Legislature Pay Raise- Same Old Issue With A New Twist

Recent artilces and reports by the media told us that more Pennsylvania legislators and the governor are forgoing the pay raise slated for next year. Andrew Seder of the Times Leader penned this story on the topic.

The real problem for Pennsylvania taxpayers is the fact that their elected official are still taking the money from the Commonwealth's Treasury. I believe that is an important point for newly elected officials to consider. I know that their intentions are good but feel they need to look at the greater picture.

The last two elections were turning points in political history. The people want government to change. If they don't get it from one party they are fickle as hell. They will jump ship faster than greased lightning.

Consider the following:

1. Taking the COLA in any form still means legislators are taking it from the taxpayers in a time when Pennsylvania is facing a $5 billion deficit.

2. Forget the argument that it is a small, insignificant amount and won't make a difference in the Treasury. Leaders must lead by example regardless of the maginitude of the impact. At the very least the COLA amount for this year in its entirety between both chambers of our bicameral legislture is over $330,000.00. Last time I checked to the average voter that is a huge amount.

3. There are many Consumer Price Indexes(CPI). Price indexes are available for the U.S., the four Census regions, size of city, cross-classifications of regions and size-classes, and for 26 local areas. Due to differences in the CPI picked for calculating solons' raises(CPI for mid Atlantic states) our legislators received $7,751.16 more per seat since 2003 more than if the same CPI determinator used for seniors receiving Social Security was applied over the same time period. As a result, since 2003, the legislature received a total increase of $1,961,043.48. Leadership figures will bump that calculation slightly higher but safe to say over $2 million dollars. That's not chump change by any standard.

4. Taxpayers know that Legislators accepting the raise and donating it to charity still means the dollar amount used will go towards calculation of their pension.

5. Taxpayers know that the pension also has a COLA attached to it compounding the benefit of accepting a COLA and donating it to charity.

6. Taxpayers know that Legislators are getting the credit for donations to charities by those organizations rather than the taxpayers receiving the credit for their hard earned money.

It is time to turn off the COLA process for the next few years until their pay balances out with what it would have been using the CPI multiplier used by seniors. Next, unless they repeal the COLA, they should change the CPI used for calculating their COLA to the one seniors are forced to accept by the federal legislators.

Lastly they should always be mindful that California is a five hour flight but you can be there through the internet in 0.4 seconds. The new twist I am making is that it very easy to see what legislators in other states are making. The National Conference of State Legislatures complied this list of salaries and per diems for state lawmakers. Only California and New York surpass Pennsylvania in annual pay.

The Waccama Times reports on pension benefits for state legislators. Nine states – Alabama, California, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming – no longer provide pensions to state legislators, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures in Washington, D.C.

In South Carolina, retired legislators earn an annual average of $19,605 in gross retirement benefits, based on July figures from the state retirement system. Newly retired Keith McCall could receive a benefit near $90,000.00 according to the Post Gazette. Prior to retirement his salary was $122,254 as Speaker of the House.

With information like that Governor-elect Tom Corbett will have plenty of ammunition to support his campaign platform of reducing the size of Pennsylvania's legisalture as part of government reform.

Reducing the Size & Cost of Government – The size and cost of state government has grown out of control, and it is time to bring fiscal responsibility and accountability back to Pennsylvania. We must continue the forward momentum on streamlining state government by reducing the cost of how state government does business. Through technology upgrades, centralizing communications between agencies and lowering the overall administrative costs associated with running state government, we can return millions of dollars to Pennsylvanians. Tom Corbett has called for a 10 percent reduction in government administrative operations in all branches of government.

Pennsylvania Government's Failure With Eachus's Turnabout

On election day House Majority Leader Todd Eachus lost his bid for reelection to newcomer Attorney Tarah Toohil. At his concession speech he had these words to say.

“Next week, I’m going to be going to the House floor, and I’m going to be Leader, and I’m going to focus on protecting the pension system and the obligation to our public citizens.”

Although Eachus was nowhere to be found he surfaced Friday in Harrisburg in time to help cancel the rest of the post election House sessions. According to this Associated Press report filed with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review outgoing House Speaker Keith McCall issued a memo announcing that the House would not have the lame-duck voting sessions later this month that were previously scheduled.

