Ghost Voting and House Rule 47

By now anyone following the Budget process in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania knows that Ghost voting took place during the budget vote.  Much of the focus related to this involves a Representative who was not present…..was not even in the building and yet a vote was cast for that representative.

An Ethics Committee investigation of the procedure should take place but House Rule 47 forbids anyone in the investigation to publicly comment on the investigation.   For that matter, they aren’t even supposed to disclose that such an investigation is taking place.  There is a time limit to when a complaint is made and the investigation can happen meaning if it passes that time, no investigation might take place at all.   What kind of justice is that?

What this means is that even though a vote was cast in direct violation of House Rules and the vote cast was by another legislator who was not elected to represent the district for which he voted, the people of the Commonwealth are not allowed to know what is taking place during this investigation.  That’s not justice.   That’s a complete and disdainful lack of transparency to the very people these legislators were elected to represent.   Becoming a legislator makes you a servant of the people, not their tyrant with special rules of protection as they violate the rules and the spirit of a true representative government.

We may wonder about what happened to our beloved Republic  but House Rule 47 is clear example of everything that is wrong with our political process.   This lack of transparency and the corruption that places this Commonwealth in the top 5 of the most Corrupt States in the Nation.  Aren’t we all tired of a legislative process that appears to be vying for the number 1 spot?!

If our Commonwealth Government is serious about representing the people of this Commonwealth Rule 47 needs to be changed and the public humiliation of an elected representative who so blatantly broke the rules and then so dismissively passes it off should be exposed for public scrutiny.

The representative who cast this vote admitted to doing so.  It’s not a secret.    According to a news report from WFMZ (http://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regional-lehighvalley/lehigh-county-lawmaker-responds-to-ghostvoting-allegations/37199990)  his excuse, released in the form of a written statement, was that this sort of thing happens all the time citing examples of casting votes for legislators who: A) Lawmakers leave the house floor during votes to see constituents; B) lawmakers leave the house floor during votes to see stakeholders; C) lawmakers leave the House floor during votes to go to the bathroom.

Thomas Jefferson wrote that JUST GOVERNMENTS derive their powers from the consent of the governed.  Here we have a representative of one district who voted falsely as a representative of a second district.  He did so without the consent of the governed through an election.  He did so out of assumed authority, not any authority granted to him through the election process.

If his claim that this happens all the time is true then we have a real problem that should involve full transparency before the people of the Commonwealth including access to the hearings as they take place.  After all, it was our representation that was violated…this is bigger than House rules.

House Rule 47 is just one more of the rules that govern over us that are designed to protect legislators once elected but not to protect the people they are supposed to be representing.

How does House Rule 47 align itself to Article 1, Section 2 of the Commonwealth Constitution?

All power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their peace, safety and happiness.

I see nothing in this statement the excludes a legislator or the entire house for that matter by-passing Section 2 of the Constitution.   How can we have authority over a process in violation of the breaking of a law if the entire process is done in secret?

How can an individual who admits he broke the rules and do so in such a light and dismissive fashion be a reflection of the peace, safety and happiness of the people in this Commonwealth?

The victim in this crime is not the House or our General Assembly;  The victims are the people of this Commonwealth where our representative form of Government is being made an institution of mockery because a representative might have to go to the bathroom or go visit with some lobbyists.   Is that really the form of Government you want?

You can read the House rules in the following link.

http://www.house.state.pa.us/rules/2015HouRules.pdf

House Rule 47 is found on page 49.

Remember,  this is just the backstory of one of the Ghost Votes on the budget.   There are three.  They are Reps. Leslie Acosta, D-Philadelphia, Pete Daley, D-Washington, and John Maher, R-Allegheny.  It has been reported that Rep Acosta was out of the Country when this vote was cast.

The focus of the media attention is centered around Daley and the rep who cast a vote in place of Daley without Daley’s permission, according to statements from Daley.  The rep who usurped his authority to cast that vote while admitting to do so is Rep. Mike Schlossberg, a Lehigh County Democrat.

If I were any of these Reps who were not present and someone cast a vote for me in violation of House Rules and in violation of our Representative form of Government….I would be screaming for a full public investigation not just releasing a statement that says I wasn’t there and I authorized no one to vote for me.   The constituents in those districts deserve better.  The people of this Commonwealth deserve better!

The knowledge of Ghost Voting in Pennsylvania is nothing new.  News reports related to a budget impasse back in 1991 revealed Ghost Voting and it’s a story that keeps returning to haunt us.  In spite of claims to put an end to this egregious process, 14 years later its still going on.   House Rule 47 is, in my opinion, part of the reason.   The Ethics Committee is made up of 4 majority members and 4 minority members from the very bodies where Ghost Voting is taking place.

Adding insult to injury,  a ghost vote where a member is not even at the Capitol to cast a vote can be used as proof of presence in the collection of per diem fees.   All you need to do is get somebody else to cast your vote and then not only do you get a “Get out of Jail” card you can collect taxpayers money as a reward.

See this report from WGAL:   https://youtu.be/2CrMpvwdeag

 

Good Intentions and Bad Policy

There is a common phrase of unknown origin that simply states “The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions!”.  The phrase has often been interpreted in reference to well-meaning individuals with good intentions who do not act upon them.   When it comes to government I’ve never really seen it like that.  Actually I find myself more aligned with Daniel Webster who wrote:

“Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.”

