The Hot Sheet

Important City Council update!

ACTION ALERT! Pittsburgh City Council plans to vote TOMORROW on a package of legislation that deals with lobbyist and campaign finance disclosure and no-bid contracts, introduced by Councilman Bill Peduto.

#1 Campaign Finance Reform bill would:

• limit Council campaign contributions to $1,000 for individuals, $2,000 for PAC’s
• limit Mayoral contributions to $2,000 for individuals, $4,000 for PAC’s
• require the creation of a searchable database of all campaign contributions and city contracts.

#2  No-bid contracts bill would eliminate no-bid contracts with the city valued at more than $30,000

#3 Lobbyist Disclosure Act would require all Request-For-Proposal responses to disclose finder’s fee or payments to lobbyists or consultants.

#4 Lobbyist Registration Act would require anyone engaging in more than 30 hours of paid lobbying during a three-month period to register as lobbyists with the city.
The vote is scheduled for TOMORROW, Wednesday April 29th. This would be a major step for Pittsburgh towards good government practices and policies.

Call your city councilperson and ask them to VOTE YES for Councilman Peduto’s proposed good government legislation!

http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/council/

Tags: campaign finance, city council, legislation, pittsburgh, reform, transparency, vote

Protect the Vote in PA — NO on SB 514

Back in 2006 we worked to help stop a disenfranchising Voter ID bill, HB 1318.  Unfortunately, the issue has not gone away, and has reared its ugly head again, this time in the form of SB 514.

The ACLU of PA has made it easy to send a message to your state senator about this bill.   I already did.  Your turn.

From ACLU-PA:
“After a historic election in 2008, some state senators want to block the vote. Senate Bill 514 would implement strict ID requirements at the polls, potentially disenfranchising the elderly, the working poor, and racial minorities.

The only states that have had success this year in moving voter ID bills have been those states with a history of voter suppression and discrimination. Tell your state senator to oppose SB 514 and protect the vote in Pennsylvania.

The right to vote is one of America’s most precious freedoms. It must be protected.”

Tags: legislation, Pennsylvania, state senate, take action, voter ID

541 Early Voting Petition Signatures

In less than two months, we collected 541 signatures to support early voting in PA. A big thumbs-up to everyone who signed, and a special thanks to Jessica Weingarten on the Eastern side of the state for collecting additional signatures.

Constituents’ signatures from over half of all the senate districts in PA were collected.  They were mailed off to Harrisburg today, and put in the hands of Sen. Daylin Leach of Montgomery County, who sponsored the senate version of the legislation.

“This bill would do three things. It would expand opportunities for people to vote, shorten lines on Election Day, and allow time for disputes to be resolved,” said Sen. Leach.

We here at the PA League agree that the early voting option provides a form of election protection in that there’s time to address voting machine errors, a reduction in long lines on election day, and is without the concern of absentee ballot fraud.

Anything that responsibly makes voting easier and, therefore, more likely that more people will vote, is a good thing in our book.

Considering that turnout for the last presidential election was still only about 62% of all registered voters (no even counting citizens who could register but still haven’t), our country still needs to promote voting and make it easier in order for us to truly realize a participatory democracy and have an accountable government.

Anyway, I’m proud of our work on this.  We’ll be sure to keep you informed on what happens.  The full text of SB 445 and HB 238 (intoduced by Rep. Eugene DePasquale of York County) is available online.  And it’s not too late to contact your senator or representative about this — their info can always be found here.

Yours,
Carly Dobbins-Bucklad, Director

Tags: early voting, legislation, Pennsylvania, petitions, senate, signatures, turnout