Back in 2016, then Lower Macungie Commissioner Ron Beitler, myself and a few readers came up with a laundry list of government reforms. Some were actually enacted, at least partially. But most suggestions are still out there. These are neither Republican nor Democratic proposals. You either believe in good government or you don't.
I am running the latest list and ask you to make your own suggestions.
1. Term limits now and tweak the terms. Three four-year terms for State Reps. Two six-year terms for State Senators. A two-year term for State Reps is too short, They have to start campaigning for the next election virtually the day after they win.
2. Reduce the size of PA government so state rep districts have 85,000 people within. This is small enough to maintain constituent services at the current level, but large enough to eliminate 52 positions entirely. Eliminate the state senate.
3. Eliminate pensions for elected officials. Salaries for a full-time state legislator should be adjusted to be the median for the district represented. It is a full time job, but not a career. Pensions are for career positions.
4. Enact Resign-to-run rules that would apply to any full time elected position that draws a taxpayer funded salary. The only exception to this rule I can see is if the candidate is in the final year of his term.
5. Require all candidates for state office to file campaign finance reports electronically so the people know immediately how the campaign is being funded. Too many candidates refuse to file electronically, and the state elections office is never in a hurry to get reports online.
6. Ban the use of campaign funds for criminal defense.
7. Increase penalties for noncompliance with state campaign finance laws, and continue the requirement that a candidate pay for violations out of his own personal funds.
2. Reduce the size of PA government so state rep districts have 85,000 people within. This is small enough to maintain constituent services at the current level, but large enough to eliminate 52 positions entirely. Eliminate the state senate.
3. Eliminate pensions for elected officials. Salaries for a full-time state legislator should be adjusted to be the median for the district represented. It is a full time job, but not a career. Pensions are for career positions.
4. Enact Resign-to-run rules that would apply to any full time elected position that draws a taxpayer funded salary. The only exception to this rule I can see is if the candidate is in the final year of his term.
5. Require all candidates for state office to file campaign finance reports electronically so the people know immediately how the campaign is being funded. Too many candidates refuse to file electronically, and the state elections office is never in a hurry to get reports online.
6. Ban the use of campaign funds for criminal defense.
7. Increase penalties for noncompliance with state campaign finance laws, and continue the requirement that a candidate pay for violations out of his own personal funds.
8. Require all local governments with a website to post the campaign finance reports of all candidates and elected officials in that municipality, including Statements of Financial Interest.
9. All local governments with a website should be required to provide an Internet broadcast of every meeting. If it is too expensive, the government should be dissolved.
10. Ban gifts of any kind, on a state and local level.
11. Require receipts for per diem payments.
12. Allow independent voters to participate in Primary Elections.
13. Ban local governments and school districts from attaching risky derivatives/"swaps" to their debt.
14. Ban candidates or elected officials from using campaign funds to make contributions to any other PAC or candidate committee to prevent the money laundering.
15. Limit campaign expenses to year of election requiring forfeiture of unspent monies. Eliminate rolling campaign accounts and expenditures in non election years. I believe district magistrates must spend it or lose it and cannot accumulate funds when they are unopposed. Similar rules for everybody.
16. LIST candidates on the ballot (per office) in random order with no party affiliation attached.
17. Rather than term limits, place "None of the Above" on the ballot for every elective office. If "None of the Above" wins a majority or plurality of the votes, the other candidates are disqualified and a new slate of candidates (including "None of the Above") must be drawn for a new election. Lather, rinse and repeat until someone other than "None of the Above" receives a majority of the votes.
9. All local governments with a website should be required to provide an Internet broadcast of every meeting. If it is too expensive, the government should be dissolved.
10. Ban gifts of any kind, on a state and local level.
11. Require receipts for per diem payments.
12. Allow independent voters to participate in Primary Elections.
13. Ban local governments and school districts from attaching risky derivatives/"swaps" to their debt.
14. Ban candidates or elected officials from using campaign funds to make contributions to any other PAC or candidate committee to prevent the money laundering.