The law, or government for that matter, should be such that it restrains us from doing harm to one another.  As was noted by John Locke “The Reason men enter into society in the first place is for the mutual protection of their property!”   Property in that sense in not limited to our real estate but to all property: the property of our Life, the property of our Liberty and the property of our possessions.

This concept is also nothing new, even the 10 Commandments of the Bible point to the mutual respect we are to show to each other with regards to Property.  After all, what is Thou Shall not steal but a command to respect the things that belong of another individual;  Thou Shall not Kill but a command to respect the Lives of others?

What happens when government steps outside of those bonds of protections and into the bonds of becoming our caregiver?

Certainly, as individuals, we should see the need for Charity.  As individuals we should do what we can to help our fellow man.   If we then, as individuals, should have such good intentions, then shouldn’t the government also pursue these acts of Charity.

Many think so but the way I see it, this begins us down that Road To Hell.

Government, in the first place, is incapable of being Charitable.  Government doesn’t have any money that they haven’t taken by force from other individuals.    You can’t be Charitable when you are spending other people’s money.  No matter how great the need may seem to be,  forcefully taking money from one group to give to another isn’t Charity.

In the first place it violates the very thing that Government was intended to do.   We can look at the “too big to fail” bailout of 2008.   Here was the government stepping in to allegedly save institutions with executives being very well compensated in those institutions and in order to save them.  They then took money from individuals making far less establishing a debt that will be paid for by future generations.   The government took from those who had far less to provide for those who had far more.   Some of those institutions saved may be more solvent today than they were but it did so by creating economic hardships for others and it did so by force.

When Thomas Jefferson penned our Declaration of Independence he replaced the term property in paraphrasing John Locke and wrote, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.   Jefferson, in doing so provided a more accurate understanding of our right to property.

We do not have a right to a thing, but we do have the right to pursue those things that make us happy unhindered by government.   Just Laws would be laws that protected that pursuit, not guaranteed the results.

Once you have worked to obtain your home, invested in your own castle, no matter how modest, you have a right to keep that which you honestly obtained.  That is not to say that you have a right to a house, it is only to say that once you have purchased that house; once you have done what is necessary, the home is yours.   The same applies to all other forms of property.

In understanding this pursuit of Happiness, we also need to understand that all actions have consequences.  Pursuing in not a guarantee of positive results.  Negative actions have negative consequences.  Just as you have a right to succeed we also have a right to fail.

Today our government indulges itself in the feel good rationale of doing things out of the best of intentions.   The renaming of roads and bridges is just one of those examples.  Yes, its a feel good moment, but is this really the necessary functions of government.   Few stop to think about the cost of such projects and in the grand scheme of things it may pale in comparison to other government expenditures but these efforts still come at an expense of other people’s money.

There is also the continual designation of a day, week, month or other period of time to recognize some organization or cause.  Regardless of the intention, the cost to the taxpayer in this goodwill effort results in far too few taxpayers even being aware that such a designation has been made.

These seem like such little things when you are talking about budgets in the billions but those budgets are developed by spending a little here and little there until we are spending quite a bit…and regardless of the goodwill intent, the burden of taxation in these allegedly charitable endeavors adds up without ever questioning if Charitable intentions can be forced.

I argue that they can’t.

Legislators certainly have the right to dispose of their own income however they see fit in the pursuit of their own happiness.  Its a different matter entirely when the Legislators decide, no matter how good the cause, to make use of taxpayer money to pursue these goodwill endeavors as though it is the governments role to be our moral rule book in charitable giving.

We should be free to support whatever organizations we choose to support.  We can’t do that as readily if government is determining these good-will intentions by taking money from us to provide for those good will endeavors that we, as individuals, may not agree with.  By taking that money they prevent us from exercising our own determination through our own free-will to give to the good-will intention of our hearts desire.

In essence, we become enslaved to the obligation of the good-will intent of our Legislators preventing us the freedom of exercising our own true spirit of Charity.   It’s a case where good intentions generates bad policy.  It’s one of those times through Legislative authority when acting on those good intentions has consequences that violate the real nature of just governments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Criminalizing Home Owners!

Article 1, Section 1 of our Commonwealth Constitution states that “All men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent and indefeasible rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing and protecting property and reputation, and of pursuing their own happiness.”

Article 1 is titled “Declaration of Rights” and this first item under our Commonwealth Constitution has remained virtually unchanged since the first Constitution enacted in September of 1776.   The current funding mechanisms for generating the revenue for public education is no longer a system that protects the rights of the homeowner in acquiring, possessing and protecting their property.  It is a system that punishes this right.

I will be dealing specifically with taxation to fund education in this article. to demonstrate that we are in violation of Article 1, Section 1.

On May 28th of this year an article on the Governor’s proposed education funding expansion, the Pocono Record reported:

(Governor) Wolf said there is a need to understand the investment that is education. There is a choice, he said, of supporting public education, but it comes with the cost of the taxes and the possibility of losing a home for some.

The Governor, like every other elected representative has taken an Oath of Office whereby they swear to uphold the Constitution of this Commonwealth.  How does that statement align itself to Article 1, Section 1?   There are no exception clauses attached to Article 1, Section 1….nowhere in the Constitution does it say this right is exempt when it comes to funding education

Opponents of eliminating the school property tax to a more fair and uniform system of education funding have often resorted to blaming the homeowners using the weak and insulting comment that people lose their homes because they bought too much house and they make such a statement by not putting any qualifiers on what they mean by that statement.   How does a senior on a fixed income losing a home that has been paid in full for more than a decade but can no longer keep up with the demands of the school districts fit into this argument?

