By MARC LEVY Associated Press Writer
HARRISBURG, Pa.—Gov. Ed Rendell and legislative leaders are intensifying their search for budget cuts and spare millions as the deteriorating economy continues to unravel Pennsylvania's $28.3 billion spending plan.
The state's bleak revenue collections look certain to make November the seventh straight month that expectations have not been met as Rendell's agency heads draw up a second round of spending cuts to try to avert a deficit.
Some of the biggest recipients of the state's funding—hospitals and nursing homes that serve the poor and uninsured, and counties that administer safety nets for addiction treatment, mental health needs and neglected children—are worried about those cuts.
"Worried is sort of an understatement," said Jim Redmond, a Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania lobbyist.
Public schools this year received a big new injection of money to help them educate students to meet Pennsylvania's academic standards, and now school boards are worried about the future of those programs.
County commissioners warned the state against cutting their funding and simply sending the costs down the ladder to county taxpayers.
"The state cutting its share may save state taxpayers money, but those same taxpayers are hit when we are forced to raise property taxes to make up the difference," said Dave Coder, a Greene County commissioner who is president of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.
Advertisement
GetAd('tile','box','/news_article','','www.ldnews.com','','null','null');
OAS_rn = new String (Math.random());
OAS_rns = OAS_rn.substring (2, 11);
document.write('');
Through October, Pennsylvania state government revenue collections were running 7 percent behind—at that rate, the state would be facing a deficit of nearly $2 billion when the fiscal year ends on June 30.
On Oct. 30, Rendell announced that he was freezing $311 million in spending, and asked groups outside his control, including the Legislature and Judiciary, to take similar steps. Two weeks ago, he ordered his agency heads to undertake a second round of cuts, to be revealed Dec. 9 when Rendell briefs legislative leaders.
Decisions on where to cut, and whether to increase a tax, is likely to send partisan sparks flying.
Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati and Democratic House Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans are saying everything should be considered—although they diverge on the question of a tax increase.
Evans' spokeswoman said the Philadelphia Democrat is willing to consider a "targeted" tax increase, as opposed to a more general tax increase. Scarnati's spokesman said the Jefferson County Republican believes the budget can be balanced without an increase.
Regardless, there are plenty of suggestions from Capitol observers on what should be done.
"It is a cop out just to do a 5 percent across-the-board cut, because you're rewarding bad programs and punishing good programs," said Eric Epstein, coordinator of RocktheCapitol.org.
For starters, tens of millions of dollars in grants—known as "WAMs," for walking around money—are controlled by state legislative leaders. The grants may go toward worthy causes, such as community non-profits and school groups, but Epstein and others say recipients are selected in a secretive process that is not based on merit.
The state spends tens of millions more on what the libertarian Commonwealth Foundation calls "corporate welfare"—grants, tax credits and reimbursements that reward businesses for picking Pennsylvania over another state as a destination to expand or relocate.
The state also has reserves to consider.
That includes a "rainy day fund" of nearly $750 million for hard economic times. The Legislature keeps its own surplus, too, squirreled away since the 1990s in the name of shielding the institution during a budget dispute with a vengeful governor. The last annual audit of the surplus tallied it at more than $240 million on June 30, 2007.
Then there's the tax code.
The liberal Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center pointed out that the state could capture more than $600 million if it closes a loophole through which many businesses avoid paying Pennsylvania's corporate income tax.
In addition, Pennsylvania is one of the biggest natural gas-producing states that does not tax the activity—a free pass that could cost Pennsylvania more money in the future as exploration companies flock here to drill into the potentially lucrative Marcellus Shale gas formation.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
State politician squares off against bishop in labor fight
By PATRICK O'NEILL
Publication date: November 28, 2008
Section: G1. News
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. -- State Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski doesn’t like the position he’s in as a faithful Catholic and member of St. Mary of the Maternity Parish.
Pashinski is leading the battle in the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives against his own bishop. As sponsor of House Bill 2626, Pashinski is trying to resurrect the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers, a union no longer recognized by Scranton Bishop Joseph F. Martino.
Earlier this year, Martino announced in the diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Light, he would no longer recognize the teachers’ association, implementing in its place an employee relations program critics have dubbed “a company union.” Martino has refused to meet with union representatives, and will not take questions on the matter from media outlets.
