Wolf Line Item Veto's PA Budget

Today, Gov. Wolf line item vetoed the PA budget and blamed the Republicans in the house for the problem. Here is an email a sent to Wolf.

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I just watched your line item veto of the 15-16 budget and wanted to let you know that the legislature is doing their job. The people of Pennsylvania do not want your tax increases.

Furthermore, it was very nice of you to release the Federal Funds for school districts, which you had no right to hold anyway.

My next emails and phone calls will be going to Dave Reed and Don White to tell them to stay strong and fight for the future of Pennsylvania.

Looking forward to the next gubernatorial election.

PA State Budget

As most Pennsylvania's know, the state budget is way overdue. It looks like the Republicans are going to give into the Governor and raise sales or income taxes without addressing property taxes.

Please contact your local representatives now and tell them we need property tax reform now!

Here is the letter I sent to my reps.

Please do not increase taxes (income or sales) for school districts WITHOUT capping or eliminating property taxes!

Don't cave to the Governor's tax and spend liberal demands. He is wrong and bad for Pennsylvania.

Thank you

Response from Rep. White

I knew when (if) I got a response from Representative Don White it would not be supporting my position. Rep. White is a cosponsor of the legislation that will raise the gas tax for Pennsylvanians. For whatever reason he does not e-mail. He chooses to use the postal service with his fancy bonded letterhead. It seems to me, that is just another waste of taxpayer money.

Response from Rep. Reed

Below is the response I received from our local PA Representaive Dave Reed regarding my email to him about the gas tax. I wonder what other states do to finance their roads and infrastructure?

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Wesley –

Thank you very much for your follow-up e-mail to our town hall meeting with your support for fixing our roads and bridges as well as your opposition to raising the gasoline tax.  I certainly agree that before any fees or taxes are raised that more efficiencies should be implemented within government and especially within the Department of Transportation.  Do you have any thoughts or ideas on how the additional dollars to fund such upgrades should be raised once such efficiencies are enacted?  I am more than open to any suggestions you may have since the maintenance of our infrastructure is a core function of government as well as one of proper places for government to invest in supporting our free market economy.

Thanks,
Dave

Gas Tax

Here is a quick email I sent to our local representatives for the PA House and Senate regarding the Governor's proposal to raise the gasoline tax in Pennsylvania. If the Governor gets his wishes, Pennsylvania will have the most expensive gas in the continental United States.

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The idea of raising the tax on gasoline has been floating around Harrisburg. This is not something we need. I do not support increasing the tax on gasoline. Yes, we need funding for transportation, but we cannot continue to throw money at the inefficiencies and corruption of government. Thank you
Wes

Letter to Senator Casey

Dear Senator Casey:

Congratulations on your recent election victory.

Some of the pressing items we are facing today are: elevated levels of unemployment, unprecedented debt levels, the breakdown of the family structure, threats from other countries, destroying our future by aborting our children, dramatic rise in government assistance, drastic cost increases with healthcare, burdensome taxes and many more items that will eventually lead to the downfall of America as we know it if left unchecked.

Here are some ideas to help redirect the country:

1. Our family structure is dissolving. Historically, this has led to the downfall of many countries. We need to defend and support marriage between one man and one women. We need to stop destroying our future generation by using abortion as a form of birth control.

2. Our government spending is out of control. Many people, mostly from the Democratic party, do not believe we have a spending problem, rather we have a revenue problem. They believe the wealthy are not paying their fair share of taxes. One of the quickest and easiest ways to generate revenue and raise taxes on the wealthy is to remove the cap on social security wages. Why stop the social security tax at $110,100? Remove the cap and the wealthy will have higher taxes and this will also help secure social security for years to come. We don't need national health insurance, but we do need affordable health care. People need to take responsibility for their actions. People should not be given handouts, they should be given incentives to get back to work. They should be trained to do a job, rather than given money to sit at home, watch television, smoke cigarettes, and drink beer.

3. We need to protect our nation from other countries. We need to secure our borders. We need to pay attention and act upon any information about threats that we receive. We also need to continue to support our military, not just while they are deployed, but when they return as well. We need to truly be "one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Letter to the President

Dear Mr. President:

Congratulations on your recent election victory. As I am sure you are aware, even though you can't publicly admit it, the state of our union is not good.

Some of the pressing items we are facing today are: elevated levels of unemployment, unprecedented debt levels, the breakdown of the family structure, threats from other countries, destroying our future by aborting our children, dramatic rise in government assistance, drastic cost increases with healthcare, burdensome taxes and many more items that will eventually lead to the downfall of America as we know it if left unchecked.

Now is the time to make a change. Now is the time to step up and be the leader that brings America back on track to independence and prosperity. Don't push the blame onto others, you are the President, you are the leader of what I and many others believe to be the greatest nation on this planet.