I would argue that it’s not too much home but too much spending on the part of government particularly considering that very little of the money paid to fund education is actually making it into the classrooms with more and more fundraisers becoming necessary to provide for classroom supplies.

Under the current system of Property Taxation to fund public education home owners in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania directly provide 12.7 billion (and constantly rising) for public education through the property tax.  Since the Sales Tax also is used to provide for education spending, Home owners are also paying sales tax, some of that sales tax being generated from purchases directly connected to their homes.  Appropriated money from the Budget that is used for Public Education is also coming out of the PIT of home owners as well.

Our Commonwealth Constitution (Article 8, Section 1) states “All taxes shall be uniform, upon the same class of subjects, within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and shall be levied and collected under general laws.”

Since the goal of these taxes is for the purposes of funding public education, it is clear that there is a discriminatory approach in taxation when it comes to funding public education.  It is also clear that there is nothing uniform in the use of property taxation to collect revenue for such a major portion of education.  The inherently flawed system of assessment has been exposed through the court ordered re-assessments made evident through the successful appeals made to lower assessed values where home owners demonstrate other properties in their neighborhood of equal size were assessed at lower values.

The nightmare of a court ordered reassessment in Lebanon County 4 years ago is still dealing with assessment appeals.   Home values, especially in the city, continue to drop and as home are sold at fair market prices, appeals continue to be made demonstrating that the assessed value of the home does not reflect the actual fair market value of the property.  These appeals, in turn, require an increased millage rate to collect the replacement revenue from properties which have won their appeals. While other homeowners who may not be able to afford to go through the appeals process not only pay the higher milage rates but are also paying a higher assessed value on the property resulting in paying taxes on property they don’t actually own.

Recently an attempt was made to push through a Pension reform package that would have resulted in an increase of the PIT for working families in the Commonwealth.  The increase in the PIT would have made it more difficult for some families to hold on to their homes as their school and other local property taxes continue to increase due to a series of unfunded mandates coming down from the State Legislators.  The Legislators created an unsustainable pension system that will be impossible to fairly maintain.  As system that allows for an extremely beneficial retirement system paid for through taxation that allows members of the public sector to retire early while forcing many in the private sector to work longer would seem to also be a violation of the Uniformity clause in our Constitution (Article 8, Section 1)

All taxes shall be uniform, upon the same class of subjects, within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and shall be levied and collected under general laws.

Viewing it as acceptable collateral damage for citizens to lose their homes through taxation to provide for the early retirement of those in the public sector in a pension system that is beyond the scope of the majority in the private sector is certainly not within the framework of uniform taxation.

The argument may be made that these are different classes of subjects but we are talking about funding education here and if this is, as is accepted in this commonwealth, the responsibility of all her citizens, why is the  burden so much great on the private sector, especially in regards to homeowners, when considering percentage of income.  Clearly those in the public sector are unfairly benefiting at the expense of those in the private sector.

While we understand that conflicts of interest do arise in government, it becomes the responsibility of those with such a conflict to recuse themselves from voting for anything that would bring them personal benefit.  School Board directors are somehow exempt from this.  School Board directors routinely vote on wage increases that they will personally benefit from through a spouse or other family member.  Outside of the School Board such an action would be considered a felony.

Let’s look at another part of our Commonwealth Constitution with regards to Eminent Domain,  Article 1, Section 10 (also under our Declaration of Rights)

nor shall private property be taken or applied to public use, without authority of law and without just compensation being first made or secured.

When a property is seized because of non-payment of school property taxes it is sold with the singular purpose of collecting the back taxes on that property.  Since this tax is for public use through the public school system, why isn’t just compensation considered on that property?  Shouldn’t the assessed value of that property be guaranteed to the home owner in the selling of that property?  Shouldn’t that be the first priority?

Now detractors will jump on board and claim that this is specifically dealing with properties purchased in Eminent Domain seizures but that’s dealt with elsewhere in our Constitution such as Article 10, Section 4, not here.

In the seizing of property for the inability to keep up with the tax demands the question of “Due Process” needs to be considered as well.

When property is seized the home owner is treated with less regard than that the common criminal.   Even a criminal who robs a banks, has clearly been identified as doing so with witnesses and being arrested on the scene of the robbery has more protections than a home owner who falls behind on their school property taxes.

Article 1, Section 9: In all criminal prosecutions the accused hath a right to be heard by himself and his counsel, to demand the nature and cause of the accusation against him, to meet the witnesses face to face, to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and in prosecutions by indictment or information, a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the vicinage; he cannot be compelled to give evidence against himself, nor can he be deprived of his life, liberty or property, unless by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land.

This simply doesn’t exist anywhere in the seizure of property for the crime of being unable to keep up with the demands of the tax collectors.

The home owners aren’t losing their homes because they bought too much house, in most cases they lose their homes because they can no longer afford to provide for the extortions of government in the provisions of pensions and benefits that are far above anything in the private sector.  That makes the home owner a criminal, or worse, with less rights than a criminal.

For young families just starting out in life where the property tax prevents them from home ownership, they are denied the right of acquiring, possessing and protecting their property because they can not afford to provide for the exorbitant demands of a public sector wage, pension and other benefits.

Other families have struggled to do what was necessary and while at first able to provide for the property taxes find themselves after a very short time of 5 to 10 years in a position where the increased demands of the tax collector far exceeding their own wage increases and now that family and their children are to be tossed out in the streets as part of the collateral damage of these failed and flawed tax policies.  No, it’s not too much house, its too much taxation in the results of an unfair protection of those in the public sector at the expense of criminalizing those in the private sector.

