Limiting legislative expenses has no chance
Whenever you find a Pennsylvania legislator willing to propose putting spending limits on legislative expenses you know you’ve found a rare person among the current group in Harrisburg. State Rep. Greg Vitali, a Democrat from Delaware County, says he will introduce a resolution Tuesday to change the House rules to limit use of money from legislative accounts.
Those special legislative accounts run into the millions of tax dollars, money that is available through the House leadership and caucus funds on both sides of the aisle to spend virtually anyway they choose.
Vitali contends that 70 House Republicans and Democrats spent $1.7 million in public money from the legislative accounts to buy air time on local television stations and cable systems in the months preceding last November’s general election.
Although Rep. Vitali didn’t provide the total amount, he says even more money was spent to hire outside telemarketing firms to promote legislators’ district offices and in massive campaigns involving bulk e-mails.
All of this, of course, is done under the banner of public service announcements.
The TV spots, in many instances, will tell the consumer how to sign up for the do-not-call telemarketing service, or pass along information on a children’s health care program.
“While these electronic communications are designed to look like constituent outreach efforts,” Vitali said in a news release, “they are, in fact, little more than publicly funded campaign activities.”
These TV announcements, according to Vitali, are aired in the winter and summer months before primary and general elections, almost exclusively by legislators locked in tough re-election races.
The incumbents work with their caucuses to develop these ads to air on network and cable channels like CNN, purchase bulk e-mail lists from private companies to target the voters in their home districts, and hire outside telemarketing firms to set up automated phone banks to blanket the district with calls, according to Vitali.
This is not the first time the legislative expense accounts have been abused. Millions of tax dollars have been spent on questionable projects over the years by both Republicans and Democrats through the discretionary funds totaling $11 million a year allocated to each House caucus.
Democrats complained in February of last year that state House Republican leaders spent $526,000 in tax dollars to have computer specialists at Carnegie Mellon University gather legislative redistricting data to help the GOP strengthen its majority.
Democrats called it a misuse of public funds. “It produces a rancid stench in the nostrils of heaven,” House Minority Leader H. William DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, was quoted as saying at that time.
Payments were made to CMU over four years, from 1998 to 2001, to develop computer models so that Republicans could predict how many voters would vote in any given House election and what the likely results would be on a precinct-by-precinct basis.
Vitali believes money spent on politically-motivated activities is an inappropriate use of taxpayer funds. Incumbents can use such tactics to overwhelm cash-strapped newcomers in election campaigns.
Rep. Vitali noted that the House is expected to debate and vote on a new set of House rules when the legislature convenes Tuesday.
He plans to offer an amendment to the House rules which would ban use of the legislative accounts for public service announcements on TV and for other electronic announcement s intended for incumbent-protection purposes.
If the legislators insist that these public service TV spots are essential, they should direct the appropriate state agency, which would depend on the project involved, to use their budgets to finance the productions.
Some agencies, such as PennDOT, already produce drunk driving, speeding and highway safety TV announcements. No political candidates appear in any of those spots.
In reality, no politician needs to appear in any of those public service, state-financed TV spots. There’s no benefit to the taxpayer.
Considering the fact that Vitali’s proposed rule would severely impact the re-election campaigns of incumbents, what do you think the odds are that the plan has for approval? How about zilch, zero, nada.
If Vitali gets more than five yes votes in the House from Republicans and Democrats for the resolution next Tuesday, it will be a shock.
If you wondered why the incumbents, both Democrats and Republicans, are returned to Harrisburg year after year, consider the enormous advantages offered to the incumbents for public exposure by millions of dollars in TV spots.
There is no law against House leaders spending public money for partisan political gain.
Rep. Vitali needs to go one step further. He should propose a law which makes it illegal for any public tax money to be used by an incumbent officeholder in a re-election campaign.
Other states have similar laws already on the books. It’s time for Pennsylvania to put some teeth in a new law which would prohibit such enormous abuses of political power.
Mike Ellis is the editor of the Herald-Standard. His e-mail address is: mellis@heraldstandard.com.