Editorial for June 14, 2007 edition:


Misguided pols

With so many pressing issues confronting members of Philadelphia City Council and the Pennsylvania Legislature — drug abuse, easy access to guns, the City of Brotherly Love’s sky-high homicide rate, sky-high taxes, the pending overhaul of property-tax assessments, passage of sound fiscal city and state budgets, a search for a new schools czar, placement of the very lucrative casinos along the Delaware River, to name a few — isn’t it gratifying to know that our friendly neighborhood politicians are hard at work worrying about such life-or-death issues as declaring Philadelphia a "pro-choice city," banning campaign signs from Roosevelt Boulevard and canceling a planned ban on trans fats in baked goods?
Actually, considering how little our highly paid lawmakers will get done before they adjourn for the summer, they should think about passing pay-cut legislation when they pass some measures.
For instance, take the campaign-sign measure, which would impose fines on candidates whose campaign signs are placed on state highways, most noticeably, the Boulevard. For one thing, how many people who’ve been complaining about the signs even bothered to vote in last month’s primary? How many have voted in the last five years? One supporter of the bill, state Rep. Mike McGeehan, pooh-poohs concerns that if the bill is enacted, political foes could try to get each other in trouble by placing their foes’ signs on the road. That’s a legitimate concern. So is the infringement of candidates’ free-speech rights inherent in the legislation.
As for Councilwoman Joan Krajewski’s trans-fats bill, which would greatly dilute a pending city law that would ban unhealthy ingredients in food and baked goods in Philly, Mrs. Krajewski is hardly a public-health expert. She’s one of the misguided Council members who voted against the city’s smoking ban last year. Take what she says with a grain of salt. ••

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