Free Personal Finance Seminar

Residents interested in learning more about personal finances are invited to attend a July 22 financial education seminar hosted by state Rep. Mark Painter.

"This seminar is meant to help those looking to improve their knowledge of banking, credit and budgets. You won't become a stock market expert by attending on July 22, but you might learn some tips on how to better balance your checkbook and also how to avoid overcharging your credit cards," said Painter, D-146th Dist.

The free event includes two starting times at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. July 22 and will be held at Painter's office located at 600 Heritage Drive, Suite 102, just off High Street in Sunnybrook Village next to Parma Pizza.

Speakers from a local bank and credit union will discuss budgeting, proper use of credit and handling bank accounts.

No RSVP is necessary, but is still encouraged by calling Painter's office at 610-326-9563.

The Foundations of Citizenship

State Rep. Mark Painter, D-146th Dist., congratulates 

Tyisha Reddick, who was recognized by the DAR.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Pottstown School District.

Recently, the Mahanatawny Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution recognized students for their excellence in citizenship. 

Tyisha Reddick, Pottstown High School Class of 2014, was chosen by faculty and peers for excelling in honor, patriotism, civic involvement, responsibility, and loyalty to others.

At a luncheon ceremony, she received certificates of recognition from State Representative Mark Painter along with a framed certificate award and pin from the DAR Chapter. 

Marlene Armato, DAR Officer, said Reddick was singled out for those qualities by a guidance counselor at Pottstown High School.

Reddick is an active member of the National Honor Society, lacrosse team, field hockey team, and peer mediation. 

Reddick was the Salutatorian of the class of 2014. 

 She plans to attend Penn State University this coming year.

“The foundation of a strong country is built upon the quality of leadership that guides the actions of our youth," Armato said. 

"We are proud to recognize student leaders like Miss Reddick who have demonstrated their understanding of their civic responsibilities and play an active role in supporting our community,” she said.

Old Money

Photo by Evan Brandt

Seems to me this building in the 200 block of High Street would be a perfect candidate for the program mentioned below.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the office of State Rep. Mark Painter (D-146th Dist.)

Individuals and businesses are encouraged to apply for a new state program that offers tax credits to restore historic structures and transform them into income-producing properties, according to state Rep. Mark Painter.

"Preserving historic sites, while also ensuring that they have a continued role to play in our communities, is a noble pursuit that I support, and I am hoping our communities will as well," said Painter, D-Montgomery.

The Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program, which will be funded through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, is open to any individual, corporation, business trust, limited liability company, limited liability partnership or any other form of legal business entity.

The total tax credit awarded to any qualified taxpayer will not exceed $500,000 in any fiscal year, and the total amount the commonwealth will issue will not exceed $3 million.

"Anyone who thinks they may be eligible is encouraged to apply for this program. I know that these remnants from our past can still serve us well as we head into the future," Painter said.

Painter's office staff is available to help with submitting applications. Beginning May 1, interested parties also can submit applications through the DCED website at www.newpa.com/hptc.

Keeping Your Identity Safe

Blogger's Note: The following is from the PA House Democratic communications office.

State Rep. Mark Painter invites area residents to find out how they can protect their identity during Identity Theft Seminars on July 25.

"I'm pleased to welcome the state Attorney General's Office who will discuss how people have fallen victim to identity theft and explain how people can protect themselves from it happening to them," said Painter, D-Montgomery.

There will be two free sessions at noon and 2 p.m. July 25 at Painter’s Sanatoga office, 600 Heritage Drive, Suite 102, just off High Street in Sunnybrook Village next to Parma Pizza.

Light refreshments will be served.

To RSVP for either seminar, contact Painter's office at 610-326-9563.

Painter said an incorrect time is listed in his mailed newsletter. The sessions are at noon and 2 p.m.

The Bad Guy

Spy Vs. Spy

As a young reader of MAD magazine, I must admit I am pleased to see that it
still has some appeal for the current generation.

