Last minute emails

The election is tomorrow and a few candidates have sent me some stuff.

I don't cover Scranton or Lackawanna County unless a friend is running for office but the Mulligan camp has been sending things to me for months. This is the latest:

SCRANTON, PA - With just one day until Election Day, the Mulligan for Mayor of Scranton campaign continues to build momentum. And as the campaign continues to build, here is a look back at the numbers behind the momentum:

21,000            Number of doors in Scranton knocked on by the Mulligan Campaign

1890               Number of blocks walked in Scranton while going door-to-door

180                 Miles walked by Jim Mulligan while going door-to-door in Scranton

$154,165        Amount raised by Mulligan Campaign in less than three months

$66,703          How much less Bill Courtright's campaign raised than Mulligan in the last 3 months

41                   How many ideas Mulligan proposed to fix Scranton's finances

41                   How many more ideas Mulligan proposed than Courtright to fix Scranton's finance

1-0                  Jim Mulligan's record in debates against Bill Courtright

1                     Endorsement by the Scranton Times-Tribune of Jim Mulligan for Mayor

 Luzerne County Council candidate Eileen Sorokas talks about the budget:

The County Council has many issue they are facing prior to this election. In fact, all issue are important, that affect the public. Indeed, the most important issue, beside public safety, I will have to deal with is the budget. Through life experiences I have gain skills to manage budgets and understand the suffering people undertake when they lose their homes to foreclosures due to taxation or loss of jobs from budgets cuts. The hard decisions have to be made to either increase taxes or lay off people. My Goal is to “To Hold the Line on Taxes” with staff reduction through attrition. However, the county released an unbalance budget.  Consequently, putting fear into the public and employees with having an 8% tax increase or 160 employees to be lay off. Also, the unions will be asked for $2.7Million dollars concessions or 57 layoffs. Furthermore, the county cannot get a Crediting Rating for potential refinancing of their bond issue, unless they prove they have fiscal stability for at least two years. Also, no credit rating is causing our bonds fees to increase.  Appears my Goal may be out of touch with the main stream. Indeed, I will have to work harder to achieve my goal. Consequently, the County Manager and his staff should works to reduce taxes for all the citizens of Luzerne County.

The time for talking is over, we must go back to justifying all department cost.  Zero base budgeting. No more using past figures. Also, the taxation problem is state wide, but magnified with Luzerne County’s high debt. Furthermore, our State legislators should be working with our county to fine solutions. Indeed, there are some bills in the house and senate for tax relief using the States Income Tax and Sales Tax. Maybe, a local Drink Tax. However, the bills are not going anywhere. Incidentally, the Gaming Industry was for property tax relief, how much are we getting?  We have a Casino in Luzerne County and the county get very little if any benefit. We must look at other ways of taxation besides property taxes. Certainly, new taxation in the future to be equal for all citizens. By council working together and making it a goal, I believe the end result will be positive for all citizens of Luzerne County.

  Thank you 

Eileen M. Sorokas for County Council

As does Kathy Dobash:

 Luzerne County Citizens:

I attended the first public hearing about the Luzerne County Budget.

Below is the audio.  If you fast forward to the end of the meeting you will hear the intimidation thrown at citizens who stayed to speak during the public comment portion of the forum.

The County Solicitor is instructed to time everyone. 

10-29-2013 - First Luzerne County Public Budget Hearing

First I want to say, public comment should be allowed at the beginning of the meeting.  The meeting should take place in a larger room. 

A  tax hike of 8% was suggested throughout the meeting.

The majority of County Council did not want to hear the public outcry.  They are out of touch with those who live on a fixed income and working families.

The next scheduled budget hearings are:

November 12th, 18th and 19th.

My name is Kathy Dobash. I am a candidate for Luzerne County Council.

 I oppose tax hikes.  They hurt families and businesses.

On Tuesday, November 5th, help me OPPOSE the 8% tax hike.