Here are some ideas to help redirect the country:

1. Our family structure is dissolving. Historically, this has led to the downfall of many nations. We need to defend and support marriage between one man and one women. We need to stop destroying our future generation by using abortion as a form of birth control.

2. Our government spending is out of control. You have said that we have a revenue problem, not a spending problem. You have said you want to increase taxes on the wealthy. One of the quickest and easiest ways to do this is to remove the cap on social security wages. Why stop the social security tax at $110,100? Remove the cap and the wealthy will have higher taxes and this will also help secure social security for years to come. We don't need national health insurance, but we do need affordable health care. People need to take responsibility for their actions. People should not be given handouts, they should be given incentives to get back to work. They should be trained to do a job, rather than given money to sit at home, watch television, smoke cigarettes, and drink beer.

3. We need to protect our nation from other countries. We need to secure our borders. We need to pay attention and act upon any information about threats that we receive. We also need to continue to support our military, not just while they are deployed, but when they return as well. We need to truly be "one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Teacher Strike Over!

Well the teacher’s strike in the South Butler School District is over! Students are back to school. Congratulations everyone!

Oh wait. It is over because state law says it has to be over. The students need to get 180 days of school before mid June. If the teachers continued to strike, that would push the 180 days past mid-June which is not allowed. So the strike is over by default.

Here is my unsolicited advice to the administrators at the South Butler School District:
Don’t worry about negotiations until after mid-June! Let the teacher’s focus now on educating the students. Then, after the school year is over get them back in to negotiating mode.

No need to worry about a mass exodus or revolt either. Teachers rarely leave their jobs, except for retirement. Plus there are many, many people with education degrees that can’t find a teaching job in the state.

This is part of the union problem. It breaks the law of supply and demand! There is a large supply of teachers in Pennsylvania, therefore you would think that would drive the price down, but because of PSEA (the teachers union) they drive the cost higher, breaking the laws of simple economics!

Paying teachers an unreasonably large salary increases costs for the district. This, of course, raises property taxes for the homeowners. This is why the formula for funding school districts needs to be changed and property taxes eliminated. Teachers should only be allowed to strike after school, on weekends, and during the summer. Their strikes should not effect the student’s education.


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Money Talks!

Well as most of you are aware now, John Murtha has won his reelection bid. This time it was a little different, because even he was running scared at the end. However, money talks. The people voted with their wallet.

It comes down to this, Murtha (or pretty much anyone in Congress) can say or do what they want (provided it isn’t “too” illegal) and they will get reelected every time as long as they keep bringing the money in to their district.

As noted on this blog many times before, Johnstown really is John’s town! He brings in millions of dollars to the area and the people know that. Murtha’s view is, if I don’t bring the money to this area, it will just go somewhere else.

We’ll see what happens over the course of the next few years.

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Over 60% of Pennsylvanians are clueless about finances!

That is according to a new poll. What poll you ask? The ballot question on the November 4th election of course.

The question was “Do you favor the incurring of indebtedness by the Commonwealth of $400,000,000 for grants and loans to municipalities and public utilities for the cost of all labor, materials, necessary operational machinery and equipment, lands, property, rights and easements, plans and specifications, surveys, estimates of costs and revenues, prefeasibility studies, engineering and legal services and all other expenses necessary or incident to the acquisition, construction, improvement, expansion, extension, repair or rehabilitation of all or part of drinking water system, storm water, nonpoint source projects, nutrient credits and wastewater treatment system projects?"

Over 60% of voters selected yes, meaning I support the government issuing a bond (debt, taking out a loan) to do something with water. As you can read from the question it is pretty vague. Will they be grants or will it be loans? What is a nonpoint source project or a nutrient credit?

I have no idea, but the people of PA must think it is a good deal. If the question read something like “Do you favor increasing taxes to fix water problems?” People would have voted NO! However, they voted yes.

They must not think bonds (debt) need to be paid back with interest! Where does that money come from? Taxes! Does the state have the money to pay this debt back? No. What will they do? Raise taxes! Clueless rednecks as Murtha would say.

By the way, I’ll bet the majority of the money goes to Philadelphia, Scranton, Harrisburg, and Pittsburgh.

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$700 Billion Bailout

Here is a message I sent to A. Spector, B. Casey, and J. Murtha regarding the $700 billion bailout of poorly ran businesses.

Bailing out the irresponsibly run businesses is a huge mistaken. It is a waste of taxpayer money and one that I do not support. The problem has been blown out of proportion and CEO’s simply want to protect their own interests.

Let the businesses fail and the market will correct itself with time. Yes, some jobs will be lost and homes will be foreclosed on, but the market forces of supply and demand are always at work. They only get screwed up when the government steps into the picture. Pass laws that encourage CEO’s to run their businesses effectively and efficiently. Be a part of the solution, not the problem.

