APRIL 23, 2012

Why I'm Voting Tuesday

I have a confession to make: A couple of years ago, I didn't vote in the primary.  I had started a new job, was taking night classes, and had just moved and I clearly remember thinking "I don't have the time to look up my candidates and make an educated vote, so I won't vote." 

Sure, by most anyone's definition, I was pretty busy those days.  But too busy to undertake my greatest responsibility as an American citizen?  No, I wasn't.  I didn't have to risk my life to get to my polling place down the road; there weren't bombs or bullets to dodge.  I just didn't do it.

It's easy to lose sight of primary elections amidst many good priorities in our lives.  But please take a few minutes to watch the video below to remember why this right is really more a responsibility. 

This isn't about making you or me feel guilty about skipping votes in the past, but it is about reminding you why tomorrow is so important in honoring our past and preserving a brighter future.  Our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines have fought and died for our ability to vote, so let's honor their sacrifice tomorrow.

posted by DAWN MELING | 00:00 PM | 0 comment

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Stop the Fiscal Inferno!

Burn, baby, burn, it's a fiscal inferno!

Okay, perhaps that's not exactly how the old disco song goes, but that's certainly how some politicians are singing it in Harrisburg. Pennsylvania's fiscal house is about to catch fire and they need to change their tune.

While bell bottoms and leisure suits have long since gone out of style, it has taken Pennsylvania far longer to snap out of the Seventies tax-and-spend mindset. Before Gov. Corbett and the legislature cut spending last year, state spending had grown for decades, far outpacing inflation and population growth. This built a budgetary bonfire that will soon reduce Pennsylvania families to ashes if we don't put it out now.

Yet, too many in Harrisburg continue to cling to a disco-era mentality, failing to create jobs, modernize antiquated "prevailing wage" mandates, privatize liquor stores, or save children from failing and violent schools.

Worse yet, a new, job-killing tax was revealed yesterday that just passed the Senate - a tax that would not put out the fiscal inferno, but instead would feed it. This came suddenly after a handful of legislators and staff struck a deal behind closed doors. As the fiscal inferno grows, we will watch thousands of jobs and affordable home energy go up in flames. Burn, baby, burn.

Don't stand by and watch the fiscal inferno destroy our financial future. Click here to ask your legislator to protect Pennsylvania's economy from the four-alarm inferno and click here to ask them to vote against a tax on Marcellus Shale drilling. It will take just a few short minutes; please take action right now! It's time for Harrisburg to snap out of the Seventies and for overgrown government and tax-and-spend attitudes to go the way of platform shoes and polyester double-knits.

posted by DAWN MELING | 03:31 PM | 0 comment

JANUARY 19, 2012

Want to Help PA's Kids?

With the 10-year anniversary of No Child Left Behind recently passing, the $20.7 million bailout for Chester-Upland School District, and students in Neshaminy sitting at home while their teachers strike, the timing of School Choice Week (Jan. 22-28) seems especially timely here in Pennsylvania. 

Please join us at the following two School Choice Week events to show your support for education in Pennsylvania that best serves the child, not the system.

• School Choice Legislative Briefing - Wednesday, Jan. 25 at 10 a.m. in the North Capitol Building in Harrisburg. Matt Brouillette will be joining a panel discussion on the need for school choice in PA.
  
• Restoring American Exceptionalism Townhall - Saturday, Jan. 28 at 2 p.m. at Hershey Lodge. Featured guest speakers include: Dick Morris, Bob Bowden, and Chris Freind
  

posted by DAWN MELING | 10:27 AM | 0 comment

DECEMBER 27, 2011

Marcellus Drilling Rescues Williamsport

Earlier this month, I visited Williamsport, home of the Little League World Series and a growing economy. Clearly it's not just baseball that brightens this central Pa. city – Williamsport has seen unemployment drop almost 20 percent in the past two years, representing jobs desperately needed in a city that last year had a poverty level 14 percent higher than the state average. One of the major reasons for this growth? According to the executive vice president of the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce, it's Marcellus Shale.

Now, Williamsport and Lycoming County certainly aren't the only beneficiaries of the natural gas boom, we see these stories throughout the state. What struck me is that it's not just the natural gas industry and those involved that benefit from Marcellus Shale – it's everyone working in Williamsport! As more people move into town to take natural gas-related jobs, foot traffic is increasing at the mall, sales are going up, and more retail jobs are being created.

According to the Department of Labor and Industry, retail hirings reached 200 in the Williamsport area, which increased the number of retail jobs to 6,700. In October, that pushed retail above its previous year's level for the first time since October 2008.

But it's not just job creation that's perking up in Williamsport, it's overall job improvement throughout the city. As a local resident pointed out to me, as new, well-paying Marcellus jobs come into town, employers in all industries throughout Williamsport have had to up their game, treating and compensating employees better because they have to compete to retain and attract good workers. In the past two years, average hourly earnings in Williamsport have gone up 16 percent.

While Williamsport still has plenty of room to grow, this is great news for a city that had a median household income that was nearly 45 percent lower than the state average in 2010. And it's great news for our state, as the benefits of natural gas drilling continue to touch more and more Pennsylvanians.

posted by DAWN MELING | 00:35 PM | 0 comment

DECEMBER 7, 2011

Educrats Fight for System Not Kids, Taxpayers

The Sharon Herald posted an article Sunday about anti-voucher signs popping up around the Sharon, Sharpsville and Greenville areas in Mercer County.  I've seen these signs in Western Pa. before, but I was surprised to learn where some of them are coming from.

Blue-and-white yard signs have popped up in the last month, signs distributed to school districts by the Pennsylvania School Board Association. And during at least two local school board meetings, superintendents displayed the signs and asked board members to take them and display them.

The signs read: "Support public education. Stop budget cuts. Say no to vouchers."

While all the superintendents assure the Herald that taxpayer money wasn't used to purchase the signs, it is taxpayer dollars that pay for salaries of these administrators.  Administrators—like Sharon Superintendent John Sarandrea, who e-mailed school employees, "inviting them to buy a sign for $5"—using their taxpayer-funded time to decry a program that would allow thousands of Pennsylvania school children to escape violent, failing schools. 

Instead of working against school choice, perhaps Sarandrea and other area administrators should be working to make their districts full of schools of choice.  Unfortunately, in 2010-2011, Sharon City Schools saw 34 violent incidents (almost four a month), while 35 percent of its students are below grade level in reading.

It's a shame that some school district administrators are using their positions, time and school's property to sway teachers and residents against a program that would use taxpayer dollars more efficiently, improve public schools through competition and expand EITC scholarships for students throughout the state, giving students a lifeline and parents true choice.

EDITORS NOTE: The PSBA denies having created, distributed, or otherwise been involved in the design of signs, as was attributed in the Sharon Herald article.

posted by DAWN MELING | 08:15 AM | 0 comment