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.
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.
BillLawrenceOnline suffered an outage internet outage Tuesday but is now back. We apologize to our readers and we would like to thank Verizon for getting things fixed..
Searching the globe to bring you interesting and enlightening trivia.
4G 5G smartphones — Your smartphone is 4G? What does that mean? The “G” stands for generation.
The first generation or 1G were the analog cellphones of 1983. 2G was digital and allowed for texting. 3G allows for internet access and 4G allows for wireless broadband connections.
5G is expected to come out next year and be between 10 and 100 times as fast as 4G.
And LTE? That stands for “long-term evolution.’
As of 2010 there were 5 billion mobile cellular subscriptions in the world. The Earth’s population is about 7 billion.
Pennsylvanians Explain Presidential Candidacies –Citizen participation is critical to the health of our republic and Bob Small of Delco Debates does more than his share to encourage it.
He even shows that it is possible to run for president without a multi-million dollar bank account.
On Sunday, Feb. 14, five men from Pennsylvania explained why they were running for the nation’s highest office during a two-hour forum sponsored by Delco Debates at Swarthmore Borough Hall. They were:
Jim Babb of Montgomery County from The Vote for No one Campaign
Bill French, a Democrat from Snyder County
Jim Hedges of Fulton County from the Prohibition Party.
Tom Irwin of Mercer County from The American Party
John Roy of Lehigh County from the Return to Christ Party
The moderator was Ken Krawchuk, who was the Libertarian Party candidate for Pennsylvania Governor in 1998 and 2002 and the author of Atlas Snubbed, a pastiche parody sequel to Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.
Kudos again to Bob Small and Delco Debates and here is the the video of what happened:
Honiara is a city with a population of 64,000 and is the capital of the nation known as the Solomon Islands. It is built around an old Japanese airstrip on the island of Guadalcanal they called Runga Point although it was spelled with an L — really.
The United States took it from them in 1942 and renamed it Henderson Field. In February of the next year they secured the island and turned it into a major base with a sophisticated infrastructure.
And that infrastructure would become the national capital Honiara. The city’s international airport is actually at the site of Henderson Field.
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 2-15-16 William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 2-15-16
Tornado Tom Feb. 15 Weather Report — Here is today’s (Feb. 15) snowy weather report from Tornado Tom Padula and his weather team atUnionville High School
Holy Myrrh-Bearers Easter Food Sale 2016 –Orders are now being taken Easter kielbasa and Paska bread at Holy Myrrh-Bearers Eastern-Rite Catholic Church, 900 Fairview Road, Swarthmore, Pa. 19o81.
The high-quality kielbasa can be purchased $12 per ring or four links for $10.
Also home-made traditional Paska Easter Bread can be purchased for $10 per loaf.
I can still hear my father saying these words to me now.
“You don’t know what cold is”…and he is right.
Today we move from our heated homes, to our heated automobiles (with heated seats) to our heated offices and complain about the cold we are exposed to for five minutes or less in many cases. Imagine sleeping on a steam vent in a big city, while people walk by you as if you don’t exist. We have the most plentiful and varied resources at our fingertips, oil, coal fired electricity, thermal technology, chemical packs when crushed can provide hours of heat inserted in our socks and gloves. Natural gas has never been so plentiful or inexpensive as it is today.
“You don’t know what cold is” and he is right. I thought heat came from turning a dial or pushing a button, heat isn’t free he would often remind me.
We live in a nation of plenty, all types of natural and man made fabrics readily available as coats, gloves, blankets and so forth. No shearing sheep for wool, no spinning on a loom. Just go to the nearest store and purchase what you need. But everyday I see clothing discarded on the streets, as if there was no value to the items. As if the legacy of cotton is king means nothing. Same plantation, different location. Occasionally I wonder why some professional athletes and Hollywood personalities continue to bring up the stain of slavery that is the reality of the United States yet have no remorse in taking large sums of money from sneaker companies to promote a product that is essentially made with slave labor somewhere in the developing world.
“You don’t know what cold is”…and he is right. Turn down the thermostat and put on a sweater if you are cold he would say to me…
Imagine the pain of the bitter cold at Valley Forge, Ypes, Verdun, Ardennes in the winter of 44- 45 one of the coldest recorded, the “Brotherhood of the Frozen Chosin”, imagine the heartache of waking up huddled next to your foxhole buddy who died from exposure over night perhaps wondering why him and not you. Losing toes or fingers to frostbite and having to continue on to do your job. I’ve never know such things, and try as I may to imagine I can never fully appreciate their sacrifices.
“You don’t know what cold is”…and he is right. Camping in the frozen mud without a tent while wearing a summer uniform and leggins instead of proper boots, that is what he endured for two brutal winters in the Italian Alps with Nazi artillery raining down on them…
The Rapido, Moletta, Cassino, Anzio, Mussolini Canal, The Winter Line, The loss of the entire 142nd Regiment, the blizzards and drifting snow, zero visibility. Pack mules because the terrain was impassable to any other other form of supply lines. There are a few pictures of my father from the war wearing a rather colorful scarf, I can only imagine that was one of his most prized possessions and may have literally saved his life from the cold as sure as a dog face’s helmet could potentially stave off German shrapnel.