One of the standards of MAD, then and now, was Spy Vs. Spy.


In fact, it hit such a core note with my son and his best bud, that they used it as their Halloween costume one year.

As a proud papa, I would post photos but they're teenagers now and therefore, anything I do to single them out among the broader population marks me for death.

And then, who would bring you "This Saturday in Science?"

So you'll have to be satisfied with the familiar images, as show above.


Anyway, according to traditional archetypes, the spy in white should be the good guy and the guy in black, well, vice-versa of course.

But, as anyone familiar with this genre knows, neither is good and neither is bad.

And in many ways, it reminds me of how Pottstown operates on several levels.

Allow me to explain.

Were there ever more clearly
defined roles than

Snidley Whiplash and
Dudley Do-Right?

As a journalist, I look on my job in most ways as being an educator.

I educate Mercury readers about things people have done, things the government has done or may be about to do, and who died.

To make that information more digestible, more attractive (we are a business/public service operation after all), we have found that its best to present this information in the form of a story.

And, as we all know, every good story needs a villain.

Truthfully, how interesting is Jean Valjean without Inspector Javert?

Sherlock Holmes without Professor Moriarty?

Luke Skywalker without Darth Vader?

And so when we tell a good story, if you don't have a good bad guy, chances are people may just yawn and turn to the sports page.

But as good as black and white may be for storytelling -- and make no mistake, it is an old, old tradition going back further than The Mercury, further even than print itself -- it is a sham.

The world is grey. Hell, even Darth Vader's story line turns out to be kind of complicated.

People do bad things. Sometimes, the same people do good things.

Sometimes, people do mostly bad things making them, on balance, mostly bad people.

But most people, are both.

The problem, for us here in Pottstown, is the tied old bugaboo we've pointed to so many times -- policy by personality.

As a result, when you disagree with a position someone takes -- or occupies -- if you disagree with them the are, immediately, bad.

One look at the salacious anonymous blog Save Pottstown can tell you this.

There is always a bad guy, whether its Tom Hylton or, these days, Mark Flanders.

So anything you (or they) don't like, well it's always someone's fault.

If only it were that simple.

Does this mean we're not supposed to judge people? Of course, not. We all do it all the time and it serves a purpose.

But policies, or circumstances, or conditions, are usually not the fault of a single person and all to often, they take cooperative action to implement or, as the case may be, overcome.

For example, I knew when I wrote the April 1 story about Royal Medical Supply being forced out of downtown Pottstown because of changes in health care regulations, that it would be controversial.

I knew that if we put 'Obamacare' in the headline, it would draw a line in the sand for a lot of people.

Nevertheless, I also knew, that if we ran a headline that read "Medicare/Medicaid rule changes force business from downtown," that no one would read it.

Still, the sides people took based, as far as I could tell, on that headline, were striking.

I received e-mail from a man who thanked me for "telling the truth about Obama" and suggesting I should next write up how he is trying to take all our (well,

YOUR) guns.

"Did he even read the story?" I wondered.

Another man, who lived in California no less, said on The Mercury's Facebook page, that it was obvious I was just a Republican stooge and hated Obama.

"Boy does this guy not know who I am" I thought.

Even a former colleague, sent me an e-mail and asked me if I was mad because obviously the newsroom resident conservative had obviously tried to put a spin on my story with the headline.

He was wrong. I wrote that headline myself because, that was, I felt, the story.

And, the truth of the matter is -- it's complicated.

As Roy Repko, who helped found the Royal Medical, helped me understand, it was not so much the goal of the regulations affecting his business -- drive down the cost of medical equipment -- which was causing the problem, but the method.

I don''t know Mr. Repko's politics and I didn't ask. Primarily, it seemed to me, he wanted to get the word out about a petition, hoping to get enough people to sign it not to reverse the policy, but the procedure.

