game Commission.  

A transportation bill that raised the price of gasoline, vehicle inspections and registration fees on taxpayers. 

Forcing the firing of Joe Paterno over the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

I’m sure Mr. Corbett’s few defenders could explain away these offenses to the ideal of a “Commonwealth,” but why argue semantics with a gassy elephant in the room? The cardinal sin of the Corbett Misadministration is his imbecilic, immoral opposition to a fair severance tax on natural gas extraction. 

Yes, Mr. Corbett signed on to an “impact fee” he insisted was not a tax. It has raised hundreds of millions less than a severance tax. Also, most of the jobs created by Marcellus Shale drilling have gone to outsiders from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and other far-flung locales. 

The money these “transplants” have spent in Pennsylvania bars, district courts and jail commissaries is appreciated, but, like the impact fee, nowhere near what a severance tax would raise. 

To the blessed end, Mr. Corbett cried wolf on the tax, insisting that industry giants would abandon the Saudi Arabia of Natural Gas if forced to pay a tax they pay everywhere else. If you believe that, you deserve a governor like Tom Corbett. I don’t, and neither do the majority of Pennsylvania’s nearly 13 million citizens. 

Tom Corbett did not lose because he is a Republican, a conservative or a maverick making tough choices in hard times. He lost because he consistently put the interests of his corporate benefactors above those of the people he was elected to serve. 

He lost because he deserved to lose.   

Did Tom Wolf deserve to win? I don’t know. As I cast my ballot Tuesday, I didn’t care. 

Tom Wolf is not Tom Corbett. That’s why he will be sworn in as governor in January. 

CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, never cries wolf. Contact the writer: kellysworld@timesshamrock.com, @cjkink on Twitter. Read his daily blog at blogs.thetimes-tribune.com/kelly