Political Rants: 


Tomorrow is election day here in Pa. I am urging everybody to get out and vote. In particular (no fainting please) vote for Bednar for Controller and Harry Haas for council.

In the controller race, as much as it pains me to ever endorse a democratic candidate, this is an easy call to make. Sometimes the devil you don't know is a far better pick than the one we all know all too well.

For county council I am hoping everybody votes for just Harry Haas. Harry is a man of exceptional character and honesty and he deserves all of our votes.

Joe Biden in Scranton today

TL:

Vice President Joe Biden will be in Scranton today to meet with campaign supporters, visit friends and family, and give remarks at Scranton’s Courthouse Square fireworks celebration.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, is expected to attend the event and appear with Biden. They are scheduled to make a public appearance together at 7:30 p.m. today.

The dean of NEPA political reporters BORYS KRAWCZENIUK had an interview with the Veep

Biden Visit Tuesday to include trip to childhood home, fireworks in Scranton

 I was a volunteer  in Biden's 1988 Presidential bid that got torpedoed by the Dukakis campaign over the Neil Kinnock plagiarism thing.  I still find it hard to believe that somebody as loquacious as Biden would lift someones words without attribution

Pennsylvania Congressional Redistricting-11th

Up until 2001 Scranton was the anchor of the 11th Congressional District of Pennsylvania for over 100 years then it moved to the 11th to make it safer for Republican Don Sherwood. That worked out well for the GOP. Wilkes -Barre has been the anchor town in the 11th for even longer.

Now reports say both Wilkes-Barre and Scranton will be moved to the 17th in snake like district represenated by Tim Holden.

Wilkes-Barre, Scranton out of Barletta's district

Vinsko will still run for Barletta's seat

This goes against history, geography and common sense.

I asked Vinsko and Barletta's press guy for a statement. Vinsko hasn't responded yet and I got the usual mush from Barletta's spox

Representative Barletta will continue to focus on spurring job creation and economic growth, cutting wasteful overspending and overregulation, fighting systemic fraud and abuse, reforming the government so it is efficient, effective, and affordable because these issues are critically important right now, regardless of where constituents live.
Representative Barletta looks forward to serving his new constituents in the United States House of Representatives.
Running for Congress three times since 2002 means Representative Barletta has built lifelong friendships in all parts of the existing district, and those friendships will continue long after lines on a map are drawn.

Just after that popped up in my email I got a call from Congressman Barletta. He denied he had anything to do with the redistricting process and wanted to keep Luzerne County whole. Then we had a long conversation about inside baseball.

Scranton USPS facility threatened

The use email and online bill paying has continued to reduce the volume of mail handled by the Post Office. Couple that with some budgeting rules that requires the postal service to prepay future expenses and a limit set by Congress on the increase of the cost of postage it's no wonder that the system has a financial crises.




A few reform proposals that I have read make sense. Change the prepay rules and bring them in line with normal accounting standards and let the price of a stamp rise to a rate that reflects the cost of delivering a letter. In most Western countries first class postage is twice or more of what we pay. Even that may not be enough so the Congress should consider funding the USPS shortfall. I don't know when the Post Office became a quasi business instead of an essential public service. It is an essential public service that can not be replaced by the private sector. Fedex, UPS, DSL, etc. can't match the level of service provided by the Post Office.




Locally, budget cuts are threatening local jobs. Postal officials are looking at whether or not they should move the mail processing plant from Scranton to the Lehigh Valley.




There was a meeting last night to get public comment on the proposal. The comments were not supportive of closing the facility.




Scranton post office backers state case




Public Meeting Held on Scranton Mail Processing Facility




Postal officials expect they will save more than three million dollars by moving the processing center but local union members say it would have a much bigger hit on the local economy."The hit will be somewhere between $27 and $30 million, with probably $1.7 million lost in local and state income taxes."





