14 Days...No Response

Wow!

Kula has went from being for open records to being for no records to having no response.

So much for her "having the right integrity" as her commercials said during her campaign.

How about having NO integrity.

I sent another email 2 weeks ago and she just won't reply, so I sent another email yesterday.

Here it is:

It has been over a week and I haven't received an updated reply about your staff's salaries, the amount of rent that you are paying for your Dunbar Township office or about Mr. Beal's duties and responsibilities.

I heard that he may be collecting worker's comp or disability or something, so I hope this "job" doesn't interfere with those types of income.

Also, I was wondering if there were want ads posted for these staff positions or if they were handed out based on nepotism?

I found it humorous to read in the Herald-Standard that you are a "co-sponsor" of Mahoney's "Open Records" bill, but you have the nerve to tell a tax payer to go to the Chief Clerk to get the information that I requested from you.

Even your friend Vince Zapotosky thinks that you put your foot in your mouth trying to act like a big shot, but it back fired.

Since the speaker has compiled all of the information for you about the salaries, I am sure it will only take you a few minutes to get that info for me and maybe another 5 minutes to write down the amount of rent that the tax payers are paying the Bells for the office space, so I am sure you can send that info to me in a few days.

Thanks for your time.

Of course, I am still waiting for a reply.

I figure that I will give her another 7 days to get the information that I requested, then I will have to contact our local newspapers and TV stations, and I may even start getting on the radio.

I am sure the people who listen to "Let's Talk" on WMBS will be interested in knowing about Kula's lies and to know that Zapotosky is connected to her big time, so she will drag down his credibility, too.

It's probably about time that Zapotosky cuts his ties to her and just try to ride Mahoney's coat tails into the commissioners' office, because once this hits the fans, Kula's ship will begin to sink.

Once Kula's credibility is shot, the 2008 election will be wide open.

As a matter of fact there are several Democrats already raising money to take her down. At least one would have beat her in the Primary, if it wasn't for someone splitting the vote for Kula.

I, for one, will not be running for any thing in 2008.

I have been asked to be on the board for a Pittsburgh based non-profit organization. I haven't decided whether to do it or not, but I may just continue to volunteer my time in the trenches. I get to help more people that way.

One last thing, I received a lot of phone calls last week from people wondering why Kula was not at the Connellsville Airport meeting.

People were very upset that their "State Representative" wouldn't come out and stand with the people.

I told them that Kula was a puppet and that she was in Hardy's back pocket, you know, the pocket that is bulging from that fat wallet, so she won't be sticking up for the people any time soon.

Well, Deb, I know you read my blog, so I look forward to your reply in my in box or reading your replies in the local newspapers, which would be a shot across your bow and would be pretty dumb to let this go that far, instead of just doing the right thing and giving me the public information that I requested.

Until Next Time...Have A Great Day!!!

No Such Letter

Kula is telling her supporters that she did NOT send me a letter telling me to contact the Chief Clerk for salary and employee information.

Word on the street is that she told Fayette County Commissioner Candidate Zapotsky that she did not send such a letter.

So, I guess I will have to make copies and send it out.

Word is that someone will be mentioning the letter on WMBS 590 AM on the Let's Talk program between 1 & 3 pm.

They might even bring it up to Paul Sunyak when he is on the show on Friday.

Who would ever believe that a career politician like Deberah Kula would lie to the people?

My goodness, she is an ex-magistrate and she stooped this low to lie to the people.

I told you so.

By the way, it's been 6 days since I sent her the reply below requesting the records again and still no reply.

I guess it's just Government As Usual, no matter how much Kula lies about it.

Until Next Time...Have A Great Day!!!

Kula Replies to Information Request

Well, at least Kula replied.

She didn't give me any information, but she did reply with a "pass the buck" answer.

Plus, instead of simply replying with a virtually free email, she wasted more of our tax money by replying on paper with the House of Reps letterhead, envelope and postage.

A simple email reply would have saved the tax payers over $1.00.

I guess it's true what they say about politicians and other people's money.

I asked for 4 things in reference to a rumor that she hired a close supporter's husband as her personal driver/aide:

1. What is his responsibilities or function?

2. Where is the office he is responsible for?

3. How much is he being paid?

4. List all of your employees and their salaries.

Her reply was:

"In an effort to ensure that our government is more open and transparent, newly-elected House Speaker Dennis O'Brien recently announced the release of all Caucus staff ans their salaries. It is my understanding that the complete list will be made available no later than February 16, 2007. Once the list is released, the general public will be able to request information concerning the list from the Chief Clerk's office. I am including their contact information for your convenience. They can be reached at:

Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Office of the Chief Clerk
129 Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg, PA 17120-2020
Telephone: 717-787-2372"

First off, I have a problem with the no comment reply.

