Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Robert A. Gleason Jr. must be an eternal optimist.

His party is in shambles, having lost more ground to the Democrats in successive election cycles, but Gleason is choosing to look at the few bright spots in Tuesday’s Election Day debacle.

From a statement Gleason released after the GOP took a beating at the polls Tuesday:

“First of all, we would like to thank John McCain and Sarah Palin for the race they ran and their commitment to our Party. Tonight, was certainly a historic night and we recognize Barack Obama for a hard-fought victory. That being said, our Party is proud of the work we were able to accomplish, but certainly not satisfied.”  read more »

Todd Stephens is a highly regarded assistant district attorney in Montgomery County. He’s also the Republican candidate for the 151st State House seat now held by State Rep. Rick Taylor, a Democrat.

Montgomery County Democratic Party boss Marcel L. Groen wants Stephens fired from his job in the district attorney’s office.

Groen (sounds French doesn’t it?) offered some convoluted reason for seeking Stephen’s dismissal. Something about jeopardizing the federal Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees and employees in programs that receive federal funds from participating in partisan political activities.  read more »

You have to give state Rep. Sam Rohrer, R-Berks, credit for persistence. He’s been trying for years to get his plan to eliminate property taxes passed by the Pennsylvania House.

Rohrer told the Reading Eagle that he’s going to give it another shot before the Legislature starts its annual 3-month summer vacation.

A revised version of Rohrer’s School Property Tax Elimination Act will be offered in the House soon, according to the newspaper.

An earlier version of House Bill 1275, offered as an amendment to another tax relief plan, received just 47 votes in the 102-member House.

Rohrer told the newspaper he’s addresses some of the objections lawmakers had about taxing professional fees and not taxing commercial properties.  read more »

A sense of gloom has set in among many reformers because fewer incumbent Pennsylvania lawmakers are facing election challenges in 2008.

Just 32 members of the state Legislature have opponents in the April 22 primary, down from the 61 incumbents who faced challengers two years ago when voters were seething with anger over the July 2005 pay raise.

The anger has subsided with time, but Pennsylvania voters deserve so much more from the most expensive state legislature in the country. Not even the most self-serving can make the argument that Pennsylvania taxpayers are getting their money’s worth from the $333 million annual cost to run this Legislature.  read more »

Tens of thousands of retired Pennsylvania workers have to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for health care needs under a cost-cutting measure ordered by Gov. Ed Rendell.

Rendell made the decision to pass the additional costs to state retirees without consulting with the union representing the retirees or the state Legislature. As you can imagine, state retirees are not happy with the governor’s arbitrary move, which kicked in Feb. 1.

“We have no choice. This is being shoved down our throats,” said William Wise, a state retiree who lives in Limerick and has been working hard in recent weeks to help spread the word about Rendell’s decision.  read more »

It’s been nearly four years since Gov. Ed Rendell and the Pennsylvania Legislature promised state taxpayers would hit the jackpot once casino gambling was approved.

The governor dangled the prospect of property tax cuts in front of reluctant legislators to get the votes he needed to bring 51,000 slot machines to the Keystone State.

Was it worth it? You be the judge. Go to the governor’s Web site, http://www.governor.state.pa.us and click on the button that says “Property Tax Relief” to review a spread sheet that predicts how much residents in each of the state’s 501 school districts can expect in property tax cuts.

For me, it’s somewhere between $120 and $302, depending on how much the casinos take in this year. Let’s play it safe and stay with the minimum number.  read more »

Property tax reform — the Holy Grail of Pennsylvania politics — eluded the Pennsylvania Legislature once again in 2007.

Polls show property tax relief remains the No. 1 issue Pennsylvania voters want elected officials to address, but the Legislature and the governor finished 2007 much the way they began it — unable to pull the trigger on a variety of tax reform measures.

The best lawmakers could do last year was pass legislation that came to be known as Act 1, a tax-shift plan that gave voters the option of raising income taxes while lowering property taxes for qualified residents, primarily senior citizens.  read more »

Somebody must have knocked some sense into Jim Matthews.

Less than 24 hours after a prominent Montgomery County attorney and longtime Republican Party activist switched his voter registration from Republican to Democrat to protest what he called vindictive behavior on the part of the Montgomery County commissioner, Jim Matthews caved.

The dispute centers on a planned transfer of Marcy Toepel, Montgomery County Clerk of Courts first deputy, to a new post in the county Recorder of Deeds office.

Toepel lost the race for Clerk of Courts in November and was going to be out of a job once Ann Thornburg Weiss, the incoming Democrat who won the election, is sworn in.

Toepel was hoping to move into a new job in the Recorder of Deeds office, which is still controlled by Republicans.  read more »