11th CD Democratic candidate Bill Vinsko was at the meeting and posted this on his Facebook page:




I was proud to stand with and support the postal employees union in Scranton tonight at Scranton High School in their bid to keep the Scranton Area Processing Center open and avoid moving operations to the Lehigh Valley. This is a regional issue and concern, which will affect Luzerne and Columbia Counties. We need to do what we can to save jobs like these in NEPA! When elected to Congress, I will work to protect jobs like these!





Congressman Lou Barletta was not in Scranton for the meeting. He was at Wilkes University talking about, what else, immigration.




Immigration in spotlight




“Qué indica es que esta ley; esta cuenta se apropiará de cualquier ciudad de hacer cumplir E-Verifica si el gobierno no lo hace primero.”



Un potro del truco

Update: A response from Barletta spokesman Shawn Kelly

I read your post about the potential closing of the mail processing facility in Scranton. Rep. Barletta is concerned about this issue and was represented at the meeting by a staff member.
More than that, Rep. Barletta isn’t just talking about helping the U.S. Postal Service; he’s actively working to help it and protect its employees. Rep. Barletta is a cosponsor of and strongly supports H.R. 1351, the United States Postal Service Pension Obligation Recalculation and Restoration Act of 2011. This bipartisan bill would allow the Postal Service to apply billions of dollars in pension overpayments to the congressional mandate that requires the USPS to pre-fund the healthcare benefits of future retirees.
H.R. 1351 could protect the mail processing facility in Scranton and other postal facilities because it would alleviate the need for some of the drastic cost-cutting measures the USPS is being forced to consider.
In fact, earlier this year, dozens of postal workers took to the streets in front of Rep. Barletta’s Hazleton District Office to thank him for his support of H.R. 1351 and the postal service employees. Rep. Barletta spoke with those employees and personally pledged his support of H.R. 1351. A photo is attached.
As for your comments regarding the illegal immigration forum, it must be noted that illegal immigration impacts American jobs. Even the most conservative estimates say there are 11 million illegal aliens in the United States. How many jobs do they have? Imagine the jobs that would be available to American citizens and those legally in this country if the federal government enforced our existing immigration laws.

H.R. 1351 Gains Momentum on Capitol Hill

DINOs endorse Barletta

Most endorsements are good for a press release and not much more so I'll play along.

Lou Barletta held a press conference yesterday at Genetti's in Wilkes-Barre to unveil a new Web site-www.DemocratsForBarletta.com. Unfortunately he didn't bring along any Democrats to bolster his argument. The two people who appeared with him were Scranton City Councilman Pat Rogan and primary candidate Brian Kelly and that was it. These guys may be registered Democrats but it is hard to take them seriously as they both had previously endorsed Barletta.

According to NEPArtisan Rogan supported Barletta actively in 2002 and 2006 against Kanjorski. He ran for city council as a Republican in 2007 and lost so he switched his registration but still campaigned on an illegal immigration platform. Tom thinks he won his seat because he was part of the Janet Evans slate.

Brian Kelly got votes in the primary because his name wasn't Kanjorski or O'Brien but if you look at his platform (his site won't load) he is no Democrat. From a previous post:


He says he has been influenced by the writings of Allan Keyes saying that they think alike.
Abortion is "prohibited" in Declaration of Independence , Public display of the Ten Commandments is a state’s right, This is a Christian Nation, Sex education if it exists at all, should be abstinence-based, Drill here, Drill now, No U.S. citizenship for “anchor babies” of non-citizens, Repeal the Sixteenth Amendment, Constitution does not require separation of church and state

He also had imaginary conversations with the ghost of Dan Flood.

Both of them are frauds and I expect better from Lou.

I also expect better from the Times-Leader after seeing this headline



2 leading Dems jump ship, back Barletta

Bill O'Boyle's reporting was solid as always and I'm sure an editor wrote the headline. Leading Dems my ass.

Chris Doherty for Governor

Borys is reporting that Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty is looking at running running for Governor of Pennsylvania next year. He won both nominations in the primary so with his reelection as Mayor being assured he can concentrate on moving up the ladder.
.