“You don’t know what cold is”…and he is right. Stop your complaining and eat a hot bowl of oatmeal, it will warm you up and stick to your ribs he would say to me after coming in from playing on a snow day off from school…
So please remember in your thoughts and prayers this weekend from the comfort of our heated home or business, while sipping a hot beverage, with shorts on and the thermostat set to 75 degrees that the only reason this is possible is because the simple fact that there are good, descent, honorable folks that aren’t going to promise you free health insurance or a free college education or other economic impossibilities but that there were and still are good people willing to lay down their very lives for their country and love of fellow man and make that which seems impossible a reality.
Better still, turn down that thermostat and put on a sweater.
Most of us will never truly know what cold is. Be thankful, be very thankful for that.
May God Bless you and yours and may God Bless the United States of America.
The hottest pepper in the world is the Carolina Reaper with a Scoville scale measurement of 2.2 million. It is about 20 times as a hot as an habanero, which was the world’s hottest back in 1999.
Governor Wolf Handshake Dishonorable by Sen. Scott Wagner
Governor Tom Wolf delivered his 2016-2017 budget address for Pennsylvania, Feb. 9.
The Governor’s budget address was delivered on the back of an unfinished 2015-2016 budget.
Governor Wolf did not mince words when he placed all of the blame for the 2015-2016 budget mess on House Republicans.
I must confess that I was taken back by the Governor’s comments and arrogance – during his budget address he made this statement to PA House Members – “If you won’t take seriously your responsibility to the people of Pennsylvania – then find another job.”
The Governor directed blame towards the House Republican Leaders for the budget impasse.
Governor Wolf stated, “We had a deal. And then the House Republican leaders walked away.”
How ironic – I had a similar personal experience with Governor Wolf.
On Dec. 20, I attended a holiday Open House at a home in Southeastern PA – Governor Wolf showed up at the Open House – after a brief period I was approached by a Democratic Senator to ask if I would have a discussion with the Governor – a discussion took place with another Republican Senator, the Democratic Senator, the Governor and me.
I was asked if I would help the Governor and consider talking to Republican House Members that I have relationships with about the budget and help bridge the gap.
I agreed to meet with the Governor and the other two Senators on Tuesday – Dec. 22 – I asked the Governor to clear three hours of time so we could have the discussion and come up with various resolutions – the Governor looked me in the eye, shook my hand and said “we have a deal.”
When we arrived on Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. for our meeting at the Governor’s office, I immediately sensed that something had changed – the Governor commented that he had another meeting in 35 minutes – so much for the three hour hand shake deal.
His handshake can’t be trusted
The Governor was quick to let me know that he knew that I was focused on reining in out of control spending – he stated, “I have to get this budget done and then next year in January we can meet to discuss spending controls” – January has come and gone – no call from the Governor – in the private sector business world when someone shakes my hand and says we have a deal, I take that gesture as a gesture of honor – Governor Wolf broke that gesture of honor.
My prediction is that Governor Wolf is going to play the same hostage game as he did last year with schools and non-profit agencies.
Yesterday afternoon (Feb. 11) a mass email was sent by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party to readers kicking sand into the faces of Republican House and Senate Leaders, two other House members, and myself for saying no to Governor Wolf’s tax increases.
I can only speculate that as a child Governor Wolf was picked on at his elite boarding school – little rich bullies run up and kick sand in the other kids faces and run away – Governor Wolf is attempting that same technique with the legislature and then running to his public sector union friends to defend him, and then asking them to give him millions of dollars collected from their members paychecks to fund negative TV ads and mailers in Republican House and Senate Districts slamming those members, and now yesterday’s email blast directed towards leaders and members of the legislature because they didn’t vote for his tax package.
Governor Wolf has quickly driven a wedge into any relationships that might have been possible with House and Senate Republicans – to be clear – Governor Wolf has gone toxic – and he has burned many bridges and may have lost any opportunity to have a positive outcome with his remaining time in office.
It is also worth pointing out that most Democratic House and Senate Members do not want to vote for any tax increases either – these same Democrats are being thrown under the bus by their own Democratic Governor – many Democrats will secretly agree with my assessment but their leadership is keeping them in line with intimidation tactics.
I have a different perspective of the budget and the Pennsylvania economy – very different from the perspective of Governor Wolf.
As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I along with other Senate colleagues, both Democrat and Republican, will begin to participate in budget hearings over the next six weeks with all state agencies.
I have an advantage coming from the private sector – I continue to operate several business so I get to see first-hand the current business climate.
I continue to see massive amounts of waste and out of control spending in Harrisburg – if you have been regularly receiving my emails you will know I have not changed my opinion on this.
Many businesses in Pennsylvania are laying off employees because of weak business conditions.
The oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania, and the rest of the country, has been clobbered because of historic low oil and gas prices – the ripple effect to suppliers and service providers of the oil and gas industry have also been affected.
Governor Wolf and his administration have not delivered any sizable cost reductions or efficiency savings over the last year – Governor Wolf cares about one thing – raising taxes on Pennsylvanians.
It is time to “Restructure Harrisburg” – the time is now, not next week, next month, or next year.
The bad news is that Governor Wolf will not do any “Restructuring” while he is office – so the next three years are going to be tough for everyone – especially Pennsylvania Taxpayers.
