AUGUST 17, 2010

George Soros vs. Natural Gas

Is anyone surprised that George Soros is against the tapping of shale gas because of "dangerous hydrofracking"? One of America's real hopes for economic recovery is on the line, so it is only fitting that the billionaire behind left-wing attacks on the free market opposes drilling.

American Thinker reports that Soros has attempted to combine the forces of his MoveOn.org and the Working Families Party, based in New York, to oppose natural gas drilling. Soros's stake in the alternative energy campaign is just one part of his plan to inhibit the burgeoning domestic natural gas industry. It is foremost a thinly veiled attempt to save his own investments in Brazilian Petrobras and Australian InterOil.

Interestingly, Soros is also benefiting from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Petrobras will be raking in profits as Gulf states languish under a drilling moratorium.

posted by LEAH ACHOR | 02:00 PM | 1 comment

AUGUST 11, 2010

Blog Roundup

• PhillyNow criticizes Rendell's "inability" to make budget cuts, while pointing to CF's A Taxpayer's Budget, which identifies $4 billion in possible cuts. MayDayPA does the same, publicizing the Governor's "tax ‘em more bus tour" to demonstrate the "need" for transportation funds.
• Giving kudos to gov. hopeful Corbett, the Conservative Reform Network Blog features CF's graph and facts on school spending.
• Paul Jacob's Common Sense blog promotes initiative and referendum in Pennsylvania, citing our I&R commentary.
• Orlando Political Press blog dug up CF's 2009 video "The Story of Spending," available at BankruptingPA.com.
• Conservative Reform Network Blog posted some elements of the CF-PennFuture exchange, including CF's original report on PennFuture's lobbying.
• GrassrootsPA provided readers a link to Matt Brouillette's commentary, "Can Tom Corbett Keep His ‘No Tax' Pledge?"

Take a closer look at some other interesting blog posts:

PAWaterCooler.com dissects remarks made about Pennsylvania's natural gas drilling. First, gubernatorial candidate Onorato claims that drilling is PA's "golden opportunity," for revenue. Then the Post-Gazette bemoans contaminated water in citizens' futures while ignoring the thousands of new jobs created by PA natural gas drilling. This is Thuggery, Hype, and Reason-The Marcellus Shale in Three Acts.

Rep. Tom Creighton of Lancaster wants to pass a bill requiring gas stations with six or more pumps to have one full-service pump. His reasoning is that elderly and disabled people have a difficult time of pumping their own gas and should have help at these larger stations. Vote your opinion in the site's poll.

John Lott reflects on the "coincidence" of slanted unemployment headlines. He says, "When the unemployment insurance benefits extension wasn't renewed you get headlines like this: 'New jobless claims fall to near two-year low.' After the benefits have been renewed you get headlines like this: 'Jobless claims raise doubts about economy.' Along with a note about the number of new claims rising "unexpectedly." Read more on jobs and unemployment benefits.

The Heritage Foundation's recent piece, The CLASS Act: Obamacare's Other Public Option, details another costly part of the new healthcare law. The CLASS Act included in the bill will provide a long-term failure of a health plan, one which will probably be subject to "severe adverse selection." This will leave it as a pool for people with great health risks, causing American taxpayers to suffer for their costly healthcare. However, the CLASS Act requires expensive premiums for five years, causing Obamacare to look $70 billion cheaper on the surface, before the costs kick in.

posted by LEAH ACHOR | 08:04 AM | 0 comment

AUGUST 9, 2010

Are Taxpayers Subsidizing Learning or Partying?

The good news: Penn State is no longer the #1 party school in the US, according to the Princeton Review's (user account) annual student-produced rankings. It has fallen to #3.

The bad news: Pennsylvania's 2010-11 budget still allocates about $333.9 million to the institution, a number only slightly lower than the 2008-09 expenditure. Temple will receive $172.7 million and Pitt will receive just under $168 million.

Legislators should reconsider state funding for colleges in light of "Leisure College, USA," a new paper published by two California professors. The authors find college students are studying on average 10 hours less than their 1961 counterparts and are still receiving good grades. They identify technological advancement and relaxed standards as the culprits- allowing students to get by while maximizing leisure time.

Patrick Allitt elaborates on the study, concurring that educational standards have become lax. If students spend only 14 hours per week studying, they have time to pursue many other activities. At Penn State, one of these seems to be drinking, as the school ranks #2 in the "Lots of Beer" category.

Facing massive budget shortfalls, lawmakers should question the efficacy of higher education subsidies. Are we funding learning or partying?

posted by LEAH ACHOR | 03:00 PM | 0 comment

AUGUST 3, 2010

Philly Superintendent's $65K Bonus Criteria Released

Welcome to part two on Philadelphia school Superintendent Arlene Ackerman's bonus. (If you missed "Unethical Philly Superintendent Leeching Taxpayers Dry," click here.) The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that, though her evaluation is not to be public knowledge (as dictated by her contract), the school district recently released the criteria for her $65,000 bonus. Get ready.

