This year Democrat delegates voted to give themselves a 33.3 percent pay increase and retroactive expense increases. Two years ago Pennsylvania voters threw their legislators out of power because they gave themselves pay raises.
Maybe West Virginia's Democrat legislators did learn something from the Pennsylvania experience. The Legislature waited until after the deadline for opponents to file to run for office had expired before they voted to give themselves outrageous pay raises. This, after asking you to pay a local fee to build new state roads, and taking health benefits away from Medicare-eligible retirees.
Who are they trying to fool? They fooled potential competition and now they are trying to fool you.
As a member of the AFL-CIO, I am appalled that your unionendorsed delegates are committed to eliminating secret ballots at the workplace to decide whether to join a union. Democrat delegates already voted against allowing you to vote up or down for Home Rule and for or against casino gambling. The gambling industry is just using West Virginia to pit you against Pennsylvania in the race to legalize gambling.
Who are your delegates representing? Check their campaign finance records. The incumbents are not representing you. Challenger Frich has hundreds of small donations from folks just like you.
Over 10,000 of us signed petitions against TrAIL, hundreds wrote passionate letters to the PSC, many more testified at hearings. According to a state delegate, however, Manchin "negotiated with the power companies behind closed doors to offer concessions to landowners after the public hearings were over, but the PSC had not made a ruling" to get the project approved.
TrAIL was proposed through and in complete ignorance of my 116-lot residential neighborhood. If completed as proposed it would increase the risk of leukemia in my two 1-year-old sons and decrease our property value. Many thousands of other residents would be adversely impacted by each of these proj ects.
TrAILCo representatives engaged in a pattern of trespassing (according to PSC Public Advocate Byron Harris) and intimidation (e.g., prematurely telling some property owners that the line had been approved in order to gain rights-of-way). How do these projects continue to advance?
The answer lies in the nefarious influence of big business on our state. The scandal involving Massey Energy and the state Supreme Court, the tragedy of the Marsh Fork Elementary School, and the recent interference of Manchin in the judgment against Dupont are further examples.
The Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission ruling against TrAIL and opposition led by Rep. Frank Wolfe, R-Va., and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., illuminate the fact that these projects are civic evils. Most of West Virginia's elected officials, Manchin in particular, are on the wrong side of this fight.