Legislators 'still clueless after all these years'

From Tim Potts' latest e-mail newsletter:

Still Clueless After All These Years

Calkins Group Capitol Reporter Kori Walter on Sunday disclosed that lawmakers throughout PA, including many first-term so-called "reform" lawmakers, have spent more than $1 million on ads that feature themselves talking about tax rebates for senior citizens and college savings programs for kids. The ads ran on such programs as "Hardball with Chris Matthews" on MSNBC and "Hannity & Colmes" on Fox.

Such ads became controversial last spring when taxpayers learned that lawmakers had spent $6 million on the "public service announcements," or PSAs. The cost covers buying advertising time on television to run the ads, which f eature lawmakers talking about government programs. Most of the $6 million was spent in the 2006 election year when all incumbent House members and half of the incumbent Senate members were up for re-election.

In a March article, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review quoted former House Majority Leader Robert Butera , a Republican who served as counsel to the Speaker's Reform Commission, calling the PSAs "an outrage."

"They're terrible, and voters resent it ... it's wrong. You cannot justify spending $1 on them. You can't justify this," Butera said.

Nevertheless, both the Reform Commission and the full House voted to keep them.

The worst offenders in 2006 were the House Republicans, who spent $4.4 million, followed by the House Democrats at $1.6 million.

Responding to the competition, House Democrats spent the most in 2007 at $850,000 while House Republicans cut their spending to $173,000. Senate Democra ts spent $47,000. Senate Republicans, who pledged in March to stop spending on PSAs, lived up to their promise and spent nothing on the ads. CLICK HERE for Walter's full story in the Uniontown Herald-Standard. Similar reports by Walter appeared in other Calkins papers across PA.

First-term lawmaker Tim Mahoney , D-Fayette, defended the program because of the response he received to the ads. He said that more than 1,000 seniors contacted his office, qualifying for average tax rebates of $385.

First-term lawmaker Deberah Kula, D-Fayette-Westmoreland, had a more narcissistic defense, claiming that people respond better to ads that feature famous people such as herself.

When you do the math, the money spent on the ads could have provided Mahoney's average tax rebate to another 2,779 seniors.

Questions:

1) Who's more likely to be watching the programs where the ads appeared, low-income seniors in need of help or politically aware citizens whose votes lawmakers want in 2008?
2) Would it be more cost-effective to use other media that are more directly targeted to those who would benefit from the programs?
3) Would it be more cost-effective to have employees of human service agencies, both public and private, make phone calls to those who might need the help? (They're already being paid to help those in need. They know the programs and how to apply. And they're not running for re-election in 2008.)
4) Why should members of the legislative branch be doing the outreach and application work of agencies in the executive branch, an obvious violation of the separation of powers?
5) With former Rep. Mike Veon out of office in 2007, who will House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese , D-Greene, blame for this year's excesses?

Read the full newsletter at http://www.democracyrisingpa.com/