HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS: … [Controller Dan] Miller, [Treasurer John] Campbell and the Council members contend in their suit that the state takeover violates the equal protection tenets in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and breaches the state constitution by singling out Harrisburg for unequal treatment. They want [District Judge John E. Jones III], who is also weighing their suit, to return the city’s finances to local control.
Besides forcing the earned income tax increase, the recovery plan calls for selling and leasing city assets, including the Harrisburg incinerator to which most of the city’s debt load of around $330 million is linked.
In urging Jones to dismiss the suit by city leaders, Corbett and Lynch argue that municipal officials cannot challenge the validity of state statutes such as Act 47 in federal court on 14th Amendment grounds… (more)
EDITOR: The governor and legislature won’t allow Harrisburg to file for bankruptcy. They are more interested in the wellbeing of bond holders (thus campaign contributors) than the citizenry.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/09/governor_harrisburg_receiver_s.html#incart_river_default
Mr Editor, I think it is worse than that. The likelihood of Jones not acting like the political animal that he is out of the question. Jones should not be hearing this matter. Please see the following:
* 1980-1983 Law Clerk to the Honorable Guy A. Bowe, Schuylkill County
President Judge
* 1980-1986 Private practice, Dolbin & Cori, (1983 ) Dolbin, Cori & Jones
* 1983-1995 Schuylkill County Assistant Public Defender
* 1986-2002 Private practice, John Jones & Associates
* 1994-1996 Solicitor, City of Pottsville
* 1994 Co-Chairman of Governor-elect Tom Ridge’s transition team
* 1995-2002 Chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board
http://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/bios/jones.htm