Throughout the past few years the Snyder County Commissioners have enjoyed, orchestrated, and created mostly positive press releases and benefited politically from them; however as the saying goes, “it’s time to pay the piper.”  In this letter I would like to ask the county employees to reflect and think of just how much their loyalty and support are worth?  The board of Snyder County Commissioners recently announced that our budget is doing so well because of the conservative work of the county work force and the good work of Chief Clerk, Lee Knepp that there will be a 2% across the board pay raise.   My question to our county employees would be, is 2% enough?  Is it enough to endure four more years of Commissioner Kantz confronting you with condescending and sarcastic comments about the job you are doing, or being met by another red faced tantrum from Mr. Derk threatening to write you up over an alleged violation of the county code?  The pay raise of two years ago (some as much as $10,000 per person) were said to be given because the employees were going to sue the county, and the commissioners claimed to have no other choice.

After receiving that pay raise, the board reduced the number of hours, to complete your task; requiring less time to do more work.  They have been reducing and cannibalizing the workforce to show a balanced budget on your backs.  In the real world, private industry provides or creates incentives to increase productivity and pay increases with increased hours of work.  We have no doubt our county employees are working hard, but the tax payers in  the county are hurting with an unemployment rate over 12% and under employment even far higher.  This looks like nothing more than politics as usual; politicians purchasing political support and power with our tax dollars.

Mark J. Harris

In a recent letter to the editor, one of our county officials touted “all the good things Chris Carney has done for us.“  I believe in this climate of economic and political uncertainty we should explore what Chris Carney and the Democrat controlled Congress has done to us.

The four years Mr. Carney has represented the 10^th Congressional district we have seen our gas and diesel prices surge to $4 and $5 per gallon. We’ve seen a meltdown of the financial and real estate markets; our budget deficit has tripled and the nation’s debt has almost doubled.  Our unemployment rate has gone from historic lows of 4.5% to 9.6% and the social security system and other safety net programs have been operating at a loss for the last two years.

What is the solution from Congressman Carney and his friends? His answer is to raise taxes, raise taxes on the oil and energy companies and their, in his words “their bloated and excessive profits.” Thanks to Chris Carney and company, we, the tax payers now own an insurance company, two auto manufactures and numerous banks and other financial interests. In their spare time which spanned about a year, he and his colleagues have saddled the American public with a tax and health care package, which (if it is not repealed) will haunted us forever.

I believe the supporters of  Congressman Carney are somewhat labored in finding positive examples of his leadership to recite, because there is more effort in being a United States Congressman than simply speaking kindly for a favored highway project or giving tax payer monies to the area’s private educational institutions. This letter and a hundred like it would only scratch the surface of all the damage to our economy and country Chris Carney and the 111^th Congress have done, November 2^nd cannot come soon enough.

Mark J. Harris

As the May 18th Primary Election approaches, we will be deciding who will be representing us for the next two, four, and six years. There is a group of people who make the election process run as smoothly as possible; they are the members of our townships and boroughs Election Boards. These men and women give of their time to assure that all candidates have a fair and equitable process, regardless of party. They arrive early and leave late on Election Day, these members serve out of a sense of duty to their community, their friends and neighbors. Though we see them in action for a short time, sifting through registration cards and feeding the ballots into the machines, they have worked many hours prior to the election. They have attended training meetings, prepared machines and materials, and will count the election votes and certify the results. On Tuesday, May 18th, let’s give them a heartfelt thank you for a job well done.

Health Care 3-28-2010

Mark’s response to Sarah Palin article