Bill Adolph Votes To Save His Pension

Bill Adolph and the rest of Delaware County’s contingent to the State House with the honorable exception of Steve Barrar (R-160) joined 165 “public servants” yesterday to vote to bail out the state’s public pension systems on the backs of the taxpayer.

Thirty-one — all Republicans — voted against HB 2497.

Commonwealth Foundation estimates the cost of the bailout to be $1,360 per year in state and local taxes for the
average homeowner starting in 2012.

Suggestions on turning the pension system into a defined-contribution 401K-type plan were rejected.

No serious discussion was brooked about re-negotiating with the recipients about accepting cutbacks in the pension payments.

No serious discussion was brooked about why Pennsylvania families should not receive a $1,360 cutback in their annual compensation.

Among the pensions Adolph et al were voting to save were their own. Adolph (R-165) would get about a  $64,000 per year pension if he should retire at the end of his next term.

A roll call of the vote can be found here .

Great Experience Weathers Motors

I just recently returned from an auto inspection at Weathers Motors on Route 1 in Middletown, Delaware County, Pa., and wish to tell the world that the service was great and price the was pleasing.

Good luck and God speed to Weathers.

Great Experience Weathers Motors

Great Experience Weathers Motors

PA House OKs Castle Doctrine

PA House OKs Castle Doctrine ––  The Pennsylvania House, this afternoon, passed a bill giving the state’s citizens the right not to retreat from assailants.

The 161-35 vote for HB 1926 follows a 45-4 vote made Oct. 14 in the state Senate. It now goes to Gov. Ed Rendell, an outspoken opponent of self-defense rights, for his signature.

While the margins in both house are enough to overturn a veto it appears Rendell, if he so chooses, may be able simply be able to sit on the bill until the session ends forcing the process to start from scratch in January.

The bill says that a  person employing protective force may estimate the necessity thereof under the circumstances as he believes them to be when the force is used, without retreating, surrendering possession, doing any other act which he has no legal duty to do or abstaining from any lawful action.

PA House OKs Castle Doctrine

Pa. Gen Theft Bill Passes

The Pennsylvanian Generation Theft Bill — termed by its supporters “needed pension reform” — was approved by the State House this afternoon 165-31. It goes on to Gov. Ed Rendell for his certain signature.

It was strongly supported by government unions such as the PSEA. A roll call of the vote can be found at this link .

The first time the House passed HB 2497 on June 16 the vote was 192-6. The Senate passed it Oct. 16 by a 41-8 vote, however, it tacked on  amendments which required a new vote in the House.

On Nov. 5,
lame duck  Speaker Keith McCall  announced that his assembly would be
quitting for the year which would require the process to start from
scratch in January under a Republican-controlled House.

Five days later, however, he changed his mind.

HB2497 attempts
to resolve the severe funding shortfalls of  Pennsylvania’s largest
pension plans — Public School Employees Retirement System (PSERS) and
State Employees Retirement System (SERS) — by deferring pension
payments and increasing the unfunded liability by tens of billions of
dollars.

The bill makes some positive changes to the pension system such as doubling the amount of time to 10 years for a state employee to become vested; reducing the multiplier used to calculate pensions from 2.5 percent to 2 percent, and increasing the minimum retirement age for teachers to 65 from 62 and for state legislators to 55 from 50, it only applies to new hires

More importantly in provides for a re-amortization of existing debt over 30 years drastically increasing the interest cost.

Commonwealth
Foundation notes that the pension obligations are expected to be $5.8
billion on the taxpayer by 2012 — a six-fold increase from today —
which  translates to a  $1,360 increase in state and local taxes for the
average homeowner. The data can be found on a link to a  pdf file on this page.

There had been hopes that a defined contribution plan akin to a 401K would be introduced as per a bill introduced in the senate, SB 566.

Delco Pa Keeps Quiet Its Connections To Greatness

A 5-foot-tall bust or Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been finished  by world-renowned sculptor Zenos Frudakis and is scheduled to be unveiled 2 p.m., Thursday, completing Chester, Pa.’s $500,000 Martin Luther King Jr. Park at Sixth and Engle streets.

Good for Chester to highlight its connections to one of the most influential and noble Americans of the 20th century. Rev. King lived in the city for three years  serving Calvary Baptist Church , 1616 W. 2nd St., while studying at the Crozer Theological Seminary.

The park project came about as a result of a request in the late 1990s by members of the city’s clergy to honor Rev. King. Three decades after his death the city had not so much as named a street after him. Mayor Dominic Pileggi, now a state senator, suggested the park thinking that a street-naming might be a bit anticlimactic since at least 40 other cities had already done so.

And while the park was the right call there is nothing wrong with  a street-naming as well. Changing 2nd Street where Rev. King’s old church lies, and  which is State Route  291, into Martin Luther King Jr. Highway should be a no-brainer. Actually, it should be a no-brainer to do it for its entire length through Delaware County.