House Majority Whip Frank Dermody, D-Allegheny, said he argued against the decision to cancel the remaining session days when he discussed it with McCall and Majority Leader Todd Eachus, D-Luzerne.

"I thought it was the wrong approach, that we should go back and that we ought to address a couple issues, the pension issue, among others," said Dermody, who is running for Democratic floor leader in the coming session.

Dermody said the overriding factor in McCall's decision was opposition to establishment of a legislative fiscal office, which is a provision of the Senate-passed pension bill pending in the House. He called it an unfunded mandate, but said he would vote for the pension bill even if it contains the new office.

A main opponent of the fiscal office has been Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia.

His spokeswoman Johnna Pro said Friday that the pension bill does not pass constitutional muster because it contains the fiscal office, citing an Oct. 14 ruling by the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau that the legislation violates the state's constitutional requirement that laws may not address multiple, unrelated topics.

"We're talking about creating a $4 million legislative agency with three dozen employees," Pro said. "We just don't agree with that." Dwight Evans doesn't agree with someone looking over his shoulder. Mr. Evans...what was it about that $29 million that went to that charity in Philadelphia.

Karen Heller of the The Philadelphia Inquirer does a nice job of exposing another Harrisburg boondoggle involving the waste of millions of taxpayer dollars.

While the state is bankrupt and deserving programs have been slashed, career politicians like Rep. Dwight Evans continue to siphon money for their pet projects.

According to the Darwyyn Deyo of the Pennsylvania Independent House Majority Leader Todd Eachus (D-Luzerne) said Friday the pension bill was unconstitutional and would not be brought to the floor for a vote.

Since they cancelled the sessions before the election McCall and Eachus have given legislators who earn $78,314 per year minimum a two month vacation on our tax dollars.

A spokesman for House Majority Leader Todd Eachus says the Democratic caucus is still trying to decide what to do about a Senate bill that packages pension reforms with the creation of an independent fiscal office.

The message being sent to the citizens of Pennsylvania. Don't dare ask us for an independent review. And Eachus wonders why he was a target?

It is rumored...well more than that..he said after the results of the election.."I was cheated". No Mr. Eachus...the taxpayers are cheated if for two months our legislature is prevented from coming to work.

Shame on the media in Northeastern PA for not getting to the bottom of this.

Did Eachus Make Himself Vulnerable?

House Majority Leader Todd Eachus spent time away from constituent work to campaign for Tom Leighton. Evidently the Grand Jury was right in its recommendations about government reform in Pennsylvania. If Eachus has enought time to campaign for Leighton instead of performing consituent work while he was back in his district maybe his position isn't really all that important.

Mayor Leighton was running against Rep. John Yudichak, a member of the House Democratic Caucus for the senate seat in the 14th district created when Senator Ray Musto announced his retirement earlier this year. Eachus is leader of that caucus. Both Yudichak and Eachus are members of the Northeast PA Democratic Caucus.

Acoording to this article by Robert Swift from November, 2008 Yudichak and Eachus at one time worked in unison as part of the Northeast delegation.

But there is something in that article that is germane to the picture above. Bill DeWeese was mad as hell when then Democrat Tom Stish switched to Republican which changed the balance of power in the Pennsylvania House. He enocuraged a young Todd Eachus to run for the seat against Stish. Of course Eachus won. Basically over a defection DeWeese intended Stish's defeat as an object lesson on the perils of party- switching for incumbent lawmakers.

At 48 one would think Eachus should have kept that life lesson in mind. Just as the Leighton supporter trashed his sign did Eachus trash himself by going out front for Leighton within his own party?

It is no secret that Yudichak didn't support DeWeese or Eachus for leadership positions within the Harrisburg caucus. Yudichak supported Rep. Frank Dermody from western Pennsylvania in an attempt to break with "business as usual" in Harrisburg. From Robert Swift's article:

Yudichak voiced concern Monday that Eachus' election would mean a continuation of the legacy of current Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, D-50, and former House Minority Whip Michael Veon of Beaver County. During the past weekend, DeWeese dropped out of the heated race for the majority leader's post and threw his support behind Eachus.