Pashinski, 62, a Pennsylvania native, admits to being torn, but he says he is being forced to take on his bishop because he must also be loyal to his constituents in this heavily unionized and heavily Catholic region of northeastern Pennsylvania.
“It’s a difficult position for a lot of people, all of us who love our faith,” he said. “This is not the kind of position we want to be in.”
Following the 2007 closure of some diocesan schools and the consolidation of others, diocesan officials assured teacher association president Michael Milz that the union would be recognized under the restructured system. Martino later changed his mind, a decision he announced last January in The Catholic Light.
-- CNS/Rich Banick/Catholic Light: Bishop Joseph F. MartinoMartino’s decision has set off a firestorm in parishes. Teachers and students have engaged in walkouts and pro-union rallies have been held throughout the diocese. Milz said he has received supportive phone calls from dozens of diocesan priests who back the union, but refuse to speak out publicly against Martino.
The union has turned to the legislature for help. Because Catholic lay teachers were not included for protections in the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, the union has asked the state legislature to amend the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act to cover lay employees of religiously affiliated schools. If the bill passes both houses, and is signed into law by the governor, the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers can start organizing in the schools again. Pashinski said the legislation has a strong chance of being approved next year.
Pashinski got some chuckles from the audience at the daylong hearing when he asked a panel of Catholic opponents of HB 2626 if the Vatican had a union. When none of the panelists knew the answer, Pashinski said the Vatican does, indeed, have a labor union.
Although Martino has refused to meet with the union or the news media, he was well represented at two hearings conducted by the House Labor Relations Committee in which it was clear the union had strong support from committee members.
Robert L. Paserba, superintendent for Catholic schools in the Pittsburgh diocese, which has some unionized teachers, spoke against the bill, saying it “would create a general statewide law with unknown consequences and dangerous involvement of the state in defining religious issues and mission in Catholic parish schools and Catholic high schools. Moreover, it would represent the choosing of sides in an internal church dispute over the application of church social teaching in one particular diocese.”
A different picture was painted by Irene M. Tori, vice president of the Association of Catholic Teachers, which she called “the sole and exclusive bargaining agent for the lay teachers in the 29 [high] schools of the archdiocese of Philadelphia.”
Tori, who spent 25 years as a math teacher in Archbishop Ryan High School in northeast Philadelphia, said the union has been unable to organize the diocese’s elementary schoolteachers and maintenance workers because they fear losing their jobs if they meet with union officials.
“The fear is pervasive,” Tori said at a Sept. 18 Labor Relations Committee hearing at Wilkes University. Tori said the workers always ask her: “ ‘Can I be fired for doing this?’ We would always answer them honestly and say, ‘Yes.’ At that point the teachers, no matter how bad the working conditions were, would begin to backtrack.
“Passage of House Bill 2626 would change the answer that the association has to give them.”
Rita C. Schwartz, president of the Philadelphia-based National Association of Catholic School Teachers, said HB 2626 would offer protections to Catholic lay teachers throughout the state. At the present time, six of the state’s eight dioceses have Catholic teachers’ unions.
“Since there is at present no protection under the law, all Catholic school teachers in Pennsylvania are one bishop away from what has happened in the diocese of Scranton,” she said.
Over the years, Tori said she has filed eight complaints “against various bishops” with the Vatican over union-related disputes. None was resolved in the union’s favor. “It’s kind of like Lions 8, Christians 0,” she said.
Last month, the Scranton teachers’ association lost its Vatican appeal over Martino’s decision not to recognize the union.
Canon lawyer Nicholas P. Cafardi, dean emeritus of Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University Law School, spoke against HB 2626.
Raised in a pro-union family, Cafardi said the Code of Canon Law gives the bishop full authority over church schools. “Teachers in Catholic schools are the bishop’s collaborators in this theological ministry,” Cafardi said at the hearing. “They are not simply employees, but are rather co-ministers with the bishop in his ministry of Catholic education.”
A “state-enforced labor relations model ... would impede if not destroy this co-ministry,” he said. “It would require the diocesan bishop to use the mechanisms of the state to deal with what is not, at base, a secular, but rather a religious and spiritual relationship.
