This is reform?
Monday night’s inaction by the state House of Representatives on three sensible reforms, including a ban on taxpayer-financed “public service announcements” featuring their names or images, proved only that the old guard is alive and well in that chamber. On another failed reform, anyone who watched state Rep. Dwight Evans, a Philadelphia Democrat, on the PCN-televised proceedings could tell one thing: Evans wanted only to protect his lofty status and power as chairman of the influential House Appropriations Committee. That’s why he led the charge against a recommendation from the Speaker’s Reform Commission that would have limited his committee’s ability to amend bills that had already been approved by other (and more appropriate) committees.
The final tally on that one: Evans and his supporters of the old guard, 149; true reformers, 50.
The logic to block reform was noteworthy ludicrous when it came to an amendment from state Rep. Scott Perry, a York County Republican, that would have prohibited committee chairmen like Evans from serving more than eight years. That one failed 64-136, with opponents actually stating that rotating the powerful positions would increase the influence of lobbyists. No sane person would believe that lobbyists don’t already exert tremendous influence, particularly since the House – and all of its current leadership and seasoned committee chairman – have failed to enact meaningful lobbyist disclosure legislation.
On the PSA front, not even the recent revelation that the House spent $6 million of your tax money in the past two years could carry the day for an amendment by state Rep. Greg Vitali – a true reformer – that would have banned a lawmaker’s name, face or voice from use on taxpayer-financed advertising during election years. That measure failed, 39-160, proving that by a 4-1 margin, members of the House still want you to pay for their free publicity.
In another test of how the chamber’s majority really feels about reforms, phone “call histories” were added to the list of information that, under House rules, could be kept from public document review. That means no one will ever be able to see if a legislator used taxpayer-paid long distance or cellular telephone service to call family members, friends, betting lines or other 900- numbers.
At the same time, the House voted down a proposal to forbid lawmakers from using their state fleet vehicles for the taxpayers pay for a vehicle that, in all practicality, will invariably be driven for all manner of personal uses. Quite simply, who’s ever to know?
This first round of “reform” implementation provides strong evidence that the much-ballyhooed Speaker’s Reform Commission was in some ways a dog-and-pony show. And what are we to think of House Majority Leader H. William DeWeese, who’s wrapped himself in reformer’s clothes but who sided with Evans when it came to derailing eight-year term limits on committee chairs?
Tim Potts, a former DeWeese chief of staff who cofounded Democracy Rising PA, quizzically asked: “Who now is the majority leader of the Democratic caucus? Bill DeWeese or Dwight Evans?”
The truth, as we see it, is that they are one in the same when it comes to talking the talk, but not walking the walk.