Read This and Weep

Williamsport Sun-Gazette
Sunday, August 20, 2006

Memorial Day and Independence Day are two days that are notorious in this country for honoring our freedom, and paying tribute to our military men and women, for the ultimate sacrifices, which they have made to preserve this freedom over the past 230 years.

Channel 22 News reported the death of the second most decorated World War II Veteran, who lived in Stroudsburg. He was second only to Audey Murphy.

This hero passed away while his home was being placed on the auction block to be sold in a sheriff sale because he got behind on his taxes and bills. For those in a position of authority, have they not the awareness of right and wrong with a compulsion to do right? It is tragic and unforgiving when degrading or humbling any living war veteran. What has happened to the conscience of the average America, who professes to be so righteous and claims to be sincere, while the likes of them allow such a disservice to be instilled upon a war hero as he approached the end of his life.

This war hero was why so many Americans without a conscience are living a life of freedom, which is questionable whether they’re deserving of it or not.

Weldon C. Cohick Jr.
Linden

FROM BOB LOGUE:

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ALL THE COWARDLY SHEEPLE YOU KNOW:

FOR FOUR YEARS STOP VOLUNTEERS HAVE TRIED TO GET THE PUBLIC INTERESTED IN PROTECTING HOMES FROM BEING STOLEN BY VULTURES AIDED BY THE GOVERNMENT. THE SITUATION LIKE THE ONE DESCRIBED IN THE SUN GAZETTE ARTICLE ABOVE IS EXACTLY WHAT WE HAVE BEEN SCREAMING ABOUT. IT IS A DISGRACE THAT VETERANS--INCLUDING WAR HEROES FROM ALL WARS-- AND GOOD CITIZENS IN GENERAL HAVE BEEN LOSING THEIR HOMES BY THE THOUSANDS EVERY YEAR TO THIS CORRUPT PROPERTY TAX SYSTEM. THIS IS THE SYSTEM THAT GOVERNOR ED RENDELL, CANDIDATE LYNN SWANN AND MANY OF YOUR LEGISLATORS DEFEND AND WANT TO PRESERVE. .

MOST OF THE SHEEPLE OF PENNSYLVANIA ARE APPARENTLY TOO LAZY OR APATHETIC TO GET INVOLVED IN THE FIGHT. THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE DONE LITTLE OR NOTHING TO HELP ABOLISH PROPERTY TAXES ON PRIMARY RESIDENCES SHOULD BE ASHAMED. SLEEP COMFORTABLY IN YOUR NICE COZY HOME THAT THIS VETERAN AND MANY OTHERS FOUGHT TO PRESERVE. YOU DON'T DESERVE THE SACRIFICE OF THIS SECOND MOST DECORATED HERO FROM WORLD WAR II...AND THE SACRIFICE OF MANY THOUSANDS MORE WHO HAVE FOUGHT AND DIED OR WERE WOUNDED TO PRESERVE YOUR FREEDOM AND PROTECT YOUR HOME. NOW IN THEIR ADVANCED YEARS, THEY NEED OUR PENNSYLVANIANS TO FIGHT FOR THEM SO THEY CAN KEEP THEIR HOMES. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HELP ABOLISH PROPERTY TAXES ON PRIMARY RESIDENCES THAT CONTRIBUTED TO THE INDIGNITY HEAPED ON THIS WAR HERO? DID HE DESERVE TO LEAVE THIS EARTH KNOWING THAT HE WAS IN THE PROCESS OF LOSING HIS HOME? IMAGINE HOW ABANDONED AND UNAPPRECIATED HE MUST HAVE FELT. DID HE DESERVE THIS EMBARASSMENT? COULD THE STRAIN OF LOSING HIS HOME HAVE ADVANCED HIS DEATH? GO BACK TO YOUR FOOTBALL GAME....SOAP OPERA OR OTHER 'VITAL' INTERESTS. THIS HERO WAS NOT RELATED TO YOU...SO WHY SHOULD YOU GIVE A DAMN ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?

BOB LOGUE, STOP PRIMARY RESIDENCE PROTECTION PLAN.

For information on how you can help contact stoptax@alltel.net
For information concerning the PA Coalition of Taxpayer Associations PCTA go to www.dbta.org

"Rear End" Referendums

'Back-end referendums' won’t help taxpayers. The recent enactment of Special Session Act 1 of 2006, the so-called "Pennsylvania Taxpayer Relief Act," came as a disappointment to taxpayers throughout the Commonwealth who are fed up with increasing school property taxes.

When given the opportunity to tighten the "back-end" referendum provisions that existed under Act 72 of 2004 (the previous law that was to distribute the gambling tax revenues), the legislature instead broadened the exemptions and enabled school districts with the power to circumvent voter referendum and continue to increase spending without hindrance.

Like Act 72, this law represents a weak attempt at curbing school spending through voter referendum. Certain proposed property tax increases that exceed a district’s so called "inflation index," which ranged from 3.9 to 6.5 percent in 2006, would have to be approved by voters. While this sounds like an excellent solution, Act 72 gave taxpayers in only one of the 111 participating school districts the ability to vote on proposed tax increases.

