The Pennsylvania Governor Race

The choice here is quite simple. You can either vote for Tom Corbett or for four more years of Ed Rendell. I think we can all agree that Rendell's governorship has been a disaster. Even Rendell is now on the air saying that whoever gets voted in will be saying how much debt he left them to deal with. Dan Onorato is in lock step with Rendell's core methodology of tax some and spend a lot.

I know many people are for the gas tax. I am too!! Just not the way Rendell was going to do it. By the by, you all know who will be paying that tax, don't you? If you guessed the gas companies please do the world a favor and don't reproduce. This tax will be a "soft" tax on everybody that uses natural gas. The cost of it will be passed right onto us. He was going to use nearly 70% of that tax to simply add more revenue to the general fund for you guessed it, more spending. This from a douchenozzle that increased the state budget by 40% in just 8 years. I don't know about you, but I certainly am not making or spending 40% more than I did 8 years ago. Is anybody??? The reality is, just like the supposed good use of all the casino tax revenue for us lowly taxpayers, this revenue stream would be of little or no use to the residents of the state. In all likelihood it would've gone to Philadelphia and Allegheny counties not to the areas that will need help with their infrastructure where the drilling is occurring.

There is a lot of money coming into the state from the gas already. There should be an extraction tax and that revenue should stay in the areas where they are drilling.

Luzerne County Home Rule Charter

Having read the proposed charter I can tell you that it is not perfect. Specifically, I'd have liked to see either districting or guaranteed minority representation. Do I like that the controller's position has been diminished? Certainly not. That we have to let it run for 5 years before we can change it? hell no.

The sad reality is that even if you think the charter is the completely goofy it simply cannot be any worse than what we have currently. Further, even if you haven't read the charter you could make a wise decision to vote for it just by taking a look at those that have come out rabidly against it. Just as we are all judged by the company we keep (and rightly so) so should this be judged by those both for and against it. On the con (no pun intended) side, we have Comm. Petrilla who was of course the controller while the Luzerne County taxpayers were being robbed and children used as a profit center. solicitor Vito Deluca, an entrenched democrat that also loses his job if the charter passes. Carolee Oleginski, our beloved prothonotary (which only about 4% of the residents even know what a prothonotary does) also stands to lose her job. The list is long of those against it and almost all of them stand to lose their employment and or power. The exception is Walter Griffith, Controller Extraordinaire. I have heard his concerns and they certainly are legitimate but again, it can't be worse than what we have now. Walter is the only elected official I trust at the courthouse but I disagree with him here.

Then we have those not in office blathering on any radio station that will have them. Some I think are just sycophants and others like being in the press. Like the woman from the lake that has become famous for her crusade against reassessment. If I ever meet her I just want to ask her if she complained as vociferously about her taxes for all those years when she knew she wasn't paying anywhere near what she should have been. But I digress..........

I think we should all vote for the charter and at least try to change the culture of corruption in this county because until that changes, we are a sunk ship. If all of the entrenched dome dwellers are against it, it has to be good for the taxpayers. Fact is, they have given us every reason in the world to vote for this charter and I hope you all do.