Editorials from around Pennsylvania

Editorials from around Pennsylvania:

RESTORE TAX FOR OIL-SPILL FUND, Jan. 9

President Donald Trump re-emphasized his unwise commitment to fossil fuels at any cost last week, when his administration retracted federal restrictions on oil exploration and drilling along the entire U.S. coastline, including the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans.

Strong state restrictions in many areas and, even more so, the low market prices for oil due to other sources, likely will prevent any major rush to exploit the new rules, at least for now.

A few days before Trump’s announcement, congressional Republican majorities more quietly imperiled the coastlines by allowing an important law to expire.

Beyond the 40 percent reduction in the federal corporate tax rate that Congress passed last year, lawmakers gave the oil industry another massive tax break.

Until the law expired Jan. 1, the federal government collected a 9 cents-per-barrel tax on domestic and imported crude oil and imported petroleum products to fund the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which was established following the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1986. The government uses the money to respond to oil spills.

According to the Government Accountability Office, the tax generated about $500 million a year, meaning that its expiration is a $500 million annual tax break for the oil industry.

The fund now holds about $5.75 billion, which is inadequate. Costs from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 officially totaled $62 billion, most of which was recovered from responsible companies through fines and litigation. But the initial government response included everything from a vast search and rescue mission, through damage assessments and economic assistance to adversely affected shore communities.

If drillers decide to exploit the availability of more tracts that have been opened by Trump, it will be all the more important for Congress to restore the tax. It should not wait for the next catastrophe to do so.

__ The Citizens’ Voice

__ Online: http://bit.ly/2mp7xKE

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CONSOLIDATE, END SECRECY ON SECURITY, Jan. 9

After the director of the state Senate security force resigned last week amid an investigation of sexual harassment allegations, an important question arose: Why does the state Senate have its own security force?

The House also has its own security force. It and the Senate are shrouded in secrecy, in keeping with the state Legislature’s hypocritical policy of shielding itself from the same public disclosure laws that apply to every other state and local government agency. Security forces’ reports are not publicly disclosed and the Senate stonewalled right-to-know requests that were filed last year by news organizations, saying that the reports are not “legislative records” and thus not subject to disclosure.

Only the security officers themselves and the subjects of their reports are allowed to see the documents, which is ridiculous. The forces are publicly paid and, therefore, must be accountable to the public.

Both legislative security forces are distinct from the Capitol Police, an actual accredited police force that is responsible for police services covering the Capitol and some other state government operations.

The legislative forces are unarmed and do not have arrest powers. They report directly to the leaders of the majority party in each House.

Undue secrecy enveloping security employees, who are not even police, is yet another means by which lawmakers make themselves a separate political class, well removed from the people they are supposed to represent.

That secrecy flows from the Legislature’s refusal to make itself fully subject to the state Right-to-Know Law, which already is a leading reason that so many Pennsylvanians so justly have so little confidence in state government.

__ The Times-Tribune

__ Online: http://bit.ly/2ANUCGu

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REPORT SUPPORTS RETHINKING STATE POLICE SHOOTING PROBES, Jan. 9

Pennsylvania State Police, who deserve praise and support for the work they do every day, have good cause to take another look at their approach to investigating troopers’ use of deadly force.

A Northampton County grand jury that looked into the agency’s investigation of the May 20 death of a man near Easton raised several legitimate concerns. It said it found the responses of state police officials confusing and contradictory. And it called the agency’s approach both arrogant in its attitude toward outside probes in general and less than responsible in carrying out this particular investigation.

The grand jury’s work began after the agency insisted on leading the investigation into the shooting death of Anthony Ardo. After being rebuffed when he sought to have his detectives lead the investigation of two troopers’ fatal shooting of Ardo, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli assembled the grand jury. It first performed its own investigation of Ardo’s death, finding that the two troopers involved were justified in using deadly force. Morganelli then asked the grand jury to look into the troopers’ self-probe of the shooting.

The reaction of state police in going to court to block the grand jury’s report from public view was the first bad sign.

With the release of the grand jury report, one can see why the agency wanted to keep it cloaked.

The panel described “a great deal of confusion” over the agency’s stand on investigating the use of deadly force by troopers. Maj. Douglas Burig testified that it is not state police policy to insist on taking the lead in such probes, while two others, including State Police Commissioner Tyree Blocker, said it has been the agency’s consistent policy to take the lead on all such investigations.

The grand jury also received differing accounts of how state police ensure that investigations of troopers’ use of deadly force are kept free of bias.

Burig testified that members of an investigating team are questioned as to whether they have relationships with those being probed, and that if they are found to have social or personal relationships with them, the agency could move people in from other areas to conduct the investigation. Burig was contradicted on this point as well, according to the grand jury report, with two ranking officers saying the agency does not even ask about such relationships and one adding that moving in a team from outside is unlikely in any event.

