Tony Phyrillas: Sell Philadelphia

There's been a lot of talk lately by Gov. Ed Rendell about selling or leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Several state Senators have suggested selling the state liquor store monopoly. There's even been talk of turning the lottery over to private interests, which has happened in other states.

The goal behind these proposals is to find a fast infusion of cash to feed the ravenous spending habits of Pennsylvania politicians without resorting to the old standby of tax increases.

But we may have overlooked the obvious. There's a sure-fire way to get rid of most of the state's problems in one quick move.

Sell Philadelphia.

The entire city. Just get rid of it. Put it on e-Bay. Put up some billboards. Whatever it takes. Sell it to the highest bidder.

Maybe New Jersey or Delaware need to grow a little. Or maybe Donald Trump wants his own city. Trumpadlephia anyone?

The purchase price isn't important. No reasonable offer will be refused. It's the added benefits of getting rid of the state's biggest basket case that makes this a good deal.

Wwe eliminate the need to pour billions of dollars into the city's failing school system.

We can stop pouring billions into SEPTA, the city's mismanaged and inefficient transit system.

We don't have to build any more stadiums for millionaire owners of the Phillies, Eagles, Sixers or Flyers. All the teams stink, anyway.

Selling Philadelphia makes Pennsylvania a safer place. We no longer have to live with the stigma of having the most dangerous city in America as part of the Keystone State. We don't have to worry about hiring 10,000 more cops or imposing gun control on the rest of the state because guns are so easy to come by in Philadelphia.

Selling Philadelphia also allows us to cut loose about two dozen members of the Pennsylvania Legislature, thus cutting the size of the Legislature overnight.

This would save tens of millions of dollars and we'd be rid of people like John Perzel, Vince Fumo, Dwight Evans and Dennis O'Brien. Believe me, the state would be better off without these Philadelphia politicians.

And best of all, Pennsylvania would never have the likes of Ed Rendell as governor again.

Rendell wouldn't have to pretend he cares about anything outside the Philadelphia city limits anymore. We already know he's "governor of Philadelphia." That's who elected him. We could end the charade and he could concentrate on his beloved city and leave the rest of us alone.

I don't see a downside to selling Philadelphia. Let the bidding begin.

Tony Phyrillas

Tony Phyrillas is a columnist for The Mercury in Pottstown, Pa. He received a first place award for Best Opinion Column in 2007 by Suburban Newspapers of America. He was also honored for column writing in 2006 by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Copyright © 2005-2007, THE CENTRIST Blog; All Rights Reserved.

Tony Phyrillas: The Worst Legislators in Pennsylvania

Southeastern Pennsylvania has the dubious distinction of being home to many of the worst legislators in the state.

Don't just take my word for it. Two nonpartisan government watchdog groups released reports ranking all 253 members of the Pennsylvania Legislature on a variety of issues. The GrassrootsPA study reviewed voting records to determine which legislators served their constituents well or hurt their citizens by raising taxes or approving salary increases and other perks for themselves.

A study by DemocracyRisingPA evaluated how often legislators voted with party leaders, showing a lack of independence and the willingness to be influenced by career politicians once they get to Harrisburg.

The worst lawmakers in the state represent parts of Philadelphia, according to GrassrootsPA. The worst Democrat is Rep. Mark Cohen. The worst Republican is Rep. John Perzel. Fourteen other Philadelphia lawmakers finished in the bottom 20.

Several lawmakers from Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties fared poorly in both rankings. State Sen. Michael A. O'Pake and state Reps. David Argall, Tom Caltagirone and Dante Santoni Jr. Republican Argall and Caltagirone and Santoni, both Democrats, were among the 20 lowest-ranked legislators on the GrassrootsPA survey of all 203 House members.

O'Pake, a Democrat, was among the 10 lowest-ranked senators in the 50-member Senate. Sen. James Rhoades, a Republican whose district comes partly into Berks, also ranked low.

Two other Berks Republicans, Reps. Sam Rohrer and Douglas Reichley, scored well in the evaluation. The rest of the Berks County delegation was too new to qualify for the rankings.

The assessment reaches back to cover major policy initiatives enacted by the state since 1998, including stadium funding and legislative pension increase bills under the Ridge administration, according to PACleanSweep.

Also receiving attention are major initiatives advanced on Ed Rendell's watch including a 10 percent increase in the state's personal income tax rate in 2003, the slots bill and the infamous pay raise with its accompanying unvouchered expenses provisions, the organization says.

PaCleanSweep also looked at how lawmakers voted on property tax relief issues: Lawmakers' positions on three failed attempts to partially solve the continuing property tax problem over the past 10 years are taken into account, as is length of service beyond 10 years, to reflect the preference by 75 percent of Pennsylvanians for legislative term limits, according to the rankings.

In Chester County, state Rep. Art Hershey earned a low score, while Reps. Curt Schroder, Carole Rubley, Chris Ross and Tim Hennessey, scored well.

In Montgomery County, state Reps. Robert Godshall, Daylin Leach and Lawrence Curry scored low while Reps. Tom Quigley, Kate Harper, Mike Gerber and Josh Shapiro scored high.

State Sen. John Rafferty, whose district stretches across Montgomery, Chester and Berks counties, scored high. State Sen. Rob Wonderling also did well in the rankings.

The full report card can be viewed at the PaCleanSweep Web site, http://www.pacleansweep.com/

Freshman lawmakers have had only six months in office, but a pattern has emerged involving several of the so-called reformers from southeastern Pennsylvania.

The DemocracyRisingPA analysis of voting records during the first six months of 2007 showed Rep. David Kessler of Berks County voted 96 percent of the time with party leaders. Rep. Tim Seip, whose district comes into Berks, and Rep. Rick Taylor of Montgomery County voted 94 percent of the time with party leaders. Rep. Barbara McIlvaine Smith of Chester County voted 93 percent of the time with party bosses. Rep. Jay Moyer of Montgomery County voted 86 percent of the time with party bosses. Rep. Duane Milne of Chester County and Rep. Mike Vereb of Montgomery County voted 81 percent of the time with party leaders.

The full list of how closely lawmakers vote with party leadership is available at http://www.democracyrisingpa.com/

Each of the freshman lawmakers mentioned above also voted to pass the massive $27.5 billion budget proposed by Gov. Ed Rendell. The $1.2 billion increase in state spending is a far cry from the fiscal restraint the freshman lawmakers promised when they ran in 2006.

Voters began the process of cleaning up the mess in Harrisburg last year when one in five legislators were forced into retirement or voted out of office. The work isn’t finished. More self-serving politicians must be swept from office in 2008.
 
Tony Phyrillas

Tony Phyrillas is a columnist for The Mercury in Pottstown, Pa. He received a first place award for Best Opinion Column in 2007 by Suburban Newspapers of America. He was also honored for column writing in 2006 by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Copyright © 2005-2007, THE CENTRIST Blog; All Rights Reserved.

Tony Phyrillas: Another F for Pennsylvania

A week doesn't go by when Pennsylvania doesn't receive failing marks from government watchdog organizations.

The latest black mark on Ed Rendell's report card is a big red "F" grade from The Center for Public Integrity on Pennsylvania's financial disclosure laws.

How much do we know about Gov. Rendell's financial holdings? Not enough, according to to The Center for Public Integrity.

And the Rendell administration is not exactly the poster child for ethical conduct. (His insurance commissioner just took a job with the insurance industry; his DEP secretary provides millions in grants to a company where her husband works; and we know about Rendell's moonlighting as a football commentator for Comcast, which has received millions in taxpayer dollars).