08-09 PA State Budget

The Pennsylvania State Budget for July 1st, 2008 through June 30th, 2009 was passed on July 4th, 2008. A few days late as usual. However, all of the other State funded organizations needed to have their budgets adopted before July 1st. This includes school districts. The Rendell Administration is putting a nice spin on it as usual.

One of the quotes is “No increase in taxes”.

No increase in taxes? Sounds great, but wait. I just read in the paper last week that my school taxes will indeed increase by 3.1 mills or about 4%. So I guess there are tax increases. What’s the problem? I’ll tell you.

The Penns Manor Area School District (like all school districts) needed to have their budget adopted before July 1st. School districts around the area were led to believe they were getting an increase of only 1.5%, instead of around the 3% they normally get. Therefore, to cover the shortfall many school districts raised their tax rate.

Now, since the state budget was passed, the school districts find out they are getting 3% instead of the projected 1.5%. So the schools raised their taxes AND are getting more money from the state. Here is how the numbers work out for Penns Manor.

One mill of taxes at Penns Manor generates about $24,411, so an increase of 3.1 mills should generate about $75,674. Penns Manor was expecting about a $103,000 increase in their state basic education funding. Instead they will get an increase of about $206,000 from the state, plus another $75,674 they raised in taxes! That is a difference of about $27,300. Therefore, based upon this data, it is technically possibly that Penns Manor could have actually LOWERED school taxes this year by 1 mill instead of raising it 3.1 mills!

But that won’t happen. We need another way to finance things in PA. Property taxes are not the answer. Ed Rendell does not have the answer. We cannot increase spending each year without increasing taxes and/or borrowing money. Increasing taxes hurt the current economy while increasing borrowing hurts the future economy. Neither is a viable option.

The state (along with the federal and local governments) needs to decrease spending and focus on growing the economy. Heavily taxed economies cannot grow.

Get with the program Ed! But what does he care, he will be out of office soon enough, leaving Pennsylvania a big giant mess. Somehow, though, he will walk away with a nice spin on his administration.

Gas Tax Holiday

I have some thoughts (are your surprised) on the proposed Gas Tax Holiday between Memorial Day and Labor Day this year.

If the tax passes the price of gas at the pump SHOULD drop slightly. However, who is to say the service stations will drop their price? They may want to pocket a little extra for themselves.

What happens after the initial drop of say 25 cents? The price of gas slowly creeps back up over the summer and then after labor day an immediate 25 cent hike!

An example:
The price of gas drops from $3.65 a gallon to $3.40 a gallon for Memorial Day. Over the summer the prices slowly creeps back to $3.60 a gallon and the day after Labor Day: $3.85!

How much would you save?
Let's assume the drop is 25 cents and you use 10 gallons a week over 14 weeks. That is a savings of $35! Big deal. That doesn't help much, it simply makes it look like the Congressmen are trying to do something....something to get themselves re-elected that is!

What can be done?
It all comes down to Supply and Demand. Increase the supply or decrease the demand to lower the price.

End of Pork!

Yep, that is essentially what Pelosi said a while ago when she was talking about a 1 year freeze on earmarks (pork spending). Last fiscal year there was over $17 million dollars worth of those earmarks in different bills. Hillary and Obama had a few, McCain had none.

Of course, we here in Pennsylvania shouldn’t be surprised that our buddy Murtha topped the list. Democrats have controlled the house and senate for 15 months now and what do we get, more spending and a worsening economy.

This next election we need to get rid of those career politicians like Murtha that do nothing but see how much money they can get at the expense of all taxpayers. We don’t need more of the same, vote for the challenger to stand for change in Washington and your state.

Enough is enough

Did you hear what he said?

Probably not! Because it never really made the mainstream news!

Ed Rendell was a phone guest last week on KDKA’s talk radio with Marty Griffin. Griffin asked Rendell about removing the “Drink Tax” in Allegheny County. Rendell said there would be no guarantee repealing Act 44 will eliminate some of the other taxes like that. It depends upon the amount of revenue generated from other alternatives, like leasing the turnpike, tolling I-80, etc.

The “Drink Tax” is a tax in Allegheny County where poured drinks are taxed. There has been some concern about loss of business for bars and other places where alcoholic beverages are consumed.

Rendell basically said not to worry about it because the county can do what Philadelphia did when they enacted a poured drink tax. That concept was called “selective enforcement.”

Griffin asks, “What do you mean?”

Rendell replies, “We don't quite enforce in the neighborhood taverns as well as we do in the big hotels and restaurants.”

Griffin responds, “You look the other way, sir?”

Rendell replies, “You can say that.”

