William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-28-15

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-28-15

Yes Miranda, there is a Good King Wenceslas. The Bohemian ruler is buried in Saint Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

James Wigo Bonus At RTM

James Wigo Bonus At RTM — The Rose Tree Media School Board just voted to give Superintendent James Wigo a $6,667 performance bonus. James Wigo Bonus At RTM

Wigo’s base salary is $181,001 — at least as of 2013-14, the most recent record at OpenPaGov.org. Note that does not include benefits like health care or the obscene pension he can look forward to getting.

So why does he need a performance bonus? Is his base compensation package really not enough to ensure top performance?

In the private sector, bonuses are a way of divvying up profits hence they make sense there. They make no sense for non-profit like the Rose Tree Media School District. Wigo is more than — far more than actually — compensated with his base package. We are, in fact, quite confident RTM can find someone who would work just as hard and perform just as well if not better with half of Wigo’s compensation package.

What the RTM Board did was not just pointless — Wigo would have quit if he didn’t get the bounus? LOL — but thoughtless considering Pennsylvania’s budget turmoil. Did you know that RTM gets about 15 percent of it’s $94.76 million budget from the state?

Wigo should — no must — give this bonus back. It’s the only decent thing to do. It’s just a drop in the bucket to this very rich man and it would set an necessary example of leadership.

James Wigo Bonus At RTM

 

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-26-15

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-26-15

Life begins at 40? That was the title of the best selling non-fiction book in 1933 from which we get the saying.  It’s author was Walter Boughton Pitkin. When he was born in 1878 the life expectancy was 40. When he wrote the book it had risen to 60.

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-25-15

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-25-15

The first Christmas in the Philippines was celebrated about 1300 AD. This would be about 200 years before Ferdinand Magellan discovered the country for the western world.

Merry Warm Christmas 2015

Merry Warm ChristmasMerry warm Christmas from maybe not sunny but certainly warm Philadelphia. Or Delaware County, anyway.

 

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-24-15

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-24-15

Charles Dickens wrote several other Christmas stories after “A Christmas Carol” and on a yearly basis for awhile. None of the others had much staying power, however.

CH2MHill Buys Bikes For Children

CH2MHill Buys Bikes For ChildrenCH2MHill Buys Bikes For Children — Every now and then some evil faceless corporation does something nice. Here is a story from Eye On Paulsboro about how the engineering firm CH2MHill buys bikes for children. CH2M is helping build the new Paulsboro (N.J.) Marine Terminal on the Delaware River.

The interesting stuff starts at about the 19 minute mark.

CH2MHill Buys Bikes For Children

Pa Senate Passes No Tax Hike Budget

Pa Senate Passes No Tax Hike BudgetPa Senate Passes No Tax Hike Budget — Matt Brouilette of Commonwealth Foundation  tweeted about an hour ago that the Pennsylvania Senate has overwhelmingly passed a $30.3 billion no-tax hike budget that could be on Gov. Wolf’s desk tonight (Dec. 23). The bill was HB 1460 which was passed by the House on Dec. 8 and and was prime sponsored by Springfield’s Bill Adolph (R-165) . Today’s Senate vote was 33-17.

Matt notes that if Wolf vetoes it it’s $0 for schools. If he signs it it is “record high funding.”

Of course, if he did this back in June when the legislature passed its initial budget it would have saved a lot of aggravation for a lot of people.

Pa Senate Passes No Tax Hike Budget

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-23-15

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-23-15

Why do children seem to have such big eyes and senior citizens small ones? It’s an optical illusion. Your eyes never grow but your ears and nose never stop.

Budget Deal Killed Again

Budget Deal Killed AgainBudget Deal Killed Again — The Pennsylvania House has adjourned without a final vote on the 2015 budget. Yesterday, Dec. 22, the House voted 100-99 to approve the $30.8 billion spending plan the state Senate passed earlier this month. The approval, however, did not include the extremely mild pension reform demanded by the Senate.

The Senate, to its credit, said that reform is a must.

So, the House adjourned without a vote.

House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R-62) said the House could be called back into session with six hours notice.

Please understand, it is entirely within Gov. Wolf’s power to end the crisis. The legislature passed a budget on deadline in June which did not increase taxes which Wolf vetoed. The legislature has also offered stopgap spending bills, one which Wolf vetoed and the others which he promised to.

Budget Deal Killed Again