The ongoing Bonusgate investigation into whether lawmakers and staffers illegally did campaign work on public time has cast a shadow over the leadership elections.

Veon is among 12 individuals associated with the Democratic caucus who have been charged with theft and conspiracy in connection with the Bonusgate probe by the state attorney general's office.

Yudichak is among a dozen Democratic lawmakers who called for Mr. DeWeese to step down as majority leader after those indictments last summer.

Yudichak also supports the candidacy of Rep. Keith McCall, D- 122, of neighboring Carbon County for House Speaker.

Yudichak was right on the money with what he saw in the Democratic caucus. He was replaced as chairman of the Northeast Caucus by Neal Goodman. In this document from the Bonusgate trial Jennifer Brubaker is caught writing this email about John Yudichak to Vicki DiLeo, frequent players in the Bonusgate scam to do political campaign work on the taxpayer dime. Go to page 7. "Yudichak is not exactly the type of guy I would want to work with." She was talking about the executive director position of the Northeast PA delegation.

In this article it is more than apparent that Brubaker was a Veon disciple.

According to Mr. Lawrence, office director Jennifer Brubaker said to him, "'You didn't lift a finger for Veon, and I don't need to keep you around if you aren't going to support our guys getting elected."

Eachus unilaterally paid off Mike Veon's campaign debt. The Tribune-Review reported Thursday that three of the four top leaders of the House Democratic Campaign Committee said they didn't know about the payments toward the Veon campaign's debt. Reps. Joe Preston, Dan Frankel and Jennifer Mann -- apparently had no knowledge of the two payments. How he squares that action with acting in a responsible and ethical manner is a huge question only he can answer.

In the race between Leighton and Yudichak Paul Kanjorski was convinced to contribute $20,000.00 to Leighton's campaign. Eachus made a taping for Robo calls on behalf of Leighton. The full course press was on and failed. They thought they had a hockey power play and lost. They convinced themselves that their seniority and positions were unbeatable. One has to wonder whether this will be their office after the November elections.

Leighton Campaigns With Todd Eachus In Hazleton

In the Terrace section of Hazleton Tom Leighton walked with Todd Eachus trying to persuade people to vote for them on Tuesday. It is an interesting combination given the attacks and statements made by Leighton during his campaign for Senator of the 14th district.

Here is an excerpt from Leighton's campaign announcement speech.

As many Pennsylvanians were, I was angered and frustrated by the 101 day state budget impasse last year. In these tough economic times, cities require every bit of funding available to us which often is supplied by the state government. As mayor, I personally saw how the failure to reach a compromise agreement hurt cities like Wilkes-Barre.

In this article from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Brad Bumsted quotes Grant Oliphant.

"It is unconscionable that both sides cannot seem to find middle ground in order to pass a new budget," Grant Oliphant, president and CEO of The Pittsburgh Foundation, said yesterday. "Increasing numbers of families and individuals depend on social- and human-services support for their very survival, and I am deeply worried that it is going to take a tragedy to bring our state leaders to a compromise."

State Rep. Rosemarie Swanger had this to say about Todd Eachus's sincerity on finding a solution.

“As a member of the General Assembly and elected official, I want to apologize to the people of my district and of Pennsylvania for the embarrassing events that took place yesterday at the state Capitol.

“The House was called into session this morning just after eleven o’clock. Slightly more than an hour later, Speaker of the House Keith McCall (D-Carbon) gaveled out session after a motion to adjourn offered by House Majority Leader Todd Eachus (D-Luzerne).

“What took place today was a complete waste of taxpayers’ time and money, considering there being no budget in place to start the fiscal year and no budget placed on the voting by House Democrats for our chamber to consider..

Evidently not only has Leighton lossed his hair but his memory must be running on low. Todd Eachus was squarely in the middle of those stalled negotiations he is talking about.

If Mr. Leighton wants to know why the impasse occured he only needs to look at his own party and the man he walked beside today.

Pennsylvania House Democrats voice budget complaints to leaders
By The Associated Press
September 29, 2009, 10:57P

A deal to end Pennsylvania’s state budget impasse ran into resistance from Democrats in the state House tonight, raising fresh doubts about whether it can attract enough votes to pass.

