Taxpayer Dissatisfaction Not Considered Newsworthy

The grassroots conservative Tea Party firestorm crossing the country stopped on the corner of Market and High Streets in West Chester last Saturday. From noon till one, a vast cross-section of men, women, and children wearing tea bags and holding signs showed up to peacefully voice their collective discontent with taxation and government overreach. Four hundred people gathered on the courthouse steps for the hour, headlined by speeches from PA State Representative Curt Schroder and US Congressman Joe Pitts.
It certainly was newsworthy – but it apparently wasn’t news.
Conspicuously absent from the crowd were news reporters. The Daily Local sent a photographer, but even the lone West Chester newspaper could not free up an actual reporter until after the event had ended. Television news outlets admitted when contacted earlier in the week that they were not interested in coming, and they held true to their word.
So it should come as no surprise that the only news account of Saturday’s amazing turnout of concerned Americans had little to do with the actual Tea Party. It had little to do with a mass of citizens gathering with signs such as, “I’m 2 & I Owe China $80,000 Thanks To Congress,” and “Spread My Work Ethic – Not My Wealth.” It had little to do with Representative Schroder speaking emotionally about his efforts to protect our economic and voting freedoms. It had little to do with Congressman Pitts describing the delinquency of our current representatives, or the Russian immigrant speaker drawing erie parallels between the decline of his country into communism and the actions by Congress today.
There was a conservative firestorm passing through West Chester last Saturday. If it wasn’t clear before, it should be exceedingly obvious now – spreading our message of limited government, lower taxes, and economic freedom is up to us. We are not going to be helped in the slightest by traditional media outlets. Unfortunately, many of us knew this all along.

Open Space Untouchable?

Recently it has been implied a prioritization of open space within the County’s overall priorities is beyond discussion. County Controller Val DiGiorgio disagrees, and said as much recently in response to an editorial in the press.

Open space is an important issue in Southeastern Pennsylvania, and we applaud DiGiorgio for bringing it up for discussion.  The Pennsylvania Conservative Council plans on having an ongoing debate about how best to incentivize smart development.  In the meantime, though, we hope our leaders do not become dogmatically attached to exactly how we handle it now.

Val’s guest column appears below:
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Recently, the Daily Local News printed an editorial about the county’s long-standing, bipartisan open-space plan. As part of the column, some of my recent comments, on how to conserve taxpayer dollars in a recession, were taken out of context.

Both as a private citizen active in numerous community organizations and as the county controller, I have supported the county’s open space program. In addition, both as a private citizen and as county controller, I have looked for ways to save taxpayers’ money — especially in this recession.

The question for serious public officials and citizens concerned about continuing our county’s high quality of life is: how do we balance our plans and needs with shrinking tax dollars?

As controller, it is my daily mission to protect and fight for Chester County taxpayers. During the budget hearings last year, I presented a comprehensive plan, listing a menu of options to the commissioners to avoid raising taxes in this time of economic crisis. Included among several options was my request to consider deferring a portion of the open-space program in calendar year 2009 only. My hope in presenting a menu of options to the commissioners was to spark an honest and open debate over the budget and to find cost savings in county government to minimize tax increases in a time when taxpayers are losing their jobs and homes.

I also hoped to increase taxpayer awareness on how much our government programs are costing our taxpayers. Open space, while important and worthy, is no exception. As controller, I have attempted to determine how much our $20 million per year commitment to this program has cost us in terms of debt service. For example, at current interest rates, each year of this program costs taxpayers up to an additional $1 million per year in additional interest on our bonds, even with our county’s top-of-the-line AAA bond rating. Taxpayers need to know what this initiative, and other programs, cost them each year.

During my many years of government service, I have rarely, if ever, seen a program that someone did not think was beyond examination. Unfortunately, leaders who suggest that we should not spend more than we can afford — in other words, that government must live within the means of the taxpayer — are unfairly characterized as mean-spirited and short-sighted. Every program is seen as vital to someone; yet, all need to be not only accountable, but also seen in the balance of what taxpayers can afford.

In these troubling economic times, every program (even one as worthy as open space) must be evaluated, examined and reviewed — every program. This is why my testimony and the Daily Local News’ editorial could be very beneficial, if it leads to a thoughtful, reasonable discussion without personal attacks.

I remain committed to the value of a sound open-space program. In addition, I will not shirk from duty as controller to be the fiscal watchdog for the county and, in the process, make our government more open, efficient and accountable. And, yes, I and my staff will continue to fight for taxpayers every day.

Valentino DiGiorgio, III is Chester County’s Controller
(Originally appeared in the Daily Local News.)

Rewarding Failure Is Their Plan

by Anthony J. Oleck
Letter to the Editor in the Daily Local

Why is it that with all the bright economic minds we can muster, the best plan to fix the economy is one that rewards businesses who have failed at the expense of those who have succeeded? Or one that supports the real estate speculators or those who lived beyond their means at the expense of those who managed their finances prudently? And why do we think that creating short-term government jobs or handing out bigger welfare checks will get us out of this mess?

Government stimulus and government-created jobs are a Band-aid. Once the road is paved and the bridge is fixed that job goes away. Where are the new Microsofts or Apple Computers going to come from? Nothing is being done to stimulate the growth and investment in small business.

Our corporate taxes are the highest in the world, if you want to stimulate business and get real growth in the job market you need to lower those taxes to unleash the power of capital markets. Corporations don’t pay taxes – we pay those corporate taxes as well as all the other taxes levied upon us. Every corporation packages its cost in the cost of its product, we pay those costs when we buy the product. It just makes us feel better to think corporations are carrying that ball for us. They are not, we are taxing ourselves when we raise corporate taxes.

We are now in the process of bailing out banks, CEOs, and boards of directors of those banks that were run into the ground by gross mismanagement and greed. We are doing the same with our failed business model in the Detroit auto industry. So our answer to this economic catastrophe is to reward failure at the expense of those who ran and continue to run successful businesses. We will create infrastructure jobs that will eventually go away, we will grow government jobs and we will pay the generous pensions and medical benefits that go with those jobs for the rest of our lives.

Taxes will go up as a result of the ever-increasing span of government. And finally we will send tax rebate checks to people who don’t pay income taxes – a better word for that is welfare.

So this is their plan: reward failure, increase government and expand welfare. Folks, we are heading for a bigger problem than this country faced in 1929.

Tell Your Politician Not To Sip The COLA

by Tania Ciolko
Letter to the Editor in the North East Times

With the state of Pennsylvania facing a $2 billion budget deficit this fiscal year and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter shortening the yearly Mummers Parade and trying to close fire stations and libraries due to budgetary shortfalls, I was heartened to learn of one elected official recognizing the seriousness of this economic disaster.

State Rep. Curt Schroder, a Republican from Chester County, has announced he is returning his COLA (cost of living adjustment) to the state treasury.
With this announcement he is giving money back to the taxpayers – that would be you and me.

As a citizen of Pennsylvania and a taxpayer, I am requesting that my state senator, Mike Stack, a Democrat, and state representative, John Sabatina, also a Democrat, do the same; return their COLAs to the state treasury and give the money back to the hard-working citizens.

I urge everyone to contact their state legislators to find out what they did with their COLAs. Taxpayers should not support politicians who took the COLAs and vote to raise our taxes to make up the projected $2 billion deficits they created.