May 2009 Archives

State Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre County, who is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was in York County last week to talk about what a great plan Republicans have for the state budget, as opposed to the lousy one Gov. Ed Rendell is backing.

Rendell and the Senate Republicans have to find a compromise they can both live with before July 1, the deadline for a new state budget.

Basically, Rendell is talking about a $29 billion spending plan, while the Republicans are backing a $27.3 billion budget. The difference may seem proportionately small, but keep in mind that the vast majority of spending under the state budget is mandatory.

I started covering state politics the year Rendell, a Democrat, took office. And every year since then, he's feuded with Republicans over the state budget.

This year, however, the feud seems to be happening earlier and more publicly than it did in the past. Corman said that's because the economy will make this a particularly difficult budget year.

While I'm sure that's true, I suspect there's another reason as well.

In crafting this blog, I have three main objectives:
1) To provide a forum where members of the public can express their opinions.
2) To do my part to keep elected officials accountable to the people.
3) To educate, inform and thus empower my readers.

Anyone buy that? Good.

Here are my three real objectives:
1) To keep my editors off my back about updating the blog.
2) To give myself an excuse for goofing around on the Internet at work.
3) To amuse myself.

So I've come up with an idea for a regular feature that will satisfy all of those objectives. We'll see how it goes. But here's my idea... Ready?

THE VIDEO OF THE WEEK!

If you're a regular reader of this blog:
1) Thanks! Both of you!
2) You may remember that I recently referred to that whole inbroglio from 2006, stemming from Green Party U.S. Senate candidate Carl Romanelli's attempts to get on the ballot.

Well, apparently it's not over. Here's a news release I got today from the state Green Party.

My assignment today was to get people's comments on President Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court.

My editor asked me to talk to some regular folks -- not just the politicans and legal experts. She said it would be particularly good if I could get some Hispanic people on record.

So Tom Ridge is taking issue with Dick Cheney's assertion that President Obama has made the country less safe.

Interesting. Ridge seems to be joining Colin Powell as the increasingly assertive voice of moderate Republicanism.

I remember the term "waving the bloody shirt" from high school history -- the tendency of northern politicans to evoke the Civil War for decades after that conflict in an attempt to gain moral leverage over their southern counterparts.

It seems to me that there was a lot of waving the bloody shirt for much of this decade, but the blood was from the Sept. 11 attacks. Anyone who didn't support the Bush administration's particular brand of hawkishness on the foreign or domestic front was a squishy-soft pacifist, wallowing in self delusion as terrorists plotted their next strike.

But it seems difficult to credibly make that accusation against the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the first director of homeland security. Maybe it's me, but I can't picture either of those guys hanging out with Joan Baez, sitting around a campifire and singing "If I Had a Hammer."

I'm still getting used to these conditions I've been living under since I hit 40, and had to acknowledge to myself that I'm middle aged.

Contemporary pop culture is now an unfathomable mystery. I can no longer wear my baseball cap backward without looking like an idiot. Worse, I starting to suspect that I NEVER could! And I can't stay up until 2 a.m. on Wednesday without still feeliing it Thursday.

All of which is an unforgivably convoluted way of saying that my butt is still dragging from covering the primaries Tuesday night.

I'm not complaining, though. I'm enough of a geek to find politics entertaining. And it always does my heart good to see the people who care enough about their communities to go out and vote in municipal primaries.

Thank God for the self-appointed government watchdogs. They keep this big ol' engine of democracy humming (albeit with a sometimes strident undertone).

Now that Democrats are done celebrating U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter's defection from the GOP, they're faced with the same question Republicans have been asking for years. Will having him on board really make any difference?

That question is particularly germane where organized labor is concerned. I spoke to Clark Ruppert, president of the York-Adams Central Labor Council, after Specter first announced his party switch. Ruppert was pleased to see the Democratic majority stengthened, but at no point did he have to put down to phone to do joyous cartwheels.

Labor's always had a love-hate relationship with Specter. You can see evidence of that with the Employee Free Choice Act, which Specter actually co-sponsored in 2005, and which he's lately been saying he'll oppose.

So now that he's switched parties, will he support it to show unity with his new Democratic colleagues? Or will he oppose it to demonstrate his stated commitment to remain independent? I guess we'll see.

