StopLouBarletta.com

Mayor Lou Barletta and the city of Hazleton may yet get the help from Harrisburg that Barletta has been begging for.  See, Barletta, as mayor of Hazleton, improperly used almost $3 million of the city’s Pension Fund.  The Office of the Auditor General ruled that, yup, the money was used improperly and the city would have to repay that money back into the Pension Fund.  However, sadly, Hazleton doesn’t have that kind of money laying around, and Mayor Barletta has said that forcing the city to repay that money would bankrupt the city.  His solution to the problem was having the State pass a law that would make his illegal use of the Pension Fund legal, making everything hunky-dory again.  It now appears this all might actually play out the way Barletta wants it to.

According to the Standard Speaker…

“Officials brokering a solution to Hazleton’s retiree pension fund crisis believe an actuarial analysis of the fund will make their work easier.

The analysis being undertaken by Hazleton city officials should provide important information about the fund’s ability to meet obligations to retired firefighters and police officers and its stability in the wake of last fall’s Wall Street financial meltdown, said House Majority Leader Todd Eachus, D-116, on Monday. Once officials have the actuarial data in hand, they can come up with options to address the pension crisis in a way that benefits both taxpayers and retirees, he added.

Eachus hosted a closed-door meeting at the state Capitol for 90 minutes with two dozen representatives of the Fraternal Order of Police in Hazleton and Hazleton city Firefighters Local 507 to discuss the future of the pension fund and its potential to send the city of Hazleton into bankruptcy.

Barletta said the meeting produced the possibility of a modified version Senate Bill 961, which would widen application of SB 961 to allow other municipalities, not just Hazleton, to utilize a portion of pension tax revenues for retirement benefits.”

Now, if the State is willing to pass a law that will help out the city of Hazleton, fine.  My problem with all of this is that I’m not sure this sets a very good precedent.  What kind of message does this send, especially to incompetent mayors like Lou Barletta?  “Go ahead and do whatever the hell you want with tax-payer money, legal or not, and if you get into trouble, we’ll just change the law for you.”  Nice.

The other thing about this whole situation that I find troubling is how Mayor Barletta is trying to make his mistake Harrisburg’s problem.  Had Barletta actually followed the law in the first place, the city wouldn’t be in this mess.  The State is still without a budget and facing a huge deficit, but Mayor Barletta would like the lawmakers in Harrisburg to put all of that on hold so they can focus on passing a law to make the consequences of his illegal activities go away.  Because, you know, making life easier for Lou Barletta is what we have a State government for, right?

Lou Barletta will probably run for Congress in 2010.  He has proven that he has no regard for the law.  He has proven that things like budgets and responsibility have no meaning to him.  Clearly, this is not the type of person that we need to send to Washington.  Look at all the damage he’s done as mayor of a city.  Do we really want to give him an opportunity to serve in the Federal Government, where he’ll be in a position to inflict his arrogance and incompetence on the entire nation?  Lou Barletta should not be elected to higher office.

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

This entry was posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 9:49 am and is filed under Hazleton Pension Fund Fiasco . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.