Category: Pennsylvania

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Keep up the pressure against HB 1467

  By Consumer protection, Pennsylvania

The fight over HB 1467—the bill that will make it more difficult for consumers to use the courts to get compensation for shoddy work by contractors—is heating up. Today the Inquirer reports that the Attorney General Tom Corbett, a Republican no less, has advised Governor Rendell that the bill is unconstitutional. Yesterday Jeff Gelles wrote another powerfu column and blog entry about it. The Inquirer also reports that the City’s Director of Consumer Affairs, Lance Hvaer, and Councilman Jim Kenney, wrote a joint letter asking the Governor to veto the bill. You can join them. Contact Governor Rendell by email at governor@state.pa.us by fax with the Hallwatch Faxbank Service , call him at 717-787-2500 or write to him at Governor Edward G. Rendell, 225 Main Capitol Building, Harrisburg, PA 17120. Over the last few years we have seen one bad bill after another sneak through the legislature when no one… Continue reading

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Protect consumers: stop HB 1467

  By Consumer protection, Pennsylvania

Good editorial today in the Inquirer urging Governor Rendell to veto a HB 1467, a bill that would put homeowners fighting contractors who have done shoddy work at an even greater disadvantage than they are today. The justification for the bill is that it would avoid litigation by giving contractors 2 ½ months repair bad work. But the bill creates procedural barriers that will make it more difficult for homeowners to sue contractors who fail to make the repairs. The editorial follows on an excellent column Jeff Gelles wrote about the bill a few days ago. By the way, if you don’t read Jeff Gelles regularly you should. Not only does he have good personal advice, he regularly takes on political issues from a consumer perspective. He is one of the few reporters willing to take on Comcast, for example, criticizing them for their anti-competitive refusal to allow Direct TV… Continue reading

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What we progressives can learn from our own failures: the future of progressive politics in PA, part 3

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Political Organizing, Progressive Politics

In the last post in this series I wrote about the limitations of Governor Rendell’s centrist strategy in dealing with a Republican legislature that is tilting very far to the right. Today I want to point to some of the failures of activists in dealing with the same barrier to progressive politics. Let me make clear that this is mostly an exercise in self-criticism. (Yo, David Horowitz, note that suspiciously Maoist turn of phrase.) I am going to write about some of the campaigns on which I have worked and point to three ways in which I think we might have made them, or might now make them, more effective. Continue reading

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What progressives can learn from Governor Rendell’s failures: the future of progressive politics in PA, part 2

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Progressive Politics

Governor Rendell went to Harrisburg hoping to follow his path to success in Philadelphia. As Mayor of this left of center city with its strong labor unions, Rendell governed from the center. He took on the municipal unions, forcing them to make significant concessions. He cut taxes. He used city funds and tax breaks to create the public facilities and to encourage the private initiative that spurred development, mostly in center city. He was neither a rightist who minimized the role of government nor a leftist who attempted to use government to pursue social justice. Continue reading

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Success and failure in Harrisburg: the future of progressive politics in PA, part 1

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Progressive Politics

The Future of Progressive Politics in Pennsylvania, Part 1 This has been a good week for progressives in the state. Governor Rendell has announced that he will veto HB 1318, a bill that would have been most aptly named the Voter Suppression Act of 2006. I was very proud to work with wonderful Protect Our Vote Coalition in opposing the bill and was pleased that Neighborhood Networks officially joined the coalition as well. Jeanine Miller in Philadelphia and Celeste Taylor in Pittsburgh did a great job leading the coalition and Larry Frankel of the ACLU in Harrisburg was immensely important to our efforts as he tracked every twist and turn of the legislative process and gave us strategic advice about what to do at each moment. Any victory by the left is a good one and stopping this awful bill is an important accomplishment. However, before we get too pleased… Continue reading

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Take that, Mr. Steffens: We are content no more

  By Pennsylvania, Progressive Politics, Published Op-Eds

Published in the Daily New, Mon, Nov. 14, 2005 THE BIGGEST loser in Tuesday’s election wasn’t on the ballot. It was Lincoln Steffens, the muckraker who coined the phrase “corrupt but content” to describe Philadelphia politics. We can now retire the phrase. We may be corrupt, but the election returns show that we are not content anymore. When almost 87 percent of the voters support a proposal that takes a step toward cleaning up politics, you know we’re not content with politics as usual. (Ballot proposals generally win with about 70 percent of the vote. And the ethics question won a higher percentage of the vote than popular DA Lynne Abraham who ran against an seriously underfunded opponent.) When an election without a single race whose outcome was in doubt draws not the expected 9 percent but 14 percent of the voters, you know people want things to change. And when… Continue reading

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Another perspective on the pay raise

  By Pennsylvania

When the pay raise issue first arose, commentators thought that after, after a week or so of outrage, it would go away. Why are we still so focused on it? To answer that question we need to put the pay raise issue in some political and economic context. One reason political scientists and journalists thought that the issue would die is that we know that people don’t pay much attention to politics. Another reason is that many of us think there is a case to be made for a well paid legislature. Much research shows that well paid legislators tend to be better informed, more interested in policy innovations, and more resistant to special interests. They also tend to spread power from legislative leaders to the backbenchers. These tendencies are hard to discern in our General Assembly now. But if we are ever to see reform inHarrisburg, it will be… Continue reading

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Renewing Coalitions: Labor, Community Groups and the PTC

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Politics, Published op-eds, Transportation, US

Published in the Philadelphia Public Record, May 2005 Someday—I hope it won’t be long—we will be talking about how, where, and when political activists associated with the Democratic Party revived first themselves and then their party. When we do, I would not be surprised if we point to the victory for advocates of public transit in Pennsylvania last years as one important step towards this revival. Continue reading

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We can't afford to flunk transit

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Published Op-Eds, Transportation

The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 16, 2004 As a teacher, I know that review sessions are useful, so the end of an academic semester and calendar year is a good time for a review of public transit 101. A final exam is coming up soon, both for our political leaders and for us citizens. We all are in danger of failing. Our semester’s project has been to put pressure on our political leaders to make sure that there are no service reductions or fare increases at SEPTA. That means all of us should be contacting the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties in Harrisburg, Gov. Rendell and Speaker of the House John Perzel, as well as our own legislators. It is easy to find excuses for not doing our homework. SEPTA is an unloved course for most of us. It often is unresponsive both to low grades and constructive criticism.… Continue reading

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Put SEPTA on the rails with slots

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Published Op-Eds, Transportation

Reprinted from the Philadelphia Inquirer, June 28, 2004 The artful compromise is one of the highest accomplishments in politics. Our great politicians are those who can bring opposites together or frame an issue in a way that generates broad support. Right now, politics here is, with one exception, at an impasse. Our mayor and City Council are struggling over budget and tax issues. Transit agencies and commuters are pleading with state officials to provide the new, dedicated funding that would enable them to avoid disastrous cutbacks or equally debilitating fare increases. The governor and General Assembly are divided about education policy. Gov. Rendell’s Growing Greener II environmental program is an anathema to Republicans. It is only on the issue of slot machines that Democrats and Republicans seem to agree. The solution to all our difficulties then is obvious: Put slot machines on SEPTA commuter trains. Continue reading