In the meantime, expect to see commercials like this.

I stopped by Red Lion before coming to work this afternoon.

They've got two slates of Republican candidates running against each other for the primary nomination, which will likely determine the makeup of borough council in November. It looked like a contentious race, based on the sheer number of campaign signs around town.

I ran into three candidates -- Thomas Shellenberger, Bradley Smith and Andrew Tome -- at one of the polls. Shellenberger told me that the campaigning was intense, but things hadn't become ugly. Basically, there were no hard feelings, he said.

I didn't get a chance to talk to the opposite camp for their take, but I still find it significant that he said that. In pretty much every contested race I've ever covered, from local school board to U.S. presidency, I hear from the candidates that their own behavior has been above reproach, but their opponents stooped to dirty tactics. The opponents, of course, tell me precisely the same thing.

Shellenberger specifically contrasted the situation in Red Lion to the supervisors race in Shrewsbury and the mayoral primary in York.

Like I said, I didn't get a chance to confirm that statement with the other side. But if it's true that the different factions managed to keep it from getting personal, that would be nice to see for a change.

Make no mistake. Politics is a bloodsport.

I been a reporter for ... Dang! ... something like 20 years now. I've dealt with a lot of different politicians at a lot of different levels. And yes, I've encountered more than a few whom I've considered to be weasels, thugs or fools.

But I have to afford a certain respect even to those I didn't care for otherwise, simply because of their willingness to enter that arena.

I'll keep that in mind tomorrow, as I'm writing about the primaries in boroughs throughout York County. Because I think running for local -- as opposed to state or national -- races comes with its own set of challenges.

I always end up doing a double-take at this time of year. OK, in tomorrow's primary, I'm going to vote for ... Wait a second! I'm not voting for anybody. Because I can't.

I'm registered as an independent. That's for professional reasons. When I moved to York, I knew that I'd be covering politics, and I didn't want anybody to be able to accuse me of bias on the basis of my voter registration.

People still accuse me of bias all the time, of course. But since liberals and conservatives tend to level that accusation in more-or-less equal amounts, I figure I'm doing a pretty good job of keeping partisanship out of my writing.

Pennsylvania has a closed primary system, meaning you have to be registered in a certain party to vote in its primary. And even though it would benefit me personally if the state government changed that, I don't think they should.

Here's a news release from the office of state Rep. Eugene DePasquale, D-West Manchester.

HARRISBURG, May 18 - State Rep. Eugene DePasquale, D-York, joined Gov. Ed Rendell in Philadelphia today to announce the state's new solar rebate program, the Pennsylvania Sunshine Program.

DePasquale said the program, which was the centerpiece of legislation he authored last year, Special Session H.B. 1, now the Alternative Energy Investment Act of 2008, will provide $100 million in rebates to help fund solar electric (solar photovoltaic, or PV) and solar hot water (solar thermal) projects for homeowners and small businesses in Pennsylvania.

"This program will continue Pennsylvania's commitment toward clean, renewable energy and will not only save money for consumers but also help to grow our economy," DePasquale said.

DePasquale said under the program, homeowners and small-business owners are now eligible for rebates of up to 35 percent on the cost of solar systems installed at their home or business.

Rebates will be awarded on a first-come basis to approved applicants. Households may receive one solar photovoltaic rebate for up to 10 kilowatts of installed PV generating capacity plus one solar thermal rebate not to exceed $2,000. A small business may only submit one PV and one solar thermal application at a time and must complete the project and rebate process prior to submitting another application.

For more information and to apply, residents and small-business owners can visit www.dep.state.pa.us/sunshine.

On our Website's forums, I let the folks know abouit the property tax post, amd invited them to weigh in. I got a response from someone called "azalealady," which I think is a damn good question.

As Seth Grove noted in his interview, the legalization of gaming was supposed to be entirely for property tax relief. Now come on. Did anyone really believe that was going to happen?

Here's azalealady's question. Thoughts, anyone?

"I'm curious what the horse racing industry does with its 176 million share of the gaming profits. Is it pocket change for the operators, for instance?"

As promised, here's the sound clip of state Rep. Seth Grove talking about his property tax reform proposal.

