RockTheCapital.org

Media alert:

Auditor General Jack Wagner, in an interview with KDKA-TV today, endorsed the idea of a state constitutional convention.  "A constitutional convention is a good idea," Wagner said during a taping of the KD-PG Sunday Edition show that will air this Sunday morning (3/7/10) at 11:30 a.m.

 

Clint R. Eisenhower
Director of Policy and Communications
Jack Wagner for Governor

 

From the Department of the Auditor General:

Auditor General Jack Wagner today urged the General Assembly to ban municipal authorities in the state from attaching risky interest-rate swaps to new debt financed by bond issues.

At a hearing before the House Finance Committee, Wagner said that the Municipality Authorities Act should be amended to expressly prohibit authorities from entering into swaps. Wagner also repeated his call for the General Assembly to ban Pennsylvania school districts and local governments from entering into swaps agreements.

“Most Pennsylvanians would be upset if members of their school board or municipal government gambled away their hard-earned tax dollars at the local slots casino,” Wagner told the committee. “They should be just as upset if their school district or council has tied up local funds in interest-rate swaps, because these exotic financial instruments are tantamount to gambling with public money.”

Swaps are financial bets between two parties, such as a school district and an investment bank, on which way interest rates will move. The party that guesses right wins and gets paid; the party that guesses wrong loses and must pay the other party. How much money is won or lost is determined by how much interest rates fluctuate, and other factors. The bigger the swing in interest rates, the higher the potential losses.

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From WHTM:

A published report says retiring state Senator Robert Mellow could collect a pension of at least $313,000 a year; about three times his current salary.

The report in the Citizens Voice newspaper says the exact amount of Mellow's pension won't be known until early next year and will be influenced by a variety of factors.

abc27 News called Mellow's office to see if the estimate was at least in the ballpark, but staffers would only say that nothing has been determined yet.  The senator did contribute some money toward his pension.

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From the Patriot News:

Stephen R. Reed, the man once dubbed Harrisburg's "mayor for life," walked away from city government with a basic pension of $56,000 a year.

According to documents The Patriot-News obtained through a Right-to-Know request, that’s 70 percent of Reed’s $80,000 a year salary as mayor.

Reed’s pension is pretty standard in government employment circles. A state worker with a similar amount of years of service and salary would retire at 75 percent of the $80,000 they made in their final year of service, according to the State Employees’ Retirement System.

Reed, who has held the post of Harrisburg’s mayor for 28 years, will receive a $4,667 monthly benefit from the city. Since leaving office in January, Reed has started a consulting firm, Reed Strategic Advisers.

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From the Scranton Times-Tribune:

Sen. Robert Mellow could be eligible for an annual taxpayer-funded state pension amounting to nearly three times his $110,250 salary when he leaves office in November.

Mr. Mellow, 67, is eligible to collect the bulk of his pension through the state government's defined-benefit plan. In addition, Mr. Mellow can collect supplemental pension benefits to reach a minimum $313,000 annual payout he may be getting through the little-known state-run Benefits Completion Plan.

The combination of two pension streams will enable Mr. Mellow to have retirement benefits that greatly exceed his current $110,250 Senate salary as well as the incomes of average Pennsylvanians. In addition to generous pensions, state lawmakers enjoy top-level health benefits that cover medical care, eye and dental care and prescription drugs in retirement. Since 2006, current and retired senators contribute 1 percent of their incomes toward health benefits.

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Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

HARRISBURG, February 23, 2010 - The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice which is investigating failures in the juvenile justice system in Luzerne County will hold a public hearing on Thursday, February 25, in Wilkes-Barre.

Witnesses are scheduled to include juveniles whose cases were adjudicated by former Judge Mark A. Ciavarella and victims of juvenile crimes. Additional witnesses may be scheduled.

The hearing will be at the Best Western East Mountain Inn at 2400 East End Blvd., Wilkes-Barre. An agenda, when complete, will be posted on the Web site of the Unified Judicial System. (See link at the bottom of this release.)

TV and radio stations can pick up a live feed of the hearings transmitted to an audio/video mult box from pool cameras provided by PCN. Still photography of the hearings is permitted without the use of a flash.

