KDKA Investigates: SEIU Healthcare's influence over Mayor Ed Gainey's administration
Who is running the city of Pittsburgh, Mayor Ed Gainey or SEIU Healthcare?
www.cbsnews.com
As most of you know, Pittsburgh is a nice, but declining city in Western Pennsylvania. Because it is relatively small (compared to Philadelphia, Chicago, etc.), it is possible for nefarious interest groups to take an outsized stake in local affairs at a relatively modest cost.
Like most shit-hole cities, Democrats have been running things for several generations in Pittsburgh, and the newest (and first "Black") mayor, who came out of nowhere to most casual observers, seems to be in the pocket of the SEIU.
First, some background. One of Pittsburgh's funding woes is that so much of the city's real estate is owned by tax-exempt entities. The city boasts of "Eds and Meds," a combination of colleges and hospital systems, that provides many community benefits, but also depresses tax revenues (if you want to look at it that way). Every new Administration threatens to "do something" to harm these institutions if they don't agree to pay some money in lieu of property taxes, since they presumably benefit from City infrastructure and services that are paid for by city residents and businesses. (We shan't mention the millions and millions in wage taxes that are paid by the employees of the local non-taxable institutions).
So the new mayor quickly started a round of talks with UPMC (The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center), the largest local hospital association, to induce them to make payments in lieu of property taxes. The talks have been private, but they recently broke down and neither side would candidly say the reason why talks broke down. Now it comes out that UPMC was willing to pay tens of millions in extortion money, but the talks broke down because the Administration demanded that UPMC support the unionization of its workforce by the SEIU. UPMC was unwilling.
SEIU has been campaigning with different workers groups at UMPC for more than a decade, but they have not been able to get the required 50%+1 signature cards to demand a representation election. And truth be told, UPMC has made significant wage increases in the past five years or so, in response to the SEIU's campaign. My own nephew's wages have gone from $10 to $16/hr; the SEIU "promises" $25 - less union dues, presumably.
It turns out that the SEIU contributed not only more than any other person or organization to Gainey's campaign, but they contributed more than all other contributors combined(!).
This meets the DEFINITION of "corruption." The SEIU has purchased the favor of the Mayor and his Administration with a massive contribution to his political campaign. There have been other initiatives by the Administration that smelled like there was some undue influence, but this is one that points emphatically to corruption. When asked for comment on the linked story, the Administration, of course, declined.
One would hope that the SEIU's dues-paying members have the option of declining to pay the portion of their dues that goes to buy political favors; not all of the members can be Leftists, right?
Business as usual in Democrat run cities. The beat goes on. Parenthetically, there is a D.A. election coming up and G. Soros is backing one of the Democrats. There are no Republicans running - it would be pointless.
