Happy Thanksgiving

Rendell Signs Gen Theft Bill

Gov. Ed Rendell, yesterday, as expected, signed the Gen Theft pension bill which bails out the state’s public pension system at a cost to the average household in Pennsylvania estimated by Commonwealth Foundation to eventually be  $1,360 per year .

Of course the pension plans bailed out by HB 2497 include the very sweet one received by our legislators .

The bailout was one of 22 last-minute bills signed into law by Rendell yesterday.

Rendell also signed HB 1639 , a significant  overhaul of the state’s child custody system and which makes gender-neutrality a requirement in contempt issues for willful violations of custody orders by either parent. Divorced fathers have testified that they have been unable to get action against their former wives for such violations.

Rendell did not, however,  act on HB 1231, which would define cancer as an occupational disease for firefighters making it easier for them to get workers’ compensation. He has until tomorrow to do so.

Nor has he acted on HB 1926 aka the Castle Doctrine which would end the requirement to retreat from a potential assailant before employing protective force. Rendell has until Monday to sign HB 1926. Don’t hold your breath on that one.

Dem Party Guy Cops Plea Gets Break

Dem Party Guy Cops Plea Gets Break — State Rep. Paul Costa is a party leader whether it be in the Democrat caucus in Harrisburg or in the parking lot before a Pittsburgh Steelers game.

Costa, who has represented the 34th District since 1999 and who had chaired the House Subcommittee on Licensing as a member of the House Committee of Liquor Control during the just-ended Democrat majority, pleaded guilty, Nov. 24, to disorderly conduct stemming from his  Oct. 3 arrest for an incident in the parking lot of Clark Bar & Grill before the Steelers-Ravens game.

Costa was caught passing around a doobie.

In return for the guilty plea, misdemeanor drug charges were dismissed, a nice break since disorderly conduct is a no-record summary offense, whereas a record of a misdemeanor would create difficulties if he should want to do something such as, say, get a liquor license .

Costa paid a $50 fine plus $137 in court costs.

In fairness, minor marijuana arrests are more often than not handled this way in the state.

Costa is 50 years old.

Dude!


 Dem Party Guy Cops Plea Gets Break

Musto Indicted For Bribery

Musto Indicted For Bribery — A federal grand jury, this morning,  indicated Pennsylvania State Sen. Raphael “Ray” Musto for taking thousands of dollars in money and services in bribes and kickbacks.

Musto , a Democrat, has represented the 14th District since 1982. He did not seek re-election this year.  Musto is facing six charges including  bribery and making false statements to the FBI.

The bribery occurred between 2005 and 2010.

At a  2 p.m. press conference, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania Peter J. Smith said Musto purposefully concealed money and gifts failing to report them on appropriate statements of financial interest.

Musto served in congress in 1980 replacing the legendary Dan Flood to represent the 11th Congressional District winning a special election caused by Flood’s resignation after being censured for bribery.  Musto, however, later that year narrowly lost  to Republican James Nelligan for an election to a full term.

Musto Indicted For Bribery

Sacrifice, Leadership And Pa COLAs

Sacrifice, Leadership And Pa COLAs — Pennsylvania legislators, judges and other top officials are getting a 1.7 percent cost-of-living-allowance raise. This means that the salary for our state legislators will rise from $78,315 to $79,623, while salaries for the four legislative floor leaders increase from $113,468 to $115,364.

The cost of living allowance (COLA) raise did not require a vote. A1995 law  bestows such raises automatically based on changes in the
federal government’s Consumer Price Index for the mid-Atlantic states.

Do you think that given the economic suffering and the state’s financial difficulties they might have voted to forgo the raise this year? I know, stupid question.

For some irony the extra $1,300 a state legislator will be getting next year is about what the average Pennsylvania household will soon be paying in extra taxes due to the “Gen Theft” legislative pension bailout bill that was just passed.

Basically, we have to make allowances for the cost of their living.

Sacrifice, Leadership And Pa COLAs

Pa. Tea Party Ponders Opposing Expected Speaker

Rep. Sam Smith of the 66th District got the nod to be Speaker of Pennsylvania House at closed door meeting of the soon-to-be-in-control Republican caucus on Nov. 9 but the official vote comes Jan. 4 and it will be done in the open.

Bob Guzzardi of LibertyIndex.Com notes that if all Democrats and 11 Republicans vote against Smith, he will not get the job.

Smith was the man who submitted the infamous 2005 legislative pay-raise bill.

To his credit, though, he voted against the recently passed Gen Theft Pension Bailout Bill.

Tea Party favorite Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of the 12 District has asked that the Nov. 9 vote  be postponed until December so those members of 112-member Republican House Caucus who are new to Harrisburg could get a better feel of the personalities seeking the offices.

The state’s Tea Party movement is pondering a phone-bank crusade aimed at newly elected representatives encouraging them to vote against Smith, and other old guard Republicans tapped for top posts.