Majority Leader Todd Eachus, D-Luzerne, said after a 4-hour closed-door caucus meeting in the state Capitol that he would bring up a bill to tax the extraction of natural gas, an unusual move given that such a tax was not a part of the deal he announced more than a week ago with Gov. Ed Rendell and the state Senate.

Rank-and-file House Democrats told leaders they opposed critical pieces of that 11-day-old deal, including subjecting certain arts events to the state sales tax, expanding gas drilling on state land and taxing small games of chance.

This article in the Times Tribune highlights the per diems paid to House Members including Todd Eachus as a result of the budget impasse.

Among the Northeast delegation, House Majority Leader Todd Eachus, D-116, Hazleton, and House Speaker Keith McCall, D-122 Summit Hill, led the pack, taking $10,611 and $7,988 in per diems respectively. How can Tom Leighton attack John Yudichak on per diems but walk side by side with Todd Eachus? How can he bring up John Yudichak's partial ownership of a home in Harrisburg(that has since been divested) yet ignore Eachus's wholly owned second home in Harrisburg? If that isn't a demonstration of lack of principles nothing is.

McCall Announces His Retirement After Eachus Announces Re-election Bid

Does anyone see the humor in that? They certainly weren't Bogie and BaCall but then again there was only one couple who can claim that relationship. They are more like Mr. Peabody and Sherman.

This headline probably sums up in words what most mainstream media are afraid to print.

Eachus’ aide and McCall’s chief counsel indicted
1, July 10, 2008 ·

"Horse with blinders" usually isn't a good defense for the top person in the office. In private industry the buck stops at the top not the bottom.

To be fair McCall's Chief Counsel was found not guilty. How many of you reading this blog have even been put into a situation where you were arrested or invited to tell your story before the grand jury?

Picture courtesy of PA Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 38

Beat's Macy's Parade doesn't it?

Groundhog Day- Budget Impasse Finally Over

Headline from September 18, 2009

Pa. budget deal ends impasse with cuts, taxes

Headline Ocotober 9, 2009

Pennsylvania Legislature sends $27.8 billion budget to Gov. Ed Rendell for enactment


Just like the movie "Grounghod Day" the same events just keep happening over and over and over.

In philosophy, Groundhog Day has been considered a tale of self-improvement, to look inside oneself and realize that the only satisfaction in life comes from turning outward and concerning oneself with others rather than concentrating solely on one's own wants and desires

When Pennsylvania Leadership gets its head out of its ass and realizes it works for the people, not the other way around. Children in daycare, the hungry, the elderly, the poor, and the challenged will not endure the suffering caused by these men and women behaving irrationally. They not only deserve but actually earned all of the media bashing that has and will occur over taking 101 days to reach a deal.

DemocracyRising sees a constitutional convention on the horizon to examine shrinking the size of the legislature as well as whether it should be full time or part time. Bonusgate has proven it really is a part time legislature. The impasse has proven that its size cannot get the job done.

Nathan Benefield over at the Commonwealth Foundation opines that is about time to have "An Honest Debate About State Spending."

The Daily Review called Pennsylvania's Ineffective Leadership a Disgrace." That was at day 65.

One comment from that editorial.

A bipartisan group, a majority, in the PA House has brought forward a budget. The group includes Republicans and moderate Democrats from all across PA. This budget could pass the PA Senate, as well. But the radical ultra-liberal Democrat leadership in the PA House will not bring the bipartisan budget to a vote. They will not allow House members to vote. Their reason: they know the bipartisan budget would pass, and it does not include sufficient new taxes and spending to satisfy the liberals.

It will be hard for Eachus, McCall, and Evans to explain their role in this disaster. However, it will remain to be seen whether public sentiment will last until the next election. The leadership should not be suprised at a Veon Style repeat where unexpected election results were not a lesson learned.

You can say what you want but AG Corbett arrested a Republican first for actions as described in the Bonusgate indictments. Nobody listened to him. If history repeats itself the legislature will not listen to the Veon outster over the pay raise scandal.

How Do You Make Democrats Smile- Raise Taxes!!!