“Should the proposed legislation be adopted, the church-state conflicts that it would propagate are enormous.”
In an interview with NCR, Cafardi said he was not familiar with the specifics of the Scranton standoff between Martino and the teacher association, but he added that the bishop also has a role to play in settling disputes.
“Speaking abstractly, because I don’t know the facts in Scranton,” Cafardi said, “if the code says these people are your co-ministers, you need to treat them as co-ministers. You need to treat them as your full collaborators in propagating the faith, which just means that you treat them with a certain level of respect.
“If the church says that, then act that way. While it means that the state should not interfere in that relationship, it also means that the bishop should prize it and nurture it.”
For his part, Pashinski would be happy not to be leading the charge of state interference with his church.
“I don’t like being in this position,” Pashinski told NCR. “If these five other [Pennsylvania] dioceses worked it out with their bishops, they don’t have a problem. Government’s out of it.
“I’m having difficulty as a Catholic trying to understand how, when the bishop represents the shepherd of Jesus Christ, why he can’t bring all the members of the flock together and settle it the way I believe Jesus would.
“[In Scranton] there doesn’t seem to be any movement to meet with the members of the flock. This is not a regular employer-employee relationship. These teachers are Catholic teachers. Every Sunday they put their money in the basket to support the schools, to support the churches, and on top of that they’re dedicating their lives to promote our faith for generations to come.”
Patrick O’Neill is a freelance writer living in Raleigh, N.C.
National Catholic Reporter November 28, 2008
Publication date: November 28, 2008
Section: G1. News
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. -- State Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski doesn’t like the position he’s in as a faithful Catholic and member of St. Mary of the Maternity Parish.
Pashinski is leading the battle in the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives against his own bishop. As sponsor of House Bill 2626, Pashinski is trying to resurrect the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers, a union no longer recognized by Scranton Bishop Joseph F. Martino.
Earlier this year, Martino announced in the diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Light, he would no longer recognize the teachers’ association, implementing in its place an employee relations program critics have dubbed “a company union.” Martino has refused to meet with union representatives, and will not take questions on the matter from media outlets.
Pashinski, 62, a Pennsylvania native, admits to being torn, but he says he is being forced to take on his bishop because he must also be loyal to his constituents in this heavily unionized and heavily Catholic region of northeastern Pennsylvania.
“It’s a difficult position for a lot of people, all of us who love our faith,” he said. “This is not the kind of position we want to be in.”
Following the 2007 closure of some diocesan schools and the consolidation of others, diocesan officials assured teacher association president Michael Milz that the union would be recognized under the restructured system. Martino later changed his mind, a decision he announced last January in The Catholic Light.
-- CNS/Rich Banick/Catholic Light: Bishop Joseph F. MartinoMartino’s decision has set off a firestorm in parishes. Teachers and students have engaged in walkouts and pro-union rallies have been held throughout the diocese. Milz said he has received supportive phone calls from dozens of diocesan priests who back the union, but refuse to speak out publicly against Martino.
The union has turned to the legislature for help. Because Catholic lay teachers were not included for protections in the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, the union has asked the state legislature to amend the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act to cover lay employees of religiously affiliated schools. If the bill passes both houses, and is signed into law by the governor, the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers can start organizing in the schools again. Pashinski said the legislation has a strong chance of being approved next year.
Pashinski got some chuckles from the audience at the daylong hearing when he asked a panel of Catholic opponents of HB 2626 if the Vatican had a union. When none of the panelists knew the answer, Pashinski said the Vatican does, indeed, have a labor union.
Although Martino has refused to meet with the union or the news media, he was well represented at two hearings conducted by the House Labor Relations Committee in which it was clear the union had strong support from committee members.
Robert L. Paserba, superintendent for Catholic schools in the Pittsburgh diocese, which has some unionized teachers, spoke against the bill, saying it “would create a general statewide law with unknown consequences and dangerous involvement of the state in defining religious issues and mission in Catholic parish schools and Catholic high schools. Moreover, it would represent the choosing of sides in an internal church dispute over the application of church social teaching in one particular diocese.”
