You ever notice that when it starts raining hard, beetles and all kinds of other creepy crawlers start coming out of the pipes? Well during yesterday's downpour, Northampton Community College was infested by a plague much more serious than bedbugs.
Politicians were all over the place, and refused to leave until everyone listened to them for an hour. Bottom-feeding blogger that I am, I dropped in on them as they pontificated before a large crowd of mostly college students, with a few plants here and there.
Even Ron Shegda, aka "Jesus in Disguise," was there. When it was all over at lunchtime, I told him people were hungry and I had five loaves of bread and two fish in my car. He just scowled and walked across 3' deep puddles to his car, which ascended into the heavens.
I'm going to give you highlights from this well-run forum over the next few days. For now, I want to introduce you to two underdogs who deserve a second look. Democrat Rick Orloski is waging an uphill battle against Republican State Senator Pat Browne, while Republican Matt Connolly is hoping to upset Democrat State Senator Lisa Boscola. It's highly unlikely that either of them has a chance. But both of them gave terrific presentations, which I want to share with you.
Rick Orloski: How many of you here know people who smoke cigars? [Hands go up]. How many of you know people who chew tobacco? [Hey, that's me!]
Pennsylvania is the only state in he entire nation that doesn't tax chewing tobacco. In other words, we're subsidizing a health problem by not taxing it.
Only two states don't tax cigars, Pennsylvania and Florida. Again, we're subsidizing a health problem.
There was an opportunity to create a $100 million revenue stream by taxing chewing tobacco and cigars. Guess who led the fight in the State Senate against that? My opponent, Pat Browne. In other words, he's helping young folks smoke cigars and chew tobacco.
At a time when $100 million could have been used to create jobs by giving grants to small businesses, he decided to support a health problem, or to foster a health problem.
That's not the kind of Senator I'm gonna' be, and that's why I'm asking for your support.
Matt Connolly: I'm running for a very simle reason. I'm simply tired of complaining about things as they are; I'm tired of hearing about budgets that are late; hearing about a Governor who wants to fill a budget gap by a sales tax of "just one per cent for three years, and then we'll repeal it." We're still paying a [inaudible] Tax that was started in the Korean War, that has never been repealed.
Government has a real simple problem. They spend too much. If you look at the budget of Pennsylvania in 1980, it was $4 billion. Adjusted to today's money, that's a little more than $10 billion. The last budget passed was $28 billion. In fact, since 2002 when Ed Rendell took over, our budget has increased by forty per cent.
The problem with our $28 billion budget is that our revenues are only $25 billion.
So we should have an adjusted budget of about $10 billion when instead we have one of 28, yet our revenues are 25; it really proves we don't have an income problem, we have a spending problem. And they're spending your money.
Government is not an industry. Government does not produce anything. Government simply moves things around.
I'm running because if you don't [at this point, my cell phone goes off. Sorry.] get in the process and say - wait a minute, we need to stop this, we need to end some of these programs that are so unsustainable and serve nothing. We're going to be going down that road. You look at the riots in Greece.
We have a pension problem in Pennsylvania. It was a well-intentioned pension deal. The only problem is with a fixed benefit program. In other words, they're going to get a certain amount no matter if the market says they should get it or not. In 2012, we're going to be facing a $4 billion budget hole caused by a balloon payment for that pension program.
We're already $3 billion behind now, another $4 billion, and no one wants to address that.
If you're in business like I've been - I've been in business all my life, I've been in business in the LV for over 20 years - if you don't address things that you know are coming down the road in years like the pension payment like that, you can't kick them down the road, you can't ask taxpayers to just come up with it somehow.
We need to be fiscally responsible. That's why I'm running. I hope you can support me.
14 comments:
I believe that Mr. Shegda deserves consideration. The vacant seat of the late Bob Freeman needs to be filled.
Bernie has attacked Mr. Shegda's mentally challenged sister(Bernie is a classy guy). Yet he has yet to explain why Mr. Shegda as the only living candidate for the seat, should not be elected.
We all honor the memory of the late Bob Freeman but his tenure was a long time ago and we need a live person at this point.
Rick Orloski? Seriously? What makes him more qualified this time around as opposed to the other 1200 times he has run for something and lost. He should stick to chasing ambulances and extorting money from businesses on behalf of people who really don't have a case and then keeping 95% of whatever settlement monies are dispensed.
Rick Orloski said:
"In other words, we're subsidizing a health problem by not taxing it."
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Only in a liberal democrat's mind could not taxing something equate to subsidizing it. That comment alone should disqualify him from public office.
I don't need the nanny state controlling more of the choices individuals can make, and I don't need liberal Democrats looking for new ways to take my money.
Bernie, I did not know cigars were not taxed in Pennsylvania. It makes one want to move back!
Bernie
How many students would you say attended? Where was the event held?
Were there TV cameras?
Addendum to my post above:
I am not a tobacco (in any form)user.
Today Orloski and his ilk are out to control tobacco, tomorrow it will be trans-fats, soft drinks or salt. Eventually, they'll get around to something that affects me.
Regardless, the approach in wrong and government should stay out of personal decisions.
Yeah BOH -
You freak when someone uses the word "Retard" as a euphemism, but pound on Shegda's sister at every opportunity. What's up with that?
Ron is fair game, he brings it upon himself. We get that. But it is hard to understand your shots at the sister.
And, what is Orloski talking about, no tax on cigars? There absolutely is tax on cigars, unless you mail order from another state.
Rick's a goof, a Don Quixote.
"How many students would you say attended? Where was the event held? Were there TV cameras"
It was at the College Center, 2d floor, I believe it is called the Laub Lounge. There was a TV Camera. There were well over 100 students, many of whom had questions. They were also registering to vote.
Permission to Change Topic:
Somehow see you doing something marvelous with this:
"Ads for local ice cream shops or hair salons could soon be appearing on permission slips, class calendars, and school notices sent home with Peabody elementary school students after a unanimous School Committee vote this week.
The novel plan to sell ad space on school communications marks the latest twist in how commercialization of schools — from the sale of billboard space to ads on buses — is generating cash in lean times."
Courtesy: Boston Ma newspaper
"Bernie has attacked Mr. Shegda's mentally challenged sister(Bernie is a classy guy)."
You know what is classy? Writing a letter to the tea party, claiming you had to leave bc your poor, disabled sister was at home, hungry and crying, when she was actually at the very same meeting.
Anon 11:25, They're doing it on some municipal vehicles.
Bernie O'Hare said...
"...They're doing it on some municipal vehicles."
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Bernie -
Maybe they should do it on politicians as well. That way we'd know who the politicians are bought and paid by.
Of course in cases like Ed Pawlowski's, even his fat
...behind wouldn't have enough space.
Funny, everyone gets links to their campaign sites, but Shegda?
Fair criticism. I'll be linking to his site.
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