15. Limit campaign expenses to year of election requiring forfeiture of unspent monies. Eliminate rolling campaign accounts and expenditures in non election years. I believe district magistrates must spend it or lose it and cannot accumulate funds when they are unopposed. Similar rules for everybody.
16. LIST candidates on the ballot (per office) in random order with no party affiliation attached.
17. Rather than term limits, place "None of the Above" on the ballot for every elective office. If "None of the Above" wins a majority or plurality of the votes, the other candidates are disqualified and a new slate of candidates (including "None of the Above") must be drawn for a new election. Lather, rinse and repeat until someone other than "None of the Above" receives a majority of the votes.
18. Limit the amount of money any individual can contribute to a candidate to the same amount that can be contributed in a federal race.
19. Ban campaign contributions from employees of a municipality to any candidate seeking election in that municipality.
23 comments:
A lot of good ideas but politicians will never do this because it would cost them too much.
Internet broadcasts or dissolve the local government?
Foolish. Internet broadcasts don't promote in-person participation. If people are too lazy to attend in-person, they won't be interested in watching a meeting on the computer. Will the next demand be to provide closed caption broadcasts, or a sign language person to accompany the broadcast in a picture-in-picture delivery?
Bernie,
Your suggestions would be useful if our government was simply functioning less efficiently. However, our government is broken. FUBAR. It needs to not only be reformed but reconstructed.
From federal on down to local, our current government is not only incompetent but has been proven to be corrupt.
Tomorrow is flag day. Do me a favor and re-read the declaration of independence. Get to around the 4th sentence when the framers talk about Government being destructive to the unalienable rights that are endowed to us by our creator. The instructions couldn't be any more clear. "Alter or abolish".
How are we not at that point when our 2 options for president are Joe Biden and Donald Trump?
The reason most of this is just fantasy is because those charged with changing things benefitted from the current system and continue to benefit from all the incumbent protections you cite. They have little interest in changing a system that works so well for them. Can you imagine the dregs of Harrisburg voting to eliminate their jobs, cut their pensions, and stop being crooked? Neither can I.
Don't allow local government entities to profit from land grabs taken by eminent domain, such as the 50 acre land that Nazareth Borough Municipal Authority who profitted $53 million from the land they took from the Seiple Estate for necessary business operations, only to sell it and buy property in Plainfield Township, next to a public recreation facility and park, for the sole purpose of spreading odorous sewage waste products.
The rich municipalities get what they want and dump their sewage on their neighbors. That stinks (pun intended).
Money out of politics would be the number one change. In an ideal world we would have candidates listing their plans on a communal website which all could read and then voters could decide which plan makes sense without the media clown shows and barrage of commercials we start seeing for almost a year before every election. Since this is a pipe dream the only solutions I've heard of that make sense is from "Wolf-PAC".
From Wikepedia: "Wolf-PAC is an American nonpartisan political action committee formed in 2011 with the goal of adding an "amendment to the United States Constitution to ensure balance, integrity, and transparency to our national system of campaign finance".[3]
Wolf-PAC argues that Congress is too corrupted by big money and special interests to adequately address campaign finance reform, citing sources ranging from personal experience to a well known Princeton study.[4][5] The organization works nationwide with state legislators using the state initiated convention procedure in Article V of the Constitution to propose an amendment to fix the influence that big money and special interests have over the American government. Wolf-PAC asserts that applying for a convention will either directly result in the desired amendment or pressure Congress to act."
Other than the "Wolf-PAC" suggested resolutions I would agree that the "none of the above" is a step in the right direction "ranked choice" would go further to ensure the majority's choice.
Good list and though you mention term limits, I cannot stress enough...20 year term limits for Supreme Court Justices.
Also, I think the term limit for President should be 5 years, for a 2 term maximum of 10 years. Yeah, yeah I know that a President could technically eek out 10 years under certain conditions, but very unlikely for that to happen.