Always underestimated Delaware County for reasons unknown likes to keep quiet its connections to greatness.

Who, for instance, has heard of Philip Jaisohn ? Old-time county residents might remember him as their family doctor, but Jaisohn is the equivalent of Benjamin Franklin to the South Koreans. His home in Upper Providence was site of a pilgrimage by Korean President and Nobel peace laureate the late Kim Dae Jung.

While there is a memorial to Jaisohn in Rose Tree Park, one would think that there might be a street named for him somewhere as well.

One would think that the county’s tourist bureau would at least be trying to publicize these connections. Of course, when the county insists on calling itself Brandywine Country a serious problem of self-image is evident.

 

Delco Pa Keeps Quiet Its Connections To Greatness

Delco Pa Keeps Quiet Its Connections To Greatness

Quantitative Easing Explained

Quantitative Easing Explained — The-smarter-than-us set says these teddy bears in this YouTube video   just don’t get how our monetary system works. They insist that the fed isn’t printing money — merely buying back bonds from Goldman Sachs — and that we really are in a deflationary spiral. Really.

One is starting to suspect that our wizards of finance are more like the Wizard of Oz. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Pay no attention to the price tag on the package of bagels. 


Quantitative Easing Explained

Tea Party Fissure In Philly

The fireworks that erupted at the end of Thursday’s post-election Tea Party panel hosted by the Loyal Opposition at The Union League of Philadelphia has resulted in the excommunication of two prominent Tea Partyers by Loyal Opposition head Kevin Kelly.

“I am hereby severing any relationship or partnership I have with Bob Guzzardi and Robert Sklaroff,” Kelly said in a broadcast email statement. “I will not work with them on any political endeavor from today forward. They are no longer welcome at Loyal Opposition events.”

Guzzardi heads LibertyIndex.Com while Dr. Sklaroff is a noted Philadelphia oncologist.

Sklaroff, Thursday, blasted  Kelly and Freind for actions relating to the controversy involving military re-enactor Rich Iott who was the unsuccessful GOP candidate in the Ohio 9th District congressional race. Iott wears Nazi-SS uniforms as part of war re-enactments.

This brought Sklaroff harsh rebukes from Kelly and from panelist Jennifer Stefano, who felt that Sklaroff was demanding that history be censored.

When the shouting ended, Kelly promised to talk with “Doctor Bob” and further discuss his concerns.

The promise, however, appears to be rescinded apparently in reaction to comments Sklaroff posted at the article on this site Early A.M. Tea Party Was SRO.

The controversy began when The Atlantic published this article in early October relating to the Tea-Party endorsed Iott.

Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican whip and a Jew, then condemned Iott.

Some came to Iott’s defense including Freind, who in this article,  called Cantor a “garden-variety political hack” and said what Iott was doing wasn’t any different than actors depicting the Nazis in The Sound of Music.

It soon became revealed, however, that the organization to which Iott belonged, Wiking, which depicted the 5.SS Wiking Division had a website — since changed — saying the members of the SS “gave their lives for their loved ones and a basic desire to be free.”

Dr. Sklaroff, who is Jewish, was, and remains, seriously upset that a Republican candidate would be associated with an organization that would have such a view.

For the record, Dr. Sklaroff has said he has no objection to military re-enactors wearing Nazi uniforms, even those of the SS, as part of accurate historical depictions.


Gleason Quits Quest?

Update: We have received a report that Gleason has quit his quest to be Republican national party chairman. Confirmation awaits.

Bill Russell, the  congressional candidate who gave Democrat power-broker John Murtha a scare in 2008, is begging fellow Republicans not to name Robert Gleason as national party chairman.

Gleason, who chairs the Pennsylvania GOP, is seeking the seat citing as creds his organization’s resounding success on Nov. 2. The Republicans in Pennsylvania flipped five congressional seats, the U.S. senate seat, the governor’s office, took over the State House and held the State Senate which gives them total control over Harrisburg.

Russell, however, in a widely disseminated email accused Gleason of throwing the 12th District congressional race in 2008 and this year in order to protect government-connected  policies issued by his company, Gleason Insurance.

Gleason is from Cambria County in the 12th District and has been that county’s GOP chairman. The 12th District was represented by Murtha for almost 38 years until his death Feb. 8.

Russell says Gleason had a close personal relationship with Murtha attending family barbecues and  having a picture of Murtha and himself — since removed — on the Gleason Insurance website, along with a list of customers who had benefited from a relationship with Murtha, also since removed.

Russell said he was warned about Gleason’s relationship with Murtha when he announced as a candidate in 2007 but the reality hit home when 15 different persons declined to sign his nominating petition or contribute to his campaign expressing a fear they or a spouse might be fired. Ultimately he was unable to get the signatures and was not placed on the primary ballot. This required him to run a write-in campaign which he remarkably won becoming the first in the state to do so as a congressional primary candidate. This meant he was on the ballot for the general election.

Due to the Murtha’s Haditha Marine comments,  personalities such as Michelle Malkin turned the race into a national one and the money poured in.

Russell said this presented a problem for Gleason since he was pledging to end the regions economic dependence on earmarks which provided the funding for the Gleason-insured businesses.

Russell said among the measures Gleason took to undermine his campaign was by attempting, usually successfully, to keep him from appearing with John McCain or Sarah Palin at rallies in the district — which McCain won as the Pa12 was the only congressional district in the nation to flip to the Republicans that year — and by leaving his name off the Republican sample ballots.

Russell says he immediately began preparing for the 2010 race and fully expected to be the GOP candidate albeit it he had two primary opponents activist Dave Battaglia  and businessman Tim Burns. Murtha’s death, however, brought the need for a special election  to fill the remaining months of his seat and this election was to take place alongside the primary.

Candidate for special elections are not picked by voters in a primary but by party people. Burns got the tap at the behest of Gleason.

Burns would lose the special election to Mark Critz, who had been Murtha’s district director. The race, however, again garnered national attention and money and most of the local publicity went to Burns and that gave him the advantage he needed to win the primary election.

In the Nov. 2 rematch, Burns did not catch the GOP wave and fell to Critz despite the district going for the Republicans at the top of the ticket.

Russell says that, like himself, Burns did not get the support of the Gleason machine.

“The only answer I can come up with for these questions is that Robert Gleason fully intended to lose the 12th Congressional District Special and Primary elections in order to protect his company’s insurance contracts with the earmark companies that John Murtha brought in, and Mark Critz promised to protect,” Russell says.

‘Generational Theft’ Pension Bill Dead In Pa


Update: This bill is back from the dead.

The proposed Pennsylvania pension fix that one Republican leader called “generational theft ” is dead.

The State House  announced, Friday, that it will not return as expected nor in accordance with tradition, to address outstanding legislative matters to the ire of Gov. Rendell and Democrat interest groups such as the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

This means the bill must be started from scratch and when the House reconvenes Jan. 4 it will be in the control of Republicans and supported by a Republican governor. The senate had been and remains in Republican hands.

HB 2497 passed the House 192-6 on June 16 and was referred to the Senate which amended it and finally voted on it Oct. 16 when it passed 41-8.

The House, however, did not appreciate the changes the Senate made to the bill, especially concerning the creation of an independent fiscal office to check the governor’s revenue projections and spending reports

State Rep. Dwight Evans (D-203) of Philadelphia, who is the House Appropriations chairman, called the office costly and unconstitutional in a letter to his fellow House members.

State Rep. Sam Rohrer (R-128), who is the minority chairman of the House’s Finance Committee, said in June that the bill merely made minor improvements to the state retirement policy — none of which would apply to existing beneficiaries — but saddled future generations with 30-years of new debt.

IOW, so state leaders can still collect $313,000 pensions .

Pennsylvania taxpayers gave  $843 million this year to the two public-sector pension systems — Public School Employees’s Retirement System (PSERS)  and State Employees Retirement System (SERS) — that serve more than 675,000 current andretired state government and public school employees.

That contribution will increase to $5.8 billion within two years, according to Commonwealth Foundation.

On a totally unrelated note five of the top 25 paid public employees in Pennsylvania — all of whom earn more than $200K not counting benefits — work for either the PSERS or SERS.

Delco Tea Partyers Take Stand Against Gen Theft Bill

The Delaware County (Pa) Patriots, the county’s tea party group, has taken a stand against HB 2497 , which state House Finance Committee Minority Chairman Sam Rohrer has called “generational theft “ .

The bill attempts to resolve the severe funding shortfalls of  Pennsylvania’s largest pension plans — Public School Employees Retirement System (PSERS) and State Employees Retirement System (SERS) — by deferring pension payments and increasing the unfunded liability by tens of billions of dollars.

Rohrer of the 128th District was only one of six to vote against HB 2497 when it passed the Democrat-controlled House on June 16. The bill with amendments passed the Republican-controlled Senate on Oct. 16 by a vote of 41-8.

The amendments required a new vote in the House, however, but on Nov. 5 lame duck  Speaker Keith McCall  announced that his assembly would be quitting for the year which would require the process to start from scratch in January under a Republican-controlled House.

Five days later , McCall changed his mind. The House will return on Nov. 15 when it is expected to vote on HB 2497.

The Delco Patriots note that the bill was crafted by the public employee unions who would most benefit from it and merely postpones the reckoning as to how to fund the burgeoning public pension obligations.

It is asking all taxpayers to contact their state representative and urge a no vote.

Commonwealth Foundation notes that the pension obligations are expected to be $5.8 billion on the taxpayer by 2012 — a six-fold increase from today — which  translates to a  $1,360 increase in state and local taxes for the average homeowner. The data can be found on a link to a  pdf file on this page.

A bill introduced in the senate, SB 566 , would create a defined contribution plan for new employees in which the employer would contribute 6 percent of salary into a retire-fund owned by employees with a matching amount coming from the employee.