Four general categories were:

• Accelerating the achievement for all students and reducing the differences in achievement among students in a safe environment that promotes student learning
• Creating an equitable distribution of resources within the School District of Philadelphia
• Creating accountability systems for all adults within the School District of Philadelphia
• Creating family, community and other stakeholders as partners in raising and maintaining high student achievement

Twenty-seven evaluated targets included:

• Works to improve good employee morale and loyalty to the organization
  • (Ackerman overruled the Germantown High principal and faculty who would have appropriately disciplined an out-of-line senior.)
• Responds appropriately when faced with unforeseen events
  • (Last December, Ackerman waited six days to publicly address violence against Asian students at South Philadelphia High and waited two more days to even visit the school.)
• Demonstrates tact and diplomacy in working with individuals and groups
  • (When some Asian students feared more violence and stopped attending South Philadelphia, Ackerman refused to meet with them for almost two weeks. She treated them harshly at the eventual meeting.)

Unsurprisingly, the district supports its superintendent. Robert L. Archie Jr., Chair of the School Reform Commission, led the evaluation and provided the criteria for Ackerman's substantial bonus. Archie claims that Ackerman "went through an extensive evaluation process and exceeded" the requirements.

Despite Pennsylvania's economic crisis during a national recession, Ackerman has accepted this $65,000 bonus. She seems bent on exacerbating the taxpayers' plight: Her base salary far exceeds those of the superintendents in New York City, Chicago, and Boston, and she has even divided underlings' responsibilities and brought more pricy employees into her district.

The "criteria" notwithstanding, an overpaid superintendent should not accept a huge bonus at taxpayers' great expense.

posted by LEAH ACHOR | 03:24 PM | 0 comment

AUGUST 2, 2010

Non-Competitive Contracts Don't Compute

The PA Revenue Department's main computer system was installed in 1975. The outdated system's technological language, COBOL, is not even taught in universities anymore, narrowing the number of applicants who can work with the Department's system. Some operations can't even be done by the current computers; employees have to manually calculate some tax figures! The Revenue Secretary, C. Daniel Hassel, actually believes the computers could crash at any time.

Certainly, we do not begrudge the Department of Revenue this desperately needed upgrade. The expected cost is reasonably high at $100 million. Additionally, accusations that the current contract was a no-bid one are cause for concern.

The Department issued a request for contract bids in April 2009 and selected Accenture six months later, but rescinded the selection to add a specific software requirement to the contract. Accenture agreed to add this requirement to the upgrade procedure, and the Department of General Services re-contracted the company. Another bidder, Fast Enterprises, is suing for the contract.

From the start, Fast Enterprises submitted an original bid of $53 million, much less than Accenture's original bid of $65.4 million. Some speculate the companies' locations influenced Pennsylvania decision-makers. Accenture has offices in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, while Fast Enterprises is based in Colorado.

No-bid contracts help nobody. In this case, the commonwealth chose to overpay one local company at the expense of all Pennsylvania taxpayers. Competition is foundational to shrewd financial dealings, and Pennsylvania's fiscal shapeup is far overdue.

posted by LEAH ACHOR | 00:51 PM | 1 comment

JULY 29, 2010

More on Government Jobs in Recession

The Rockefeller Institute of Government recently analyzed a Bureau of Labor Statistics report on jobs at this point in the recession. The report finds that with 9.2% unemployment, Pennsylvania is unsurprisingly keeping pace with the national rate of 9.5% unemployment.

Due to the skewed priorities of Pennsylvania's government, the private sector is doing quite poorly, while the public sector is relatively stable. In fact, local government education jobs are up by 1% from 2009. Adding insult to injury, public sector employees are paid better than their private sector counterparts.

Though there has been only a 0.2% drop in private employment since last year, the statistics are bleak for the private sector in a climate that, with its high corporate tax, is adverse to business and job creation. In fact, the trend covers the entire Middle Atlantic region, which has seen a 0.2% increase in civilian unemployment since last June.

The most surprising chart (Figure 3) in the Rockefeller Institute's analysis is that in recent recessions (except for 1980-82), government jobs increased significantly.

posted by LEAH ACHOR | 09:31 AM | 1 comment

JULY 13, 2010

Pet Projects Lap Up Funds

State Legislators awarding funds to pet projects flies in the faces of Pennsylvanians who want their state to eliminate a deficit before tapping revenue for pet projects.

Capitolwire (subscription) reports Rep. Dwight Evans' response to why the legislature would not use protected grant monies to reduce the state's $5 billion dollar deficit:

"We are, we're trying to do it all, we're trying to get it all done, all at once."

