Rainwater

One wouldn’t think that rainwater could be an issue of concern to the average American. . If there was concern the topic of flooding would probably be on the top of the list, or a lack of rainwater that hurts the farmer’s crops. But this is 2010 and we have seen what rain water does around here. It was only a few years ago that a consent decree was signed by the powers that be and the EPA to stop overflows in the sanitary system.

It was Hurricane Hugo that started the oversight. The EPA got involved because in old towns like ours the sewer systems were built as a co-mingled system. That means that storm water, or rainwater runoff, is directed into the sanitary system and goes through the treatment plant. In severe weather the treatment plant overflowed, causing sewage to go into the river. The original idea of co-mingled systems was to push the sanitary waste out of the pipes and down stream. That was before we had water treatment plants as far back as the 1800’s.

Our town has been upgrading our sewer system for the past 20 years but spending big money in the past 10 years. The City of Pittsburgh has finished their work that leads to the Farragut sanitary line and storm line, Bellevue and Ross Township finished years ago. The visible result is the reworked “Tiger Cage” that was installed on Farragut at the end of Jacks Run Creek back in the 1950’s. The Tiger Cage was originally installed when raw sewage was still being put into Jacks Run and needed to be directed to the treatment plant. The Tiger Cage is gone, replaced with a series of debris interrupters that stop trees and tires from entering the sewer system from Jacks Run Creek. Now, storm water from Bellevue, Ross Township and the City of Pittsburgh headed for the Farragut valley is directed to the Ohio River rather than ALCOSAN.

If you have been paying attention you know that ALCOSAN is about to raise fees that we will pay on our sewage bills to help pay for the EPA consent decree work that ALCOSAN has to do. By the time the work is completed, and who you choose to listen to or believe, the cost will be somewhere between $1 billion and $3 billion dollars.

It is nice to talk about the nostalgia of the “Tiger Cage” and pre water treatment days, but this is all old news. Yes, fellow resident, it is old news that we haven’t really started to pay for yet. However, our elected leaders are already pushing their weight around through the EPA for a new round of regulation and taxes. The EPA is looking to regulate the discharge of “rainwater runoff”.

That means a U.S. government agency wants to tax me for the water that falls on my house, driveway or sidewalk and is “runoff” or discharged somewhere. The proposed rule making says the plan is only to affect new or newly redeveloped sites. I guess I shouldn’t worry because my house would be grandfathered wouldn’t it? Well, that depends on what one means by newly redeveloped sites. Did Bellevue just newly redevelop our sewer system? Does that mean that Bellevue will be forced to figure out how much water is coming off private property and into our new storm sewer system?

Does this mean that the surcharge I pay to the Borough for the sewer system we put in, is being added to a surcharge to ALCOSAN for the sewer system they are going to upgrade, for water I use to water my lawn? In the future will I have to pay an EPA tax for the rain when I don’t have to water my lawn?

Oh, by the way, ALCOSAN existed prior to the EPA. We were cleaning our water in Allegheny County before the EPA began operation in 1970. The EPA was originally charged to protect human health and the environment and exists to develop and enforce regulations based on laws passed by Congress.

The EPA ‘s 2010 budget exceeds $10.5 billion, $1 billion of that is for clean air and global climate change investigation and close to $1billion for what they call compliance and environmental stewardship. I’ve got an idea, since the EPA has solved all of our health problems to the point that they want to figure out how much rain water runs off our property, I think they have outlived their original mandate. They aren’t protecting human health any more, if they ever did. It’s time for Congress to pass a law dissolving the EPA.

Trustworthiness

What a week for trustworthiness. The U.S. intelligence community is looking to develop methods that would give clues to who can be trusted, or who is trustworthy. In the same week we have ACORN announcing they are closing down their operations we’re looking for methods to identify trustworthiness. I’m guessing they will reconstitute themselves, let’s wait and see what they call themselves next. In the same week a former representative is convicted of 14 counts of corruption, we’re still looking for clues to identify trustworthiness. In the same week our Congress buys off some, threatens others and claims they are looking out for the little guy, and we find out they violated their own rules, we are still looking for tips on trustworthiness.

It is important that our intelligence and law enforcement community be able to identify trustworthiness in the people they deal with so they can keep us safe. But, I’ll bet they can do that already, if we let them. Our problem is we will not permit them to identify those who are not trustworthy. If you wonder who is trustworthy, trust them until they show that they aren’t trustworthy and then don’t believe them at all.

We can’t use every day trustworthiness tests in our public affairs. The TSA will pull every tenth person out of the line at the airport rather than someone who looks like a mid-eastern terrorist because that would be profiling and we all know that profiling is bad. It isn’t bad if we pull out an 80 year old woman with a cane and search her for bombs because it was just her turn. We didn’t do it because she was a white woman we did it because she was tenth in line. That is where we have come in our truth meter.

If you were aware of this type of activity in the 1970’s you will remember the Baader-Meinhof Gang. They were a group of Germans who were the leftist radicals of the time. If you don’t remember them by name, or nationality, maybe you will remember them as the terrorists in the raid at Entebbe. Back then, when we were looking for them and the Red Army Faction, profiling wasn’t an issue because they were blonde haired and blue eyed criminals. Those radicals didn’t violate our new found sensitivities.

We were taught as children how to test trustworthiness why don’t we just remember what we were taught? Is a community activist group that continues to violate federal and state laws a bad organization that should not be trusted? Does it take trying to fix an election and losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to make people see how bad they are? Or should we have seen it before they closed their doors? Does an elected official who is convicted of 14 felonies get to cry foul because he wasn’t convicted of another 100 crimes?.

The President said that health care reform has been 100 years in the making. Let’s see, that would mean he is speaking of the Progressive Era that brought us President Wilson and the Depression. You see, in the U.S. it was called the Progressive Era, in Russia it was the Bolshevik Revolution, in Germany it was National Socialism. Trustworthiness surely is needed at the federal level but when someone shows you or tells you what they are, and it is not flattering, believe them. We only have to look at the facts, just the facts.

Snow Emergency

We’re lucky we live in Bellevue when it comes to snow. Our Department of Public Works deserves another pat on the back. It seems that our guys are always on top of snow removal and that includes our managers. Think about it, while our managers scheduled our crew to plow and salt the streets other towns did not.

It doesn’t take a flaming intellectual to understand that a $100,000 truck with a plow, salt and a spreader attached can’t move two feet of snow without a human being at the wheel. We can buy all the equipment we want but if there is no one to operate the equipment it’s useless.

Before the City of Pittsburgh announced that they had 50 percent of their streets plowed our crew had all our streets open and the snow on Lincoln Avenue in the business district removed. A news reporter asked the City Council President why the suburbs’ streets were passable but the City’s weren’t. The Council President said if the suburbs were so good at snow removal they should bring their equipment to the city and help clear the streets because the City always lends equipment to the suburbs. Can you believe that?

The reporters didn’t let up over the next few days and eventually we hear that the City didn’t have crews out on Friday night after 8 pm. Some municipalities do that to save manpower costs. By Saturday morning at 8 am the snow already had a grip on the region and the City was snowed in. If that wasn’t bad enough they started towing vehicles parked on side streets. Imagine the logic, fire trucks and ambulances needed the National Guard to answer calls but the City had tow trucks impounding residents parked cars. Do you think they had their priorities a little askew?

Our guys deserve a few more accolades. Did you notice that when they plowed they didn’t plow your car back in? Did you notice they didn’t plow in your driveway after the streets were opened the first time? Not only did they make a clear path for cars they considered all the shoveling we were doing and they didn’t make us do it again. They realized that we were in emergency mode just like they were. I’m sure we will get to the point of widening the paths that will require our driveways, cars, and dug out parking spaces to be violated but after all, it has been over a week now.

Our volunteer fire fighters were cruising the town digging out fire hydrants before some of our neighboring towns plowed for the first time. Three cheers for the road crew and their management team , as well as the fire department, they did an outstanding job in this declared disaster.

Hospitals

Braddock Hospital closed and the residents of the area were jumping up and down about how UPMC was only interested in profits and not the needs of the poor people in Braddock. The people of Braddock weren’t watching as their hospital stopped being profitable and went into the red. The people will not have a hospital just down the street anymore. But should they have been surprised? What has happened to our health care system generally and our hospitals specifically?

St. Johns General Hospital went out of business a few years ago. It changed its name to St. Johns ADR Center before it closed but nobody thought much of the name change or the change in services. The McClure Avenue hospital is nothing but a vacant lot now.

Divine Providence Hospital went out of business also. Well, it didn’t go out of business exactly, it lost the Divine Providence Sisters, changed its name a few times and it is more than a vacant lot so I guess it has not gone the way of St. Johns yet.

Before we go the way of Braddock we should start paying attention. Should we be looking at Suburban General Hospital, I mean Allegheny General Hospital Suburban Campus, or is it Drexel Campus? How many beds does the “Campus” maintain now and how many did they maintain 20 years ago?

Today more ambulances pass Suburban Campus for Allegheny General on the northside or UPMC in Oakland. Some-times emergency cases that would come to Suburban go to Passavant in the North Hills. We have lost the cardiac rehab facilities and who knows what else. The reason the ambulances are by-passing Suburban is because of what cases the hospital is prepared to handle. What the hospital is prepared to handle is dictated by the management of Allegheny General Hospital.

The time to think about what is going on at Suburban is now, not when the emergency room closes. We can’t be like the people of Braddock and object when the facility doesn’t make enough money to support what use to be a 200 bed hospital. We can’t claim it is greed on the part of the hospital when it isn’t profitable anymore. Businesses must make money or they can’t exist and that includes hospitals.

The facility is changing, our general hospital doesn’t exist anymore. The question is, will it be a hospital for long or is it on the way to being a big doctors office? I think the AGH management team needs a 20 Week Challenge on being honest about what is going on with our hospital, or did they tell us when they changed the name to Campus?

When Your Vote Doesn’t Count

The Commonwealth Court has decided that a vote doesn’t count if the official in charge makes a mistake, not the voter, the official. Our founding fathers turned over in their graves last week. It seems ironic that a town that was first inhabited by French and Indian War era settlers and later owned by Revolutionary War soldiers would be responsible for denying a vote to a soldier.

On its face this decision is wrong but the courts aren’t always right. Sometimes it takes them a few cases to figure things out. However, in the past the courts, including the Commonwealth Court, have addressed absentee ballots with a basic understanding, “The election laws are to be construed liberally so as not to deprive a voter of the right to elect the candidate of his choice.” That seems simple but the courts have gone further and said “The court held that it would not void an absentee ballot that was timely cast based solely on a procedural mistake on the part of the bureau.” Does the Judge of Elections count? It doesn’t seem so; “We will not disenfranchise a voter for an act that may be contrary to procedure for canvassing the vote”, and “the invalidation of a vote is a drastic measure, and will be done only for compelling reasons.”

With all the interpretation from previous courts I have no idea why this court didn’t follow suit. A previous court said; “There was no showing of fraud in the casting of the vote or in the canvassing of it. The absentee ballot was properly completed by an eligible voter. To void this ballot would be to deprive the voter of one of his most fundamental privileges given to him by the U.S. Constitution.”

So, since they have ruled in the past with such lofty and poetic verse why isn’t Walter Daughenbaugh’s vote being counted? I have a solution, when a vote is being taken to use any of Mr. Daughenbaugh’s tax money Ms. Braunlich’s vote shouldn’t count. When any ordinance that is up for consideration that would impact Mr. Daughenbaugh in any manner, Ms. Braunlich’s vote doesn’t count. And that would include the zoning ordinance that Ms. Braunlich negotiated that zoned property for adult businesses near Mr. Daughenbaugh’s home.

It’s bad enough that a citizen’s vote wasn’t counted because of a government employee’s mistake but to deny a soldier’s vote is unconscionable. The Commonwealth Court should hang their heads in shame. Mr. Daughenbaugh, you continue to fight for our country, continue to risk your life for those of us on the home front, continue to defend the Constitution that has been denied to you. It may not have worked this time but I’m guessing that we are on our way to demanding our elected officials recognize how far they have wandered away.

Tire Tax

Depending on whom you believe, the excise tax on tires is protecting American jobs or running up the cost of tires. President Obama imposed a 35 percent excise tax on foreign made tires, that took effect, in September to counteract the claim that about 5,000 U.S. workers have lost their jobs in the past five years due to imports.

The tax adds about $35 to the price of two $50 snow tires or $70 for a set of four tires. We are expecting to replace 210 million tires in the next year. Assuming that the price for a tire is $50, the price of two would be $100 with an add on that would be $135. The cost of domestic tires is going to increase also because of the shortage caused by the tax. With 105 million sets sold that would mean that we will pay 3.675 billion dollars in tax. That’s 735 thousand dollars annual tax per job lost in the domestic tire industry. I didn’t know tire workers made that much. How does that make any sense unless the government having a windfall in tax collection is the only goal?

I was talking to a friend who was upset that his medi-care premium was going up from 98 dollars a month to 150 dollars a month next year. That is a hefty increase. Are all senior citizens getting the same increase? I wonder if that increase was calculated by the same people who figured out that a 35 percent excise tax on tires would save jobs or that carbon emissions are causing global warming?

Cap and Trade is on the way to our neighborhood. That’s another word for a tax on any business or person who uses energy to live or work. You see, energy use causes carbon emission that is causing global warming, and the tax will save the world while destroying jobs in the United States. Don’t worry, that hoax you are hearing about being perpetrated on the world will be put to rest when the Copenhagen agreement is endorsed by the President next week. Ironically, on December 7th.

While this is going on the City of Pittsburgh is in a debate concerning taxing student tuition as a privilege. Mr. Motznik told the students that he hoped they were upset with the universities because they don’t pay their fair share of taxes. The audacity of elected officials, who forget what schools and non-profits do for our cities and the region, just so they can tax the public in a new way.

Wait until you see the VAT tax that comes with the health care legislation we are bound to get. Ah yes, a tax that is hidden and the people don’t realize they are paying, what a windfall for tax and spend officials. Another means, like those listed above to tax the public in a new way! I think it is time we all wake up and smell the coffee.

Veterans Day

Veterans Day was originally called Armistice Day, the day World War I ended. Today we should remember those veterans who served so we can be free. Bellevue has provided its share of citizens as soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines to the defense of the United States of America. From the Revolutionary War, we had four Bellevue soldiers fighting back then, Bellevue residents have displayed their valor for two hundred and thirty three years. Forty Bellevue residents have given their lives for freedom around the world. Our military history records currently have 711 men and women from Bellevue listed as having served our country in time of war and during times of peace. You probably have a family member or neighbor you know who served in the military. Meet some neighbors you may not know.

James Robinson was given the part of Bellevue called Sandy Bottom, from Fremont Avenue to the City line for his service in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Chaplain Hugh Brackinridge was given Sidney for service in the Army, that’s Bellevue from Fremont to the Avalon line. He left Bellevue in 1799 when he was appointed Judge of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. John Wilkins Jr. was then assigned Sidney, for his service in the Continental Army. Bellevue was a part of what was called the Depreciation Lands, or land given to soldiers because our country didn’t have enough money to pay the army at the time. J.C. Schaffnit and 10 others served during the Spanish American War. He was later elected to Council and served as President of Council.

You may have known Charles Delcroix, he lived on North Balph Avenue. He was a bombardier, with 35 combat missions between August and December 1944. He participated in the first daylight raid on Berlin Germany. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal w/ 5 oak leaf clusters. He graduated Bellevue High School in 1942, two years before his valorous service. I’ll bet you didn’t know Joe Giovengo. He was gassed with Mustard Gas during World War I. He came home but died in 1920 after being discharged. His son John fought in World War II in the same unit, the 80th Infantry Division.

We had four McCarthy brothers serve in World War II and Korea, Charles, William, Robert, and Theodore. Robert was killed in the Battle of the Bulge. Theodore was an aerial gunner. His plane was lost on September 15, 1943. He was discovered 55 years later in the jungle of New Guinea. His remains along with another of his crew were buried in Arlington National Cemetery December 11, 1998. John McCloskey Jr. was a B-25 bomber pilot. He was shot down over Burma on his 53rd mission on May 20, 1944. He spent 11 months and 10 days in a bamboo cell in Rangoon, Burma.

John Bragdon served in Co. K 123rd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers also known as Watt & Butchers Infantry during the Civil War. He was later elected Burgess, we call them Mayor’s now. We have a shelter in Memorial Park named after him. Col Thomas Bayne started Co. H 136th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, the Keystone Infantry. He fought in the battles of Fredricksburg and Chancellorsville. He was elected as a Bellevue Councilman in 1870, and then District Attorney for Allegheny County, he was then elected to the 45th Congress and succeeding six Congresses.

During World War II Melvin Stock was in the Army Office of Strategic Services (OSS), we call it the CIA today. He was in Paris 3 days before liberation and was responsible for taking hundreds of German prisoners prior to the allied forces entering the city. He didn’t do it by himself; he was working with the French resistance. He was elected Mayor of Bellevue in 1975.

Ronald Young was at the Chosen Reservoir in Korea, he later served as a Bellevue Police officer for a couple of decades. Murl Thompson was on ship during the Bay of Pigs before joining the Department of Public Works, the Fire Department and becoming the Commander of the Robert D. Fleming Post 2454 Veterans of Foreign Wars. Robert David Fleming was a member of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. He was Killed in Action in France with 14 other Bellevue Residents.

Elmer Hohn was a Navy flight radar operator aboard the Valley Forge between 1949 and 1953. He had 60 flights off that aircraft carrier and his units exploits were made famous by the book and movie titled “The Bridges at Toko-Ri”. Elmer remembers when the author James Michener was on board where he collected his stories for the book

Captain Levi Bird Duff served in the Army in France during World War I. He became the first Commander of the North Boro’s Post 116 American Legion. The bridge over I-279 on Center Avenue is named after this Bellevue solider.

We had two soldiers Killed in Action in Vietnam. Charles Downey was killed in action by small arms fire on May 17, 1967 while serving with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade in Quang Tin South Vietnam. John Brooks served with the 1st Aviation Brigade he was killed on April 19, 1968 when his helicopter was involved in a battle and crashed in Phu Bon South Vietnam.

The War on Terror has also claimed two soldiers from Bellevue. Robert Hall Jr. served with the 467th Engineer Battalion when he was killed in a car bombing in Ad Dujayl, Iraq while guarding the gate at his military base. Thomas Vandling was in the Army also and was killed when his vehicle ran over a mine in Iraq.

From the American Revolution to the War on Terror residents of Bellevue have given their time, talents, treasures and lives for freedom around the world. As we remember those who served our country in uniform let us remember that freedom is not free.

Make sure those you know are remembered.

Pittsburgh Proud

The G-20 is over and Pittsburgh can be proud. The anticipated destruction of the city did not occur. The inability of the police to maintain order did not occur. In fact, the exact opposite occurred. Where London and Seattle failed, Pittsburgh excelled. With the exception of a few young misguided and one left over 1960’s career “activist” the people of the area showed who we are.

Oh sure, some protested for the various issues that are important to them but overwhelmingly they did it peacefully. You might have missed the issues of Aids, Free Tibet, Stop the War, end poverty, even Stand Against Police Brutality. We didn’t see people chained to plastic pipes, we didn’t see downtown Pittsburgh turned into a wasteland with broken windows and burned overturned cars. We didn’t see the world media capturing police unmercifully beating demonstrators. Any of the traditional “protester” destruction was seen in Lawrenceville and Oakland, far away from the event. The police did an outstanding job of keeping the peace against all odds.

Police reported 190 people were arrested as a result of the demonstrations during the G-20. The people arrested were from 20 different states and the District of Columbia, not including about 90 from Pennsylvania. There are 19 people who have not had their addresses identified so that might change. I would imagine that most people believe the police did a good job.

Although the police certainly had the front line in maintaining order there were many others who were responsible for the success of the event. The fire department staged their manpower and equipment for quick response around the city. The public works department sanitized the streets, so to speak, of protester weapons. Those are the newspaper boxes, litter containers and other things we are used to seeing on the streets that are easily picked up and thrown by rioters, excuse me, protesters.

I think the answer to the success is not only the preparation of the various agencies but also Pittsburgh showing the stuff we are made of. One of the secrets of southwestern Pennsylvania isthat we really are different than other metropolitan areas. Regardless of what we think the news looks like locally we don’t have a lot of crime. The majority of people in this area live within 9 miles of where they grew up. That means we know each other, we know each others’ parents, children and grand children. That makes us different than other major metropolitan areas around the United States. It might seem trite to say: “We are family!”

Tax ‘em

We have just about taxed ourselves to such a degree on some fronts that we can’t tax anymore so we have to open a new frontier, soda. We spent 50 years demonizing tobacco, excuse me, cigarettes, adding taxes on the product to such a point that the tax is greater than the cost of the product. Now some have set their eye on soft drinks, watch, we are going to tax pop.

This reminds me of the play Music Man. “Oh we got trouble, right here in river city, trouble with a T that rhymes with P that stands for pool.” Yes, we will focus our attention on an innocuous product, demonize it, tax it, destroy the market for it, lose the jobs to produce it and move on to another taxable commodity. If you work for Pepsi or Coke look out

We got rid of DDT a long time ago because a group of people demonized the chemical. Not based on fact, as we find out today, but based on a story of how the birds will disappear some spring. Now that millions of people in Africa are dying from malaria the world is thinking of bringing DDT back.

But don’t let the soda tax get to you, Mayor Ravenstall wants to tax hospital rooms after all aren’t they just hotel rooms with extra services? What about the mayor’s tax on water? I guess the cost of EPA compliance isn’t enough to drive the price of water and sewage up, let’s put another tax on one of the necessities of life.

Don’t forget all those college students, tax ‘em. Come to the city and work all day, pay your all day parking tax in addition to the 50 percent parking tax, in addition to the right to work in the city tax. Go ahead, chase a few more businesses out of town or out of the county, Butler can use the business. Who needs those universities and hospitals?

The reason for all the additional taxes is to pay for the pension funding they should have been paying into for the past 30 years. I wonder what they have funded that was more important than employee pensions. That might be an interesting study.
Oh we got trouble, right here in river city, trouble with a T that rhymes with P and that stands for……POP!

Earmarks

It doesn’t seem to make any sense. We have used billions of dollars to have people buy new vehicles that will give them a few more miles per gallon of gas and we reduce the money available for the poor and senior citizens to pay winter heating bills. Last year the federal government gave Pennsylvania $308 million for LIHEAP, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program; but this year, the state may get less than half of that money – just $143 million. Last year, a family of four with a maximum household income of $44,443 qualified for help; but this year, the income cutoff will be $33,075. I guess we are fixing those rich people.

One of the reasons this doesn’t make any sense is we have spent billions of dollars on nonsensical stimulus projects while cutting worthwhile programs such as LIHEAP. Cash for Clunkers isn’t the only “Makes ya wanna go huh?” moment. A small border checkpoint located in the town of Whitetail Montana serves about 3 people a day, they will receive $15 million for repairs through the stimulus plan. I see crossing guard shelters in West View that serve more people than that a day. Another checkpoint in Westhope North Dakota serves about 73 people a day and is also set to get $15 million for renovations. That’s 20% of the cut in Pennsylvania’s energy assistance program for two road check points. I would feel better if I thought the expenditures were to improve Homeland Security, but they weren’t, they were earmarks, political favors for elected officials.

