Politics as Usual

December 01, 2012|By The Morning Call's Politics Staff

Senatorial spouses team up for Flight 93 Memorial event

Kris Toomey, the wife of U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., will host a 9:30 a.m. reception Tuesday in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center to call attention to the need for funding for the still-incomplete Flight 93 Memorial in Somerset County.

In an interview last week, Toomey said the U.S. Parks Service is still about $5 million short of its $10 million fundraising goal for the memorial to passengers and crew who perished in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"The Parks Service does not go forward until they have full funding," she said. "They had hoped to have it finished by 2014.

Family members of the passengers and crew of the United Airlines flight will be on hand for the event. And Toomey says the reception will be "an opportunity for members of Congress to personally say thank you" to the families, whose deceased loved ones have been credited with averting a likely attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"Our son, Patrick, was born one month before Sept. 11 and I was home with him and our daughter, Bridget, while [husband] Pat was in the U.S. House down there," Kris Toomey said. "It has a lot of meaning for me and I'm very grateful."

Toomey said she's enlisted the aid of other Congressional spouses, including Terese Casey, the wife of U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.

"It's bipartisan and bicameral," she said. "I reached out to the spouses. I have support from the House and Senate Republicans and Democrats. Everyone is excited about it."

For more information, check out http://www.honorflight93.org.

— John L. Micek

Fun with math in Bethlehem

So, just how did Bethlehem figure out that the average household would save $110 on their annual trash bill if the city hires a single hauler to collect all the residential garbage?

Math, of course.

They used three different methods, all of which came out around the same figure. Recycling director Tom Marshall took us through it.

To get what the average person pays, Marshall surveyed the trash collectors in the city and average their prices, coming up with $410 as the baseline (which includes the city's $60 recycling fee).

City officials concede it's not the median price. Because the city doesn't regulate it, they don't know whether a majority of residents contracted with a hauler whose prices are on the lower or higher end of the spectrum. But, the average is the best they can do.

To get the single-hauler price, one of the methods the city used was the one-third rule. They figured that the landfilling cost is about a third of the price. After researching what other haulers pay, they assumed $55 a ton. Then, using national averages, they assumed the city's residents would put out about 28,000 tons of trash and another 1,000 tons would be generated from the city's own property.

Now, the math magic:

$55 a ton X 29,000 tons = $1,595,000 for the landfilling cost.

They multiplied that number by three (because landfilling is a third of the cost) and came up with $4,785,000.

They divided that by the 24,000 households (buildings bigger than four units are considered commercial and not part of Callahan's proposal) and came up with an average solid waste bill of about $200 ($199.37).

With the city's $60 recycling fee, that bill goes up to $260.

The city would tack on an additional "administrative fee," though they haven't said what that would be yet.

Marshall said the calculation is not an exact science and tried to be conservative in the amount of savings would be passed on to the public. So, he's projecting a $300 annual bill.

So, the final calculation is: $410 (average price paid now) - $300 single-hauler estimate = $110 in savings.

The administration has an even better idea what the waste disposal fee will be now than before they calculated $110. It's $49.50 a ton, about $5.50 better than their assumption.

But, Marshall cautioned, it's still just an estimate. No bill could be truly calculated until if or when the hauling contract is bid out.

Nicole Radzievich"

Joining the Gubernatorial Aspirations Department

Last week, ex-state Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger became the first state Democrat to formally announce a challenge to GOP Gov. Tom Corbett for the state's top job in 2014.

But that doesn't mean others aren't eyeing the big chair. Take state Treasurer Rob McCord for instance.

In an interview in this month's edition of Philadelphia Magazine, McCord didn't directly answer a question about a likely gubernatorial bid. But it wasn't an ironclad denial either.

Take a look:

"McCord predictably demurs when I ask if he'll run for governor, but he doesn't deny that he's seriously considering the possibility. If he thinks he can win, he'll run. But his political prospects are far too promising to throw away on a long-shot bid. "I'm very aware that two years is an eternity," he says, "so I'm not one of these people who say, 'Put a fork in Governor Corbett, he's done.'"

Morning Call Articles