On her campaign website www.debkula.org, under "Issues" she says that she is for "open records."

This is cut and pasted from her site:

What I Stand For.
Open Records: Anything that is paid for by the taxpayers' money should be an open record as standard procedure, plain and simple.

Hmmmm....but now she brushes off her constituents requests for records showing how she is spending taxpayers money by telling them to go ask the Chief Clerk.

Well, that is how it was done BEFORE she was elected.

That's...well....um...for a lack of better words....GOVERNMENT AS USUAL, which is what Deberah Kula campaigned against and promised the people that she would not be.

How soon politicians forget their promises.

I will request the info again to see how much of our tax money is being spent and I will request how much rent is being paid for that little office in Dunbar Township.

It appears to be about 50 square feet, so it can't be worth more than a few hundred dollars a month....well....unless the taxpayer is footing the bill.

I am forwarding my email and Kula's reply to our local editors to see if she they can squeeze any information out of her, since Kula won't give any info to a common citizen like me.

As usual, I will keep you updated.

Until Next Time...Have A Great Day!!!

More PA Tax Rankings

You can find more tax rankings here: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes/Advice/TheBestAndWorstStatesForTaxes.aspx?page=2

Pennsylvania has the 7th highest Gas Tax (for now) with a tax per gallon of 32.3 cents, of course Rendell, Kula, and Mahoney wants to raise the gas tax this year to pay for buses in Pittsburgh and Philly.

Pennsylvania has the 5th highest sales tax at 6%, but Rendell wants to raise that to 7% which will tie us for the second highest sales tax behind California.

Pennsylvania has the 24th highest combined state & local tax burden at 10.4% and PA has the 18th highest federal, state and local tax burden at 31.2%.

Of course, if Rendell, Kula, and Mahoney has their way Pennsylvania will be moving up the charts, which is NOT a good thing for working families, but it does put more money in their pocket and bigger free Jeeps and Cadillacs.

Call Rendell, Kula, and Mahoney today and tell them to reduce the tax burden on us before it's too late.

Until Next Time...Have A Great Day!!!

PA has High Property Taxes

No kidding, right!

Well, the non-profit group the Tax Foundation gathered the data and their findings can be found here: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes/Advice/PropertyTaxesWhereDoesYourStateRank.aspx

At the above msn.com site you can find PA's property tax listed in 3 different ways: Median Tax which PA is ranked 14th at $1947, Tax as % of home value which PA is ranked 9th at 1.47%, and Tax as % of Income which PA is ranked 10th at 3.57%.

Let's hope Deberah Kula steps up and introduces some legislation to eliminate property taxes instead of just sitting the back agreeing to every thing her colleagues tell her to and voting for all of Rendell's new taxes.

The state ranked with the lowest property taxes?

That would be: Louisiana was ranked 50th in all 3 categories, which makes sense since that entire state is supplemented with a lot of Federal tax money.

Until Next Time...Have A Great Day!!!

Email to Deberah Kula

I just sent the following email to Deberah Kula after getting a scoop from an insider that she may have hired a personal driver with our tax dollars:

Deberah:
Just doing some research for my side project and I heard a rumor that you have been allotted money for 3 district employees.
I heard that you hired Beverly Beal's husband, Joe, I think, to run one of your offices and I even heard he may be your personal driver.
My questions are:
1. What is his responsibilities or function?
2. Where is the office he is responsible for?
3. How much is he being paid?
4. List all of your employees and their salaries.
It shouldn't take more than a week to gather this information, so I will wait until 2/18/2007, before I report back to the people on my new blog www.52nd-district-watch.blogspot.com and of course to the reporters that write the Whispers column at the Tribune-Review, that mentioned me in their column today (2/11/2007).
You can just email the info to me at bille@zoominternet.net.
Thank you.
Until Next Time...Have A Great Day!!!

I gave her a week to have her 3 local district employees and her many aides in Harrisburg time to gather the info.

In reality, it could be done in less than an hour, but I like to give politicians the extra time to white out info or to shred papers that they don't want us to see.

