Rendell wants to force schools to take slots revenue

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | 9/12/2005 | Tom Barnes,

[Born Conservative]

HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell today outlined six priority bills he wants the General Assembly to act on quickly when it returns to work Sept. 26.

Topping his list is action to "fix" the property-tax relief law passed last year -- principally by removing a school district's ability to "opt out" of the tax relief program, called Act 72.

Other issues include increasing the minimum wage, spending $500 million on economic development, providing financial aid to National Guard personnel, requiring someone convicted of raping a child to spend at least 25 years in prison and making it harder to get ingredients to make the illegal drug methamphetamine.

About 80 percent of the states' 501 school districts have said thanks-but-no-thanks to Rendell's efforts to use slot machine revenue to reduce local property taxes.

[Born Conservative]

However, Rendell doesn't favor eliminating the overall pay raise for legislators, judges and his cabinet members, even though many citizens remain outraged by it. Rendell said judges in particular deserve higher pay because some of them "earn less than a first-year lawyer in Philadelphia."

Conflict of interest? Nahhhh (his wife is a judge).

[dirtboy]

Surprise, surprise, surprise. What was sold as optional will now be forced down the throats of school districts.

[Tribune7]

pin

[dirtboy]

Conflict of interest? Nahhhh (his wife is a judge).

She's a federal judge, not a state one. The pay raise doesn't affect her.

[Born Conservative]

I stand corrected. Thanks.

[PennsylvaniaMom]

No but the payraise does affect every judge, at every level from district magistrates up to and including the PA Supremes. And, lol, this could only happen here in PA, the very Supreme Court will get to 'decide' (wink, wink) if the pay raise is constitutional (per the Commonwealth).

[2banana]

Notice that the spending side of the equation is never addressed. In my local PA school district, many teachers make over $100,000 for 9 months of work, have no co-pays or deductibles for their health care and have some of the best pensions in the country. Yet, Rendell only wants to feed more money to the beast...

[cuz_it_aint_their_money]

Sounds like Fast Eddie is getting a jump on his reelection campaign.

[Temple Owl]

The "Republicans for Rendell" must be overjoyed. I think the Governor should get a big raise in pay (Sarcasm)

[FourtySeven]

Increasing the state's minimum wage from the current $5.15 an hour to $6.25 an hour in January and then to $7.15 an hour in January 2007.

Wheee! Ed just made everyone in PA richer! Yay! Because no WAY will any business simply cut back on the number of jobs to save themselves the cost of the forced pay raise. Nah, businesses aren't in the business of making money, they're in the business of GIVING money AWAY. They'll keep all the jobs they have available, and simply drive themselves out of business in the process as they now loose more money than they make. Which is fine, because we all know "big business" is the enemy of the "little guy".

At least, this is what the liberals would have us believe.

[WakeUpAndVote]

I think fast eddie is attempting to put act 72 to a voter referendum. This act must die. It does not stop the school districts from enforcing new taxing the property owners.

As far as I can see, there is nothing solid in the act that will spread the revenue from slot machines evenly among the districts let alone do what was originally intended. And that was the ELIMINATION of property tax.

Big city districts and those with clout in Harrisburg will get the lions share, forcing rural districts to enact or increase current taxes to make up the difference.

There should be no difference on what I pay for our schools as a land owner in York, than someone else who rents in Mt. Pocono, Philthadelphia or Jim Thorpe. Gee, can we all say Fair Tax?

You want to put slot machine revenue to work? Our lottery system here benefits Seniors with medical and drug benefits. Expand on it to include those people that are protecting those same seniors! Not just our Guard troops, but our EMS & Fire Departments. Just like the Guard, they are volunteers that protect us.

There should not be one fire or ambulance company that should have to camp out on a corner during the weekend for coin toss! They should not have to BEG for money on the street corner so they can buy equipment to protect us, keep us safe and save our lives. I remember a news story at the beginning of the year of a company that had to close its doors because it could not afford the insurance to operate.

There are far better ways to solve Pennsylvania's problems than conning the public that gambling will lower taxes.