Beyond these matters of policy, the grand jury report points to a troubling particular in the conduct of the state police probe into Ardo’s death.

The troopers who shot Ardo, the report says, were allowed to see video from a state police vehicle’s dash cam recording of the shooting before they gave their official statements to investigators. That is at odds with how an expert interviewed by the grand jury said things should be done in such a case.

This misstep, along with the agency’s inability to keep its story sensible and straight in its Northampton County grand jury testimony, serves only to underline the reasoning behind the 2016 recommendation of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association that officer-involved shooting investigations “should be conducted by an agency separate and independent from the law enforcement agency involved in the shooting.”

__ Reading Eagle

__ Online: http://bit.ly/2qSd9ls

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U.N. BUDGET CUT LONG OVERDUE, Jan. 7

It was the shot heard ’round Turtle Bay: the Trump administration’s announcement of America’s role in advancing more than $285 million in cuts in the United Nations’ 2018-19 operating budget.

Noting the world body’s “inefficiency and overspending,” U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley pulled no punches: “We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked.”

The belt-tightening is long overdue.

From 2000 to 2016, U.N. staff (separate from peacekeepers) has doubled, according to Joseph Klein, a lawyer and author, writing for frontpagemag.com. Over that period, the U.N.’s operating budget has increased about 119 percent (not adjusted for inflation).

And while the U.S. pays 22 percent of the U.N.’s regular budget (and about 28.5 percent of its peacekeeping budget) some nations pay what, in the past, has been likened to the price of a compact car.

By way of comparison, the 56 U.N. member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation pay only 5.6 percent of the U.N. regular budget. What the U.S. pours into the U.N. (one estimate put it at $10 billion in 2016) is more than the combined contributions of 176 other members.

But demanding fiscal restraint at Turtle Bay shouldn’t be a one-shot deal. For Team Trump, this should be only the first salvo.

__ The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

__ Online: http://bit.ly/2CZFlHS

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END THE SILENCE, USE OF STATE DOLLARS IN SEXUAL HARASSMENT SETTLEMENTS, Jan. 10

Count Pennsylvania state government among the high-profile organizations feeling the sting of scrutiny concerning allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct.

The state is facing problems on two fronts:

- Elected officials: The state Employee Liability Self-Insurance Program paid out for settlements in allegations against state Rep. Thomas Caltagirone, a Berks County Democrat, and former state Rep. Jewell Williams, a Philadelphia Democrat who is now that city’s sheriff. The insurer paid $250,000 in the Caltagirone case and $30,000 in the case against Jewell - who is facing similar accusations in his current job, as reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer and other outlets.

- Non-elected employees: Several departments within state government have faced a slew of allegations over the past five years, right-to-know requests show. Highest among them are the Corrections Department (91 sexual harassment reports), the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (60 reports) and the Human Services Department (58 reports). The state police had 34 reports during the five years ending June 30. Human services and corrections are the departments with the most employees - more than 30,000 combined.

Gov. Tom Wolf has called on the Department of General Services to stop using the insurance fund to make payments in cases involving elected officials.

“Governor Wolf wants to bar payments for settlements from the state’s self-insurance program for abusive behavior by elected officials, and he has directed the Department of General Services to reform the process immediately,” Wolf spokesman J.J. Abbott told John Finnerty, our Harrisburg reporter. “Sexual harassment victims deserve protection and elected officials who engage in such awful behavior do not.”

We agree that these individuals should pay for their own financial protection rather than reaching out to taxpayer-funded insurance policies when their behaviors come into question.

Settlements in the Caltagirone and Jewell cases note that both deny the allegations against them and bar accusers from talking publicly about their cases.

State House Democratic Leader Frank Dermody told Finnerty that his party’s caucus has paid out $514,300 in such settlements over the past 10 years, although Dermody would not say how much of that total involved sexual harassment claims.

Wolf called on fellow Democrat Caltagirone to resign from office - along with others who face such allegations of inappropriate behavior. We agree.

“Verbal and physical harassment is flat-out wrong, whether toward an employee or any other person. Rep. Caltagirone should resign,” Wolf said.

Female elected officials in both the House and Senate are working to change legislative procedures to bar non-disclosure agreements in cases of sexual assault and harassment, arguing that keeping the settlements secret makes it easier for serial predators to continue with those behaviors.

A proposal by state Rep. Leanne Krueger-Braneky, a Delaware County Democrat, would prohibit using taxpayer funds for settlements, among other changes.

Abbott said the state is conducting “an analysis of settlements” concerning complaints against employees.

We urge Wolf and his top administrators to expand and toughen their policies to protect women who work in state government facilities and to ensure maximum discipline for those who engage in sexual harassment and other inappropriate behaviors.

__ The Johnstown Tribune Democrat

__ Online: http://bit.ly/2EusL0i

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