 

 

If the peons must suffer, so be it….Anyone for another round of Golf!

According to a recent report that estimates that corruption on the state level is costing Americans in the 10 most corrupt states an average of $1,308 per year, or 5.2% of those states’ average expenditures per year.

The researchers studied more than 25,000 convictions of public officials for violation of federal corruption laws between 1976 and 2008 as well as patterns in state spending to develop a corruption index that estimates the most and least corrupt states in the union.

Pennsylvania came in 5th largely because of the convictions of public officials.  This should come as no shock to those of us who live in Pennsylvania, except perhaps that we only came in 5th.

We have a budget process where money for the budget can be appropriated before letting taxpayers know how much that budget is going to cost them.  Politicians then vote for the appropriations but then vote against the money to fund what they voted for and somehow think the process is reasonable.   That convoluted thinking is just part of the problem.

In Pennsylvania, who is paying the lion’s share of that $1,308 dollars a year.  Consider that the education budget is already at $30 billion dollars with almost $13 billion of that (almost half) coming from property owners.  Now consider the State is also talking about a $30 billion + budget that includes the state portion of education funding.   We’re already paying for almost half the education funding in the state plus we pay the PIT and the Sales/Use Tax.   Then there all those extra hidden taxes that we often don’t even realize we are paying.   Taxes at the Gas pumps; Taxes levied on business that turn up as higher prices for goods and services we need; Taxes on our Television, internet and phone services.

Are all of those taxes necessary?   Apparently not!

According to a report from the House GOP, during the 5 year budget impasse, the Governor spent 30 billion dollars with money coming out of reserve funds appropriated from previous budget that go back as far 2012.  That’s 10 billion dollars a year of monies appropriated and not used that turned up in reserve funds.

Reading the report, even the legislators admit that, due to a lack of Transparency they don’t really know the details of how the money got there or, for that matter, the details of how the money was spent.  They just have a general idea….and so few seem to really have a problem with this.  It was a news story for a few days and then it disappears buried in advancing the partisan bickering over the budget without really exploring or demanding details.

Throughout this budget impasse both the Governor and our elected legislators seem to working hard at keeping details for getting out in to the public.  Things like taxing homeowner’s fire insurance…they certainly don’t want that to become public knowledge but we’ve been told its in there.  We were also told that there was consideration of taxing golf fees but that was quickly removed.

Let that sink in for a minute.  Fire insurance on a home is pretty much a requirement.  It most certainly is if your home is still mortgaged but even many homeowners whose homes are paid for in full (except for the annual property tax extortion since the government Lords still want their tribute from the taxpaying serfs)  still carry fire insurance.   If you’ve ever experienced or knew anyone that has experienced the devastating impact of a fire in your home it is understandable why this is a necessity for homeowners.

Our Commonwealth Constitution assures that All men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent and indefeasible rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing and protecting property and reputation, and of pursuing their own happiness.   It’s Article 1, Section 1 of our Commonwealth Constitution show being the first thing in our Constitution, I would think that its authors were trying to tell us of its importance.

Acquiring, Possessing and Protecting Property is no longer viewed as a right in this Commonwealth to be protected.  It is now apparently viewed as privilege that must be taxed, unlike Golfing which apparently has become a protected right of higher priority than home ownership.

Our General Assembly and our Governor has determined that it is not their responsibility to protect that right….its is their responsibility to tax our rights.  One has to wonder how long it will be before we pay a tax on free speech or maybe a Life tax that you pay each year just because we are still alive.  How about a Liberty Tax…every time your exercise your Liberty, drop a buck in the Government Coffer.

Now you may think that’s ridiculous but that exactly how the Property Tax works and yet so many people still accept it as a reasonable form of taxati.  The government looks at you and says:

“Oh, I see you are still living in house, a house that isn’t adding any money to your monthly income, but your in it just the same so we have to tax you”

“What’s that, your home is paid for but you can’t afford to pay the taxes on the home”

“Gee, That’s too bad.  Looks like we are going to take your home from you.  Lucky for you, we’ll sell it on auction to make sure we get those taxes!

“What do you mean your lifetime of investment in that property?  What do you think this is a free ride?   All we want is the taxes and if that’s all we get in the auction then that’s all there is.   Thank you!  Have a nice day!”

What about Article 1, Section 10  of the Commonwealth Constitution which states: nor shall private property be taken or applied to public use, without authority of law and WITHOUT JUST COMPENSATION being first made or secured.

 

Why does that only apply to Eminent Domain laws?  The taxes on your property are supposedly for public use aren’t they?  It goes to pay for the wages of the public sector employees; It pays for the police force who are supposed to be protecting you and your neighbors; It pays for the Rom Offices and their staff in providing services to your Community; It pays for the teachers in the public schools who are supposed to be teaching our children.

Yet thousands of homes go up for auction in sheriff sales each year and just compensation is not even considered.

Home ownership is not longer a protected right.  We are treated like criminals.  Home ownership has become viewed as privilege, insuring that property is a privilege but Golfing…..apparently that’s a right, a necessity so we better not tax that.

The legislators know that taxing playing Golf would be harmful to the Golf Industry and they can’t have that but why isn’t the same consideration given to a home owner.  If you had to choose between the two, wouldn’t you think that protecting the homeowner would have the higher priority.

