Frank Bovalino – 2/13/11

This page was last updated on February 13, 2011.

Let’s save money for taxpayers now; Frank Bovalino; Beaver County Times; February 13, 2011. An editor’s note says, “The writer was the 2010 Democratic nominee in the 15th Legislative District.”

Mr. Bovalino has written at least 15 letters since December 2004. Examples of letters I critiqued are 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.

“As the legislative session in Pennsylvania begins, bills to reduce the debt of government are presented to the Legislature by our elected officials.

“I have read that eliminating the lieutenant governor’s position would save $1.5 million, reducing the size of the Legislature by 40 percent would save $117.5 million and selling the governor’s mansion would save a substantial amount of money for taxpayers in Pennsylvania (questionable).

“These actions will all take time, especially the first two, which would take an amendment to the state Constitution.

“The $4 billion state deficit is in this year’s budget and a quick way to reduce the cost of government and lead by example is for our legislators to reduce their salaries by 20 percent and pay the full cost of their health insurance.”

[RWC] 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.

“This would reduce the cost of state government by approximately $9,979,200 per year. This could be done this budget cycle; and along with the other legislation could reduce the cost to taxpayers over a four-year period of about $158,116,000. A good start I would think.

“These solutions were talked about in August through October of 2010. Now let’s see if this was just talk or will result in real action.”