The façade of voter control of school property tax increases is two-fold. First, the "inflation index" allows many districts to increase property tax rates substantially without voter consent. The "inflation index" varies by district and gives school boards generous leeway to increase spending well above traditional measures of inflation, without facing referendum.

Second, Act 72 provided ten spending exceptions for which school districts could avoid voter referendum. These loopholes allowed many tax increases to occur without voter input. In fact, 26 of the 111 school districts that opted into Act 72 submitted budgets greater than the "inflation index," but only one district was required to hold a voter referendum, as all the others were exempted.

These flaws remain in the new legislation. A lengthy list of loopholes and a hefty inflation index will allow districts to avoid the ballot box and leave voters helpless in the face of major spending and tax increases. Throughout the Commonwealth, property taxes will continue to rise and further burden taxpayers.

In the State College Area School District, the new mandate started a spending race. The school board’s effort to pass a $102 million construction plan in advance of the implementation of referendum could lead to bloated budgets for years to come. Why? Because paying off debt that was incurred before the implementation of Act 1 is exempted when future tax increases are considered.

The expensive proposal has created a massive public outcry, but the ultimate decision is in the hands of State College’s nine-member school board, not the taxpayers. If the building plan faced voter referendum, its future would be uncertain.

Statewide, it appears that tax increases over the next three years will far exceed any expected relief in 2008 or 2009. A 5 percent annual increase in property tax rates — the average cap for school districts in 2006 — represents $1.5 billion in increased revenue from 2005-06 to 2008-09.

Many lawmakers from both parties — whether they voted for or against the bill — acknowledge that Act 1 was a compromise, and that they desired something more substantial. Yet taxpayers and homeowners will continue to suffer until lawmakers give them real control over tax increases.

Pennsylvania’s school boards exercise far more taxation power than their counterparts in other states. According to the Education Commission of the States, Pennsylvania is the only state that places no practical limits on the taxing and spending power of school boards. Yet Pennsylvania’s only limit on local school boards is the new token referendum, which most school boards will be able to avoid even while hiking property taxes.

The Pennsylvania Taxpayer Relief Act merely serves as a Band-Aid for Pennsylvania’s property tax crisis. Rather than confronting increased school spending, the recent legislation offers voter referendum with no teeth and no way to control the spending explosion that is taking place in our school districts. Sound property tax relief in Pennsylvania will not become a reality until school spending is substantively restrained by empowering taxpayers with a vote on any and all tax increases. Only when we give control back to the people who pay the bills will relief come to Pennsylvania homeowners.

Mary F. Yoder is a research intern with the Commonwealth Foundation, an independent, non-profit public policy research and educational institute located in Harrisburg.

For information concerning the PA Coalition of Taxpayer Associations go to www.dbta.org or nopropertytaxes@yahoo.com

"Con Game"...whose in?

Looks like a con game!

The most logical explanation for Pennsylvania's ill-conceived and hastily written slot-machine gambling law is that it was drafted not by members of that august body known as the General Assembly of the Keystone State, but by the lovable group of film incompetents called the Keystone Kops.

As evidence -- only the most recent clue to be uncovered -- the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (Keystone Kops, indeed!) will not tell the public who holds how much of a stake in each of the 22 applicants for 14 gambling licenses the board hopes to issue by the end of the year.
Members of the board apparently know but don't think you need to or that their charter allows them to tell.

This means -- not to pick on Franco Harris, but he's a big guy and can take it, and the former Penn State and Pittsburgh Steeler standout is an investor in one of the groups seeking a license -- the public can't be certain whether Harris is a major financial partner or just a celebrity front man for other politically well-connected concerns.

The same is true for businessman Brian Tierney, who is now the chief executive of the company that owns our former sister newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and is a slots applicant as well.

The list of potential licensees released by the Gaming Board does not even identify those who set up the children's trusts involved in several of the slots applications. "Trust," in this case, apparently refers less to the funds and more to what is required of the public.
But it is proprietary information and, therefore, confidential, a spokesman for the Kops ... er ... the Gaming Control Board said.

This is state-sponsored gambling. The stakes are stratospheric. Billions of dollars are involved. Residents of the commonwealth have no right to know who will be getting how much of what?
It gets better -- or worse, depending on whether you enjoy slapstick. A legislative attorney who helped write the slots law disagrees with the Kops over what can and cannot be disclosed.
"It has to be really related to some kind of business plan or trade secret that would otherwise be damaging if it were disclosed publicly," a lawyer for state Sen. Vincent Fumo, D-Philadelphia, said. "I wouldn't know how ... making that public harms the business model and plans of the applicant."

Nor do we. Nor, amazingly, does the Pennsylvania Harness Racing Commission -- and horse racing has been linked in the past with a betting scandal or two. The commission released detailed corporate structures and ownership stakes behind each applicant for a racing license that would also qualify for a slots license.