It demonstrates the hypocrisy of those who are elected to represent us that they would look at Golfing as an untouchable but homeowners…increasing their tax burden….not a problem.

Now legislators will tell you they aren’t actually going to tax the homeowner, they are going to tax the Insurance Industry as though that isn’t going to get passed on to the consumer through higher premium prices that after the increases of the School Property Tax, may no longer be affordable to the homeowner, especially the half of the population of homeowners below the median income levels who would be less financially able to find future security if a fire were to destroy their home.

The same lie about not taxing the homeowner directly is the logic they use when they pass unfunded mandates on our County, Municipal and School Districts and then claim they haven’t raised our taxes.  Yes they have! An unfunded mandate has to be paid for and its paid for through higher taxation at the local level.

Let’s also not forget that fire insurance is required on rental properties.  Those premiums will go up and that will require landlords to increase rents.  For many families renting is not an option.  They may have enough money to buy a modest home in a city but the property taxes already keep them out of home ownership.  Rent, as a result of ever increasing property taxes now rivals a mortgage on a home and with the fire insurance tax, low income families who could still afford an apartment in a safer part of the community will now be forced into cheaper apartments in less desirable neighborhoods introducing those children to an environment their parents may have wanted to protect them from.  It will also require higher subsidies for those low-income families to help pay the rising rents which translates into higher taxes for everyone else, or at least for our current General Assembly and Governor….higher taxes for home owners.

In each of these taxation policies its becoming more and more apparent that Legislators will bend over backwards to protect everyone but the homeowner.   We are just the collateral damage.  If you have to lose your home in the process, well that’s just too bad.   It’s okay if another tax is levied on you and you are forced out of your home but whatever they do the legislators have to keep those golfers on the golf course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Property and the Budget: a trail of orchestrated deceit and unethical corruption.

What follows are my personal observations of the Budget Impasse in its connection to the Property Tax debate.  Some of this comes from my role inside the process as a personal participant and observer, some of it comes from insider sources and some comes from conclusions I’ve drawn based on the first two points.

Make no  mistake:  The fight for School Property Tax Elimination has made a difference and that pressure put some of our legislators on the defensive.  Failing to wear us down, failing to make us go away they resorted to the underhanded political process and ease of lack of Transparency in this state to weave a web of deception in their efforts to silence us.   They want us to sit down, shut up and go home….and its not just legislators, their are lobbyists who feel the same way….the  last thing they want is an engaged public who understands the issues well enough to see through the careful crafted and deceitful talking points.

Three weeks ago Ron Boltz and I met with Senator Corman’s office to express some concerns about his support for SB 76, School Property Tax Elimination.  The Policy staff member indignantly looked at us and asked “What must the Senator do to prove that he supports elimination!”  He cited articles in the press and other public comments.

At the time, what we didn’t know was that Senator Corman was already working with the Governor in budget negotiations, joining with the Governor to sabotage the funding mechanisms of SB 76.

For four years all efforts to wear down the grassroots coalition of support for School Property Tax Elimination had failed.  The movement instead became stronger, more focused and determined.   We pushed and pushed until finally we would have our bill voted on by the full body of the Senate.

It has often been stated that the school property tax elimination bills were the people’s bill.  That’s true.  HB and SB 76 started under the leadership of David Baldinger who put together a coalition of grassroots groups that spanned the political spectrum and all walks of life.  They campaigned for the effort.  They used public functions to spread the word, went door to door.  They held Town Halls on a political issue that filled rooms.

Having been a part of this from its early days when there was just a handful of groups supporting, I watched as those efforts turned a handful of supporters into a network of over 80 groups across the state.  Legislatively, during those first three years, we picked up legislative sponsors by engaging them in their offices and through contacting them for the need for this legislation.

Our opponents had talking points, we had facts.  Our facts were supported through the various vetting efforts on the legislation including the Independent Fiscal Office.

During the three weeks before the vote and following the meeting with Senator Jake Corman’s Office, Ron and I attended other legislative  meetings concerning the advancement of the legislation.   During those meetings Senator Corman’s support, at least in words, never wavered but, unknown to us, it was all a ruse.  Advancing the School Property Tax Elimination Bill was going to interfere with a carefully brokered behind the scenes scheme to push a budget plan that would increase the tax burden on working families across the state.

During this time period we knew we had the votes in the Senate.  Then, one by one they began to peal away.  We would later discover that they were targeted by lobbyist’s opposition and leadership in an attempt to cause the bill to fail.  McGarrigle was the first to cave to the pressure.  Having run on the issue and having released statements once elected that he was a supporter, even participating in the photo op, a little more than a week before the vote, after  attending a breakfast with the Chamber Of Commerce (one of our opponents), McGarrigle had his name struck from the co-sponsors on the bill.  Kim Ward followed.

Ward had been a supporter of the legislation from the day it was introduced.  Now, after 4 years of supporting the effort, during the last week she withdrew that support to become one of the most vocal opponents of the legislation according to our sources in the caucus meetings.

As we all know, the vote was supposed to take place the week before.  Minor technicalities were claimed that required a postponement of the vote.  David, Ron and I were contacted about this and we received lengthy explanation of why this postponement was necessary.  We were told that this would sure up the legislation making it more possible for success.  We were told that came directly from Jake Corman’s office.  We agreed to the postponement based on that information.

Looking back now, it was all a ruse in order to buy them more time to try and move supporters away from voting for the legislation.

