This page was last updated on December 7, 2011.
Lead by example; Frank E. Bovalino; Beaver County Times; December 7, 2011. An editor’s note says, “The writer is a member of The Beaver Area School Board.”
Mr. Bovalino has written at least 16 letters since December 2004. Examples of letters I critiqued are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Mr. Bovalino tends to write letters bashing Republicans and defending Democrats. Some of his letters told us we’d miss state Sen. Gerald LaValle (D) (cofounder of the BIG slush fund), proposed “solutions” to alleged manmade global warming, and lobbied against E-ZPass for PA toll roads. Mr. Bovalino is a member of the Beaver Area School Board, along with his wife is an elected municipal committee member of the Beaver County Democrat Committee, and is treasurer for the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 47 Political Action Committee.
For an idea how far to the left Mr. Bovalino is, consider this. In a county in which Democrats hold an almost 2:1 (66% to 34%) registration advantage over Republicans (as of the 2010 primary election), Mr. Bovalino lost to the Republican candidate (Jim Christiana) for the PA-15 House seat by almost 2:1 (62% to 38%) in the 2010 general election.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“A recent article that I read about a 3 percent cost-of-living raise for Pennsylvania legislators brings to light that a portion of our state government officials are willing to donate their cost-of-living increases to charities.”
[RWC] Mr. Bovalino wrote a previous letter on the topic of legislator pay.
“This $5,300 yearly increase to the governor’s salary and $2,400 increase to non-caucus legislators are funded by state revenue from us.
“With 203 House members, that totals a $488,200 increase for the House alone; not taking into account the Senate and the judicial and executive branches.
“To add to the cost of taxpayers, Pennsylvania legislators’ pensions are based on salary; by donating increases their pensions are still based on the rate of compensation. To add insult to injury, legislators can deduct these charitable contributions off their income tac [sic] returns.
“In these tough economic times, our Republican state legislators expect Pennsylvania citizens to tighten their belts and live within their means, while at the same time present legislation restricting unemployment benefits, reducing education subsidies, selling state resources and raising transportation fees.”
[RWC] Mr. Bovalino clearly wants to increase unemployment benefits and education subsidies. Where does Mr. Bovalino think the taxes to do that would come from?
“As a Pennsylvania resident, I demand (at minimum) a pay freeze or reduction, and a reduction in reimburseable [sic] expenses. We all should share in the pain of this recession. This is what responsible leadership is all about.”
[RWC] Here’s what I wrote in a previous critique: “Mr. Bovalino’s 2010 campaign website still exists as of 2/13/11 and it does not propose ‘legislators … reduce their salaries by 20 percent and pay the full cost of their health insurance.’ The closest the website gets is ‘Let’s require State House members to contribute toward their hospitalization coverage.’ That’s a pretty big difference. Given this discrepancy between his campaign website and this letter, I can’t help but wonder if Mr. Bovalino would have had the same position he now has had he won the election.” Note: Mr. Bovalino took down his 2010 campaign website since his February 2011 letter.
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