Scowls and Wows
Scowl: What do Penn State University and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency have in common? If you guessed “students,” you’re only partially right. Like PHEAA before it, Penn State is in court, fighting to maintain the secrecy of the salaries of top university officials, including venerable football coach Joe Paterno. Penn State is arguing that as a “state affiliated” school, it only gets 10 percent of its annual budget from the state and is pretty much a private entity. But if that’s the case, why are Paterno and the others enrolled in the State Employees Retirement System, which is where the Harrisburg Patriot-News is trying to get the salary information? You can’t have it both ways. If the top brass at Penn State wanted to keep their salaries hush-hush, they shouldn’t have signed up in what’s clearly a public pension system. And by the way, if Penn State doesn’t want to be treated like a public entity – it’s currently exempt from the open records law – it shouldn’t get or accept any state money. Period. Now we’ll have to wait for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to rule on the matter. Scowl: To the voters of Fayette County who didn’t go to the polls Tuesday. In an election featuring most county row offices, including commissioner, control of many school boards and some key municipal races, turnout was an abysmal 30 percent. In the Uniontown race for magisterial district judge, a very good-paying job, the Democratic and Republican nominees prevailed with only 375 and 147 votes, respectively. And no candidate for county commissioner eclipsed 10,000 votes. This type of turnout occurred on a day when the weather was perfect. Go figure.
Scowl: No one can blame Donald Seroka for wanting more money as director of the Fayette County Veteran’s Affairs Office. Especially when the salary is a comparatively low $27,612, and Seroka was the fourth person hired in little more than a year when he assumed the job in February 2006. But the job pays what it pays, and Seroka knew that when he signed on. So it shouldn’t be so “baffling,” as Seroka says, that the salary isn’t more. Most people get a higher salary, not at the start of employment, but after first proving their worth and dedication.
Wow: According to an AutoVantage study of road rage, some of the most courteous drivers in the nation are in Pittsburgh. Other cities in that category are Portland, Ore.; the Seattle-Tacoma area; and Dallas-Fort Worth. Tops for rudeness: Miami, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Wow: Area voters resounding turned down the Act 1 referendums that would have permitted school districts to increase their wage tax in exchange for some additional property tax relief. It was a shell game promoted by the state Legislature from the start, and many school board candidates urged defeat of the referendum. Now the problem rightfully heads back to the Harrisburg drawing board.