Pennsylvania is not alone in keeping financial information from the public. The Keystone State was one of 21 states that received failing grades for making information about their governors' private financial interests available to the public.

For all the talk of reforming state government, only 1 new law promoting more open government has been enacted by the state Legislature since the July 2005 pay raise.

Elected officials in Pennsylvania are required to submit a one-page summary of their financial interests. That's it. A one-page summary. By comparison, some states require politicians to fill out 20 pages about their financial ties.

Pennsylvania residents need to know more about where politicians get their money and what they own. Taxpayers also need to know about potential conflicts involving the spouses of elected officials.

The full report by the Center for Public Integrity report can be found online at http://www.publicintegrity.org/

Tony Phyrillas

Tony Phyrillas is a columnist for The Mercury in Pottstown, Pa. He received a first place award for Best Opinion Column in 2007 by Suburban Newspapers of America. He was also honored for column writing in 2006 by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Copyright © 2005-2007, THE CENTRIST Blog; All Rights Reserved.

Russ Diamond: PACleanSweep Issues Legislative Report Card

[Reposted from the Pennsylvania Order of Liberty Blog]

PACleanSweep Issues Legislative Report Card

PACleanSweep, the non-partisan organization that helped Pennsylvanians begin to reclaim state government after the 2005 pay raise, today released a report card for all members of the General Assembly, issuing a final grade to each according to their performance.

The assessment reaches back to cover major policy initiatives enacted by the state since 1998, including the stadium funding and legislative pension increase bills under the Ridge administration. Also receiving attention are major initiatives advanced on Ed Rendell's watch including a 10 percent increase in the state's personal income tax rate in 2003, the slots bill and the infamous pay raise with its accompanying unvouchered expenses provisions.

Lawmakers' positions on three failed attempts to partially solve the continuing property tax problem over the past ten years are taken into account, as is length of service beyond ten years, to reflect the preference by 75 percent of Pennsylvanians for legislative term limits, according to a recent poll.

While efforts to reform state government are relatively new developments in the General Assembly, each chamber's members were given credit where due for their personal commitment to change, evidenced either by their signature on the PACleanSweep candidate declaration last year or their co-sponsorship on one of two existing bills to enable a constitutional convention.

Finally, participation in what some have dubbed the "Incumbent Protection Plan" was calculated into final grades through a weighted scoring system on the most self-serving pieces of legislation highlighted by the report card, by assessing each member's radio and television public service announcement spending during 2005-06, and for the involvement of their respective caucus leaders in the unresolved "Bonusgate" affair.

Members are listed on the report card alphabetically by default, but visitors can also sort the list by seniority, county or legislative district for ease of use. Sorting by seniority, due to the format of the report card, reveals a distinct tendency by long term lawmakers to support more egregious pieces of legislation over the years.

Visitors are provided a complete explanation of the grading system employed in the report card and links are provided to the text of each piece of legislation highlighted.

Clicking on a lawmaker's name within the report card will open a new window with a more detailed look at that individual's legislative career, leadership role, committee assignments and district voter registration statistics. Also included on each lawmaker's page is an opportunity for citizens to provide additional credible information regarding the individual's job performance in the General Assembly.

The report card will serve as a reference for all Pennsylvania voters during the 2008 election cycle. Any major statewide initiatives enacted in the future will be added and figured into each lawmaker's grade. All 203 members of the House of Representatives face re-election in 2008, as do the 25 Senators from odd-numbered districts.

The report card can be viewed by visiting the PACleanSweep website at http://www.pacleansweep.com/.

View the Legislative Report Card

About PACleanSweep
PACleanSweep is a non-partisan effort dedicated to reforming state government in Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit http://www.pacleansweep.com/.

For More Information
Russ Diamond, Chair
chair@pacleansweep.com
717.383.3025

Russ Diamond

Russ Diamond is the founder of PACleanSweep and an avid believer that government should do what's best for all citizens, not just the privileged few.

Copyright © 2007, Pennsylvania Order of Liberty Blog; All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2005-2007, THE CENTRIST; All Rights Reserved.

Tim Potts: DR News: Which Lawmakers Vote with Leadership?

[Reposted from the Pennsylvania Order of Liberty Blog]

DR News: Which Lawmakers Vote with Leadership?

In this Edition:

• Victory!
• Reality Check
• The Reformers' First Semester: Voting with Leadership
• We're Number Last!

Victory!
Citizens scored a major victory this week when Gov. Ed Rendell changed his mind and agreed with the legislature to repeal the link between state and federal judicial salaries. This link, a centerpiece of the pay raise of 2005, was originally repealed in November 2005. However, when the PA Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that judges could keep the pay raise because the repeal didn't apply to them, it became unclear whether the link also would be restored. For two years, Rendell repeatedly stated his support for making state judicial salaries rise automatically with increases in federal salaries.

By upholding the idea that PA citizens, not the U.S. Congress, should decide how much to pay their own public servants, this not only saves millions of dollars, but it begins to restore citizen ownership of their government.

The remaining questions are: How should we decide the appropriate salaries for judges? And how can we get those salaries enacted for the benefit of citizens and judges alike?

Reality Check
735 - Days since the Pay Raise of 2005. See the ticker on our home page.
1 - Law enacted to improve government integrity. See the cartoon .
0 - "Best-in-America" laws enacted. See the campaign .

For more, see the July edition of " Reality Check ."

The Reformers' First Semester: Voting with Leadership
Conventional wisdom says that Republicans exert more party discipline than Democrats. But you can't prove it by the votes of 23 new Republicans and 27 new Democrats in the PA House. In fact, it's the new Democrats who follow their leader with much greater frequency than the new Republicans. Looking at 232 important votes (as of July 9 and excluding resolutions), all first-term Republicans voted with their floor leader less often than all first-term Democrats.

This record makes the first-term lawmakers almost indistinguishable from the veteran lawmakers. The split between veteran Democrats and veteran Republicans is almost as clear and reinforces the point that House Democrats appear to display stronger party discipline than Republicans. Following is the percentage that each group voted with caucus floor leaders:

Freshmen:
Democrats: 91-98%
Republicans: 69-86%

Veterans:
Democrats: 86-99%*
Republicans: 63-89%

* There is one anomaly. Rep. Robert Belfanti, D-Northumberland, voted just 57% of the time with Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Greene. The next lowest Democrat registered 86%.

Click here for an Excel spreadsheet with data for each first-term lawmaker, and here for an Excel spreadsheet with data for each veteran lawmaker.

What explains this unexpected, if not inconvenient, truth about the new lawmakers? Perhaps Republicans are witnessing:

• a new streak of independence among younger members.
• a resurgence of the movement to reclaim the Republican Party for its roots.
• the effect of being in the minority where it often doesn't matter whether rank-and-file Representatives follow leadership.

Perhaps Democrats are seeing:

• the effect of having to govern on the edge of majority so that no Representative can be allowed to stray too far from the party home.
• the influence of a reasonably popular governor of your own party, especially a governor who knows how to raise campaign money.

Maybe we should stop talking about "party discipline" and talk instead of "power discipline." The party names are interchangeable. The effect of power is relatively constant.

We're Number Last!
PA is disgraced to be the only one of the United States not to provide its citizens with free online access to its laws.

That may finally be changing. On June 27, HB 976 passed the House. It proposes to require the Legislative Data Processing Center (nerve central for information about the legislature) to provide public access to the laws that are stored there. The proposal belongs to first-term Rep. Lisa Bennington, D-Allegheny.

Question:
Will the Senate make sure PA citizens have the best access to their laws - the most thorough, convenient, citizen-friendly and well-used system - of any state in America?