Of course, Kula wouldn't do that, because that would be Government as Usual and she is against that...well...except for the free Jeep, free gas, free insurance, free healthcare, free pension, free meals, etc. part of Government as Usual, but she is against all the other stuff.

Until Next Time...Have A Great Day!!!

News Flash!!!!!!!!

Since I have always been for reforming state government and open records and have always put all of my cards on the table, I have decided to put some info on my blog, before someone else finds out and gets "credit" for breaking the news.

Since, the General Election of 2007, I have been contacted by a few members of the Fayette County Democratic Party.

These people and I, who I will not name here for their safety, have been discussing local, state, and national politics and of course personal beliefs.

In our discussions, we have realized that we have a lot in common and that we are all conservative and very much against the current tax and spend mentality of our elected officials.

To make a long story short, these people have asked me to consider switching to the Democratic party and before speaking to them, I always thought that the term "Conservative Democrat" was an oxymoron with most of the emphasis being on the moron part, but I was wrong.

My best friend is a Democrat and he is as conservative as I am. We both have the same beliefs and vote the same way all of the time.

My father is a die hard Democrat, but like me, would never vote for Rendell even if our lives depended on it.

These people in the Fayette Democrat Party want to put newer and more importantly YOUNGER blood into the party and breath some fresh air into it.

So, to the almost 200 daily readers of this blog, I will give you the scoop when I make a decision of whether or not to switch from being a Conservative Republican to being a Conservative Democrat, both of which are an extinct species in good old Fayette County.

And CJ, No, I am not running for Fayette County Commissioner...This year, but I will support and help you as much as I can. Good Luck!!!

Until Next Time...Have A Great Day!!!

Retired Representatives Still Raping Tax Payers

First of all, I got this lead from a message board at www.connellsville.com/discuss .

According to Pennlive, the recently retired King James Shaner received a lump sum payment of $153,000 and is receiving $4257 per month from the tax payers.

This is amazing and disgusting when you consider King James was a state rep for only 12 years and that he NEVER wrote, introduced nor sponsored a SINGLE piece of meaningful legislation!

Also, the most he "earned" (I use the word earned very loosely) as a legislator was about $72,000 per year, so he is receiving a pension of $51,084 per year.

What job in the private sector will give you a pension that is 71% of your salary?

Even the military makes you stay in over 20 years to receive a crappy low 50%.

On top of his $4257 per month from being a retired legislator, the word on the street says that he is getting around $2000 per month as a retired teacher.

Of course, with the states amazing open records laws (sarcasm), we can't find the exact amount, that means King James is raping the tax payers for over $6000 per month, for an approximate yearly TAX FREE pension of $72,000!!!!!!

Is your behind hurting yet? Don't worry it will when you find out that these retirements "entitle" King James Shaner to FREE healthcare for the rest of his life and his wife gets to share in his windfall, also.

If we could eliminate these crazy pensions and obscene benefits, we could finally eliminate property taxes FOREVER!!!!!

We won't be able to do it, if we continue to elect people who are more worried about getting rich, instead of being worried about the people.

Until Next Time...Have A Great Day!!!

Reform In the News Every Day

But, is it just "window dressing" while the lights are on?

There will never be true reform in Harrisburg until you or I can walk into the state capitol building and demand to see any expense report we want.

It will not be true reform until we can see where every single dime goes with a click of the mouse.

I don't believe we will see true reform in PA in our life times.

Just as we will never see property tax elimination in our life time.

Why?

Because the PSEA, the teacher's unions are buying our representatives.

Our property taxes pay our teachers and keeps the union running.

This site got some press today in the Trib http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/whispers/s_492579.html

Hopefully, more people will take Kula to task and demand information and true reform, before it's too late.

Until Next Time...Have a Great Day!!!

Government As Usual?

State Rep Kula told everyone that would listen that it would NOT be "government as usual" if she was elected.

How soon politicians forget.

She is driving a free Jeep Cherokee along with free gas and insurance.

And according to several articles, it is costing the taxpayers a lot more than if she would just except the mileage rate of approximately 46 cents per mile.

Also, as a candidate she repeated my promise to post all of my records including expenses online, but as of today, she has not kept her promise.

Surprised?

Of course not, it's just government Corruption as Usual with Deberah Kula.

Thanks goes out to CJ from Dawson, PA for emailing me the articles about Kula's free ride.

I hope to see you on the ballot this year for commissioner. I think you may be the youngest commissioner candidate ever. Good luck!

Until Next Time...Have a Great Day!!!