At first we were told that the vote would take place the following Tuesday.  We were also told that they wanted to keep this under wraps because we didn’t want to give our opponents a heads up.  Then, on Monday, at 11:00, during an internal meeting with legislators where Dean Klopp, Ron Boltz, my wife and I attended we were told the vote would take place Monday night.  As we sat in the meeting all of us smelled that something was wrong.  It also became obvious that many of our legislators had supported the concept but never really studied the legislation as they raised questions about the bill based on misinformation used by opponents as talking points.  They talked about the need for capping future education spending, which was in the bill.  Other points addressed in the bill but misrepresented by our opponents, came out.  Senators Folmer and Argall knew the mechanics but I wasn’t so sure about others in the room.  Still, we had the votes, just barely, but we had the votes basedon what we we told in that room during that meeting.

We were told they were going to go to caucus and then there would be a vote.  The attempts to keep this vote from lobbyist’s knowledge had failed (or did it, was it a ruse all along to have fewer SB 76 supporters there and far more lobbyists opposing it?)  The Capitol Rotunda was filled with opposing lobbyists standing around like vultures waiting to pounce on prey.

Ron Boltz can attest to what I’m about to say but we spoke individually with lobbyists who told us they personally supported the legislation but the firm or organization they represented had taken an opposing position and that position is what they were paid to represent.   When you hear things like that you begin to see how corrupt this process has become.  These individuals would sit in hearings and testify against 76 using developed and rehearsed misrepresenting talking points when deep down inside they supported the legislation and they knew it worked.  They were willing to lie for a paycheck.

One of those opposition talking points is that SB 76 didn’t actually eliminate the school property taxes.  I remember during a Senate Hearing on the bill where I was asked to testify on behalf of SB 76, this issue was brought out during the testimony from American For Prosperity.  The point was made by Rob Teplitz who knew full well that what he was saying was not true.  AFP responded by saying that they would oppose the legislation based on that point.  It was all absolutely not true.

After sitting through all the opposing testimony, testimony where the PSEA had a seat at the table as did Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center and Keystone Research Center as though they are three separate organizations even though the PSEA controls all three), it was now my turn to speak.  As I took my place at the table to make the case for the bill, the one voice of support for the legislation and a citizen’s voice at that, lobbyists and members of the Finance Committee  left the room.  They didn’t want to hear the truth about the legislation, or maybe it was just that they didn’t want to hear from someone who wasn’t being paid to have an  opinion.

The day of the vote should have filled me with a nervous excitement but that wasn’t what I was feeling.   I sensed a carefully orchestrated alliance to undermine the bill while feigning support.  At this point in time I was still unaware that Corman had already negotiated a budget deal with the Governor and if SB 76 passed, that deal was off the table.While we were fighting to put money back into the pockets of working families in the Commonwealth, Corman was working with the Governor to develop new ways into our pockets with a budget deal that was to  be described as the largest increase in education spending in the history of the Commonwealth.

I want to remind everyone that when the state traded in their Cadillac pension for a Roll-Royce pension package, it was sold to us all by assuring us the state would keep up their end of financial responsibility.  Today we have a 47 billion dollar pension liability debt, in part because the state has NOT picked up their part of that tab.  There was nothing in the legislation that required them to do so.  With the massive expansion of education funding there is, once again, nothing in the legislation that will require that all this money will continue to come from the state so as school districts adjust their spending to accommodate the new increased budget and the state ignores their responsibility the money to keep these record levels of new spending will come to us through our property taxes. Just as it is with the pension debacle, their bad policy becomes the burden of the working families in this Commonwealth.

As I see it, Corman’s efforts and he efforts of others to kill 76 hadn’t worked.  In spite of the orchestrated efforts to undermine it, in spite of working behind the scenes to strip votes;  In order to kill the bill, Corman, after weeks of claiming to support the legislation, would have to vote no perhaps hoping as Chip Brightbill and Bob Jubelirer once hoped that all this “will just blow over”.

The vote was a tie and it required a tie-breaking vote which  was exercised by the Lt Governor embracing that option.  I was both curious and offended by the joy expressed when he cast that vote and in his turning to the person to his left and appearing to give them a high  five.  He acted like a giddy schoolgirl.  But then again, at that point I wasn’t aware that Corman and the Governor had been orchestrating the massive spending package behind the scenes. Now it all makes sense.

We were five months in to the budget impasse.  The news of the brokered budget deal slowly started to come forward over the next few day but one thing was certain.  Every attempt was being made to keep details of that deal from both public and media scrutiny.

At the same time we discovered through vigilance by certain House Members that the lack of Transparency in Pennsylvanian Government allowed the Governor and his administration to tap into nearly 30 billion dollars in reserve funds to spread the tax payer’s wealth around.  In the budget deals and hushed behind the door deals, I have to wonder how many of Jake Corman’s friends benefited from that as well.  We’ll probably never really know because the way our government works.  Doing the unethical is commonplace because laws have been created to make the unethical -the immoral- legal.  We aren’t the 5th most corrupt political state for no reason at all and that figure is just based on legislators that get caught.

Pennsylvania is a leader in this nation in a political system that allows for legislators to dwell in the unethical and immoral and justify it all because its legal.  The reason we are 5th in corruption is because of the ease of living in the unethical for so long that they don’t realize, or worse yet just don’t care, when they cross the line from the legal but unethical into the realm of the illegal.  It is a careful reminder of our founders warning that the future success of our nation depended on the people in electing representatives of virtue.  Yes, character DOES matter!