"Foolish. Internet broadcasts don't promote in-person participation."
The reason for requiring an internet broadcast is not to increase personal participation, but to increase governmental transparency and accountability to the citizenry. They are public servants and should come yo us; we should not need to come to them.
If a municipal government has a website, it should post video or audio of every meeting, the campaign finance reports of all candidates seeking office for that jurisdiction and their financial disclosures (SFI).
I was never a proponent of term limits, but the more I see career politicians lose touch with the common person, I realize the Pelosis and McConnells are more detrimental to America than they are good. Five terms for congressmen/women, two terms for senator. If you can’t improve things in 10/14 years, respectively, hit the road.
I support term limits on a state and federal level, but believe local office is a different category. It is often difficult to find people who are even willing to serve in these thankless roles.
Combine Northampton & Lehigh County to reduce size of county government.
Eliminate judicial elections and go to an appointment model where candidates are review and recommended by a bipartisan commission and are subject to confirmation.
100% finance reporting from who the money is given above $100.
1 hour per $1000 dollar illegally got money for the candidate, the campaign money person, and the the senior people in the candidates team and 10 hours per $1000 for those that provided the money to the politician.NO cap on the amount of time.
Permanent band for politicians who are compromised.
Mandatory resume and questionnaire completion submission prior to able to campaigning. Permanent ban on all people who are part or connect with the politician if there are any fraud found in those documents. Permanent ban for any of those associated including family with such fraud from any involvement with a politician or and government entity or government contractor for the rest of their life. Death penalty for those found violating this.
Standardized financial disclosure. Immediate jail time for the candidate and the senior political team if there are irregularities in the submission. Omissions count as fraud as well. Permanent ban for any of those associated including family with such fraud from any involvement with a politician or and government entity or government contractor for the rest of their life. Death penalty for those found violating this.it their Candice 6 months to 9 month prior to the election. anything done before this would be considered illegal. And after the deadline too crap no exceptions.
Must resign from previous office 1 week prior to announcing candidacy.
Nott allow to utilize any ste money for any thing even close to campaigning for the new positions or will be immediately removed from any ballot.
NO money may be transferred between candidates even through party affiliations.
11:46, You should clean up your comment. It makes little sense the way it is written.
Ranked choice voting
Eliminate gerrymandering. All of our partisan woes stem from this one polarizing action of the legislature. If the only fear that an elected official has is winning the primary election, they will naturally be beholden to the extremes of their own party, whether right- or left-wing. Purple districts would result in a true clash of ideas, and legitimate compromise by our elected leaders.
What 10:16AM said. Plain and simple. The lunatics of the left and right have absolutely dragged our great country into their toilet of stupidity.
https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/news/2023/06/nj-town-took-some-of-my-land-and-sold-it-to-a-builder-homeowner-says.html
Same deal as Nazareth Borough Municipal Authority. Government for the people? Nope.
Ranked choice voting, or "none of the above" options sound great but are terrible in practice.
Ranked choice ends up offering less choice, and "none of the above" needlessly extends elections beyond election day.
Both favor incumbents, which is why I think they are often implemented.
Why not require a supermajority to approve anything?
It seems to me many of our problems come from the fact that we're so divided, and so evenly divided.
Why not find a number (60%; 66%; etc.) that a proposal must clear to become law.
That way, we're being governed by (hopefully fewer) laws that have widespread support, not decisions that can swing back and forth by a seat or two in any legislature or council.
It might also result in our elected officials focusing on the more important issues that people really care about.
Imagine that.
Anonymous 11:46 said...
"100% finance reporting from who the money is given above $100."
I agree with BOH at 11:54 that the entire comment needs to be re-written to make better sense.
As to the opening sentence from the comment (above), isn't the current amount that needs to be identified on reports set at $50? That seems like a reasonable figure.
I'm not sure I'd want to make reporting less transparent.
Abolish the Electoral College to elect the President and instead, elect by popular vote. Abolish gerrymandering.
Get rid of political parties in local and regional elections.
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