After that, Rendell did mention the uniformity clause in the Constitution that says taxes must be applied to everyone in the group equally. So he does know what the law says, he simply chooses not to obey it. Listen to it for yourself here.

Similar to when his drivers were allowed to speed on the PA Turnpike. The laws don’t apply to him.

Yep, that is our governor! Wait till you see what he does in Washington D.C.

Watch out Johnstown

Yesterday, the New York Times ran an editorial about "The Pork King” John Murtha.

It is amazing the extent of his ability to get money for the Johnstown area. He keeps piling it on, creating new organizations to funnel money through. His goal is to bring money to the area and he does a good job of it, unfortunately it is at the cost of all taxpayers.

No doubt the money has (temporarily) helped Johnstown and the people of the area. But, what happens when Murtha is gone and the money runs out? There will be massive closings and lay-offs in the Johnstown area and it will be worse than before.

The people of CTC and other organizations are used to making good money, say an administrative assistant making $27,000 whereas in “normal” jobs for the area an administrative assistant might make $18,000 to $20,000 or less.

What is going to happen? It will be like when the mines or steel mills shut down. Those laborers were making good money and didn’t want to work for less money at another job.

Wake up and be prepared for the future Johnstown!

100th Post! - Commuter Tax in Johnstown

As I celebrate my 100th post here at Doe Valley, I thought I would get back to the local roots of the area. So here goes.

Question:
How does a city try to encourage business growth and attract more workers to the area?

Answer (according to Johnstown City Council):
Add a commuter tax to fund the deficiencies with the city government.

The city of Johnstown, PA passed a commuter tax that will tack effect January 1st. The tax will be 0.2% for those employees that work in the city, but live outside the city.

When I worked in Johnstown in 2001, they had a similar commuter tax. At the end of the year when I filed my taxes, I included a nice little note making suggestions about how NOT to spend my tax money. I never did get a response back from them.

I question the legality of any commuter type tax. Why? Remember the Boston Tea party? It is taxation without representation. Since the people who are taxed (the commuters) do not live in the city, they have no authority to vote for those elected officials. Therefore, they are being taxed, but have no say in the governing process.

Not surprisingly, the vote was 9-0 in favor of the commuter tax. Why? Because it doesn’t effect them! Note: the council did vote to raise the income tax of the residents as well.

When will the government learn, you cannot tax, borrow, and spend your way to grow. Growth comes by reducing/removing the barriers for employers and homeowners.

Election Results

The 2007 Pennsylvania Municipal elections are complete and the results are in.

(Unfortunately) All of the judges were retained. Usually these judges are retained with 80%-90% of the votes. This time they were retained with only around 66%. About 1/3 of the voters wanted to get rid of these judges for some bad decision that were made over the previous months and years.

The two underdog Supreme Court Justices were (narrowly) defeated.

It looks like two of the three recommended Judges for the Superior court won (Allen and Shogan). This was another close race.

Ruddock also won a seat as County Commissioner.

The elections are over for another year. The races were close and it proves that every vote does indeed count! Taxpayers need to remember that we vote for these people. So if you didn’t vote, then no crying and complaining about the status of our county, state, or country!

Johnstown really is John’s Town!

There was a lengthy article about John Murtha in the October 30, 2007, page A1 Wall Street Journal. I highly recommend all people and organizations from the Johnstown area read this article. What the article states is indeed true.

Murtha agrees, he went to Washington to bring Federal dollars to Johnstown. Here’s an idea: why not just cut taxes and leave the dollars in Johnstown!

Whatever your personal opinion of Murtha is, the majority of this money will be gone when he is no longer in office. He is 75 years old, so we know his time in Washington will be limited by nature, if not by the voters.

Therefore, I urge the people and the organizations of Johnstown to act more responsibly and to operate as if they were not receiving federal money, because one day that money will be gone.

It remains to be seen whether or not the mentality of Johnstown can change and accept the responsibility of working and being profitable on their own rather than simply relying on funding from the rest of the country.

For those who missed the Wall Street Journal article the other day here is a link to it.

Letter to Rep. Dave Reed

Below is a message that was sent to my local state representative, Dave Reed. The message was sent to make him aware of a piece of property tax legislation that is looking for sponsors and will be introduced into the House soon.

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I am writing to encourage you to support and even co-sponsor Rep. Sam Rohrer’s School Property Tax Elimination Act of 2007. This Act sounds like a promising way to eliminate the property tax system which is hurting Pennsylvanian’s.

Furthermore, I do not support HB1600, which sounds like Act 1 and simply shifts money around without providing any real relief to homeowners. Act 1 was rejected by the voters in May. We want something different to eliminate Property Taxes, while still maintaining adequate funding for our School Districts.

It is a challenge, but I think Rep. Rohrer’s bill is on the right track. Please monitor this closely for the taxpayers of your district.

Thank you