As far as the budget:  On the night of December 6, a 249 page bill, the bill which included the details that the negotiators didn’t want the press or the public to know, popped up in Appropriations.  It passed with only one no vote coming from Senator Wagner.  Unless they had actually been a part of the budget deal, how could they have gone through this massive piece of legislation in such short order without a single analysis by the Independent Fiscal Office.  That bill went in front of the full Senate the next morning at 11:00 where again, a bill that hadn’t been available for public and media scrutiny goes in front of he Senate and is passed with very little dialogue to the opposition.  How is it possible that they read this bill unless they were part of the plot to keep this information out of public scrutiny?

That bill was the spending bill.  The following day a bill would be voted on to define where the money would come from.  Let that sink in for a little bit…..They passed the spending before they knew if they had the money to do all that spending.  They passed the spending before they knew if the public was willing to accept the new levels of taxation needed to support the legislation.   And then they call themselves OUR REPRESENTATIVES.

They’ve bent over backwards in keeping as much information from the public as possible to force their will on us all and that, my friends, is not representation….that is tyranny.

Throughout this process, we the people have been lied to, lied about and constantly misrepresented.  Sure enough, there are some good legislators who are going to be implicated as being a part in this underhanded attempt to withhold information from the public in order to to burden the public harder.  THERE IS NO NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT HAPPENED DURING THIS BUDGET IMPASSE AND WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE PENSION EXPANSION OR THE MIDNIGHT PAY RAISE.

This state needs a forensic audit of all the spending that took place at the state level while withholding money collected from taxpayers intended for local county, municipal and school district funding.  How does a state spend 30 billion dollars in 6 months when 30 billion is the entire state budget for a year?  Do you honestly mean to tell us and expect us to believe we have 30 billion dollars just lying around the Capitol to be used for whatever, whenever and then you tell us you need to raise our damned taxes to make ends meet?

If they truly wanted to represent you then you would be a part of this process.  They wouldn’t be working to hide things from you, they would want you to know. If they truly wanted to represent you they wouldn’t lie to you on the campaign trail about the things they “passionately support: and then go to Harrisburg and not do a damned thing to advance the issue except participate in planned and orchestrated photo-ops.   Then when it comes time to actually cast a vote, turn the opposite direct and vote against the legislation they told you they supported in order to win your vote.

Yes, the vote for School Property Tax Independence failed.  That doesn’t mean the fight is over…far from it.  It’s not over until we say its over.

Absolute failure only takes place if you fail to learn from the experience and we have learned much.  Primarily in the process is that we have representatives  who mislead their intentions to the public, deliberately  withholding information the public needs in order to ram spending bills through that will hurt the average family in this state because you don’t matter to them.  Yes, they talk the talk but when it comes time to walk the walk they deceive and betray the public while delivering speeches and talking points that would put most snake-oil salesmen to shame.  Of course they’ll deny this….who would actually admit to it….but actions speak louder than words and its time to stop listening to them and start watching them because the majority of them are lying to us.

So what are you going to do about it all?  Are you going to just sit back and take it, allowing allow them to continue to control you by making you think you can’t make a difference or are you going to take this to the ballot box.  For some of you that means actually waging a campaign to defeat the seated incumbent, for others that means working in those campaigns to fight back against the slings and arrows that will come at them from the politically controlled county political committees.

Once elected are you willing to stay engaged to make sure the cronyism of the lobbyist machine doesn’t contaminate your newly elected representative.  Once they get inside the Capitol those lobbyists will be pouncing on them daily as will other legislators who are still in place and playing the lobbyists cronyism game.  They need you to help keep them rooted in reality and not in the delusional world of Corporate and public sector greed.

The kind of government we get is the kind of government we deserve because if you aren’t willing to become engaged and stay engaged, then you are part of the problem!   You help forge the very chains of political slavery that they seek to use in binding you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Failure of the Senate to act on School Property Tax Elimination allows for continual pillaging of our homes at the local level.

As a resident of the city of Lebanon in Lebanon County I just received the good news that we’ll see a 1 mill increase in our county taxes.  This is after being told we’ll also see an increase in our municipal property taxes and a school property tax that will, once again, exceed the Act 1 limits.

The rhetoric was once again rolled out that this is only a 47 cent a day increase but that translates into $171.55 a year.  Add that to the school tax increase and the municipal increase and we aren’t talking about pennies a day any more…we’re talking dollars.

At the same time we are hearing that somehow, while it was immoral to expand the sales tax base to eliminate the school property tax, its not immoral to expand the sales tax base just to raise revenue for the state.

The County Commissioners said that this isn’t about fat in the budget but I guess we are just supposed to forget that county employees in the public sector received salary increases at a time when many working families in the county have seen their income dropping.

On Monday, November 23, the State Legislators had the opportunity to remove a huge burden from the shoulders of home owners by eliminating the school property tax through a tax shift that is a more equitable way to fund education.   Thanks to votes from Senators like Corman, Ward, Blake and McGarrigle, who feigned support of elimination but when it came time to actually cast a vote, turned their backs on working families in Pennsylvania in a major act of betrayal of their promise to the people.

Lebanon County is a stunning example of the inequity of the property tax system.  City residents already pay the highest millage rate in the county.  It’s six mills higher then the next highest which is Annville-Cleona.  It 7 to 10 mills higher than other parts of the county.  That means we are paying 6 more dollars on every 1000 dollars of property worth than anyone else in the county.

City homes generally have lower property values than the surrounding municipalities.  Because of the property tax, this is like charging a higher sales tax on items of lower worth.  Imagine paying a 7% sales tax on a lamp because it sells for $20 less than a $40 dollar lamp where the sales tax is only 6%.  Yet this is exactly what we see with the school property tax.

