The Pennsylvania Senate, today, Oct. 13, amended SB 501, also known as Mary’s Law which would prevent money being deducted from public employees paychecks for political purposes.
The law grandfathers in existing contracts but prevents deductions from being included in future ones.
The vote sets up final passage which could be as early as tomorrow, according to Matthew Brouillette of Commonwealth Foundation.
The vote was 26-23 for passage of the amendment. Every senator representing Delaware County, shamefully, voted against it including Republicans Tom McGarrigle (R-26) and Dominic Pileggi (R-9), who along with Stewart Greenleaf (R-12) and Robert Tomlinson (R-6) were the only Republicans to do so.
How can one even morally justify taking money against the will of someone to use to promote causes in which he does not believe?
Update: The Senate passed SB 501, today, Oct. 14 by the same 26-23 vote.
The school year is less than a month old, but there are already two districts where teachers are on strike. There also are at least two more districts were teachers have indicated they’d walk out by mid-October. Teachers from Shamokin and Line Mountain Areas are out of the classroom. In both cases, the teachers’ unions are demanding more.
The PSEA negotiator at both school districts is Mark McDade, who makes over $100,000 per year. The situation was neatly summed up in a letter from the Line Mountain School Board:
“It is apparent, by the Association’s last proposal, that the Association has no desire to settle these negotiations . . . Based on McDade’s leadership of 5 other local Teachers’ Unions toward strikes, regardless of how much they are being offered, it is obvious they just want more!”
In Shamokin Area, the School Board offered teachers $9,000 in salary increases over the next three three school years. The Line Mountain School Board was even more generous. Some teachers there would have seen their salaries increase by over $17,000 by 2020. Higher salaries also mean higher pensions. A multi-billion dollar funding shortfall in the pension system means taxpayers all over the state will be picking up those costs.
Pennsylvania is one of only 13 states where teachers may hold students’ education hostage to extract a higher salary and better benefits than the taxpayers who are covering the tab. We also lead the nation in teachers’ strikes. It would appear we are on track to keep that title.
It’s easier to hit the party button than to research those on it. We are not judging party button pushers. It is wiser, after all, to vote for the group that might look after one’s interest when one knows the other side certainly won’t.
Still, it is best to do the research and vote the person.
Which gets us to Pennsylvania Supreme Court Race 2015.
The Republican nominees are Judith Olson, Michael George and Anne Covey. The Democrats are David Wecht, Christine Donohue and Kevin Dougherty. The independent is Paul Panepinto.
Unions are also giving money to Ms. Covey, a Commonwealth Court judge from Bucks County who spent years as a labor lawyer and served on the Labor Relations Board.
So that gives us a pretty clear indication that ticket splitting is the thing to do this Nov. 3. Those who care about keeping their homes will vote for endorsed Republicans George and Ms. Olson along with independent Panepinto.
We are not labor bashing here or defending greedy corporate types. Pennsylvania labor leaders, however, are not one whit interested in saving decent jobs for working people. Their prime motives are saving their near-one-percenter lifestyles by keeping the legally mandated automatic dues deductions and the one-percenter pensions of state workers.
Regarding the backgrounds of the Supreme Court candidates, all are judges. As noted Ms. Covey sits on Commonwealth Court, the state intermediate appellate court regarding decisions by government regulatory agencies; Wecht, Ms. Donohue, and Ms. Olson are on Pennsylvania Superior Court, the intermediate appellate court for criminal and civil cases; George is an Adams County Common Pleas Court judge, and Panepinto is a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judges.
Ms. Covey is the only candidate not recommended by the state Bar Association.
Ms. Olson and George have been endorsed by the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association.
A claim shouted by those whose luxurious lifestyles are based on government — either directly or via special privileges such as mandated dues – is that Tea Party types are anti-labor and anti-union.
They are not. They are anti-hypocrisy and anti-corruption. Most believe that collective bargaining is a very good thing in many circumstances and that labor laws have made our lives generally better.
When they hear but silence, however, from organized labor when American workers are made to train their foreign replacements; when they see the hipster doofus with the Foxconn-made iPhone demanding the hard-working pizza shop owner pay his staff wages he can’t afford; and when they are confronted by those with $477,591 pensions demanding that working families cough up another 1K to keep their pensions funded, they fully understand what the union leaders and their progressive allies are about, and fully understand that they must be fought.
Anyway, here is the latest illustration of the character of those imposing “the progressive” agenda upon us. The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers is among the big-government special interest groups fighting the mild state pension reforms being pushed by Republicans in Harrisburg. The reforms would stop existing employees from spiking their their average salaries and put new state workers and public school teachers in a 401K type program.
What kind of pension plan does the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers offer its employees? That’s exactly right LOL. Can you spell “hypocrisy”? I knew you could.
That those proclaiming themselves “progressives” are thoughtless people who don’t care a whit about anyone but themselves is something to take to the bank.
Linda Misja is suing the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) one of the most powerful and cynical political organizations in the state.
Ms. Misja is a highly regarded French teacher at Bellefonte Area High School who has opted out of the school’s bargaining unit but is still required by state law to pay a “fair share” fee which is automatically deducted from her paycheck. The union is only allowed to use this money for collective bargaining and representational activities of the union. They are not allowed to use fair share fees for non-union matters.
Ms. Misja, however, points out that the PSEA has taken stands on matters unrelated to collective bargaining and representation — especially with regard to its support for unrestricted abortion. SShe doesn’t want to contribute anything to it because of that.
State law allows for religious objectors to donate money equivalent to the fair share fee to a non-religious charity.
Ms. Misja tried that. She sought to use her fee — about $2,000 — to help fund a charity that cares for teenage mothers in a pro-life environment. No can do, says the union. That would be “too religious.” She could only give to a group that provides the option for abortion.
So Ms. Misja offered to give the money to a non-profit group that teaches gun safety, which certainly put the PSEA on the spot. Oppose it, and it reveals to the world that they are naked hypocrites and that its agenda has nothing to do with fairness but everything to do with advancing leftism.
They opposed it. They said it was too political as the group had a connection to the National Rifle Association.
So Ms. Misja is taking them to court and we hope and pray that she wins big.
And we hope and pray that people wake up an realize how wrong automatic deductions of all workers dues are as they are invariable used to increase the wealth of leaders and support political agendas not in the workers’ best interest.
Reading Council President Francisco Acosta has pleaded guilty to taking a $1,800 bribe to repeal a city ethics code provision that caps campaign contributions and prohibits “no-bid” contracts to big donors, reports PaIndependent.com and Evan Grossman of Watchdog.org.
The money according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania came in the form of a loan from Public Official 1, — whom the Independent indicates is Reading Mayor Vaughn Spencer — to Public Official 2, who is reportedly Acosta’s wife who ran unsuccessfully for a district justice seat.
The Berks County Board of Elections, last year, ruled that Vaughn in his 2011 mayoral race laundered tens of thousands in political contributions for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98. The case was transferred to our sparkly clean and pristine — that’s sarcasm, son — state Attorney General Kathleen Kane who unsurprisingly dismissed it.
Hey IBEW guys, why not just ask the Berks County GOP to put up your business manager for city council president? Then you wouldn’t have to worry about this money laundering stuff.
On the other hand, maybe the Berks County GOP is not as mind-numbingly something as other county GOP’s are.
Considering that union boss John Kane handily fell to Tom McGarrigle last November while running as a Democrat, and considering that union boss Paul Mullen lost yesterday in what should have been a Republican gimmee while running as a Republican, and considering that John Kane endorsed Paul Mullen this race, maybe the leaderships of both parties should figure a union connection is the kiss of death in Delaware County, Pa.
She will take the side of the Gary Schultzes of the world rather than the widow on Social Security or the married couple with two kids who just bought a home. She will fight against privatizing the State Store system.
So she is neither a friend of common sense or compassion and will have to be fought herself.
But those of the 161st District can only blame the county and state Republicans that she is their representative.
Planned Parenthood provides comprehensive healthcare services to women across the country,” sadi AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “Calls to defund it based on doctored undercover recordings are politically motivated and wrong. We support its core mission of offering safe healthcare services to women in need.”
Paul Mullen (right) trying to get liberal Democrat Joe Sestak elected U.S. senator.
Paul Mullen, who is running as a Republican in the Aug. 4 special election for the vacant 161st District Pennsylvania House seat, makes more than $130,000 per year as business manager of Local 654 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
An even better one is will Mullen quit his easy and lucrative job as IBEW business manager if he should manage to win the race, which we grant is anything but certain.
Pennsylvania legislators are, after all, paid very nicely with the understanding that they are doing a full-time job. It seems rather hard to believe that someone can handle two such important well-paying jobs at the same time.
So will Mullen quit as IBEW business manager? Somebody should ask him but nobody seems to be able to find him.
His Republican opponent , Lisa Esler, has said she will quit her full-time job as an optician if elected. Further, she will not take the state pension. Further, she will work to cut the pay and perks of being a state legislator.
Unless you happen to be a special interest living high on the hog by milking the public cow, the smart vote in the 161st District on Aug. 4 is writing in Lisa Esler.
Union boss John Kane was upset that someone took a photo of his house with signs supporting “Republican” Paul Mullen. He was not upset, however, with union members photographing children at their school bus stop.
Last week we noted how a union boss upset that a photo of his house appeared on this site had defended photographing children at a school bus stop if it was part of a union job action. The boss, John Kane, who ran as a Democrat state senate candidate last fall, spoke out against a bill last year that would have banned such terrorism.
Such a bill was necessary because Pennsylvania’s courts have held that threatening children and others are legal if done as part of a union job action. It died, however, when the state senate gutted it after union lobbying.
Well the bill, which prohibits harassment, stalking and the threat to use weapons of mass destruction by union members, has been reintroduced as HB 874.
It was passed by the Pennsylvania House 109 to 84 on April 21 with just about all Republicans supporting and just about all Democrats opposed. Apparently Ds have no problem with bullying if it advances their cause.
The bill is now before the state senate. Please let your senator know that you want to protect children from bullies.
Oh, and why was John Kane upset? On the lawn of his house he had signs for Republican-endorsed candidate Paul Mullen in the Aug. 4 special election for the vacant 161st District State House seat.
Lisa Esler will stand up to bullies
Wonder how Paul Mullen feels about ending the union privilege to harass children. Somebody should ask him but nobody seems to be able to find him.
Fortunately there is a candidate in the race who will actually do something about this garbage. Her name is Lisa Esler and you can find out more about her here.
The Pennsylvania Senate, today, Oct. 13, amended SB 501, also known as Mary’s Law which would prevent money being deducted from public employees paychecks for political purposes.