Shooting for the Guv's spot is a bit of a surprise to most of us but Dan Hirschhorn of pa2010.com called it last week. I've sounded some false alarms about Doherty running for Congress in the past but this sounds like the real deal. State Democratic Party Chairman T.J. Rooney confirmed that he is raising money for a run and has been polling statewide.

Other Democrats looking at the race are Tom Knox and Jack Wagner . GOP contenders include Tom Corbett, Jim Gerlach and Pat Meehan.

Keystone Opportunity Zones

It sounds like a good idea. Forgo taxes for a period of time on a piece of blighted land with the hope of enticing somebody to build something on it that will create jobs and eventually the parcel will be put back on the tax rolls. If only it worked that way.

I would like to see an accounting of the program to judge if it is worth it. I'm sure that there are some success stories like Schiel's Supermarket but what about the dead weight?


In 2005 The Times -Leader did a series on the program that questioned it's effectiveness. I can't link to the articles now because the local papers want to be paid for reading old news but I dug into my archives to give you some highlights.


I did some math using the TL numbers for Wilkes-Barre. I may be wrong but I come up with $3.7 million in tax breaks since 1999 that has produced a net 640 jobs.

These items caught my attention:

Half of the KOZ properties in the city are owned by the city itself or government-related agencies. Many are dilapidated or abandoned properties that haven't attracted investors, even with their tax-free status. Others such as City Hall, Public Square Park and police headquarters make little sense as targets for developers.

Thirteen property owners who were granted KOZ status, and have enjoyed about $37,000 in relief from municipal property taxes, have reported no new investment or jobs since joining the program, according to applications filed with the state.


Some of the other gems that were included in the original KOZ were Coughlin High School and Hollenback Park. Lowe's Restaurant on W. Market St was also designated a KOZ and at the time everyone involved said that it had nothing to do with the political connections of the owner but that is another story. I wondered about including a high school and public square on a list that would never be developed and I got my answer.


"If a property is already designated as a Keystone Opportunity Zone but cannot be developed due to developing restrictions or environmental issues or other issues, the state is providing an opportunity for that property to be decertified as a Keystone Opportunity Zone property and for an equivalent or lesser amount of acreage to be swapped into the program in the same municipality."


It sounds like bait and switch.

Some members of the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board objected to being told that they had to approve the swap with little time to consider it.


Lynn Evans asked why they waited until the last minute to present the district with the resolution. Board member Theresa McGuire told city officials they almost always come to the school board at the last minute for approval. While the resolutions are typically items the board would agree with, she doesn't appreciate being handed a resolution and told to act immediately.


The Scranton City Council has had enough.


Scranton KOZ issue is about to boil over


"The last thing we need is more people not paying taxes in our city," school Director Chris Phillips said....Almost a third of the KOZ requests on council's agenda belong to companies of businessman Louis DeNaples.


In Luzerne County


“What was supposed to be a 10-year program for blighted land is now permanent,” Drew Magill said the program’s expansions and extensions have snowballed.


Wilkes-Barre property owner Walter Griffith said KOZ properties rely on police and other government services without paying for them.

Extension requests include:
• 100 parcels in Wilkes-Barre.
• About 150 acres by the Hazleton Municipal Airport owned by Hazleton.
• 135.12 acres in Nanticoke and Hanover Township.


KOZ's are not the only "revitalization" tool out there. A program called Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) actually makes more sense because a project has to be a going concern.

Then there is just writing off the past due taxes owed.

This is also from 2005


Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton said his desk is stacked with developers willing to revitalize the former Old River Road Bakery, Radnor Building on South Washington Street, Academy Street Market and First National Bank building on Public Square. Outstanding taxes are the only obstacle, he said.


So what is happening with those properties?


Many people in Luzerne County have seen their property taxes go through the roof because of the recent reassessment and ask "is this fair?"

Round three?