Me? I just wanted to show how everything we do has unintended effects and here was one right in our town.

Was this President Obama sitting in the Oval Office dictating methodologies that would force Roy Repko into making a decision he didn't want to make?

It's complicated

Hardly.

This is a complicated situation which well-meaning people are all trying to
navigate which has consequences some might not have foreseen.

Is medical care too expensive? Yes.

Are lots of people unable to access it? Yes.

Does something need to be done? Yes.

Was 'Obamacare' the right way to handle it? Time will tell.

In the meantime, its impacts will ripple through our economy and people we know in unforeseen ways. This was one of them.

Another example occurred this week when we ran yesterday's story about state Rep. Mark Painter's district chief of staff, Michael Lavanga, owning a property in the 400 block of Walnut Street that had been declared "blighted."

I only found out about it because it ran as a legal notice, apparently the result of the borough's inability to update its property records. Mr. Lavanga felt he was being singled out and we should not run the story.

Needless to say, we disagreed.

The house at 409 Walnut St. owned by

Michael Lavanga.

But when he sent me his statement, it was immediately evident to me that the circumstances under which he was struggling are not uncommon.

He bought a property before the real estate bubble burst, thought he could make a few bucks, and soon found out that -- well -- it was more complicated than that.

The property had been trashed by tenants and vandals and he didn't have the money to fix it up and, quite frankly, given the decreased value of the property and the likelihood it would happen again, as a business decision, restoring it was a questionable investment.

I understood that.

I would like to fix up my property, but I can't afford it.

I imagine many landlords face this situation, and I have heard them say so.

But immediately, there was a rush to paint Lavanga as a villain. "He's the problem," some might have said.

Do I know if he's a bad or good person? Not based on one story about one circumstance.

And really, is that the point?

The point, it seems to me, is that we have a problem with low-income housing.  property maintenance. quality of life and tax base in this town.

It is a problem, or rather set of problems, with many mothers.

Selecting one person, or one group of people -- be they landlords, tenants, borough managers, school board members, immigrants, poor people, Scandanavians, people who love dogs, civil engineers, whatever -- as the cause of it all, suggests, simplistically, that neutralizing them or demonizing them will solve the problem.

This is childish.

I think it's fair to say our straits are dire enough that all should matter is the idea.

Will it work? Will it make things better? Is there evidence it will work?  Has it worked elsewhere?

The world is a complicated place. The problems we face are complex. The solutions, sometimes a mystery.

The challenges we face here in Pottstown are not unique to Pottstown.

Towns like our all over Pennsylvania are struggling. Look at Reading. Do we really want to be chasing our own tail while our problems multiply until we find ourselves in that predicament?

The only thing unique about Pottstown is going to be how we face those challenges.

Dividing ourselves into problem and victim or hero and villain will only

perpetuate the conditions we are all trying to overcome.

That will only make us unique in being stupid by fighting amongst ourselves in a hopeless, endless and pointless search for a villain

Wouldn't it be nice if we rose above our pettiness, as a town and as a nation, and tried to address the problems we face instead of the people we want to blame them on?



 

Painter Prompts Patriotic Art Contest

Mark Painter

State Rep. Mark Painter has announced an art contest for all elementary school students in the 146th Legislative District.

"This art contest is designed to encourage students to recognize the rich history in Pennsylvania," said Painter, D-Montgomery.

Rules and themes for the 2013 Elementary Art Contest:

· Category I: First Grade/"The Liberty Bell"

· Category II: Second and Third Grade /"Betsy Ross and the American Flag"

· Category III: Fourth and Fifth Grade/"Benjamin Franklin and Lightning"

· Size: 11 x 17 white poster board

First graders can draw the Liberty Bell.

· Each entry must include the following information: student’s name, age, address (city, state, zip code and
county), telephone number, school, teacher and grade.

· Deadline: May 20

Entries will be judged on the basis of use of theme, creativity and originality, and artistic design.