But those charged with regulating the state's nascent gambling industry are saying, "We know. That's enough. You don't need to. Just trust us."

Trust and gambling are not often thought of as natural partners in the tradition of, say, Abbott and Costello. That's why players ask the dealer to cut the cards.

"It only makes it look like both the government and applicants have something to hide," Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, said of the open-records fiasco. "And that's not where they want to start if they want to earn the public's confidence."
As we have stated previously, every aspect of the state's gambling enterprise must be operated transparently, above board and beyond reproach.

Confidence? This keeps looking more and more like a confidence game.

from on-line www.centredaily.com August, 2006

For information concerning the PA Coalition of Taxpayers go to www.dbta.org or contact nopropertytaxes@yahoo.com

Sucker Bet for Taxpayers

Gov. Ed Rendell is riding high in the polls and sitting on top of a giant pile of cash as he prepares to seeking another four-year term.

He has the state’s biggest media outlets (the fawning Philadelphia TV stations and newspapers) in his back pocket. He has the power of incumbency, which allows him to travel all over Pennsylvania at taxpayer expense for thinly disguised campaign appearances, including handing out millions of taxpayer dollars in areas Rendell needs to buy votes.

But don’t bet the farm that Rendell will coast to re-election. Rendell does have an Achilles’ heal. Actually, he has two major problems. Rendell promised to cut everyone’s taxes when he first ran for governor. He has failed to deliver on the promise. The best he could do is a rebate plan, where he plans to borrow money from the state lottery to send a few hundred dollars back to low-income seniors. The rest of the state -- 80 percent of Pennsylvania taxpayers -- won’t get a dime back from Rendell.

The second glaring blunder in Rendell’s first term was the middle-of-the-night passage of a casino gambling bill pushed by Rendell through the Republican legislature. Almost every Democratic legislator voted for Rendell’s gambling plan and enough Republican legislators joined in to form a gambling majority.

Two years later, we are finally beginning to realize how awful this gambling bill truly is. And politicians are beginning to understand that the anti-gaming constituency is not going away. Many Pennsylvania voters will go to the polls this November with one thing mind: Punish Rendell and the legislators who brought gambling to Pennsylvania.

Republican state senators, chastised by the drubbing their leadership took in the May primary, have asked the the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to delay licensing slots parlors until the Legislature can go back and fix the many loopholes in the gambling law. A citizens group called CasinoFreePa is organizing a petition drive to have the entire gambling bill repealed. Even Lynn Swann, the GOP candidate for governor, has figured out that gambling could be his ticket to unseat Rendell. On Friday, Swann called on Rendell to specifically list gambling reforms that the governor favors so the Legislature can act on them."Passing a piece of legislation for reform knowing that the governor is not going to sign it means what?" So it appears that the first licenses will be awarded next month before the Legislature has an opportunity to fix the gaping holes in the gambling law.

It appears all the nightmare scenarios that gambling opponents warned us about two years are coming true. We have lobbyists and legislators owning casinos that will be regulated by the state. We have a Gaming Control Board that can’t live within its means. The board has already spent all of the money the Legislature has set aside for it and has had to borrow money from other state agencies.

Insiders predict Rendell, if re-elected this November, will go back to the Legislature early in 2007 and propose expanding the slots parlors to full casinos, just like neighboring New Jersey. If the Gaming Board can’t get its act together to regulate a dozen slots parlors, what makes you think it can handle full-blown casinos?

Swann also took a shot at Rendell for vetoing a bill two years ago that would have eliminated a provision allowing lawmakers to have stakes in companies licensed under the state’s slot machine law. The same bill would have forced Gaming Control Board meetings to be open to the public and it would have imposed right-to-know laws on the board’s business. It also would have required state police background checks of board employees. But Rendell vetoed the bill. Pennsylvania’s rush to enact gambling has opened a Pandora’s Box of financial mismanagement, shady deals and cronyism. One look at Rendell’s campaign contributions from the gaming industry should raise questions about what the governor’s motives were in pushing so hard to bring casinos to Pennsylvania.

Outwardly, Rendell promised tax relief from casino revenues, but the numbers don’t add up. Billions of dollars will have to be wagered and lost by Pennsylvania residents before a dollar is returned in property tax relief. And there’s a strong possibility that no tax relief will come to fruition until after 2010 when Rendell leaves office (if he wins a second term).

Rendell promised tax relief in 2002. Eight years is a long time to wait. And something else could have been done in the eight years Pennsylvania residents have been waiting for their luck to change.We know who’s already won. Rendell has millions of dollars in his campaign war chest from the gaming industry. Lawmakers can own as much as 1 percent of a gambling company. Political cronies sit on the Gaming Board or have been hired to work for the board. Nearly $50 million in taxpayer money has been spent so far by the board and not a single license has been issued. We also know who the losers are so far: Pennsylvania taxpayers who took Rendell’s sucker bet.

Printed in the Pottstown Mercury, written by tphyrillas@pottsmerc.com

For information concerning the Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayer Associations go to www.dbta.org