Tim Potts
Co-Founder & Chair
Democracy Rising Pennsylvania

© Democracy Rising Pennsylvania 2001-2007. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2005-2007, Pennsylvania Order of Liberty Blog; All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2005-2007, THE CENTRIST; All Rights Reserved.

Tony Phyrillas: Conduct unbecoming a governor

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a citizen's arrest. I'd like to issue a citation to Gov. Edward G. Rendell. The charge? Conduct unbecoming a governor.

If you haven't heard by now, Gov. Rendell has teed off in recent days against a citizen activist and a state senator, not to mention officials at one of the most prestigious think tanks in the state.

Rendell "losing it" is nothing new. He has a legendary short fuse, going back to his days as district attorney and later mayor of Philadelphia. Rendell put the bully in bully pulpit. A couple of years ago, he snatched the tape recorder from a reporter who was asking tough questions, stuck it in his pocket and walked away. He's also called the Pennsylvania Cable Network to chew out program executives when panelists have criticized him on "Journalists Roundtable."

The second-term Democratic governor has issues. There's a rumor going around that Jack Nicholson's role in "Anger Management" was based on Ed Rendell. But it's another movie, "The Silence of the Lambs," that came to the forefront this week when Rendell compared citizen activist Eric Epstein to Hannibal Lechter.

Rendell also called the staff of the Commonwealth Foundation a bunch of "imbeciles."

And the governor also called Republican state Sen. Mike Folmer "certifiable." (Folmer ousted longtime Rendell political ally David "Chip" Brightbill from the state Senate last year, but Rendell went too far in questioning the mental stability of the popular reformer, known to his constituents as "Citizen Mike.")

Maybe the governor has been watching too many movies or the realization that his second term is turning into a disaster is setting in, but Rendell needs to grow a thicker skin. That might be asking a lot of a 62-year old career politician, but criticism comes with the territory.

And while the governor may not like what reporters, columnists, commentators and bloggers say about him, he's got to avoid personal attacks on his critics.

I've had my differences with Rendell in the past couple of years on various issues, but I've never felt the need to call him names. That's the least Rendell should do for his fellow citizens. The governor of one of the largest states does not have the right to make fun of any of his constituents, regardless of what they say about him.

Eric Epstein has a right to criticize Rendell. Epstein doesn't collect a salary from taxpayers. You and I have that same right. We pay Gov. Rendell's salary. He works for us. We can criticize him whenever we want. That's our right as citizens in a Democracy. Rendell doesn't have the privilege of ugly name-calling or questioning their motives of any Pennsylvania citizen.

Rendell can respond to criticism about his policies, but spewing venom at his critics is out of bounds. If the governor doesn't want to be criticized, he is welcome to step down and take a job in the private sector. I'm sure he can find a well-paid position with the many corporate benefactors he has helped with taxpayer money over the past four years, including Comcast or any of the casinos that he brought to Pennsylvania.

Epstein, who is coordinator of the grassroots citizens group Rock the Capitol, was quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer as saying Rendell "believes he has a mandate to pillage, but he won 61 percent of the vote against an empty suit last year and he didn't have a clear agenda until June 30."

A furious Rendell called the reporter who write the story and spewed: "Eric Epstein is about as mentally stable as that guy who ate all those people."

Epstein told the Lancaster New Era he isn't sure to whom the governor compared him. "Hopefully it's Hannibal. Some people think it's Idi Amin" — the late diabolical Ugandan president — "or Jeffrey Dahmer," Epstein laughed. "I've been asked if I deserve an apology. My answer is no. I wasn't the guy who went into a cave and held 24,000 families hostage," said Epstein, referring to the government shutdown that resulted in the furloughs of more than 23,500 "non-critical" state workers. "I'm hoping we can get past the name-calling and behave like adults. Apparently the governor is experiencing an emotional meltdown," he continued. "A lot of us have interesting thoughts. That doesn't mean we're obligated to share them with the public. What's amazing about this is that he went out of his way to call a reporter to offer his psychiatric evaluation."

Rendell's beef with the Commonwealth Foundation and Sen. Folmer stems from the fact that they questioned Rendell's budget numbers after the governor announced an agreement on the nine-day-old dispute over the 2007-08 state budget.

Rendell, in an interview with The Patriot-News on Wednesday, addressed the Commonwealth folks first: "What these imbeciles don't understand is that most cost drivers in a budget, you don't control."

The New Era contacted the group's policy director, Nate Benefield, and asked if he'd seen Rendell's remarks in the newspaper. "Well, no, I'm too much of an imbecile to read," he said. "I guess it's better to be called stupid than to be called crazy. I think we got the better end of that deal."

Folmer, who represents the 48th Senate district, drew Rendell's wrath by suggesting the state's spending growth could reach 6 percent by the time lawmakers are finished drafting it. "He's certifiable," Rendell told the Harrisburg paper, adding that the 6 percent estimate is "just not rational."

In an interview with the Lancaster newspaper, Folmer said, "I've been called worse. Ask my wife." He went on to chide Rendell. "There's a huge myth out there that because he's governor he should always get his way. He forgets the system of government we have," Folmer said."He's not king. He's not a dictator. He's not commissar. He's a governor in a representative republic form of government," Folmer told the newspaper.

A Rendell spokesperson said the governor has no intention of apologizing to anyone over his recent remarks. "He did not intend to offend anybody," spokesman Chuck Ardo said. "He was responding passionately to a series of questions, and he is well known both in Harrisburg throughout the commonwealth and throughout the country for speaking his mind."

Tony Phyrillas

Tony Phyrillas is a columnist for The Mercury in Pottstown, Pa. He received a first place award for Best Opinion Column in 2007 by Suburban Newspapers of America. He was also honored for column writing in 2006 by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Copyright © 2005-2007, THE CENTRIST Blog; All Rights Reserved.

Tony Phyrillas: Gerlach, Dent, Murphy, English not voting with GOP

Pennsylvania Congressional Republicans are voting less and less like Republicans these days.

Still smarting from the 2006 elections, Republicans are distancing themselves from the Bush administration and courting moderates and Democrats just to survive.

An article published by CQPolitics.com lists the the Top 26 Republicans who frequently break ranks with the party on votes.

While nobody from Pennsylvania's Congressional delegation made the Top 10, some familiar names are hovering lower on the list: Tim Murphy, R-18th Dist., at No. 15; Charlie Dent, R-15th Dist., at No. 20; Jim Gerlach, R-6th Dist., at No. 21; and Phil English, R-3rd Dist., at No. 23.

It's pretty clear that Republicans are still running scared after last year's debacle at the polls, where Democrats swept into power (and ousted several prominent Republican Congressment from Pennsylvania).

Not only did the GOP lose control of the 110th Congress, but the few remaining Pennsylvania Republicans who won re-election are no longer voting with the party leadership.

We now have the Democrats and the Pseudo-Republicans in Congress. Where does that leave conservatives who voted for Dent and Gerlach? It might be time to start a third party.

To read the full Congressional Quarterly article by Greg Giroux and see the list of all 26 Republicans, go to http://www.cqpolitics.com/2007/07/party_unity_less_of_a_sure_thi.html to read "Party Unity Less of a Sure Thing for House GOP Minority"

Tony Phyrillas

Tony Phyrillas is a columnist for The Mercury in Pottstown, Pa. He received a first place award for Best Opinion Column in 2007 by Suburban Newspapers of America. He was also honored for column writing in 2006 by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Copyright © 2005-2007, THE CENTRIST Blog; All Rights Reserved.

Tim Potts: 2nd Anniversary of the Pay Raise

[Reposted from the Pennsylvania Order of Liberty Blog]

July 5, 2007
This morning, several groups working for greater integrity in state government held a news conference to commemorate the second anniversary of the pay raise on July 7.

The groups included The Rock the Capital, Commonwealth Foundation, Young Conservatives of Pennsylvania, PA Clean Sweep and Democracy Rising PA.

Following are remarks by Democracy Rising PA Co-Founder Tim Potts:

Here we are. It's July 5th. We just observed the birthday of American independence in the birthplace of American independence.

But we don't have an operating budget for the government that serves 12.5 million citizens. Thousands of public and private sector employees are threatened with furloughs. Artificial crises, false choices and fictional deadlines take on the appearance of divine mandates, delaying and complicating the single most important task of the year - apart from conductin! g elections that are honest and fair.

So it's a good time for a reality check on how well our public servants are doing at reforming themselves. In two days it will be two years since the event that stirred Pennsylvania's political conscience.

In each of the past four elections, our citizens have stood up for their political conscience. They said, "We want our government back. We want our government to operate with integrity, to give us value for our taxes, to be as transparent as possible and to earn our confidence."

In short, citizens want public officials who are dedicated to giving Pennsylvania the best state government in America, not the worst.

Our political leaders have told us again and again that they got the message. But if they weren't saying it so loud and so often - and using our tax dollars to do it - it would be hard to detect.

It's been 728 days since the pay raise, enough time for a family t! o have two children. Yet the box score on new laws is:

• 1 very poor law enacted to improve integrity in state government.
• 0 "best-in-America" laws enacted.

That's the bottom line. What have they actually done in law to improve integrity, value, transparency and citizen confidence. And the answer is, virtually nothing.

Meanwhile, what else have they done in the past two years? They have:

• Ignored at least two-thirds of citizens who want to prohibit lobbyists from giving public officials gifts, meals, entertainment, travel and all the other forms of legalized bribery that wash over the capitol like rain at this time of year.
• Ignored the clear will of 82% of us who want to prohibit lame-duck session like two-thirds of the other states in America.
• Suspended one of the key reform rules adopted earlier this year, depriving citizens of the chance to comment on a last-minute! proposal for $1.6 billion in capital projects for Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Luzerne County.
• The General Assembly, Supreme Court and governor continue to spend millions of dollars defending the pay raise in court, even though it was repealed, parts of it were declared unconstitutional and a former Speaker of the House called it "indefensible."
• Lawmakers and Gov. Rendell continue to debate tax and fee increases while the legislature sits on a slush fund of at least $215 million.
• Attorney General Tom Corbett has gone to a grand jury with an investigation into whether millions of dollars paid to legislative staffers were intended to reward them for political work, which is illegal.
• Federal prosecutors have filed 139 indictments alleging various forms of public corruption by a state senator.
• Lawmakers spent $6 million of taxpayer funds on so-called public service ads tha t featured incumbent lawmakers during the 2006 election year.
• The Supreme Court, without stating its authority or reasons, twice prohibited the citizens of Philadelphia from holding a referendum. City Council had the sense to ask whether citizens want to have slots parlors within 1,500 feet of homes, schools, playgrounds and houses of worship. Two dissenting justices claim the Court has no authority to issue the orders. The Court majority simply says, "Do it because we say so."
• On the last day of lame-duck session - without public hearings, public debate, or even public knowledge - lawmakers passed a law providing unlimited free alcohol to slots players. No wonder 82% of Pennsylvania voters want to ban lame-duck session.
• Finally, we pay top dollar for this lousy performance with arguably the most bloated and expensive legislature in America.

And there's more at www.democracyrisingpa.com .

Citizens are not letting their political leaders off the hook any longer. Our leaders have not earned our trust. We will not give them the benefit of the doubt. We will hold them accountable for the quality of their deeds, not the quantity of their words.

This time, the citizens will have their way.

Tim Potts
Co-Founder & Chair
Democracy Rising Pennsylvania

© Democracy Rising Pennsylvania 2001-2007. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2005-2007, Pennsylvania Order of Liberty Blog; All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2005-2007, THE CENTRIST; All Rights Reserved.

Giles Hickory: Screwge Rendell and the Band of Thieves

[Reposted from the Pennsylvania Order of Liberty Blog]

There is nothing so stupid as Pennsylvania’s version of Dickens "A Christmas Carol," set in July.

One of the most egregious practices in Pennsylvania State Government is the Screwge Rendell practice of furloughing Commonwealth Employees during budget impasses in the General Assembly. This practice effectively puts the burden of a Constitutional requirement onto the backs [and out of the wallets of state employees]. State employees will lose a full week’s pay, never to regain it, and will only receive partial pay for additional weeks on furlough, never to regain the difference, while the parties, the houses, and the Governor dicker over the annual budget.

Known as a union-buster from his days as mayor of Philadelphia, Screwge has abused the Commonwealth employees with miserly, even punitive contracts over the past five years. Commonwealth employees went without raises for two years at one point, not even a cost of living increase. The following year much of the raise they did get was offset by a new deduction to cover part of their own health care plan!

Now Screwge Rendell is going to stick it to them again, this time with the full aid and comfort of the leadership in the General Assembly. Oh yes, he is definitely sticking it to a number of groups, like the casino operators, and the State Store workers, and those who run the State Parks across the Commonwealth, and of course to the tax-payers who will not be able to utilize many state services during this politically imposed budget vacation…which is little more than a ploy by Screwge Rendell to save budget money up front.

In this matter Screwge Rendell has the able assistance of the Band of Thieves we formally address as the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Thieves they are because they are abetting Screwge Rendell in the theft of income directly from the pockets of the state’s nearly 23,000 employees. They argue the merits of a bill banning smoking while 23,000 employees and their families and dependents are about to go without. This “Let them eat cake” attitude is typical of Harrisburg without true reform. So Screwge Rendell fiddles, while the Band of Thieves fiddle back. Sounds more like something a group of pubescent boys would sneak off into the woods to do in secret.

Nearly every month of his administration the department of revenue has collected tens of millions of dollars more than the state’s expenditures for that month. In some cases, it has been hundreds of millions of dollars as Federal bonuses for certain state programs have been earned [recently several million dollars were awarded to Pennsylvania for the reduction of fraud cases in the state-administered Federal Food Stamp Program.] No one seems to know where this money is going. Yet despite being up by a surplus that is likely at least 2 billion dollars in the Treasury, Screwge continues to cry poor mouth while demanding ever increasing budget items from the General Assembly.

Now there is a solution to all of this – a number of steps that can be added to the state’s Constitution that will alleviate this kind of event in the future:

First, pass a law barring the governor or any member of the administration, or of the courts, or of the General Assembly, or any member of State Government, from furloughing Commonwealth Employees during a budget-negotiation impasse, and barring them from suspending any benefits of Commonwealth Employees.

Second, have the Sergeant-at-arms of each house secure the members and staffs of the General Assembly in their respective chambers by locking all doors from the outside. Provide six porta-potties to the House of Representatives, and four to the Senate.

Third, construct a small, enclosed, air-conditioned room, with standard wooden, or metal folding chairs, and a card table, for the Governor and his selected staff to occupy during budget negotiations. Lock the Governor and his designated staff into the room at midnight of any June 30 where there exists no signed budget. Add a single porta-potty to this room, which is to be no bigger than 15’ by 15’. Cut off all communication with the outside world with the exception of a single State Police radio with one channel operation synchronized with a state police guard outside the door who is there to assure no one disturbs the Governor and his staff during the budget impasse. There will be a mail slot in the door sufficient for passing to the occupants: meals, unchilled bottled water, required prescription medication paid for in cash by the occupant requiring it, and a passed budget document submitted for signing.

Fourth, have the Commonwealth’s Attorney General lock the State Supreme Court in the chamber of the Chief Justice, including their clerks and staffs, with no access to rest rooms, but two porta-potties. Cut off all communication with the outside world with the exception of a single State Police radio with one channel operation synchronized with a state police guard outside the door who is there to assure no one disturbs their honors during the budget impasse. There will be a mail slot in the door sufficient for passing to the occupants: meals, unchilled bottled water, and required prescription medication paid for in cash by the occupant requiring it.

Leadership negotiations between the houses shall take place in a room identical to the Governor’s room as noted above, with the same provisions.

Fifth, dock the pay of every member of the Governor’s Administration, every member of the General Assembly, their staffs, and their caucus staffs, and the State Courts, pro-rated for every minute without a budget after midnight of June 30. Further, for every hour after midnight of June 30th without a signed budget, block any and all contributions to said employees’ retirement plans for one month.

Further, between midnight June 30th, and the signing of the State’s budget, no medical coverage shall exist for any of the above employees, nor for their dependents. Any medical emergencies that occur during the budget impasse will be covered by the employee’s by cash deductions from their retirement accounts.

Meals will be provided to all the above locations for cash only, consisting of powdered eggs and a slice of toast, and one cup of coffee, milk, or juice, a single sandwich of either ham, turkey or bologna on white bread with margarine, a pint of milk, coffee, or water, and supper of the same as lunch and a late night snack of graham crackers or a Pennsylvania grown apple. The charge will be $3 for each meal and $1 for each snack.

All proceedings of the General Assembly will be covered by PCN on split screen [one half for each chamber], at all times, with no periods where the sound is off from the microphones in one house or the other, and no music. Other TV networks may broadcast feeds of the proceedings from PCN at cost, to be broadcast without commercial interruption or interruption of any other kind. If another network broadcasts the proceedings, it will broadcast one house, while PCN broadcasts the others, with live microphones, 24/7.

One time through this mill should be enough to guarantee for at least a century that Pennsylvania will have on-time budgets as demanded by the State Constitution.

Cartoon courtesy of Eric Epstein at RockThe Capitol.org

Giles Hickory

“To what can we ascribe the absurd measures of Congress, in times past, and the speedy recision of those measures, but to the want of some check?” -- An Examination Into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, by “A Citizen of America”, Philadelphia, October 17, 1787

Copyright © 2005-2007,

Pennsylvania Order of Liberty Blog; All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2005-2007, THE CENTRIST; All Rights Reserved.

Russ Diamond: Why We Need A Constitutional Convention

[Reposted from the Pennsylvania Order of Liberty Blog]

Why We Need A Constitutional Convention
delivered at a press briefing in the Capitol Rotunda
We come here today in the midst of two important anniversaries.

231 years ago this week, 56 brave souls gathered in this Commonwealth to pledge their lives, fortunes and sacred honor in pursuit of self-government. Our state constitution is a direct descendant of the efforts of those freedom fighters.

Although Pennsylvania's original constitution - in comparison to those of other revolutionary era states - was considered to be the epitome of self-government, an assault on those liberties began almost immediately. That assault reached its high water mark, we pray, two years ago this week when lawmakers in this Capitol twisted self-government into an instrument of self-service.

The people - echoing the true spirit of those who signed the Declaration of Independence twelve generations ago - rose up, put their proverbial foot down and said, "No More."

While things may have changed here in Harrisburg - even to the point where some observers consider those changes to be massive, relative to the institutions where they've occurred - from the viewpoint of self-government, the shift has been miniscule and evasive at best.

Even today, we stand witness to elected officials who refuse to adhere to the simplest portion of the ultimate will of the people - the constitutional mandate to adopt a fiscal plan by a fixed date on the calendar. If they cannot abide by this very elementary provision, how on earth can we expect them to uphold some of the more complex mandates of our most fundamental law?

The utter failure of the legislative, executive and judicial branches to carry out the provisions of our Constitution are major reasons why this Commonwealth is in desperate need of a constitutional convention, but they are not the only reasons.

Pennsylvanians are now realizing that a carefully crafted convention could also go far in addressing our broken public education system, eliminating wasteful and overlapping local governmental fiefdoms and repairing our inherently unfair electoral system.

There are currently two bills to initiate a convention - HB649 and SB291 - sitting in committee waiting for action. Both are seriously flawed and in need of major amendment, but they are there nonetheless. Another bill - HB1179 - calls for an appointed commission to study constitutional change. This bill is equally flawed in that it puts elected officials in charge of the process.

The only path back to self-government is to convene a delegation of citizens - without ties to the current establishment - to review and propose changes to our Constitution and submit them to the electorate for ratification. Anything less is simply unacceptable.

For an acceptable starting point, we recommend to the "Citizens' Constitutional Convention Act of 2007" as posted at www.pacleansweep.com. Taking this path to change would not only lead us back to self- government, but would also remove the black cloud which has been hanging over state government for the last two years.

At PACleanSweep, we will be attempting to educate elected officials of the dire need for a convention in the coming months. Perhaps they will listen; perhaps they won't. If they don't listen now, maybe the impetus for action will come from their political opponents in 2008. Only time will tell.

Elected officials who refuse to move in the direction of a constitutional convention of the people do so at their own peril. Article I, Section II states in no uncertain terms that the people "have at all times an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think proper."

We are not bound to do so with the consent or agreement of any elected official, but we do think it proper to pursue consensus at this time. If we do not achieve consensus between the people and elected officials, the divide between the two will only become greater and the cloud over this building will only grow darker.

The time is proper for a constitutional convention, and a more opportune time may not come again for generations.

If the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence could see what has become of Pennsylvania over the course of 231 years, they would certainly be appalled. We owe it to them to prove that their sacrifices were not in vain - and that we have not lost sight of their gift of self-government - by holding a convention of the people at the earliest possible opportunity.

Contitutional Convention Q & A

Citizen's Constitutional Convention Act of 2007

View the text of HB649

View the text of SB291

View the text of HB1179

Russ Diamond

Russ Diamond is the founder of PACleanSweep and an avid believer that government should do what's best for all citizens, not just the privileged few.

About PACleanSweep:
PACleanSweep is a non-partisan effort dedicated to reforming state government in Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit www.PACleanSweep.com.

Copyright © 2007, Pennsylvania Order of Liberty Blog; All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2005-2007, THE CENTRIST; All Rights Reserved.

Tim Potts: DRNews - Stealth Legislation Lives

[Republished from The Pennsylvania Order of Liberty Blog]

In this Edition:

• Tick, Tick, Tick
• Stealth Lawmaking Lives: House Suspends Rules, Commits $1.65 Billion
• A Victory

Tick, Tick, Tick:

• 725 - Days since the Pay Raise of 2005. See the ticker on our home page.
• 1 - Law enacted to improve government integrity
• 0 - "Best-in-America" laws enacted

Stealth Lawmaking Lives: House Suspends Rules, Commits $1.65 Billion:
This week the PA House proved why changing the rules doesn't solve the basic problem of the highest-cost, lowest quality legislature in America.

Capitolwire's Pete DeCoursey documented an instance of what lobbyists are saying is happening more and more often: Members of the House are suspending their own rules to pass major legislation without public hearings or public knowledge.

This was supposed to stop when the House adopted rules to require at least 24 hours between final amendment and final vote. Yet when it came time to consider House Bill 1631, the capital budget for the Gaming and Tourism Fund, 172 House members voted to suspend the 24-hour rule so that they could amend the bill and pass it in a matter of minutes.

What did the amendment do? Among other things, it committed state taxpayers to pay:

• $880 million in operating funds for the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.
• $495 million for "the construction and development of a cargo airport" in Luzerne County.
• $240 million for a hockey rink in Pittsburgh.

Rep. John Maher, R-Allegheny, noted that the money for these projects comes from the fund that was supposed to provide property tax relief.

That's a total of $1,615,000,000 (more than $500 for every family of four) for just these three projects without the opportunity for any family of four to express their opinion about it.

You won't believe this part. As bad as this is, consider that the amendment also confesses that it isn't exactly accurate. On page 39 of the amendment that 171 House members voted for, it says:

"Section 7. Editorial changes.
In editing and preparing this act for printing following the final enactment, the Legislative Reference Bureau shall insert or revise letters or numbers for projects where the letters or numbers are missing or require revision. The Bureau shall also revise the total monetary amounts for the total authorization, debt authorization, appropriations and departmental totals as necessary to agree with the total monetary amounts of the projects."

In other words, parts of the bill don't mean what they say and the numbers don't add up.

But that didn't stop 171 Representatives from voting for the amendment and 121 Representatives from passing it to the Senate.

Questions:

• Will the Senate do any better at giving citizens the chance to be heard?
• Why did 50 more Representatives vote to suspend the rules and adopt the amendment than were willing to vote for it on final passage? [Hint: The unwritten rule is that rank-and-file Representatives vote with their leaders on "procedural" issues such as suspending the rules. As leadership knows, the more times the rank and file vote with leadership on the little things, the more likely they become to vote with leadership on the big things.]
• Who voted for it before they voted against it?
• Are Representatives counting on the Senate to do their jobs for them and produce a clean bill?

Comment:
It's worth pointing out that the House couldn't suspend the rules and make stealth changes to important legislation without the unanimous and express written consent of the state Supreme Court.! See the slots gambling decision, the pay raise decision, and many other decisions going back years.

This kind of stealth lawmaking will continue until the justices on our Supreme Court change their minds, or until the citizens change the minds that serve on our Supreme Court.

A Victory:

House Majority Leader H. William DeWeese has announced that the House Democrats will no longer pay bonuses to legislative staffers. Last year, DeWeese authorized $1.9 million in bonuses, about five times the amount paid in 2005. Attorney General Tom Corbett is investigating whether legislative leaders used tax dollars to pay for political campaigning by legislative staff, which is illegal.

Tim Potts
Co-Founder & Chair
Democracy Rising Pennsylvania

© Democracy Rising Pennsylvania 2001-2007. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2005-2007, Pennsylvania Order of Liberty Blog; All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2005-2007, THE CENTRIST; All Rights Reserved.

Tony Phyrillas: Blame Rendell, House Democrats for budget impasse

It's Sunday, July 1, 2007. Do you know where your state budget is?

For the fifth year in a row under the reign of Emperor Edward Rendell I, Pennsylvania begins a new fiscal year without a budget.

The state Constitution requires the adoption of a budget by midnight June 30, but it wouldn't be the first time the governor and Legislature have ignored the Constitution.

The deadline came and went but the Legislature failed to reach agreement on a $27 billion spending plan for the 2007-08 fiscal year.

Who's at fault? Depends on whom you ask. Gov. Rendell blames the Republican-controlled state Senate. The Senate blames the governor and the Democratic-controlled state House.

If you want my opinion, the fault lies squarely on the broad shoulders of Gov. Rendell and the puppets in the House who dance to Rendell's tune of more spending and higher taxes.

Did you catch Rendell's Academy Award-winning performance during that Saturday night press conference when it became clear that the GOP Senate had called His Majesty's bluff?

Don't you think it was a bit disingenuous of Rendell to complain about the Senate and House missing the June 30 budget deadline when Rendell himself scoffed at the deadline a few days ago?

"I missed four budget deadlines and got re-elected with 61 percent of the vote," Rendell told reporters Thursday. "The people who care most about whether this [budget] gets done by June 30 are the people who inhabit this building."

Here's a simplified version of what went down Saturday night as the budget talks broke down.

Let's begin by talking about "hostages." That was a term Rendell and members of the House used often during the days leading up to the budget deadline.

Rendell threatened to hold the budget hostage until he got his transportation, health care and energy programs approved by the Legislature. He said he was willing to keep the Legislature in Harrisburg all summer until he got what he wanted.

To make matters worse, Philadelphia-area lawmakers also threatened to hold the budget approval hostage unless the full Legislature approved gun-control measures for Philadelphia.

Here's the problem with taking hostages. Unless you're willing to play out the scenario and harm the hostages to get your demands met, making threats doesn't work.

In this case, Rendell took hostages holding water pistol. The GOP-controlled Senate called the governor's bluff.

According to Senate leaders, the Senate approved its version of the budget on June 20 by a 49-1 margin. That $27 billion budget was very similar to what Rendell proposed (but without any tax increases). The key ingredient here is NO NEW TAXES.

That's the message Rendell and House Democrats can't seem to grasp. While the governor has put aside most of his demands for seven new or expanded taxes, Rendell is still pushing an electricity tax and a trash tax. Again, the Senate is saying NO NEW TAXES.

Saturday night, the Senate voted 29 to 19 to stick to its NO NEW TAXES budget.

Later that night, the House voted 102 to 96 not to concur with the Senate version of the budget. (Only two Republicans voted with the 100 lockstep Democrats to hold up the budget.)

After four years of tax hikes and massive spending increases, Rendell has hit a wall in a united Republican Senate. (Rendell allies Bob Jubelirer and Chip Brightbill are no longer around to carry the governor's water in the Senate).

Senate Republicans have told Rendell repeatedly that they will not approve any taxes as part of the budget. NO means NO. No electricity tax. No increases in trash fees. No blank checks for corrupt and inefficient mass transit systems.

For once, somebody is looking out for Pennsylvania taxpayers. The governor and his Democratic pawns in the House still don't get it. Pennsylvania taxpayers want the elimination of property taxes. They're not interested in wind power or biomedical research or socialized medicine.

Until the governor gets it through his head that the state has to start living within its means, we're in for a long summer.

Tony Phyrillas

Tony Phyrillas is a columnist for The Mercury in Pottstown, Pa. He received a first place award for Best Opinion Column in 2007 by Suburban Newspapers of America. He was also honored for column writing in 2006 by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Copyright © 2005-2007, THE CENTRIST Blog; All Rights Reserved.

Tony Phyrillas: The disconnect between politicians and the people

Has there ever been a bigger disconnect between the people and their elected officials?

Whether it's Harrisburg or Washington, D.C., the gap between what the people want and what their elected representatives are doing is a mile wide.

The majority of Americans want the U.S. out of Iraq. President Bush isn't listening, continuing with a failed strategy into its fifth year of the war.

Congress, controlled by the Democrats largely on their promise to end the Iraq War, doesn't have the backbone to pull U.S. troops out of harm's way. The Democrats who won last November on the promise to bring the troops home immediately have turned into doormats. Keep that in mind when they seek re-election in 2008.

The vast majority of Americans oppose amnesty for the 12 million illegal aliens in the U.S., but Bush and Congress are stumbling over each other to see how quickly they can offer amnesty and a fast track to U.S. citizenship for 12 million lawbreakers.

Americans want government to live within its means. Congress continues to spend billions on pet projects and pork. Nothing has changed since Nancy Pelosi took control except that Democrats instead of Republicans are now wasting our tax dollars.

Closer to home, in Pennsylvania, the state Legislature is days away from approving a $27 billion budget despite calls from citizens to control state spending and eliminate property taxes.

From 1990 to 2006, Pennsylvania's General Fund Budget increased from $12.4 billion to $26.1 billion -- an increase of 40 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to the Commonwealth Foundation, an independent, nonprofit public policy research instituted in Harrisburg.

Over the same period, personal income increased by only 25 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to the Foundation.And that's just the General Fund Budget. Overall state spending has reached $60 billion a year.

How can Pennsylvania's aging population afford to pay for government spending that has mushroomed to $60 billion a year? Many are selling their homes and moving out of state. Others who can't leave are choosing between food and heat. Young people, facing the prospect of high taxes and lack of good-paying jobs, are fleeing the state.

Gov. Ed Rendell has promised to reduce property taxes in each of his five years in office, but has yet to deliver $1.00 in tax relief to any of the state's residents.

One of the broken promises, the approval of 61,000 slot machines to eventually provide property tax relief, has taken an interesting twist. Rendell now wants the Legislature to divert part of the casino revenues to fund a $300 million arena for the Pittsburgh Penguins and expand the Philadelphia Convention Center.

Ask a retired couple barely meeting expenses if they want the casino revenue they were promised for tax relief to go to themselves and their families or to help corporate fat cats build sports arenas.

Fifty-five members of the Pennsylvania Legislature were tossed out of office or forced into retirement in 2006, largly as punishment for the July 2005 raid on the state treasury when the Legislature and governor gave themselves pay raises of up 54 percent. That wasn't enough to get their attention.

Too many greedy career politicians, including Rendell, were returned to office. More than 100 Legislators need to be voted out in 2008 to send a message to Harrisburg that the will of the people can no longer be ignored.

And all those phony reformers in the Democratic Party who won Congressional seats in 2006? They need to be booted out in 2008.

Tony Phyrillas

Tony Phyrillas is a columnist for The Mercury in Pottstown, Pa. He received a first place award for Best Opinion Column in 2007 by Suburban Newspapers of America. He was also honored for column writing in 2006 by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Copyright © 2007, THE CENTRIST Blog; All Rights Reserved.

Russ Diamond: Who's Really in Charge?

[Reprinted from the Pennsylvania Order of Liberty Blog].

When most Pennsylvanians think of government, a certain image comes to mind. They imagine policemen protecting us from violent criminals, clerks diligently processing paperwork to administer justice in the courthouse or green-vested highway workers heading out to fill potholes in the spring.

Others think of the continuous struggle of ideologies under the dome in Harrisburg. They imagine their conservative or liberal heroes going into battle on the floor of the House and Senate to win the privilege of steering the Commonwealth on new paths of righteousness.

While these elements of government in action do exist, a closer examination reveals that government is actually an industry, providing profit and investment opportunities to anyone willing to adopt the proper business model. The payoff can be massive. After all, what better way to guarantee a return on investment than by putting the force of law on your side?

There are plenty of experts to help you on your way to success by stepping on the backs of average taxpayers and short-circuiting the lawmaking process. For a price, of course. Two stunning examples of such modern-day privateers have come to light in the past week.

You may remember one Michael S. Long. The former chief of staff to Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer and brother-in-law of former Senate Majority Leader David "Chip" Brightbill wrapped up his career on the inside by pocketing $41,000 in taxpayer-funded bonuses in his last two years and collecting a $95,000 severance package on his way out the door.

While Jubelirer and Brightbill were ultimately tossed from office for their big spending ways, Long was a master engineer behind the scenes crafting their "conservative Republican" game plan. Also a prominent member of the Lebanon County Republican Committee, Long was perfectly situated to take on the "liberal Democrats" at every turn.

And you may also recall one Ray Zaborney. As 2006 Republican gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann's campaign manager, Zaborney was eager to bash Ed Rendell on any issue whenever a microphone or camera was nearby. In his effort to get a Republican in the governor's office, Zaborney even contacted this writer in an attempt to lend anti-pay raise and reform credence to Swann's campaign after an independent gubernatorial bid was sideswiped by Pennsylvania's ridiculous petitioning requirements.

But the "conservative Republican" ideologies of Long and Zaborney seem to have taken a back seat to personal profit of late.

Long is now lobbying Harrisburg for the environmental and renewable energy causes, working under the guise of a lobbyist for PennFuture, an organization closely tied to Rendell's vision for greening up Pennsylvania. This plan could arguably give Rendell front-runner status for the position of US Department of Energy Secretary in a future Democratic administration in Washington.

Zaborney, who has long been politically linked to Long but is not listed on the state's lobbyist disclosure website, was witnessed this week arriving at a Senator's office in the Capitol "to advocate for a sensible environmental plan for the Commonwealth." When asked to clarify exactly what he was pushing, Zaborney replied, "the Governor's plan."

Widely reported in headlines recently was PennFuture's CEO John Hanger touting a poll claiming that Pennsylvanians support renewable energy. (The same poll likely would have revealed they also support puppies, Mom and apple pie.) A bit less reported was Hanger's odd tirade earlier in the year defending Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Michael DiBerardinis - both Rendell appointees - on the issue of ethics questions surrounding public dollars and their spouses.

The government business model is pretty straightforward. Place your investment dollars into campaign contributions and/or lobbying fees, make a few public statements revealing whose team you're really on, and soon enough you too can enjoy the profits of social policy backed by the force of law.

Such programs are not only lucrative for recipients of the resultant taxpayer funded state grants, but also for the lawyers who deal with bond issues, the lobbyists who help push them through and of course, supportive incumbent legislators who may receive special consideration from program backers during the next election cycle.

The ability of citizens to influence their government is a good thing. The notions of protecting the environment and making Pennsylvania energy independent are good ideas that markets just might support someday. But if these issues truly warrant the power of governmental force, wouldn't they already be at the top of every legislator's priority list rather than needing a constant barrage of monetary influence to get there?

Rendell, in a recent bizarre twist on morality, claimed that Jesus himself would support some of his bold initiatives that use force to generate the resources required to fund them. One could more easily imagine Jesus, upon glimpsing the pillage and plunder of the common man by the speculators and lobbyists controlling Harrisburg, angrily tossing these moneychangers from our temple.

What Long and Zaborney are doing is not illegal. In fact, it's sanitized by laws currently in place. But let's not be confused about their ideologies. Their former cover under the umbrella of "conservative Republicanism" appears only to be due to its ability to put money in their own pockets.

This is the ideology of self interest, not public interest. For true believers in the causes of conservatism, liberalism, republicanism, democracy and even environmentalism, Long and Zaborney serve as sad case studies in gaming the machinations of government for personal benefit. How many other proponents of the ideology of self interest are currently lurking about in Harrisburg, eager to prey on the common taxpayer in search of personal treasure?

Pennsylvanians would do well to think about this government-as-industry model the next time they find themselves waiting for a crime to be solved, a legal case to be heard or a pothole to be filled.

Russ Diamond

Russ Diamond is the founder of PACleanSweep and an avid believer that government should do what's best for all citizens, not just the privileged few.

About PACleanSweep:
PACleanSweep is a non-partisan effort dedicated to reforming state government in Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit www.PACleanSweep.com.

Copyright © 2007, Pennsylvania Order of Liberty Blog; All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2007, THE CENTRIST; All Rights Reserved.

Tony Phyrillas: Ed Rendell's last stand

Did you catch Gov. Ed Rendell on the Pennsylvania Cable Network the other night?

If you missed the scintillating hour of television on a PCN call-in show, here's the abridged version of Rendell’s rambling remarks.

The highlight of the evening for me (the part where I nearly fell out of my chair) is when Gov. Rendell claimed he has run a tight fiscal ship of state. Did Rendell captain the Titanic in a previous life?

Yes, you heard it right, folks. Rendell had the nerve to claim that he has been fiscally responsible with your hard-earned tax dollars.

"Since I’ve been governor, I've tried to run a pay-as-you-go government," Rendell said as his nose grew about a foot. Pay-as-you-go? Are you kidding me?

This is the governor who signed into law the second biggest tax increase in Pennsylvania history in his first year in office. The governor who increased state spending by $6 billion over the past four years. The very same governor who has borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars to fund his agenda, essentially mortgaging Pennsylvania's future. This is the same governor who plays a shell game with state funds so you never really know how much the state is taking in or spending. This is the governor who has proposed $2 billion in new or expanded taxes to balance his bloated $27.3 billion for the coming fiscal year. This is a governor who never me a tax hike he didn't like.

What else did we learn as Rendell held court? He likes to use euphemisms for tax hikes like "revenue enhancement" and "utility assessment fee," which is a new tax on electricity he wants to impose on Pennsylvania homeowners.

Rendell is still pushing his hair-brained scheme to tax big oil although he couldn't exactly explain how he would prevent the oil companies from passing the tax on to consumers in the form of higher gas prices. At one point, Rendell slipped and told the television audience that Exxon has already notified its service station owners that it would pull out of Pennsylvania if Rendell went ahead with his new oil profits tax. What would fewer gas stations do to gas prices?

Rendell also changed his tune when he had a chance to tout his "historic property tax relief for all Pennsylvanians" line from the 2006 election campaign. He told one caller that "hundreds of thousands" of senior citizens would soon get "rebate checks" of $300 to $400 in the mail. Rebate checks? That's doesn’t sound like property tax reform to me. And what happened to property tax relief for all? Last time I checked, there were 12 million people in this state. Rendell also failed to mention that the "rebate checks" come from money borrowed from the Lottery Fund and will have to be repaid once his casino windfall comes in sometime in late 2008.

A few other highlights: Rendell pretty much guaranteed that Interstate 80 will become a toll road regardless of what happens to his efforts to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike. But even if the Legislature approved the I-80 toll plan this year, it would not happen until 2009 at the earliest.

Rendell also threw down the gauntlet to the state Legislature, saying he's prepared to stay in Harrisburg the entire summer if that's what it takes to get his $2 billion in tax hikes. The Legislature typically adjourns for a 2½-month vacation on June 30 (but that's assuming it has an approved budget in the governor's hands).

Don't bet the house on the Republicans in the Legislature falling for Rendell's tricks this year.

Rendell also took some shots at the Legislature calling it "the greatest do-nothing Legislature in history." Ouch. There's going to be some hurt feelings over that remark.

And the governor canceled a planned vacation to Africa (where I'm guessing planned to meet up with Angelina Jolie and Bono for a safari).

"I'm going nowhere," Rendell said. "We might be here all summer. They (the Legislature) better be prepared to spend a lot of time here (in Harrisburg) in July and August."

Rendell also hinted he's planning to hold his breath until the Legislature approves his $2 billion in tax hikes. (OK, I made that part up, although he did say he'd veto a budget that didn't include everything he wanted.)

"As long as we have the money," Rendell said he expects the Legislature to fund all his initiatives.

"If I'm not going to succeed, I'm going to die trying," Rendell said.

Tony Phyrillas

Tony Phyrillas is a columnist for The Mercury in Pottstown, Pa. He received a first place award for Best Opinion Column in 2007 by Suburban Newspapers of America. He was also honored for column writing in 2006 by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Copyright © 2007, THE CENTRIST Blog; All Rights Reserved.

Tony Phyrillas: Foxes guarding Harrisburg chicken coop

The rubber hit the road this week on Pennsylvania's tentative path to reforming state government. It now appears the reform wagon has spun out of control, crashed through the guardrail and landed in a ditch, where it exploded in flames.

As many activists and columnists had feared (and predicted), Harrisburg lawmakers are not willing to make substantial changes in the way they conduct the public's business.

When the foxes guard the chicken coop, you can count on chicken for dinner. Pass the drumstick, please.

After spending months on trivial rules changes, the Speaker's Legislative Reform Commission is finally addressing the fundamental reforms needed to return Pennsylvania's wayward government back to the people.

Important reforms such as reducing the size of the legislature, term limits, campaign finance reform and open records are finally on the table. The bad news is that lawmakers like the status quo. They've worked hard to enrich themselves and exclude the public from their deliberations. Why change now?

So what if 55 of their colleagues were forced out of office by voters in 2006 as payback for the July 2005 payjacking? Two-hundred incumbents survived the purge. There's safety in numbers. Honor among thieves.

What did the Speaker's Legislative Reform Commission come up with so far?

On Monday, the commission voted down a proposal to cut the size of the Legislature. All 253 members of the Legislature are needed, the commission argues. And so what if it costs Pennsylvania taxpayers $316 million a year to support this bloated bureaucracy?

Instead of reducing the size of the legislature, the commission came up with a plan to cut the cost of operating the Legislature by 10 percent, or about $32 million a year. More table scraps for the state's beleaguered taxpayers.

All nine Democrats and five of the Republicans on the 18-member panel killed the recommendation to reduce the Legislature's size, reports the Associated Press. Commission rules required at least nine "yes" votes from each party for a reform recommendation to move to the full House for a vote.

On Tuesday, the commission voted down a plan to impose term limits on the professional politicians in Harrisburg. Although 75 percent of Pennsylvania residents favor term limits, according to a recent poll, the lawmakers argue that it's not a good idea to restrict how long they can spend feeding at the public trough in Harrisburg.

The reform panel rejected both eight-year and 12-year term limits for lawmakers and voted against six-year terms for committee chairmen, the AP reports.

The chairmanship limits were unanimously supported by the commission's 12 Republican House members, but only five of the 12 Democrats voted for it, according to the Associated Press. That's probably because Democrats finally took control of House committees after 12 years of being the minority party. Why give up a good thing now?

The recommendation to impose term limits for legislators never stood a chance. See "Fox guarding chicken coop" reference above. But the limits on committee chairmen was seen as a major reform to end the tyrannical reign of committee chairmen, who often bottle up important bills at the behest of lobbyists.

Also on Monday, the commissioner recommended limits on statewide campaign contributions, but couldn't agree on what those limits should be. According to Capitolwire.com, a subscription-based news service that covers state government, nine Republicans and 12 Democrats voted for the campaign finance measure, which has no teeth unless specific monetary numbers are added by the full House.

Five Republicans on the commission voted down a campaign reform proposal that called for an individual contribution limit of $2,300-per-election, according to Capitolwire. Four Republicans blocked another proposal to place $5,000-per-election limits on donations made by political action committees, Capitolwire reported.

A proposal offered by Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware, to limit House race contributions to $500 per election cycle, state Senate races to $1,000 and statewide campaigns to $10,000 was also rejected by the reform panel, according to Capitolwire.

Money drives all politics in Pennsylvania. Incumbents like the current system, which encourages lobbyists and special interest groups to pump hundreds of thousands of dollars into the pockets of incumbents in return for favorable votes.

Genuine reform in Pennsylvania can come from only two sources: a Constitutional convention by the people to place restrictions on the political class and at the ballot box in 2008, where voters can impose their own term limits on the professional politicians.

Tony Phyrillas

Tony Phyrillas is a columnist for The Mercury in Pottstown, Pa. He received a first place award for Best Opinion Column in 2007 by Suburban Newspapers of America. He was also honored for column writing in 2006 by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Copyright © 2007, THE CENTRIST Blog; All Rights Reserved.