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Onorato proposes government reform package
Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato on Wednesday proposed a series of ambitious government and ethics reform proposals, with the gubernatorial hopeful calling for a range of a initiatives from limits on campaign contributions and a ban on gifts from lobbyists to enacting term limits and reducing the size of the legislature.
Onorato’s proposals came just a couple weeks after one of his Democratic rivals, Philadelphia businessman Tom Knox, unveiled his own reform package. Many of the ideas, which amounted to the first detailed policy pronouncement of his campaign, echoed ideas that had been laid out by Knox and have long been pushed by good government advocates. Other ideas were unique from Knox’s proposal, though there was little that hasn’t been floated in the past. Still, like Knox’s package, if enacted they would constitute far-reaching reform of state politics.
“It is clear that Harrisburg is broken and that our government is not acting often enough in the best interests of the people it purports to represent,” Onorato said in a statement after announcing the reform proposals at the Pittsburgh Rotary Club. “If we are going to create good jobs, improve our schools and fix our broken healthcare system, we need to change how Harrisburg works and our broken political system.”
Among ideas endorsed by Onorato Wednesday are proposals to:
•Peg state campaign contribution limits to federal limits
•Institute a 12-year limit on a time a legislator can serve in each chamber.
•Reduce the size of the General Assembly so it costs at least 20 percent less to run.
•Enact a constitutional amendment to form an independent commission to oversee redistricting of state House and Senate districts.
•Prohibit legislators from receiving pay if a state budget isn’t passed on time, and prohibit lawmakers from ever raising their own pay again, establishing an independent citizens’ board to set pay instead.
“Although the headlines have been full of stories about last week’s indictments and the embarrassing 101-day late budget, the problems in Harrisburg are far more endemic and often times hidden from public view,” Onorato said. “Our broken system not only lessens needed public confidence in government, it impacts our ability to attract and retain good jobs and workers. That’s why everyone—including the business community—not only should, but needs to be, committed to fundamental reform of how Harrisburg works.”
November 18, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Tags: Dan Onorato
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gophawk
Nov 19th, 2009
I thought our prosecutor had a winning case against this fellow on pay to play (contributions to Onorato linked to the overbudget, late and still greatly reduced tunnel to nowhere project) and on taxes (beer, parking, hospital beds) and on dithering (property tax reassement promised in his first campaign and still about 60% of people paying higher taxes because their homes are worth much less than ten years ago). Now he comes along and serves us up a nice dose of hypocrite. Guess who got a couple of free trips to the Super Bowl in the team plane? This guy is a walking, talking dream of an opponent for an anti-tax, no nonsense prosecutor.
G
miles
Nov 19th, 2009
We get it you suppost corbett, you let it be known in every post. There are some good ideas here. We’ll see what corbett has to offer when he lays out his reforms and ideas for initiatives.
gophawk
Nov 19th, 2009
Even Ed Rendell confessed this summer that the tunnel to nowhere project was “a disgrace” and that he wished it had never been started. How do you think voters will react to spending twice as much money for half the original project to dig a tunnel under the river where all the contracts are no bid, emergency or modifications and all those contractors are donating to your campaigns? Believe me, our prosecutor is going to have a field day with this.
If Onorato was serious, he would not “propose” campaign reform for others, he would “impose” reform on himself.
Greg K., PA
Nov 19th, 2009
gophawk doesn’t seem to understand that you don’t get to prosecute someone because you don’t like their policies.
I think a lot of these reforms are overdue – PA is a bit like the Wild West in terms of campaign financing. I don’t know that I like the idea of term limits, though. I am sick of the gerrymandering and lack of transparency.
gophawk
Nov 19th, 2009
If you don’t like the results of policies, you run a campaign against them. That is why I cannot wait for our prosecutor to make the case against Eddie Rendell’s boy, Dan Onorato, who will not do as he says.
FYI, even the Post-Gazette editorialist today says he is a massive fail on the property assessment. The truth is that 60% of middle and lower income homeowners have paid more than they should for ten years. The reason these homwoners have been overtaxed is because it is a hot potato and that shows you how Onorato would handle the real tough problems we face in Harrisburg … punt!