However, Capitolwire reveals,"Evans and the House Democrats requested $55 million over two years. Amazingly, the Legislature's smallest caucus, Senate Democrats, requested the most from the governor's office, $59 million. House Republicans requested nearly $45 million."

Chairman of the Democratic Committee on Appropriations in the PA House, Rep. Evans has personally siphoned money from Pennsylvania taxpayers to his favorite Philadelphia nonprofit, Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corporation (OARC).

According to OARC's 2008 Form 990 published on GuideStar (registration), it received 75% of its income from the government that year--over $3 million. $1 million was also given to OARC in the "Urban Development" program to fund its June West Oak Lane Jazz Festival. The nonprofit booked Esperanza Spalding and Al Jarreau but saw a small turnout to the "free" event. Of course we know that this was not simply sponsored by "the government"--our tax dollars in the form of WAMs paid for this flop.

The 2010-11 budget includes more WAMs for politicians' favorite organizations, (plus debt-financed RACP grants, including handouts for Specter Library and Murtha Center, which total $10 million each). Rendell, however, claims

"[The inclusion of WAMs] was insisted upon by the legislature. It was part of the arrangement...if I were king, they wouldn't be there, but I'm not."

The grants awarded to Rep. Evans' pet project in 2009-2010 totaled $29,314,273. Below are selected grants OARC received.

posted by LEAH ACHOR | 09:05 AM | 0 comment

JULY 9, 2010

Unethical Philly Superintendent Leeching Taxpayers Dry

Last school year, taxpayers gave Philadelphia School District Superintendent Arlene Ackerman $65,000 (in addition to her salary of $325,000, which could be close to $500,000 next year). But nobody knows why.

Perhaps Ackerman was awarded for her typically stellar performance:

• When violent attacks against Asian American students occurred at South Philadelphia High School, Ackerman waited six days to publicly respond and another two days to visit the school. She responded harshly to frightened students and allowed the district to claim deflated violence statistics.

• In her own commentary on the common violence in Philadelphia schools, Ackerman glossed over the security measures, neglected to mention any meaningful change in discipline, and urged personal reflection and societal change--calling the failure to protect kids "everyone's problem." She later defined violence as a "public health threat" and asked citizens to take action, presumably to keep the problem from "taking up too much of her time."

• As the San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent, she spent $45,625 of California taxpayers' money on extravagant meals, hotels, and airfare. Despite this, she was named the Christian A. Johnson Professor of Outstanding Educational Practice in 2006.

• Ackerman crippled the authority of the principal of Germantown High School when she allowed an out-of-line senior to graduate with her classmates. A student who had been tardy 40 times during the year, missed all but one graduation practice and had been duly warned of the consequences. The principal forbade her from graduating with her class, but the Superintendent unbelievably vetoed the principal's just decision.

The Philadelphia Inquirer requested the reason Ackerman received the $65,000 bonus, only to be met with opposition from the school district.  Pennsylvania's Office of Open Records, however, has ruled that the district must soon appeal or release the record. Aaron Proctor comments, "Why the School District attempted to hide this information and block it from being released further implicates them in thievery and other dishonesty."

Stay tuned.

posted by LEAH ACHOR | 10:31 AM | 1 comment

JULY 7, 2010

CF Blog Roundup

Here's some recent blog posts citing CF research and analysis:

• The Conservative Reform Network Blog highlighted some CF stats about the PA budget, deficit, and big government spending and later linked linked to some CF research on pensions and prioritizing state spending.
• OrangePower.com reposted a Patriot-News article mentioning CF's advocacy of liquor privatization.
• The Citizens to Protect PA Jobs website currently hosts a Recent News link to CF's blogpost, "When Unions Get Violent."
• Sights on Pennsylvania's post "What Budget???" included portions of CF's Taxpayer's Budget and research on PA Education Spending.
• Climate Change Fraud reposted a Morning Call story including CF's renewed call for an objective investigation of Michael Mann. Scholars and Rogues also mentioned CF's reaction to the Penn State "findings."
• Bristol Twp. and GrassrootsPA linked to CF's blog PA Taxpayers to Build Specter Library, Murtha Center.
• Lehigh Valley Conservative blogged a letter from Patricia J. Felix citing CF's research on education spending.
• To highlight Independence Day, The Heritage Foundation blogged CF President Matt Brouillette's reflection on America's ideological foundations.
• Americans for Tax Reform linked to CF research on pensions and taxes and as well as a policy brief on the detrimental severance tax.
• The Reason Foundation's blog post "Liquor Privatization: Rube Goldberg Style" linked to CF research on government-run liquor stores and potential privatization.  

posted by LEAH ACHOR | 09:23 AM | 0 comment