Kanjo at work


Congressman Paul Kanjorski has been a whirlwind of activity since he was reelected. The Picture above is from the signing ceremony with President Obama enacting the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act. He wrote several provisions of the law that also included protections for Credit Unions. He teamed up with Congressman Chris Carney to get the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights enacted into law. I think that this law is a good start but much more has to be done. I suspect that the banks will raise other fees to make up for lost revenue. Here is some good advice. Just like Dan Flood before him Kanjo keeps bringing home the bacon. $3 million for the Luzerne County Transportation Authority to buy hybrid buses and other equipment through the stimulus bill, $10 million for the Pocono Medical Center, $138,000 for the Hazleton General Hospital and a bunch of money for new fire trucks in the area. My favorite is $950,000 to help fix up Coal Street Park in Wilkes-Barre although they should have included a new swimming pool for the kids in addition to a new facility for the Penguins.


Borys reported in Sunday's Scranton Times that Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta might take on Kanjorski a third time. He lost a close one last time after getting clobbered in 2002. The last time I talked with Mayor Lou he was looking at Lt. Governor run but things change. My analysis, for what it is worth, is that Barletta would easily win the GOP nomination and be Tom Corbett's running mate. The few times I have talked to Barletta I got the impression that he would rather be an executive instead of a legislator. Borys also speculated about the future of Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty wondering if he would run for Congress or Lt. Gov, etc. I previously reported that Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O'Brien is running for the seat.

On a side note the Scranton Times recently changed it's online format demanding money to read it's articles more than a day old. Since the same company owns the W-B Citizens Voice we can expect that it will follow shortly. The only work around that I can think of right now is to save an article that interest me on a Word Document or Google Doc then reference it later but that is a lot of work. The Times-Leader has been charging for stories more that 7 days old for a long time. I wonder how many people actually pay them to read old news?

Idiot watch

From the Times-Tribune


Naked woman assaults firefighter, starts blaze while heating chicken wings


Firefighter John Judge was attempting to clear people out of a smoky, second-floor apartment at 1540 Wyoming Ave. on Saturday about 10:30 p.m. when he was confronted by a naked Amanda Masker, 27, police said. When Mr. Judge told her to get clothes and get out, Ms. Masker cursed at him, pushed him and then struck him in the chest with her fists, police said. Mr. Judge escorted the struggling woman downstairs, where she was arrested by officers who were called to assist.

For the record, I have never tried to cook wings or anything else without at least wearing an apron and I always cite my sources.

Tom Ryan for Mayor of Scranton

I usually don't wander north of the border but this guy caught my eye thanks to Politics in NEPA.

His website is lacking specifics but has an amusing video and asks what his campaign slogan should be. The choices are:

1. Babies should be born in hospitals...not prisons.


2. I will find Paul Sorvino's movie.


3. Scranton, it's better than Throop.


4. Tom Ryan, because Scranton needs him.

Vote Tom Ryan

Unless I missed it Doherty Deceit has not mentioned him and Scranton-At-Large has been speculating about other possible candidates to run against Mayor Chris Doherty.


A YouTube video tells us more about him or maybe not.


Vote for Tom Ryan! Coming soon to Scranton PA

Smoking bans

Allegheny County's smoking ban got shot down in Commonwealth Court so Scranton has decided to stop enforcing it's ordinance. So far the only business that has been cited is Chick's Diner and the owners are suing the city. Either cigarettes are legal or not. But the government collects huge amounts of taxes on a product that everyone agrees is a health hazard so they won't outlaw them. The same with booze and the neo-prohibitionist drunk driving zealots. Many restaurants and bars have already instituted a smoke free policy and that is their choice. If you smoke and can't take an hour off from your habit go somewhere else. Steve Corbett's new show debuted on WILK today and what little I caught of it he was was on his high horse about banning smoking. As I was listening to him I was behind a dump truck that was spewing diesel fumes that wasn't pleasant and there was a bus ahead of it. Auto emissions, pesticides, coal fired power plants, etc are all fouling the air. Alex and the gang also weigh in on the Nanny State aspects of these laws over at PAWatercooler.com.

And we had a discussion previously on this with Russ Diamond framing it as a question of property rights.