[Sisku Hanne]

Rendell admitted in a recent interview that he could have vetoed the pay raise and done the right thing by the people, made himself a "hero", and "easily gotten re-elected by a good 10-15 points". But then he would have spent the next five years "getting nothing done". In other words, he knew it was WRONG,WRONG,WRONG but he was caving in to legislative extortion?? Pompous, lying @sshat.

BTW Eddie...you're all concerned about our National Guard now. How many of our military votes did you manage to obstruct in your election shenanigans? Thanks to Sean Hannity backing you into a corner, you didn't succeed in blocking ALL of them.

[Sisku Hanne]

I believe the suit is being filed directly in Federal court because of this conflict of interest and Justice Ralph Cappy's involvement in crafting the raise legislation from which he will greatly benefit. 2 "headhunters" have also been *ahem* contracted to go after the lawyer filing the suit(Rossi) and his anonymous client.

[PennsylvaniaMom]

I heard this discussed weeks ago on Mike Pintek's show on KDKA radio. The person being interviewed (a law prof.) said he knew that that the appeals would be filed in Federal Court, but that by not filing in PA Courts there was 'prejudice' (I think that was the term used) on the part of those filing the appeal that the jurists were not able to judge the case on its merits alone (ie., not on their monetary gain). The gist of the interview was, don't hold your breath...the lawyers/judges/legislators dotted the 'i's and crossed the 't's...

[Sisku Hanne]

But on The Bob Durgin show, Rossi said (and I'm paraphrasing) that he was confident that Cappy's advocacy and multiple public statements in support of the raise (as well as his insults to outraged constituents) demonstrate significant prejudice, and have in essence tainted the ability of other judges to be impartial and disagree with their "Grand Poobah", the Supreme Court Chief Justice. Thus, there is ample cause to support filing in Federal court.

Federal lawsuit to target pay hike

Well over 100,000 Pensylvanians have signed the petition of rejection against this unconstitutional pay raise. The petition will be presented to the lawbreakers at the state capitol on Sept. 26 as we "circle the wagons" in protest around the capitol.
I hope PA Freepeers can put this important event on their schedule. You can also donate to the legal fund to fight the pay raise: Durgin Stuff

[SoothingDave]

But on The Bob Durgin show, Rossi said (and I'm paraphrasing) that he was confident that Cappy's advocacy and multiple public statements in support of the raise (as well as his insults to outraged constituents) demonstrate significant prejudice, and have in essence tainted the ability of other judges to be impartial and disagree with their "Grand Poobah", the Supreme Court Chief Justice. Thus, there is ample cause to support filing in Federal court.

I don't see any basis for a federal court to adjudicate a purely Pennsylvania matter. Our duly-elected members passed legislation. It is the role of the PA courts to hear any challenges to the legislation and to determine if it is constitutional. The federal gov't should not have a place here in determining what the PA constitution means.

If our judges, governor and legislature are so corrupted, then they all need to be removed through the normal electoral process. We can't go crying to a federal judge and hope he oversteps his power and voids our entire state gov't because we are peeved.

SD

[ArGee]

Topping his list is action to "fix" the property-tax relief law passed last year -- principally by removing a school district's ability to "opt out" of the tax relief program, called Act 72.

I am almost ashamed to admit this, but I don't even know what is in Act 72, except that it is "supposed to" reduce property taxes with gambling revenue. (Can you say "regressive tax system?" Sure, I knew you could!) What is in it and why do the school districts refuse to opt in?

TIA.

Shalom.

[Sisku Hanne]

How can the State Supreme Court Justice fairly rule on the very legislation that he has helped to craft, & that will enrich him(and all the other judges)? Publicly praising it and publicly slamming those who say it is unconstitutional? And who will not recuse himself from a decision on it?!
I'm no legal expert, but IMO, the issue has been so tainted that Federal court is the only way it can possibly receive a fair hearing and that is why he changed his mind and decided to go that route. Attorney Paul Rossi is not taking this case as a publicity stunt...he is an activist self-described Reagan conservative who believes in upholding our constitution.
But, there is also another suit being filed by someone else on the state level. So we have to sit tight and see what unfolds.

[Sisku Hanne]

Find an overview here: Gambling for Property Tax Relief: At What Price?