Eachus Failed to Make Tough Choices

EACHUS FAILED TO MAKE TOUGH CHOICES

On July 14, 2010 the Standard Speaker ran an article entitled “Eachus: More tough choices ahead.” The problem with this year’s budget is that only the taxpayers are being asked to make tough choices. The Legislature lined the budget with more money for themselves while decreasing services to such groups as Veterans (a $1.26 million reduction), student PHEAA grants (a $15.3 million decrease), and State Police (a $7.1 million decrease). While local libraries suffer from a statewide funding cut of $5.5 million dollars, the Arlen Specter Library is being created in Philadelphia with $10 million dollars of taxpayer money. This makes no sense. Are we supposed to drive our children to Philadelphia for good books?

This year, families had to make the tough choice of not going on vacation because they cannot afford it. At the same time, our legislature increased their own legislative budget by $1.3 million dollars. This is only to be expected from a representative who collected $26,000 in per diems last year ($10,000 of which were racked up during the budget impasse).

This is the same representative who voted himself a pay raise and gave himself a 50% pension increase. Currently, our legislature is under fire for being one of the most expensive, bloated legislatures in the country. It is also the subject of the Bonusgate Grand Jury investigation which alleges lawmakers are illegally using tax dollars to campaign and maintain their well-paid, well-perked positions. Increasing the legislative budget is an insult to the taxpayers and the agencies that will go without this year. This is a classic example of how our legislature treats us, the taxpayers: Do as I say and not as I do. We Deserve Better.

Toohil: Misuse of Taxpayer Money IS an ISSUE

My opponent has tried to ignore the Bonusgate Corruption Scandal where millions of dollars in BONUSES were paid out to state employees who did political work illegally on state time. This is the way my opponent has been running Harrisburg.

My opponent wants to ignore the fact that he collected over $27,000 worth of per diems in 2009 which he then used to purchase a second home for himself in Harrisburg. Per diems are supposed to go towards renting a hotel room and paying for food ($163 a day= $111 for hotel + $52 for food). Mr. Eachus, since you bought yourself a house and paid your own mortgage with taxpayer money... will you return the money to the taxpayers?