A different picture was painted by Irene M. Tori, vice president of the Association of Catholic Teachers, which she called “the sole and exclusive bargaining agent for the lay teachers in the 29 [high] schools of the archdiocese of Philadelphia.”
Tori, who spent 25 years as a math teacher in Archbishop Ryan High School in northeast Philadelphia, said the union has been unable to organize the diocese’s elementary schoolteachers and maintenance workers because they fear losing their jobs if they meet with union officials.
“The fear is pervasive,” Tori said at a Sept. 18 Labor Relations Committee hearing at Wilkes University. Tori said the workers always ask her: “ ‘Can I be fired for doing this?’ We would always answer them honestly and say, ‘Yes.’ At that point the teachers, no matter how bad the working conditions were, would begin to backtrack.
“Passage of House Bill 2626 would change the answer that the association has to give them.”
Rita C. Schwartz, president of the Philadelphia-based National Association of Catholic School Teachers, said HB 2626 would offer protections to Catholic lay teachers throughout the state. At the present time, six of the state’s eight dioceses have Catholic teachers’ unions.
“Since there is at present no protection under the law, all Catholic school teachers in Pennsylvania are one bishop away from what has happened in the diocese of Scranton,” she said.
Over the years, Tori said she has filed eight complaints “against various bishops” with the Vatican over union-related disputes. None was resolved in the union’s favor. “It’s kind of like Lions 8, Christians 0,” she said.
Last month, the Scranton teachers’ association lost its Vatican appeal over Martino’s decision not to recognize the union.
Canon lawyer Nicholas P. Cafardi, dean emeritus of Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University Law School, spoke against HB 2626.
Raised in a pro-union family, Cafardi said the Code of Canon Law gives the bishop full authority over church schools. “Teachers in Catholic schools are the bishop’s collaborators in this theological ministry,” Cafardi said at the hearing. “They are not simply employees, but are rather co-ministers with the bishop in his ministry of Catholic education.”
A “state-enforced labor relations model ... would impede if not destroy this co-ministry,” he said. “It would require the diocesan bishop to use the mechanisms of the state to deal with what is not, at base, a secular, but rather a religious and spiritual relationship.
“Should the proposed legislation be adopted, the church-state conflicts that it would propagate are enormous.”
In an interview with NCR, Cafardi said he was not familiar with the specifics of the Scranton standoff between Martino and the teacher association, but he added that the bishop also has a role to play in settling disputes.
“Speaking abstractly, because I don’t know the facts in Scranton,” Cafardi said, “if the code says these people are your co-ministers, you need to treat them as co-ministers. You need to treat them as your full collaborators in propagating the faith, which just means that you treat them with a certain level of respect.
“If the church says that, then act that way. While it means that the state should not interfere in that relationship, it also means that the bishop should prize it and nurture it.”
For his part, Pashinski would be happy not to be leading the charge of state interference with his church.
“I don’t like being in this position,” Pashinski told NCR. “If these five other [Pennsylvania] dioceses worked it out with their bishops, they don’t have a problem. Government’s out of it.
“I’m having difficulty as a Catholic trying to understand how, when the bishop represents the shepherd of Jesus Christ, why he can’t bring all the members of the flock together and settle it the way I believe Jesus would.
“[In Scranton] there doesn’t seem to be any movement to meet with the members of the flock. This is not a regular employer-employee relationship. These teachers are Catholic teachers. Every Sunday they put their money in the basket to support the schools, to support the churches, and on top of that they’re dedicating their lives to promote our faith for generations to come.”
Patrick O’Neill is a freelance writer living in Raleigh, N.C.
National Catholic Reporter November 28, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Same old story
Now that the election is over in Pa. and the state legislators in Northeastern Pa. have once again have been re-elected by running unopposed, I am urging all to look what they are doing for us in Harrisburg. You can go to www.libertyindex.com to see how they have performed in previous terms.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Running for State Representative in 2010
Seeing as how our elected officials for state representatives in Lackawanna and Wayne Counties in Pennsylvaniaonce are once again running unopposed, I will once again in 2010, run for state representative in the 115th District. This seat is currently being held by Ed Staback.
Paul Dudrich
Paul Dudrich
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
