James V. Zedak – 10/29/14

This page was last updated on October 29, 2014.

Keepy [sic] lobbyists away from legislators; James V. Zedak; Beaver County Times; October 29, 2014.

Mr. Zedak has written at least 37 letters since 2004. Previous critiques are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“When the new Pennsylvania legislative session begins, some important issues should be addressed without the influence of powerful lobbyists who seem to control our government.

“Issues such as pension reform, property tax reform, equalization of public education funding so that a student from the poorest school districts has the same education as those from the richest districts, and changing the labor rules to make Pennsylvania a right-to-work state that gives non-union workers some rights under law.”

[RWC] That “a student from the poorest school districts” somehow gets shortchanged when it comes to education funding is BS and has been since I started fact-checking this claim about 10 years ago. The comment is meant to imply “poor” districts like Aliquippa don’t get sufficient funding. For the 2012-2013 school year, the “wealthy” Central Valley SD spent $12,802/student while Aliquippa spent $17,273/student. Further, CV taxpayers provided 50.1% of their SD’s revenue (2011-2012) while Aliquippa taxpayers provided only 29.1%. You can find the data at openPAgov.org.

“However, this might just be wishful thinking since one legislator is pushing a bill that outlaws the eating of cat and dog meat and bans organized pigeon shoots. I guess the lobbyists don’t feel that legislation is important enough to fight even though one or more legislators feel this is crucial to good responsible government.”