Day: February 18, 2016

Pat Toomey Stay Strong

Pat Toomey Stay StrongPat Toomey Stay Strong — Sen. Pat Toomey, who has been a very good senator for Pennsylvania and the nation, has gone on record saying the replacement for recently deceased Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia must be appointed by the next president.

He is right.

There are troubling reports that the U.S. Senate’s Republican majority which is not known for its profile in courage will listen to the whispers of the Washington game players and allow Obama to name another Bill Ayers disciple.

Any choice by Obama, it should be noted, will be a Bill Ayers disciple.

If you want to continue to protect the lives of little girls, Sen. Toomey, make sure you fight these whisperers and make sure the Scalia seat stays vacant until next January.

Many people who voted for you in 2010 did so with for the sole reason that would you be in a position to stop Obama on a matter such as this. If you abandon them they will certainly abandon you this fall.

Pat Toomey Stay Strong

Money Floats Around In Pa

Money Floats Around In Pa — By Leo Knepper

A couple of weeks ago, Sen. Scott Wagner pointed out the $129 million “Swiss Bank Account” operated by the Pittsburgh Public Schools. The massive cash reserve was brought to light by a report from the Auditor General just in time to avoid an unnecessary tax increase. It is reasonable and prudent for school districts to maintain a rainy day fund. However, Pennsylvania school districts are ready for a biblical flood. They have a combined $4 billion in reserves socked away, but that doesn’t prevent them from crying poverty at every opportunity.  Money Floats Around In Pa

There are other, more disturbing, examples of off the books pools of money that came to light during the budget “crisis”. Even in the absence of a budget, Governor Wolf managed to spend over $30 billion. This spending got the attention of several Representatives last year and what they found was eye-opening. One of the accounting tricks employed by the Governor was the use of waivers:

“Their digging uncovered that $2.7 billion in waivers, which is money left over from previous budget years, had been spent in the four months after the 2014-15 fiscal year ended at the end of June.”

As we enter another budget season, Representatives and Senators need to determine how much more money is floating around off the books. Money left over from previous budgets does not belong to government agencies, it belongs to the taxpayers. Having an accurate assessment of the amount of unspent, previously allocated funds could save taxpayers billions of dollars going forward and plug that “structural deficit” the Governor keeps mentioning.

Mr. Knepper is executive director of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania.