Pennsylvania Grand Jury Recommends Sweeping Government Overhauls

In this report out of Pennlive.com the Associated Press announces sweeping findings from the Grand Jury empaneled to investigate the misuse of taxpayer money commonly known as Bonusgate.

Despite dissemination of this report Todd Eachus's state site contains no mention of it.

A grand jury that investigated the state legislative corruption scandal known as Bonusgate wants the General Assembly to make sweeping changes, from how it hires and supervises employees to how it provides constituent services and even the way it debates passage of the annual budget.

A 34-page report obtained Monday by The Associated Press describes the Legislature as bloated with unnecessary staff and living in a time warp that reflects practices other states outlawed decades ago.

“This grand jury concludes, without any hesitation, that the current operational structure and ingrained procedures of the Pennsylvania House Democratic and Republican caucuses are irretrievably broken and in desperate need of systemic change,” the jury wrote.


“In the eyes of this grand jury, it is beyond dispute that numerous legislative employees have for years spent an enormous amount of time working on political campaigns when they were supposed to be performing their legislative duties,” the grand jury wrote. “All campaign work on legislative time must be eliminated and this will result in a surplus of legislative work unless rapid, meaningful change occurs.”

The 2,800 legislative employees amount to nine for each representative and 17 for each senator, the jury said.

“Despite the best efforts of numerous witnesses before the grand jury, nobody was able to justify such a large number of employees for this body,” the jurors wrote.

Among other reforms, the grand jury said the Legislature should:
— Eliminate, or at least make more transparent, the special leadership accounts that give House leaders millions of dollars in discretionary spending to control.
— Stop per diem payments to lawmakers, or at least tie them to actual expenses.
— Convert the General Assembly to a part-time body, impose term limits and give House members four-year terms.
— Combine the House Democratic and Republican print shops, information technology departments and personnel offices. Hire based on “standardized, published job descriptions.”
— Cease constituent service work related to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, described as a giveaway to businesses and a wasteful means of currying favor with voters at taxpayers’ expense.
— Impose tougher ethics practices, halt all payments and benefits to staffers on leave to campaign and ban compensatory time. Keep legislative employees from entering campaign offices during work hours.
— Prohibit using the same vendor for legislative and campaign purposes.
— Revamp the state budget process, making line items more descriptive and halting per diems if the budget is not passed by June 30.
— Eliminate taxpayer-funded political caucuses.

The report also called for a limited constitutional convention, saying it was concerned that the General Assembly “will remain in its ’time warp’ and meddle with, obfuscate, ignore or kill every recommendation.

Let's see if Eachus knows what the term leadership really means. Let's see if he rises to the occasion or serves us more slight of hand. Let's see if Brett Marcy can spin his words more.

Just today the AFL-CIO was demanding that there be no more cuts to Pennsylvania to preserve their member jobs which include doing campaign work on legislative time according to the Grand Jury.

This post is the facts..get ready for the fiction.

AFL-CIO Wants You To Pay More Taxes

In a bold statement the AFL-CIO, part of the newly formed Coalition for Labor Engagement and Accountable Revenue, representing 1.1 million Pennsylvanians wants us to pay more in taxes to protect their lucrative jobs and retirement. In this report from Jan Murphy of the Patriot News the unions position is very clear.

Labor unions representing Pennsylvania state and school employees are banding together to urge the state Legislature to look at raising revenue to balance next year’s budget instead of cutting employees and services. “We think the cuts have gone far,” said Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President-elect Rick Bloomingdale.

They make the outlandish claim that Rendell's budget would eliminate half the government workforce. Not even close.

Justice And Mercy Entered The Room and Between Them Walked The Offer/Promise Of Quid Pro Quo

AFL-CIO pledges votes for Specter

Angling for a critical Senate swing vote to pass the "card check" bill that would make it easier to form unions, Pennsylvania labor leaders promised Sen. Arlen Specter that they will switch union members from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party to help him win a tough 2010 primary election, The Washington Times has learned.

Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President William M. George said he pledged Mr. Specter "all kinds of help from the union" in a series of meetings to woo the Republican senator's support for the bill, which would ease rules favoring secret-ballot elections to unionize workplaces.

"We are pushing to give him help in the primary, including changing Democrats to Republicans for the primary," Mr. George told The Times. "It's hard to do because of other races in the state ... but we'll do it for 'card check.' "

"It is surprising in this era of change that anyone would be brazen enough to suggest a quid pro quo" of endorsements and other political support, said Jerry Gorski, national chairman of the Associated Builders and Contractors, a group spearheading opposition to the bill.

"Why would the AFL-CIO throw their support to a candidate based on one single issue?" he asked, accusing the union of trying to "buy" Mr. Specter.

Toomey May Take Specter Out Of Republican's Misery

According to DeRoy Murdock over at Scripp News Pat Toomey, a former Pennsylvania Congressman who stuck to his word on term limits, is pounding on Arlen Specter's electoral door over the next round of balloting for his seat.

Senator Arlen Specter's support for the 1,071-page Obama-Pelosi-Reid "stimulus" package will cost taxpayers $787 billion. That vote may cost the Pennsylvania Republican his job.

"I am very likely to make a run for the Senate," says Pat Toomey, a former Keystone State congressman and free-market stalwart. "Specter's vote was a profound betrayal of the Republican Party and conservative principles. It's a big factor (behind Toomey's potential challenge to Specter in 2010's Republican Senate primary).''

This rematch would pit Toomey, 47, against Specter, 79, seeking his sixth consecutive Senate term. Buoyed by conservative irritation with Specter's barely Republican, big-government record, Toomey came within two percentage points of retiring Specter in 2004. But Specter prevailed, thanks to the support of GOP establishmentarians and the incumbent loving, Republican-lite Bush political team.

For Specter, loyalty flows uphill. While top Republicans back him in tight races, he typically joins Democrats when the GOP desperately needs him. Exhibit A: Specter's February 13 "stimulus" vote, which will cost more than $1 trillion after interest payments are slathered atop its $787 billion budget.

"This stimulus bill is such a really outrageous lurch to the Left by the federal government," Toomey said. "It's not just a trillion dollars in spending. It is a huge expansion of government, undermining welfare reform, and staggering amounts of money to be borrowed. All of this could have been blocked. When the House Republicans voted this down, they empowered the Senate Republicans to demand real pro-growth tax cuts, less spending, and less of this terrible, liberal policy. President Obama would have had to agree, because he would have had no bill in the face of united Republican opposition. Instead, these three -- Specter plus Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine -- capitulated."

For many Republicans, Specter's vote for this pork-encrusted, incentive-challenged boondoggle was the final insult. "In a two-person race, Specter is toast," James Lee of Susquehanna Polling and Research told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. His late-February survey of 700 registered Pennsylvania voters found that 53 percent want a "new person" as senator. So do 66 percent of Republicans. (Error margin: 5.9 percent.)

The artillery is already lining up with promises of oodles of cash for Specter. This story was highlighted over at GrassrootsPA.com. Big Union Vows To Back Arlen Specter In 2010 If He Supports Employee Free Choice

This is big: Senior officials with the powerful AFL-CIO have privately assured GOP Senator Arlen Specter that they’ll throw their full support behind him in the 2010 Senate race if he votes for the Employee Free Choice Act, a senior labor strategist working closely with the AFL on the issue tells me.

This is significant, because it represents a big incentive for Specter to switch parties — and to support Employee Free Choice. Specter may be facing a serious GOP primary challenge from Club for Growth head Pat Toomey. If he loses that — or pulls out of the GOP first and becomes an Indy or a Dem — supporting Employee Free Choice could give him the organizational muscle from labor and Democratic support he needs to prevail in a general election and hold his seat.

The labor strategist tells me that top AFL-CIO officials have told Specter they’ll back him to the hilt if he supports their top priority.

“If Senator Specter supports working people — particularly voting with us on Employee Free Choice — the AFL-CIO will support him 100 percent of the way, whether in a primary or a general election,” the strategist says.

AFL-CIO spokesperson Eddie Vale declined comment.

Interestingly, because labor support would actually hurt him in a GOP primary, AFL-CIO’s promise also is an incentive to switch parties earlier, rather than later. Some analysts think his only hope of holding on to his seat is to switch parties and prevail in a general election, something which labor backing would make easier.

To be sure, there’s no telling what Specter will do, and another wild card is whether Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell would back a Specter switch.

Markos Moulitsas, who first heard these conversations, has an interesting rundown gaming out all the possibilities for Specter. This is getting mighty interesting.

Update: The AFL-CIO goes on the record about supporting Specter.

Update II: The story is sparking controversy among EFCA’s opponents. Associated Builders and Contractors national chair Jerry Gorski issued a statement blasting the AFL-CIO as “union bosses in Washington” who are trying to “buy a vote in support of the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act” and “shove this legislation onto the American public.”