Let's face it -- property tax reform isn't the sexiest issue out there. But I probably hear more about it than any other issue in state government. It's a huge problem around here.

State Rep. Seth Grove, R-Hanover Township, recently announced that he's going to introduce some property tax reform legislation. I hope to get him on the phone to talk about it, and post the sound clip here. In the meantime, here's a news release from the House Republican caucus, outlining Grove's plan.

OK, let's see if this works.

For a long time, I've wanted to post brief interviews with area lawmakers on here. This is one with state Rep. Eugene DePasquale from earlier today. It concerns some health insurance legislation that looks like it's about to be become law, and could have a big impact on younger people without insurance.

Yesterday, we were scrambling to get a pretty big story -- the potential closing of the Springettsbury Township Harley-Davidson plant.

I was working on it, but business news isn't really my bailiwick for this blog. The reason I bring it up is because I got a call from U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., who wanted to mention his role in getting tax breaks for motorcycle purchases added to the federal stimulus bill.

Casey's been one of the Obama administration's big boosters for the federal stimulus package. Every time I talk to him on the subject, I think about the way the national Democratic Party treated his father, what a mistake that turned out to be, and how the Republicans seem to be making the same mistake these days.

Just for the record, I would NEVER use Wikipedia as a source.

We journalists have a responsibility to get at the truth of a story. That precludes practices such as grabbing unverified quotes from Wikipedia, or simply copying-and-pasting some piece we found on the Internet and using it as the entire basis of ... a ... blog ... entry. *Ahem*

Anyway...

Here's a news release from the office of state Rep. Ron Miller, R-Jacobus.

HARRISBURG - The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) will be holding a job fair, according to state Rep. Ron Miller (R-Springfield Township). The event will take place at PHEAA Headquarters, 1200 North Seventh Street, Harrisburg, on the following dates and times:

3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 14

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, May 15

9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 16

PHEAA is hiring for entry-level Customer Service and Collections Call Center Representatives. These are full-time wage positions, paying $11.00 per hour, including full training.

PHEAA is Pennsylvania's student financial aid organization, providing the Pennsylvania State Grant Program and servicing Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) and alternative student loans.

Interested job seekers must complete an application for employment prior to attending one of the sessions. This application, as well as a detailed job description, can be accessed by logging on to www.pheaaa.org/jobs, or by visiting Miller's Web site, RepMiller.com, and clicking on Career Services on the left bar.

I just got back from covering the fatal shooting of a nine-year-old girl in York. It was a drive-by, apparently.

She was from Lancaster, and visiting her aunt. Whoever did it shot her once in the back. Police are still investigating. But my guess is it's going to turn out she was caught in the crossfire of a drug dispute.

When I got out to the block where it happened, all that was left of her were some grieving family members and some dried blood stains on the sidewalk.

So what does this have to do with politics? Everything.

A few weeks back, I stopped by the county elections office to check out the voter registration rolls in advance of the primary this month.

The gist of the story I wrote was how the Republicans who changed their registration to Democrat before last year's presidential race didn't appear to be changing back.

But to tell you the truth, what I really get a kick out of is checking out all the different ways that York County residents choose to register. Some of them are downright surreal.

I wrote a story that should run tomorrow about the financial filings for state lawmakers.

I called the State Ethics Commission, and they referred me to their online library. It's awesome!

Here's a link.

The part I was looking at was "Statement of Financial Interest," which gives the financial interests of all elected state officials.

I didn't really have time to poke around the other parts, but I invite you to do so because:

1) I belive that transparency in government is an important component of any representative democracy, and
2) If you find any kind of hanky panky and bring it to my attention, that saves me work.

So have fun.

Here's a news release from the office of state Rep. Ron Miller, R-Jacobus, regarding some bicycle safety legislation he's proposing:

As promised, here's the video of Arlen Specter's visit to our newspaper yesterday.

On a personal note, it was the most robust I've seen him look in person since his bout with cancer. Regardless of what you think of him politically, I think you'll agree that's good to see.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, newly minted Democrat, paid us a visit at the York Daily Record this afternoon.

He hung around for about 45 minutes and discussed a lot of different stuff. But much of the conversation -- prepare for a major shocker here -- centered on his announcement last week that he's shifting his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat.

I guess this is pretty self explanatory: