Tag Archives: Ryan Mackenzie

State lawmaker spending for East Penn area

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Couple thoughts:
I am glad PA has a professional legislature but size of house should be reduced. In theory a professional legislature makes sense for a state the size of Pennsylvania. However, the size of the house needs to be reduced. Currently in the Senate the average district handles about 250,000 residents. In the house it’s 60,000. I think that number can be increased to about 100,000 residents per district in the house.

I think Reps & Senators should only make the average median income of the district they represent. I wrote about this couple years ago.  Today, the average salaries for our elected officials in PA are the 2nd highest in the nation for professional state legislators.

Clearly, we still need some reform of expenses in both chambers. The Senate is heading in the right direction. At least this past year having reduced expenses 14%. Still, the discrepancies in both chambers between the high spenders and the low spenders remain far too great. And in a lot of cases hard to justify.

This isn’t a partisan problem. We have big spenders and frugal spenders on both sides of the aisle. 

Lastly, I think the Morning Call does a pretty good job pulling together this information each year. Great work by our local newspaper.

HOUSE
Each House district represents an average of 60,498 residents. Pay is an average of 78,000

Gary Day – 68,915.41 (rank 9th highest out of 203)
Ryan Mackenzie – 50,563.09 (rank 124 out of 203)
Justin Simmons – 38,016.89 (rank 176 out of 203)

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SENATE
Each state Senate district represents an average population of 254,047 residents. Pay is an average of 85,000

Looks like for Senators office lease totals are reported as yearly and for the house it’s monthly. Note: Some Senators maintain multiple district offices. For example Lisa Boscola maintains 3. Bethlehem, Whitehall and Easton. Personally, I think that’s a justified service to constituents since Senatorial districts are so large.

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#pabudget fiasco

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Latest on the fiasco that is the #pabudget. Looks like thanks to some procedural maneuvering the Senate “budget framework” is back on the table.

What that means for liquor privatization and pension reform? Who knows. What we do know is the “framework” for spending was moved forward apparently instead of an 11 month stop gap budget. The spending plan will now require an additional 700 million in new revenue. That will be tackled in the coming days. But hey, vote for the spending package first – handle that pesky little detail about how you pay for it later. Makes sense? Right?

Speculation is that it could happen on Christmas Eve. Here come higher tax increases – Merry Christmas!??

There are lots of better sources for evaluation of what this all means. What I like to do here is post how our local LV delegation voted FYI since it’s not always easy to figure it out.

On a vote that essentially positions the 30.8B framework for consideration – as opposed for a stop gap – The original Senate Bill was sponsored by Pat Browne (R)
Voting no (you can only assume in support of a 11 month stop gap?)
Ryan Mackenzie (R)
Justin Simmons (R)
Gary Day (R)
Julie Harhart (R)

Voting yes – (in favor of a return to framework as opposed to stop gap)
Mike Schlossberg (D)
Pete Schweyer (D)
Dan McNeill (D)

I’ll say this. Whole process has been frustration. Pension reform, severance tax and liquor store privatization – all items that majority of Pennsylvanians support based on polling. And yet here we are 150+ days into a deadlock and its possible we have no action on any. Tax increases with no structural reform is total loss for Republicans who hold the majority of the general assembly.

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Why? We have two parties silo’d and slotted into heavily gerrymandered districts. So each one answers to special interest masters.

In PA’s gerrymandered mess voters don’t choose politicians. Politicians choose voters. I sincerely believe that is at the core of this stalemate and the result is a lack of action on most all critical issues. I don’t blame individuals. I blame the system.

Related: HELP SLAY THE GERRYMANDERER! Support SB 484

The 134th - "Contiguous and Compact"......?

Last iteration 134th  – “Contiguous and Compact”……?

The 134th today - "Compact and Contiguous"?

The 134th today – “Compact and Contiguous”?

Lehigh Valley Legislators talk budget

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Collection of social media posts. Tried to get one from every west Valley official. If I missed anyone send me a link and I’ll include. Did this quick.

Everything is hyper political now of course.. but you can glean useful information from most of these. Posted video where available. (thanks to all local officials who actively maintain social media!)

I think the Republican proposal hits alot of the most critical points. But neither is perfect. Here is what I think is most important.

In no particular order..

Rep. Ryan Mackenzue. 134th (Includes Lower Macungie)

Senator Pat Browne – 16th District (includes Lower Macungie)
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Rep. Justin Simmons floor comments. 131st
[mfb_pe url=”https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1059971030699374&set=vb.173698075993345&type=2&theater” mbottom=”50″]

Rep. Michael Schlossberg. 132nd

Rep. Gary Day 187th
[mfb_pe url=”https://www.facebook.com/RepGaryDay/videos/vb.183033511738325/937385346303134/?type=2&theater” mbottom=”50″]

Sen. Bob Mensch
https://pasen.wistia.com/medias/wk1et90ulk

Rep. Peter Schweyer


Pennsylvania spends more on road expansion than repair

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Pennsylvania spends more on new road expansion than we do on maintaining our existing network – despite financial liabilities mounting & conditions not improving. Meanwhile, we just raised the gas tax.

Here is a link to an eye opening study by Smart Growth America and Taxpayers for Common sense.

State departments of transportation (DOTs) are spending more money building new roads than maintaining the ones they have—despite the fact that roads are crumbling, financial liabilities are mounting and conditions are not improving for America’s drivers.
-Executive Summary

Here’s the statistical breakdown for PA:
*dollar figures in millions

Average annual state expenditures on road expansion versus repair, 2009–2011

Average annual state expenditures on road expansion versus repair, 2009–2011 From “Repair Priorities 2014 Transportation spending strategies to save taxpayer dollars and improve roads.

So we have above representing Pennsylvania’s most recent spending reality. (Again remember, we just raised gas taxes to address a “crisis” level concern. Which of course is pretty much universally acknowledged as a band-aid at best.) This in my opinion is a problem in and of itself, but meanwhile here are the results of this failed strategy…

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Here is another little tidbit from the report PA specific:
Pennsylvania as stated above is spending 877 million a year in repair. What’s the liability? 2,203 million. That’s a deficiency of 1,326 million annually.

Pennsylvania reflects the Nationwide trend of spending billions for marginal benefit. “States spent $20.4 billion on road expansion each year between 2009 and 2011. During that time our state-owned road network increased by 8,822 lane-miles, less than 1 percent. Meanwhile, America’s driving measured in vehicle-miles traveled, remained fairly stable during this two-year period, yet traffic congestion in urban areas did not change. It’s a statistical fact: States’ investments in expansion are yielding little gain for drivers despite the substantial cost.”

My question is whose going take some leadership in Pennsylvania? Road conditions are deteriorating yet our spending problems are focused on expansion which at best provide negligible results in level of service improvements. Whose going to break the broken cycle?

I’m looking towards our local state officials for leadership here. @Senator Pat Browne, @Representative Ryan Mackenzie, @Representative Justin Simmons, @Representative Michael Schlossberg (House transportation committee). Anyone paying attention to this?

 

Related articles across the web

Mackenzie – Increase penalties for municipal theft

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We know all too well in Lower Macungie the damage a crooked public official can cause…. A former supervisor was accused of stealing $2.5 million in township sewer funds over a period of seven years. She later died before she was prosecuted and the township never recovered the full amount stolen. This disaster ended up being the driver for a successful resident led effort to convert Lower Macungie to a 1st class township since the 1st class code prohibits Commissioners from also being township employees.

Also this: Former South Whitehall Employee, Husband Charged with Embezzling Nearly $1M from Township

This is good legislation by Representative Mackenzie who represents Lower Macungie and South Whitehall in the 134th.  Elected officials who abuse the public’s trust should receive most severe penalties.

From Rep. Mackenzie’s facebook page. Mackenzie explains why he feels increased penalties for those who steal from municipalities make sense.