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Welcome to www.dante7.com. The personal web site of Dante Picciano and friends.
BEST PLAN TO REDUCE TAXES
May 31, 2007 Dear Editor: Keith McCall told me in response to my question on PCN that the STOP plan- to eliminate ALL (not just school) property taxes- will come up for a vote in June before the House. His words not mine. This is the best plan I have seen and it reduces ALL property taxes, not just school property taxes. It provides for people who have a homestead but does not reduce affect commercial properties like Wal-Mart or Hess gas stations- as an example. The numbers add up for this plan, unlike the Commonwealth Caucus Plan that only would reduce SCHOOL property taxes. Sam Rohrer has done a great job of bringing this issue to the forefront, but his proposal of reducing the SUT to 5% and taxing everything will not make it past one lobbyist. The STOP plan is tax shifting aslo, but it eliminates every last tax you pay on a property. It is the only viable compromise. McCall said he continues to support as he did 4 years ago at a meeting we had with Rep Grucela and Rep Gergley who introduced the plan. IF YOU WANT TO GET RID OF PROPERTY TAXES, HOLD MCCALL TO HIS WORD. EXPRESS YOUR CONCERN TO BOTH PARTY WHIPS TO INCLUDE REP ARGALL. If this is coming for a vote as Keith says, then Dave Argall should also support it in my opinion. It is up to all of you to make it happen. If you really want to get rid of ALL property taxes, you have to tell these Reps this. They will not deny you a YES vote on this. If they do, they have no desire to ELIMINATE your property tax. his is the message and it is accurate. The rest is up to you. Mike Polyak READ THE RESULTS OF THE PRIMARY
May 24, 2007 Dear Editor: Now that the dust has settled, I would like to comment on the results of the May 15th Republican primary election. I ran against incumbents Frank Staudenmeier and Bob Carl for Schuylkill County Commissioner. I ran without the endorsement or support of the Schuylkill County Republican Executive Committee and finished third with 5,514 votes or 26 percent. One thing that every candidate for public office should do is learn to read the results of the election. After the voting, Mr. Staudenmeier and Mr. Carl were reported to have said that they never considered me a serious challenge to their re-election effort. In contrast, I read the results as showing that 26 percent of the Republicans who voted expressed dissatisfaction with one or both of the current commissioners. I do not believe that the election results are an endorsement of the policies of the current commissioners but are a warning that the people are unhappy with the "education" tax increase, the county's shrinking workforce, the way the mental health/mental retardation crisis is being handled, etc. I sincerely hope that both the Republican and Democrat candidates read the results of the primary election correctly and start to do things that will lead to the betterment of all of the people of Schuylkill County, not just a select few. Finally, I would like to thank my supporters and the voters of Schuylkill County for their hard work, efforts and votes. John H. Schickram OUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH GOVERNOR RENDELL
We are writing to share with you our personal experiences with Governor Ed Rendell in regard to the dumping of wastes in our communities. On November 19, 2003, Governor Ed Rendell was the guest on the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN) "Call-In" Program. One of us asked the governor the following question: "I'd like to know your position on the dumping of New York harbor sludge in Pennsylvania." Governor Rendell answered: "Well, easy question to answer. I'm against it." On May 17, 2004, Governor Ed Rendell was again the guest on the PCN "Call-In" Program. We asked the governor the following: "Governor, on November 19, 2003, on this same show, you stated that you were against the dumping of New York harbor sludge in Pennsylvania. I want to know why then did you allow the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on March 2, 2004 to issue a general permit for the dumping of New York harbor sludge throughout Pennsylvania?"
Also on the May 17, 2004 PCN "Call-In" Program, we asked Governor Rendell "What is your position on House Bill 2275, the Water Dredge Material Municipal Regulation Act, that gives residents of an affected community a vote on the use of New York harbor sludge in mine reclamation projects in their community?" Governor Rendell answered "Well, I'm not for letting anything be decided by referendum and that would be what this bill would try to do, Dante." On July 14, 2004, Governor Rendell addressed a demonstration crowd outside the Schuylkill County Art and Ethnic Center in Pottsville. At that time, Governor Rendell approached us and gave him his fax number. He told us that if we would fax him a letter with our complaints, he would personally see that the complaints would be investigated and that he would get back to us. On July 15, 2004, we faxed Governor Rendell a letter with our concerns about the dumping of river sludge and fly ash in our communities. To date, we have not received a response from Governor Rendell. On April 26, 2006, Governor Rendell addressed a demonstration crowd outside the Fire Department in Coaldale. On this occasion, Governor Rendell offered a face-to-face meeting with us. Specifically, Governor Rendell stated "The only thing I can say to you, I'll be happy to see three or four of you in Harrisburg or in Philadelphia. If there is some company, an independent company, that you are going to be happy with (conducting the tests), I'm willing to spend the money for it." To date, Governor Rendell has failed to schedule our face-to-face meeting.
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Governor Rendell responded "Well, again, there's a Supreme Court decision that bars us from issuing a blanket rule that says we can make no out of sludge …, no out of state sludge, no out of state garbage, trash, whatever. There's a Supreme Court decision that says one state cannot put up rules to bar that. What I said is that we would try our very best to limit the levels of trash or sludge that could be put into any one area and thereby limit the amount of sludge that came from out of state."