RockTheCapital.org

by Eric Epstein

Pennsylvania is the only state that does not impose an  excise tax on “smokeless” tobacco, cigars or pipe tobacco.  We were also one of the last states to join the cigarette  tobacco suits. Yet the public health costs, loss of revenue, and decreased worker productivity due to illnesses from  these products are well established.

Lip, gum, jaw, mouth, stomach and throat cancer are  among the documented afflictions that society pays for  as a result of the consumption of “niche” tobacco products.

“Smokeless” tobacco contains at least 28 known  cancer-causing chemicals including arsenic, benzene,  cadmium (used in car batteries), cyanide, formaldehyde  (used for embalming), lead (nerve poison agent),  polonium 210 (nuclear waste), and N-Nitrosamines  (cancer-causing agent). The University of Pittsburgh  found that “smokeless tobacco puts more nicotine into the bloodstream than cigarettes, people who ‘chew’ on  a regular basis often find it harder to quit than cigarette  smoking.”  

Especially disturbing is the rising level of “snuff”  use among young males. “For instance, in rural areas,  the rate of  smokeless tobacco usage was 10%  in 2005,  compared to 2% percent in large urban areas or 3.7%  in smaller urban areas. In addition, high school boys  (13.4%) use smokeless tobacco at  much higher rates  than high school girls (2.3%).” (CDC, “Youth Risk  ehavior Surveillance,” 2007).

The CDC suggested that Pennsylvania disperse over  $155 million annually on tobacco prevention and cessation  programs. We currently spend $31 million on these  programs due to funding decreases.

Frankly, it’s inexplicable that our society correctly  views obesity as an epidemic among young people, but  “smokeless” tobacco addiction is splashed to the side  of the baseball diamond.   

Why?

A year after legislation made cigarette, cigar, and  pipe smoking illegal in restaurants, office buildings,  schools, sports arenas, theaters, and bus and train  stations, big tobacco wanted to make sure it didn’t get burned again. The National Institute on Money in  State Politics reported that the tobacco industry donated $415,950 to Pennsylvania candidates and campaign  committees in 2008. By contrast, in 2006 the industry  only invested $161,455 on Pennsylvania politicians.  

Despite the medical facts on the ground and the economic exposure caused by “smokeless” tobacco,  cigar products, and pipe smoking, the legislature is  content to chew its cud .

This situation is a classic example of external  diseconomics when society pays more for a product  - in this case adverse health impacts - than the value  of output produced. An equitable solution is either  for the producer to internalize the costs or charge  consumers the full value for the consumption of the  products.

In other words, you can’t start a fire, watch it  burn, and charge admission while bystanders put the  fire out. Not imposing an excise tax on a public health  menace is a de facto subsidy. It’s the same logic that  allowed coal companies to walk from acid rain, black  lung, mine subsidence, and  contaminating thousand  of miles of Pennsylvania’s waterways.

Although we assess a user fee on everything from  gasoline to gambling, “niche” tobacco products are  viewed as emerging industries that we daresn't snuff out.  Without a dedicated user fee, somebody other than   producer and consumer is picking up the tab for medical bills and reduced worker productivity. That somebody  is the rate payer and taxpayer. Pennsylvania spends  $5.12 billion dollars annually on health care costs linked  to tobacco related diseases.

We need to ensure this “niche” growth engine  shoulders a fair share of the burden for the damages it  causes. However, any excise tax on this industry in the  hands of this legislature and this governor is a risky  proposition as evinced by the table games Wam-a-thon.  Moreover, revenue streams created by assessing these  products must be dedicated to education, cessation, and  medical offsets. Suffice to say it will be up the next  Governor to strike the proper balance between risk and  reward for “just a pinch between your check an gum.”

From the Patriot News:

Pennsylvania Senate leaders announced today they will not hold any voting sessions after the general election on Nov. 2.

The move, which Senate leaders and many good government groups tout as a step toward accountability, will limit the ability of Gov. Ed Rendell or the state House to make policy in the four weeks between the election and the formal end of session on Nov. 30.

The House's options, for example, would be limited to acting on bills already passed by the Senate. But Senate Republican leaders argue that's OK, in part because they don't agree with letting lawmakers vote on bills, or Rendell signing or vetoing them, after their successors have already been elected.

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From DR News:

Whether you call it "Bonusgate" or the Bonus Scandal or something else, there is one over-arching theme of the three-year-old attorney general investigation: rigging elections. Lawmakers do it in a variety of ways, some legal but wrong because lawmakers enact self-serving laws, and some just plain illegal.

Legal but Wrong. Lawmakers do this in several ways, in fact too many to recite here. So we'll focus on Rep. Mario Civera, R-Delaware, as the latest high-profile example of this form of rigging elections. Having promised to resign from the House if he won election to Delaware County Council last fall, he now has decided to remain in the House until after the deadline for a special election to replace him at the same time as the primary election on May 18.

Civera is at least honest about his decision to rig the election. He admits he wants to wait until fewer voters will be paying attention in order to increase the chances that a fellow Republican will win the special election. His hometown paper, the Delaware County Daily Times, has editorialized about this twice:

• Special elections allow the voters to speak, Jan. 19

• Civera should give up his Pa. House seat, Jan. 21

By his attitude, Civera forsakes any claim to public service because he is willing to let the 63,000 people in his district go without representation in the House for longer than necessary. If Civera resigns one day before the deadline, the people he represents - who gave him and only him the power to vote on their behalf in the House - are without representation for about 60 days. If he resigns one day after the deadline, the people are without representation for at least 120 days. These extra 60+ days happen to be the most important 60 days of the year when, we hope, the state budget is passed.