Winning students will be recognized with official certificates of achievement and also will have their artwork displayed at Painter’s office.

To arrange artwork pickups, contact Painter's office at 610-326-9563 or email malexander@pahouse.net.

It's the Numbers Stupid (an election post-mortem one day too late).

(Blogger's note: I learned after I wrote this post Wednesday that Quigley has not yet conceded and wants to wait until all the absentee votes are counted. If it changes the outcome of the race, we'll have to see how relevant the analysis below really is.)

Tom Quigley's loss Tuesday night in the 146th district statehouse race was a surprise to nearly everyone -- except maybe Tom Quigley.

(DISCLAIMER: Understand Mark Painter fans, this is not a knock on your candidate, who is an earnest and viable candidate. I'm sure he will do fine. This is just a post-election look at the numbers).

Were I a younger man, I would have written this Tuesday night for you all to read Wednesday morning, which is when such analysis is traditionally published.

Tom Quigley

But I'm getting older and Tuesday night was difficult enough as it was and, frankly, I just didn't have the energy.

Anyway, back to my engaging lead sentence.

Obviously, I've known Quigley for many years, ever since he won the seat and took over for the previous Republican holding the seat, Mary Anne Dailey, who took over from the previous  Republican who held if before her ... and so on and so on.

You get the idea.

Anyway, several years ago, Quigley calmly explained to me how well he understood his district.

Given Pottstown's tendency to vote for Democrats, the 146th has always been a balancing act.

He told me, and I'm paraphrasing here: "I know if I break even in Pottstown or fall just short, I'll be OK because I can make it up elsewhere in the district."

And given that the Republican Party in the 146th has the most effective vote counting apparatus around, I've watched those numbers get counted there many times over the years.

As retired dISTRICT Judge Tom Palladino and I were reminiscing Tuesday night, on many election nights I've sat at the right hand of the numbers compiler (or at least looked over their shoulders) since it was Janet Garner in the Elks Club on High Street, using a adding machine and a pencil and, for all intents and purposes, wearing a green eye shade.

Now we use spreadsheets.

And for the numerically challenged among us (Yes, I'm head of the class), spreadsheets really paint a plain picture.

Along the right hand side of where the vote totals for each votingprecinct were being entered, was a number showing by how much Quigley was either ahead or behind in each township, or the borough.

As a result, Quigley knew how close it was going to be early on and each precinct that came in was crucial.

How ironic, I thought, that the clearest evidence that "every vote counts" comes in a year when an unprecedented number of people voted. (More on that later).

All numbers are, of course, unofficial, and include no provisional ballots. But the picture they paint is clear nonetheless.

In Limerick, Quigley was ahead by 657 votes; in Lower Pottsgrove by 487 votes.

In Upper Pottsvgrove he was ahead by 299 votes and in the southern portion of New Hanover that is part of the 146th, he was ahead by 290 votes.

So where was the loss?

Well, in West Pottsgrove he was down by only 51 votes and in Royersford, of all places, by 94. Although surprising, that sure wasn't enough.

Mark Painter

It was in Pottstown, where there was no shortage of straight-ticket voting, that Painter won his victory. There, Painter was ahead by 1,914 votes.

With just one precinct to go, Quigley was down by 326 votes, and he needed the results from Limerick's second voting district, headquartered at the township building on Ridge Pike and home to more than 2,000 registered voters, to make up the difference.

In previous elections, Quigley had won that precinct handily, but this was no regular election and although he won it, he did't win it by enough.

Throughout the 146th, and the county as a whole, voters had turned out in droves and not in the usual patterns.

There was huge voter turn-out Tuesday.

According to unofficial results posted on the Montgomery County web site, no Pottstown polling place had fewer than 400 voters. This in places that are lucky to break 100 in an off-year election.

Those same results show nearly 75 percent of Montgomery County's eligible voters showed up at the polls.