The median household income in the city limits is $20,000 a year less than the surrounding municipalities.  That means that city residents, who have less income are paying a higher millage rate on their property than surrounding areas where the income is actually higher.  And yet so many seem to think this is a fair form of taxation.

Sb 76 was a tax shift.  It was a tax shift away from an archaic system of funding education into a more equitable form of taxation where everyone paid the same PIT tax rate regardless of income.  Everyone would pay 4.95 percent of the PIT.  That means that the more you earn the more total income you made, the more money you would pay but it would be the same percentage across the board.  It was a flat tax approach where eveyone paid the same percentage.

Disposable income after the tax dictate how much money you have to spend through the sales tax but even there, everyone pays the same sales tax on the items they are purchasing.

We heard much todo about how this tax shift would negatively impact working families and the poor including the lies that all food and clothing were being taxed.  First of all that wasn’t true and secondly, it deliberately ignored the egregious nature of the greater burden of property taxation’s impact on those same families.  Renters, who may mistakenly believe they aren’t paying property tax fail to realize that rent increases are directly tied to property tax increases.

Every time the legislators at any level of government talk about tax increases they always turn that rhetoric into the pennies a day rhetoric.  They make it sound as though its not so bad but when you start adding those pennies up through the multiple tax increases at all levels of government pennies turn into dollars with soon become too burdensome for many working families to endure.

Once again, during the debate on the County mill increase the pension numbers were rolled out.  Once again we are told that driving factor behind this choice in the pension problem.  This is just more rhetoric.  Our State Legislators know its a problem, refuse to rescind their own pensions and other unconstitutional perks while pretending to claim they want to do something about the pension debacle.

It appears that the only thing they are willing to do is keep kicking that can down the road and every kick is just another kick in the seat of the pants of the working families in this state.  Just like the no vote on school property tax elimination they hide behind the rhetoric of the working poor and working families while kicking them in the shins.  That’s okay though, the history of the Pennsylvania voter is that, come next election they look to their incumbent shin-kicker and say “Please sir, may I have another!”  They are actually counting on that!

Pennsylvania is one of those states that refuses to enter into the 21st century.  They cling to the property tax and defend it regardless of the evidence of its flawed and egregious nature. They see the prosperity of other right to work states and then they say, not here, not in Pennsylvania…we have to make sure we keep protecting our campaign funding public sector allies.  And make no mistake, they go out of their way to protect them.  Union dues are collected using tax payers dollars, archaic prevailing wage laws protect union workers at the expense of working families.  If a Union employee doesn’t pay his bills, union dues can’t be used for wage attachment.

We all know we have a pension problem but doing something about isn’t an option.  Instead, we’ll just seize more property from working families in the state and sell it to them using the whole pennies a day rhetoric.

We’ve had a budget impasse for almost 6 months now.  The Governor says that he doesn’t want to release revenue to fund local schools and governments because the revenue isn’t there so I have a simply question.

While you aren’t paying you obligations (except, of course the wages and salaries of everyone in the public sector)  what is happening to the PIT and the Sales Tax during this 6 months.  By my recollection the budget last year was framed around 28.7 billion which means you’ve collected at least half of that during this 6 months impasse.   Then again, fact no longer matter, its only the rhetoric.

While this will probably get me in trouble with the political correctness police, the rhetoric is little more than lies to the people in developing talking points to sell ideologies rather than restrict yourselves to the constitutional limits of government.  The law (Constitution) is for everyone else, not legislators.

Think about this.  we are supposed to have a representative form of government and yet in Pennsylvania we don’t have recall options for politicians gone bad.  Considering were in the top 5% of the states with corrupt politicians, that should be alarming to us all.   We also don’t have ballot initiatives where we can petition legislators to put an item on the ballot for the people to give their voice to issues that are important to us.  I’m wondering how Property Tax Elimination and Medical Cannabis would fare if the people were allowed to determine for themselves.

I continue to find it particularly alarming that we hear that eliminating the pension and moving all public sector employees into a 401k is unconstitutional but as I read the Constitution I see that only wages and compensation for gas to and from the legislative duties is all that is allowed.  I understand that the state has a responsibility to give them what they promised and fine.  End the pension roll that promised money over into 401k’s and put every public sector employee in the new retirement system…one that reflects the types of retirement we in the private sector see.

I find it ironic that a decade ago people in the Commonwealth became enraged enough to fight back against the legislative pay raise.  The ensuing months of public outrage led to a repeal in November 2005, but the Supreme Court restored pay raises for about 1,000 judges, including the high court judges, based on a state constitutional provision that generally prevents judges’ pay from being lowered.

Since that time the legislative pay for our elected representatives has continued to increase as had the public burden for the extravagant pensions and healthcare systems.  That burden, in many cases is passed down to home owners through the local property tax but the rage has apparently died.  Its apparently okay to keep taking a larger and larger slice of your home, just so long as they don’t vote for a pay raise.  They can steal your raise, they can steal your home and that’s apparently okay, just so long as they don’t vote for another pay raise.

This mentality is ridiculous but the People of Pennsylvania have embraced it and until they reject it little will change in Harrisburg.  They’ll keep putting the crews to the working families in the state while using the campaign rhetoric talking points that repeatedly amounts to lies to the People of the Commonwealth in claiming to do something that, once in Harrisburg, is betrayed for other interests.