Good News on Paycheck Protection

Good News on Paycheck Protection
Two important pieces of legislation were moved out of the Senate State Government Committee on January 31st on a party line vote.

Senate Bill 166 and Senate Bill 167 address the use of taxpayer resources to collect money for unions that will be utilized for political purposes. Currently, government unions can deduct contributions for their political action committees (PACs) and dues money that will be used for political purposes directly from government employees’ paychecks. In other words, the unions are using taxpayer funded systems to collect money for politics.

Over the course of the last ten years, various elected officials in Pennsylvania have gone to jail for using public systems for political gain. However, government unions have been using the public employees’ payroll system to collect funds that are spent directly on candidates and influencing elections (PACs) and funds used to engage in lobbying, voter registrations, get out the vote, and a host of other political activities.

Why should it be legal for unions to use the public payroll system for political purposes, but illegal for former-Speaker John Perzel to use the constituent data system to help sway elections? There is no difference between these two activities; both are political, both are on the public dime, and both should be illegal.