The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice is conducting a noncriminal investigation into the circumstances that led to failures in the juvenile justice system in Luzerne County. Its purpose is to determine the causes of the failures, to restore public confidence in the administration of justice and to make recommendations to prevent a recurrence of a similar situation in Luzerne County or elsewhere. The commission is required to file a final report to the governor, the legislature and the Supreme Court by May 31.

Superior Court Judge John M. Cleland, chairman of the commission, will be available to the media to answer questions during breaks and at the conclusion of Thursday's hearing.

Transcripts of the commission's prior public hearings and other information about the commission are available at:
http://www.pacourts.us/Links/Public/InterbranchCommissionJuvenileJustice.htm

From Democracy Rising PA:

The PA Bar Association today will announce that it has formed a 30-member Constitutional Review Commission. The commission will take 18 months to "review the state Constitution with a focus on the areas of legislative reapportionment, local government, public education, the structure of the General Assembly, and taxation and the uniformity clause." (quoting a media advisory issued last week)

Regardless of the PBA's motives, which are not at all clear given its recent history on the issue (below), the PBA commission has two fundamental problems:

First, if a convention must await the commission's study, the earliest a convention can occur is 2013. That's because the 18-month period ends in August 2011, which is too late for a referendum to appear on that year's November ballot. That means a referendum in 2012 at the earliest and a convention in 2013 at the earliest. Citizens, who already have been waiting years for improvements in their government, should not have to wait for yet another special interest group to study the obvious.

Second, like every special interest group, the PBA intends for its commission to set the agenda for a convention. What our Commonwealth manifestly needs, however, is an end to special-interest control of our government. This is why DR's petition asks lawmakers to let citizens make the decisions about whether to have a convention and, if so, what to debate there.

There is no reason to believe that this PBA effort will be any more successful than its last one, which crashed and burned just last October. That's when a PBA "study group" recommended a Constitution convention to look at all aspects of the Constitution except Article V, The Judiciary, which also happens to govern the legal profession. Even that was too much for PBA's rank and file, who voted against both the proposal and the plea of PBA President Clifford E. Haines to lead reform. Click here for the Philadelphia Inquirer's story.

One notable person leading the opposition to a convention was former Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer, R-Blair. An architect of the Pay Raise of 2005, Jubelirer felt the effects of that lapse of judgment when he was among the first lawmakers to be voted out of office in the primary of 2006. You'll see him quoted in the story.

From the Patriot News:

How bad is Harrisburg’s financial crisis? Consider this: The city’s financial rating has dropped twice since October, and currently sits at junk bond status, but that’s not the worst part. The city may not be able to meet payroll in two weeks and will very likely default on just over $2 million in debt payments due March 1. Even that’s not the worst part.

This year, the city owes an additional $66.7 million in debt payments — more than the entire annual city budget. Much of the problem stems from the Harrisburg Authority’s $288 million in incinerator debt, which Harrisburg has guaranteed. The crisis has already drawn national attention from CNN, Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal.

Mayor Linda Thompson’s original $65 million budget proposal called for raising property taxes by 20 percent and water bills by 40 percent. In the final hours of debate, Thompson also called for $68 million from the future sale of city assets to be earmarked toward this year's debt payments.

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From the Scranton Times Tribune:

Checks released by State Sen. Robert J. Mellow's chief campaign committee show that most of the money from checks made out to "cash" by the committee over the last three years went to the senator.

From Nov. 28, 2006, to Oct. 19, 2009, the campaign issued 137 checks, totaling $49,736.16, made out to cash. Of those, 74 checks, totaling $38,134.73, were paid to reimburse Mr. Mellow.

From the Scranton Times Tribune:

Checks written to "cash" by state Sen. Robert J. Mellow's chief campaign committee exemplify why reform to Pennsylvania's campaign finance law is long overdue, leaders of watchdog groups said Tuesday.

Tim Potts, president of Democracy Rising, and Eric Epstein, coordinator of RockThe Capital.org, said their groups might file complaints asking the Department of State to investigate the payments to cash.

Campaign finance reports for Friends of Bob Mellow do not identify who received the payments, an omission in conflict with the explicit language of the state Campaign Finance Reporting Law. The law requires campaigns to identify who is paid for "each and every expenditure."

Mr. Mellow continued Tuesday to ignore The Times-Tribune's efforts to interview him about 533 payments to cash that totaled more than $188,000 since Jan. 1, 2000. He did not return several telephone calls Tuesday after refusing to speak to the newspaper about his campaign finances for weeks.

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