1 In 3 Need Gov Permission To Work

1 In 3 Need Gov Permission To Work — About 1 in 20 Americans needed government permission to work in the 1950s. Today it’s 1 in 3, according to Commonwealth Foundation. The loss of freedom comes from requirements for training, fees, licenses and other bits of red tape magic aimed at keeping the Dolores Umbridges of the world happily sipping their tea in bureaucratic positions of power.

A Illinois man, as a remembrance to a friend killed by a drunk driver, began offering tipsy bar patrons a free ride home. He was busted for “operating without a transportation service license” in a sting orchestrated by the local taxi drivers and the police.

In Pennsylvania, an ad hoc barter system popped in where residents gave rides in return for services to the Amish who have a religious prohibition against owning or driving a car.

The state’s Public Utilities Commission pushed  police to set up stake-outs to catch these violators of the requirement to have a transportation license.

It’s for our own good, of course.

“We are trying to protect the public interest and public safety,” a PUC spokeswoman said.

An excellent and scary article by  Katrina Currie of Commonwealth Foundation points out that an attempt was made by the Pennsylvania legislature this year to require a license for interior designers. What was the public safety issue? The danger of mauve rugs clashing with orange walls?

Ms. Currie notes that in 2008 the state sued a a mom for $10 million for selling items on eBay without an auctioneers license and that Philadelphia bloggers now must have a $300 business privilege license if they want to sell ads on their site.

A third of Americans need Big Brothers permission to work. Fighting to stop the encroachment is not enough. It’s time to start being a little like Harry Potter and start fighting to roll it back.

1 In 3 Need Gov Permission To Work

PHL Can Tell TSA To Go To . . .

An exercise for Zen practitioners:  A
man wearing nothing but a raincoat  approaches a TSA screener. He
opens the raincoat and says “check out my junk”. Has a flashing
occurred?

Philadelphia International Airport was among the airports receiving Congressman John Mica’s letter letting them know they can divorce the Transportation Security Administration,  at least with regard to passenger screenings, if they should find that the TSA’s new “hands-on” approach is a bit counter-productive to security.

The letter notes that the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001 that created the TSA allowed airports to revert to private contractors for screenings after two years.

Mica ( R-FL7) was one of the authors of the bill.

The actual wording of the bill’s Section 44920 (a) is:

(a)
IN GENERAL- On or after the last day of the 2-year period beginning on
the date on which the Under Secretary transmits to Congress the
certification required by section 110(c) of the Aviation and
Transportation Security Act, an operator of an airport may submit to the
Under Secretary an application to have the screening of passengers and
property at the airport under section 44901 to be carried out by the
screening personnel of a qualified private screening company under a
contract entered into with the Under Secretary.


A staffer for Mica said the letter went out to the 100 busiest airports in the nation. PHL is the 11th busiest in the world.

Orlando International Airport has announced that it will consider the change.  We await word on what plans PHL may have.

For some strange reason the George Soros-affiliated site MediaMatters.org is opposing the privatization.

Outlaw Teacher Strikes

Outlaw Teacher Strikes — Today’s Delaware County Daily Times had a tough editorial calling for the abolition of teacher strikes.

The Times points out that teachers in Moon Area School District across the state in Allegheny County went on strike after being offered a 2.88 percent raise. The Times also notes that teachers in the Bethel Park School District, also in Allegheny County are striking. The Bethel Park teachers  get salaries of between $45,700 and $92,548. They are offended, however, by the district’s request that they pay 2 percent of their individual health plans and 4 percent of their family ones. They now pay 0.5 percent and  0.9 percent respectively.

Has it started to dawn on anyone that teachers union really isn’t “for the children”?

And to the Times I say welcome to the club.

In 1990, I won an award for the editorial “Scrap Act 195”.  This was the 1970 law that allowed teachers to strike. The law was scrapped in 1992 and replaced with Act 88 which put some limits on teacher strikes. Ultimately it was nowhere near enough. The appropriate thing to do is to give school districts the power to not rehire teachers when their contracts end. It would require ending the tenure protection as well, but unless you a teacher or married to one, does that  really bother you?

These reforms are not just about money. Considering the cruelty of requiring a widow surviving on Social Security to cough up an extra couple hundred dollars each year — and that’s cumulative remember — just to keep her home, money should be more than reason enough to support banning strikes and tenure.

These reforms, though, really are ultimately about the children.

The  website StopTeachersStrikes.org has excellent background on the issue.

During my own little crusade I published a list of teacher and administrator salaries of some of the districts covered by the newspapers that I edited. It was quite controversial and even got me an interview with the superb Vern Odom of WPVI-TV which is Philadelphia’s ABC affiliate

Well, the web has made things a lot easier for that sort of thing. The salary information for public school employees in Pennsylvania can be found here.


 Outlaw Teacher Strikes

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 .