Maybe that's why lines of voters in places like Upper Pottsgrove and New Hanover were out the door and, in Upper Pottsgrove's case, even snaked down Farmington Avenue.

In places like Pottstown's first ward, Obama won more than 80 percent of the vote.

"I think for some of these voters, they weren't even cognizant of the races lower down on the ticket," said Quigley. "Many of them probably did't even know who Tom Quigley is."

As you moved away from the borough's core, the Obama percentages dropped, but were still significant -- 60 percent at Pottstown Middle School.

And it was the numbers, not just the percentages, that really created the wave that blew Quigley out of the water.

The middle school hosted more than 1,200 voters. It is sometimes lucky to break 200, said Judge of Elections Mark Lawler.

In the fourth ward, it was the same -- more than 1,200 voters, 56 percent of whom voted for Obama. In wards five and six, the same: More than 1,000 voters and Obama won both, clocking in at 62 and 63.5 percent respectively.

More interesting was Pottstown's gloriously divided seventh ward.

Voting at the Ricketts Center, just under 1,000, gave 82 percent of its vote to Obama. Further down the ticket, painter won 646 votes to Quigley's 161.

In the Seventh Ward's Rosedale section, Romney won 54.5 percent of the vote and Quigley got 400 votes to Painter's 240.

But while Pottstown's Obama tsunami gave Painter a crucial and immediate advantage, there was a more subtle shift evident as well.

Many more were voting Democratic even outside Pottstown.

Consider some of the totals from the presidential race, totals that actually had me muttering "unbelievable" under my breath.

In Lower Pottsgrove's second district, all results for Obama Vs. Romney were literally within 20 votes of each other, with Obama winning all of them.

Obama won in West Pottsgrove as well and even in Upper Pottsgrove, where Romney won, it was only by a mere 41 votes.

In his analysis Tuesday night, Quigley mentioned not only the Pottstown tsunami, but the changing demographics in places like Limerick, which had previously served as his back-stop.

Limerick hasn't changed that much, with Romney winning all but the fourth precinct.

But Quigley could have made his demographic observation about the entire district, or even the entire county.

Obama squeaked out a victory in some unexpected places, like precincts of affluent Upper Providence and he won two out of three precincts in Collegeville, and one out of three in Perkiomen Township, although Obama was a lost cause in neighboring Trappe.

The same was true in Douglass (Mont.), where Romney held a comfortable lead, as he did in all three New Hanover voting precincts.

But even in places like Schwenksville, Pennsburg, East Greenville and Green Lane, Obama won, barely, and in Red Hill, it was a an effective draw.

And Obama won in two out of three precincts in Skippack, those wins by sizeable margins too.

And in Royersford, Quigley's home town where he was once a popular mayor, turnout in the borough's second voter precinct, where Obama won by 204 votes, Quigley lost by 72 votes.

It seems, therefore, when looking at the numbers, that Quigley lost the election probably not because of anything he did, or Mark Painter did, but because in the 146th, Barack Obama either won most contests or at least fought Romney to a draw.

The election machine tickets told the story.

I didn't have time to check them all, and not all precincts arrived at the old Lakeside Inn that way. (Remember, we still had a newspaper to get out for Wednesday.)

Also, the results posted on the county web site do not list the percentage of straight party voters, but on those tickets I did get to examine, it was an obvious factor.

So what does all this number-crunching mean?

The answer is surprisingly simple.

Every vote counts.

And even in the face of efforts to suppress votes through voter ID, or draw district lines so heavily Democratic or Republican voting blocks can be balanced out by other areas -- a big turn-out can turn all those careful calculations on their head.

And although I find it inspiring, it also stirs the cynic in me to safely predict it won't happen again for another four years, and even then only if we're lucky and the presidential race is as hotly contested as this one was.

In the meantime, for local elections that have a disproportionately larger effect on our lives, the numbers will, in all likelihood, tell a different story.