WSJ Photo

From The Wall Street Journal:

Pennsylvania state Rep. Todd Eachus, from left, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, Rep. Keith McCall and Rep. Dwight Evans are all smiles Thursday in Harrisburg, Pa. The legislature approved a plan to help close Philadelphia's budget shortfall by raising the sales tax and deferring some pension obligations.

Just like Pennsylvania, Philadelphia is bloated with employees hired to secure votes.

City governments have also expanded during the past 15 years. While local-government payrolls, excluding teachers, have been flat for the past 12 months, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, the number of employees soared by more than 743,000 to 6.49 million over the past decade, an increase of nearly 13%.

Could part of the pension problem be due to this.

In 2006, there were more city pension recipients (33,900) than city workers (28,700) and the gap is expected to widen in coming years.

The amount of city employees' pensions, ranging from around $29,000 to $40,000, are similar to other cities, but Philadelphia city workers contribute less of their own money than workers in other cities. For example, municipal employees in San Francisco contribute 9 percent to their own pension plans, compared with 1.85 percent for Philadelphia city workers.

The report's authors place much of the blame on the city's paltry contributions to the pension fund during the 1970s and 1980s and what they call a "poorly timed" decision to issue $1.2 billion in bonds to reduce unfunded liability.

Regarding health care, Philadelphia's situation is extreme even compared to other big cities grappling with similar challenges, according to the report.

Health care for municipal workers cost the city more than $9,800 per employee in fiscal 2006 , a figure second only to Detroit. When it comes to health care costs for retirees, Philadelphia tops the list of 10 cities studied at more than $9,100 per retiree.

But the Democratic answer is to raise more taxes. It should be noted that Philadelphia hasn't had a Republican Mayor since 1952.

Mayor Nutter why don't you take these ideas and implement them before you raise taxes. The full text of those ideas are viewable here. To the Pennsylvania legislature, why didn't you force Nutter to implement these ideas before you granted his tax hike?

Here's a look at one of them.

The City Controller and the Mayor’s Office aren’t expected to be best buddies. But in the midst of this city’s fiscal crisis, Controller Alan Butkovitz identified $300 million in one-shot savings and roughly $185 million in annual savings over five years, including a proposal to get many millions more in revenue out of the city’s emergency medical services (EMS) operations. The Nutter administration ignored most of his ideas.

According to this article that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer written By Patrick Kerkstra the sales tax hike from 7 to 8 percent will raise $10 million a month or $120 million for the year. The City Controller identified over 4 times that much in savings without a single tax increase. But whoever said government was smart. And we should keep electing the same legislators for what reason???

Bush- Rendell Please Answer These Questions

The Democrats are getting a free ride in Pennsylvania. So much hullabaloo was made over George Bush's econony. Forget that the Democrats had control of Congress the last two years and the laws enacted in the 1990's under Clinton led to this mess.

The Post-Gazette tells us that Pennsylvania is $1.6 billion short on revenue estimates for the year. The article goes on to state Gov. Ed Rendell has previously forecast that the state will face about $2.3 billion in red ink by June 30, the end of fiscal 2008-09, and the new report seems in line with that projection. But some Republican legislators fear the deficit could be even worse than Mr. Rendell estimates, perhaps as much as $2.6 billion.

Where is the furor over what is happening in Pennsylvania? What is being done to bridge the gap?

Here's one move Rendell did to bridge the gap- transferring $175 million from legislative leaders' budget surplus. What the hell were the legislative leaders, not the entire legislature, doing with an $175 million dollar surplus????

That's our money folks. I think Eachus and McCall should explain it to commoners like us. To put this into perspective. I know of a company that does $100 million in revenue that employs almost 1,000 people. Do you realize how many people are not employed because the legislative leaders kept a surplus?

I know the argument back so save it because they wouldn't have used the money to save Pennsylvania employees' jobs if it weren't for the downturn. The real question to ask is if they would have used the money to create 1750 new jobs if there was no downturn. So much for the economic geniuses in Harrisburg.

Cut the legislature by 40% would save $100 million. Back to those 1000 jobs I was talking about. Imagine the pension savings that would occur. But the Harrisburg solution was to toll I-80. Take care of business in Harrisburg first before coming after the electorate. You may not like the consequence if you don't.