Question:

• Why don't House Republicans expel Civera and thereby set an example that they stand for honest elections that encourage voter participation instead of avoiding it?

Just Plain Illegal. In addition to the confessed crimes of the Bonus Scandal, here are other examples of illegally rigging elections:

In 2006, former Rep. Linda Bebko-Jones, D-Erie, withdrew from her re-election campaign, ending a 14-year career in the legislature, when her nominating petitions were challenged. In 2008, the attorney general charged her with forging signatures on the petitions, and Bobko-Jones pled guilty. 

Last week, the State Ethics Commission reported that former Rep. Matt Wright, R-Bucks, has paid a $10,000 fine for using his tax-funded office and staff for his re-election campaigns. The case is similar to that of former Rep. Jeff Habay, R-Allegheny. The attorney general prosecuted Habay in 2004 for the same offense, sending Habay to prison, but Wright's lawyer says part of the deal with the Ethics Commission was that Wright would not be referred for prosecution. The attorney general's spokesman did not rule out prosecution, however. Click here for an AP story in the Allentown Morning Call.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the Bonus Scandal is that no one in the House or Senate, leadership or otherwise, has joined integrity advocates in a public campaign for new laws to prevent such scandals from happening again.

Question:

• Which lawmakers will lead the fight to give PA the fairest, most voter-friendly and candidate-friendly election laws in America? Do we need a Constitution convention for that, too?

 

From the Patriot News:

PA state capitolView full sizeChristine Baker, The Patriot-News/fileThe Pennsylvania state CapitolMore Pennsylvanians are losing jobs. The number of families on food stamps is at an all-time high. Many have lost their homes.

Even as signs of the difficult economy abound, more employees of the Pennsylvania Legislature are receiving six-figure salaries.

A Patriot-News analysis of the 2009 payroll for legislative staffers shows 83 employees were paid $100,000 or more, 10 more than in 2008.

By comparison, the state’s median household income is $50,173.

House Republican Appropriations Committee executive director Ed Nolan was paid $188,807 in 2009, making him the highest-paid legislative staffer.

Second on the list is another member of the House’s minority party: Anthony Aliano, the chief of staff for House Minority Leader Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, who was paid $173,330.

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From the Scranton Times-Tribune:

Harrisburg watchdogs announced they filed new and amended demands for investigations of state Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow as they staged their own Groundhog Day observance outside his Peckville Senate office Tuesday.

One amended complaint asks the state attorney general's office to look into more than $188,000 worth of checks made payable to "cash" over nine years by Mr. Mellow's chief campaign committee, Friends of Bob Mellow.

A Times-Tribune review of the senator's campaign finance reports last year raised questions about whether reports that listed the checks meet the explicit language of the state campaign finance law. The law requires the committees to name who receives "each and every expenditure."

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13) RocktheCapital.org respectfully requests that the Senate Committee on Ethics and Official Conduct:

a) Investigate the behavior and corporate affiliations of Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow in regard to his Blue Cross Board Appointments, and Penseco Financial Services Corporation/Old Forge Bank board seat.

b) Sponsor a Senate resolution admonishing Mr. Mellow modeled on Senate resolution No. 165 Session of 1994 where Mr. Mellow was “admonished” for an “ethics matter” relating to the misappropriation of $417,692 in Democratic Caucus Funds. (Please refer to Exhibit “A”);

c) Refer the investigation to appropriate civil, regulatory agencies and law enforcement agencies if deemed and appropriate; and,

d) Take whatever actions deemed necessary by the Committee to curtail Mr. Mellow’s unethical behavior.

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February 1, 2010

John J. Contino, Esq.
Executive Director
State Ethics Commission
309 Finance Building
Harrisburg, Pa. 17108

 Re: Amendment of my complaint of July 20, 2009 / Your File 09-038

Dear Mr. Contino,

I write on this occasion to amend the subject complaint. The amendment is more of a clarification, and amplification of my allegation that Senator Mellow was abusing his position of public trust by:

 “Furthermore, Senator Mellow has been using his taxpayer funded district office for the headquarters of “Friends of Bob Mellow”, presumptively his campaign organization. “

 

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Colonial Crest Association

Cordially invites you to the next monthly meeting

 

Faith Presbyterian Church

Schaffer Hall

1801 Colonial  Road

 

On Monday, February 1, 2010 at 7:30 PM

 

"Electric Rate Increases and the Available Alternatives"

Eric Epstein - Speaker

Eric is a resident of Colonial Crest and is on the Board of Directors for the Sustainable Energy Fund of Central Eastern Pennsylvania and the Coordinator of EFMR Monitoring Group.

The show, Bonusgate: Fair prosecution? will discuss the Bonusgate Scandal
and whether or not the prosecution is acting appropriately in the case.  We will
examine the indictments so far and whether or not it is appropriate for the Attorney
General to prosecute the case, given his current gubernatorial run.  The guests are:
Eric Epstein, Jeff Coleman, Chris Freind and Wanda Mercado-Arroyo.  

The show will air this Monday, 2/1, 8:00pm on WFMZ-TV.  It will then be available online at www.wfmz.com/businessmatters a day or two later.

From ABC News:

As the majority party, Democrats have run of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives - including the majority caucus room: a beautifully appointed, ornate room with about 120 beautiful leather-backed chairs, more than enough for the 104 Democratic lawmakers.

But Democrats decided the Radisson Penn Harris Hotel in Camp Hill would be a better place to conduct its business and held what they called a retreat there on Wednesday. Taxpayers paid part of the tab.

"The cost of the event was $953. That included breakfast and microphone and speakers," said Brett Marcy, a spokesman for the House Democratic caucus.

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