In the past, Representative John Murtha obtained earmarks in excess of $200 million dollars for the construction of the Johnstown airport named after him. This year alone Murtha got an $800,000 dollar stimulus fund earmark to repave a runway at the airport because it was a shovel ready project, not because the airport project was worthy of stimulus spending. CNN reported there is an $8 million dollar air traffic radar system installed at the Murtha Airport in 2004 that is not being used or staffed.

Bloomberg recently sued the Federal Reserve to release information on where they sent TARP money. The reason Bloomberg sued was because the Federal Reserve didn’t want to make the information public. The courts have ordered the Federal Reserve to release the information on $700 billion plus in bailout loans by tomorrow, August 31st. Imagine, the FED doesn’t want to tell us where our money was sent because it may hurt businesses. $700 billion would go a long way to fund LIHEAP.

Earmarks do nothing to strengthen the United States or the Commonwealth, they only strengthen politicians. As citizens we have to stand up and take responsibility for these practices. We continue to vote for politicians like this because we believe we benefit in some manner, we don’t. The old adage “we don’t care what he does as long as he is our crook” has got to stop, with us. When it comes to public trust we should care.

State Budget

As the governor refuses to compromise on the state budget impasse, he appears to be trying to save the people of the Commonwealth from the knife of the legislature. Nothing could be further from the truth. The governor did a lot of cutting before he sent the budget for approval and now everyone from school administrators to senior citizens are concerned about government budgets.

Scotland School for veterans’ children is due to be taken out of the state budget. That means it will close. Last year the school had 279 students this year they had 310, clearly a growing need. But veterans’ children don’t mean anything in the state budget fight because there aren’t many voices to yell one way or another, just veterans. Even though 90% of veterans’ children at Scotland School go on to attend college while the other 10% enroll in the military, we will throw these children away.

The state budget calls for a slow reduction in service to veterans in the Veterans Homes. Although our occupancy rate is consistently 15% above the national average for domiciliary care and 10% above for nursing care, we will cut the budget and no one will complain. The Commonwealth will save approximately 25% of the line item by cutting services to veterans and disadvantaged children of veterans. That means we save about 25 million dollars. We should be proud.

I’ll bet you don’t know much about the Civil Air Patrol. It really doesn’t make any difference because the 2009-10 budget eliminates it. No more volunteer air search and rescue program when airplanes go down in the Commonwealth, at least none subsidized by the Commonwealth.

Veterans Assistance programs are proposed to be cut by 75%. That’s wonderful! I guess we can just forget about PTSD and TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) in our returning National Guard soldiers. I’ll bet the Pennsylvania 56th Stryker Brigade returning from Afghanistan in September will be happy to hear that.

I think it’s time we start looking at our budgets and see where all the money is going and start cutting out the waste. I’ll bet the majority of us can agree on a couple of billion dollars worth of fat. Maybe we could start by cutting our legislature in half.

OUTRAGEOUS NEWS
The Obama administration is blaming its inability to correctly calculate the size of projected federal deficits on what it terms "a numerical insufficiency."White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said today a panel of distinguished mathematicians will convene next month in Washington in hopes of devising a new number capable of quantifying the enormity of future deficits."The primary problem, as related to us by the Office of Management and Budget, is that there currently exists no known number that large," Gibbs said. "The president believes the most successful way to combat that problem is to invent one." August 28, 2009 Tribune Review

G20

As we get closer to the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, we should be prepared for a few things to happen. When they do happen, we should try to understand what and why it is occurring and try not to get too upset.

One of the things that is sure to happen is demonstrations. Signs will claim that the G20 is responsible for everything from the economy to global warming. Certainly the G20 is responsible for some of the ills of our society but look for the fevered pitch to touch us more directly.

Groups of all kinds are planning and cooperating in their effort to bring their message to the front during the time that the G20 is in town. Some of those planning demonstrations are anarchists. They are people who generally don’t believe in organized anything. However, they are organizing a protest against the G20, go figure! Anarchists are not new, they have been around for a couple of hundred years. We in Pittsburgh should understand anarchists more so than others, but I’m sure we don’t.

Our history has been linked to anarchists for more than 100 years. Back in the 1800’s, after the Civil War, our state and specifically our region, was involved in the labor movement because of the steel mills and coal mines. In 1892 during a steel strike at Carnegie Steel in Homestead the plant manager Henry Clay Frick was shot in an assassination attempt.

If we remember this bit of history from our region we probably think that the shooting was a part of the labor unrest, but it wasn’t. The attempted assassination of Frick was an act of an anarchist taking advantage of the strike and lockout with the company and union members. The anarchist, Alexander Berkman, was carrying out a “propaganda of deed” or inspiring workers into action by his act.

The union did not benefit from the assassination attempt as support for the strike waned and eventually the strike ended. The union became less powerful and eventually was taken over by the United Steel Workers about 30 years later. What is important is the idea of the “propaganda of deed.” The idea of carrying out an act of violence to inspire others is dangerous and we have to be looking at that possibility in the next month.

When you are watching the news and you see demonstrators acting in a violent manner think about the anarchists’goal to cause someone else to act because of their action or “propaganda of deed.” Watch the names of organizations that present themselves for demonstrations. Pay attention to what the groups are doing and see if you can figure out who is practicing “propaganda of deed.”

Garbage

If municipal garbage is collected from residential units and multiple family units up to triplexes or whatever it is today, why are we concerned with a building inspector entering the property to verify? Could it be that the only thing in the balance isn’t just garbage? What could be so important that a property owner does not want the code enforcement officer or a building inspector to verify the number of units on a property?

Maybe it could be as easy as four unit buildings are assessed for more taxes than three units. Certainly 5 or 6 units are worth more than a duplex. The garbage fee and property taxes are without a doubt an issue but consider what else could hang in the balance and it’s not a yearly fee from the borough. Don’t forget the cost of contracting a garbage company to come and give you a dumpster and pick it up weekly, or twice a week if there is a lot of garbage and you don’t want to purchase a bigger dumpster. What would a property owner do if the building inspector found a four unit building with a 3 unit occupancy permit? How many square feet are needed for an approved unit?

Slum lords try to pack a lot of people into a small space so they play loose with the definition of a “unit”. Units without bathrooms or kitchens are common in these types of places, they even have a name for them, they are called rooming houses. Unless of course the landlord is selling them as a personal care home. A lot of people who try to fly under the radar look for housing that really doesn’t meet the definition of “unit”.

People who have outstanding warrants look for apartments that aren’t really easy to find. Apartments that don’t have Unit 1, or Unit 10 on the door are harder to find, like 123 Main Street 3rd floor right rear. Police have a harder time finding it, informants have a hard time describing it and landlords find it easy to deny it exists. Unless an informed person sees locks on some doors but open bath room doors.

These types of places are very profitable because the rent is usually cash and the price per square foot of space for a 12 X 12 foot room is more than the average legal size apartment. Building inspectors know that 6 living spaces in a previously registered 3 unit building is not only a violation of garbage collection laws but a significant safety violation.

I’ll bet you wouldn’t believe that some property owners allow the use and even sell their addresses for people to use for everything from stolen credit card sales deliveries to registering out of town children to go to school. I’ll bet you didn’t know that some apartments are rented to large families of transient people who don’t send their kids to school because they don’t want to be found.

With all of the bad things that can occur with housing by slum landlords why should we care that a landlord who wants to prove how many units they have in a building are afraid of a building inspector finding a violation. Shouldn’t we want violations to be identified? Isn’t it in our best interest as property owners to have a small issue identified rather than allow a slum landlord to exist?

If you are trying to figure out if we should worry about our building inspectors, code enforcement officers or police officers coming into our houses don’t they are all good people. What you are being fed is garbage, don’t eat it.