At the invitation of Chief John Senft of the York City Department of Fire and Rescue Services, Waugh will provide opening remarks for the event being held at Fire Station #9 and will discuss fire service related legislation currently before the General Assembly.

"It is always an honor to join my fellow firefighters, and I look forward to this opportunity to speak with firefighters from across Pennsylvania and share with them the efforts we're putting forth in Harrisburg to improve fire services," said Waugh, a former assistant fire chief with Shrewsbury Volunteer Fire Company.

The Association is comprised of fire chiefs from stations across the state that employ career, or paid, firefighters, as does York City. Areas of the Commonwealth that will be represented are: Erie, Butler, Oil City, Easton, and Bethlehem, among others.

Media are welcome to attend the opening portion of the meeting, during which Waugh will also participate in a question and answer session with the fire chiefs regarding state legislative efforts. It is estimated this will last until 9:30 or 10am, after which an opportunity will be given for media to speak to the fire chiefs before they continue with the rest of their meeting.

Tonight, I've been talking to some members of York County's state House of Representatives delegation about the bonusgate scandal. (The story's going to run later this week. Keep an eye out for it, because it's going to be really, really good, like pretty much all of my stories.)

So far, all of the people indicted have been Democrats. But even the Republican state representatives aren't happy about this, because they say that everybody tends to get painted with one brush. A lot of people just don't understand distinctions such as one caucus being involved, but not another.

I took some more vacation time. Frankly, I was hoping things would be slow last week to give me time to get readjusted to being at work. No such luck.

Unbeknownst to me, "bonusgate" was breaking back home even as I enroute to West Virginia for my camping trip. That's right -- the scandal is so big, it even got a "gate" suffix.

State Rep. Keith Gillespie (R-Hellam), a certified emergency medical technician (EMT) and paramedic, was pleased to see the General Assembly pass and send to Gov. Ed Rendell's desk a bill on Friday that would provide tax breaks for emergency responders.

"We are seeing a significant decline in the number of volunteer firefighter, rescue and
emergency medical personnel," said Gillespie. "In addition to rewarding current emergency responders, this legislation will hopefully offer further incentive to individuals considering joining local response teams."

House Bill 377 includes a provision for a credit of $100 to be applied against the state
personal income tax liability of constituents who are active with a volunteer ambulance service or volunteer fire or rescue company. A point system will be established to set annual requirements for certification of active volunteers.

"The point system will take into account the level of involvement as an emergency
responder in measuring eligibility for the credit," Gillespie added. "Those individuals who are certified benefit from the tax break and the citizens they serve in turn benefit from a more experienced and involved public servant available in their time of need."

Gillespie is chairman of the House Firefighters and Emergency Services Caucus.
Before running for office, he spent 32 years in the health care field and became one of the first certified paramedics in Pennsylvania through a national pilot program in 1972.

It is an exciting time for advocates and concerned citizens who have worked so hard to promote the advancement of alternative energy production here in Pennsylvania. The state's 2008-09 budget makes a real commitment to investing in alternative energy and much of this success can be attributed to your efforts.

I would like to thank you for your interest and participation in making Pennsylvania a leader in alternative energy production and invite you to join me as Gov. Ed Rendell officially signs into law my proposal that will invest $650 million to help fund business and consumer projects that develop clean, green energy.

The event will take place at 4 p.m. Wednesday, July 9 at the Codo Building, 241 N. George St. in York.

I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday as we celebrate a major victory in developing alternative energy projects here in the Keystone State.

As always, feel free to contact me or visit my Web page for updates and other information regarding this issue. If you do not get a response from the contact page within 24 hours, you can also e-mail me directly at edepasquale@pahouse.net.

Recently, I stopped by the York County Elections and Voter Registration office to check the write-in results. I didn't bother to count them, but the cartoon references seemed to number in the hundreds.

Disney, Warner Brothers and Hanna Barbera were all represented, with votes for Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny and Boo Boo.

Off-hand, I'd estimate that the cartoon character written in most frequently was Mickey Mouse, which kind of offended my sensibilities. I wasn't offended by any inherent disrespect for the democratic process, so much as the lack of creativity. Mickey Mouse? Come on, try harder!

Yeah, the state legislature was getting down to the nitty gritty on the 2008-2009 budget, which was a pretty big deal in itself. But it was interesting for me because I ended up covering not one, but two de facto resignations by prominent local government officials.

First, I went to a seminar in Silver Spring, Md. Then I visited my parents in New Jersey. That's right, Tom Joyce knows how to party!

So I wish I could tell you that I'm still languishing in a sun-and-Margarita-induced mental fog, but that just isn't the case. I guess we might as well dive right in.

My first day back started at 3 p.m. yesterday. I work the evening shift on Sunday nights. Usually, that entails setting aside politics to cover the crime beat. I spent last night, however, contacting local lawmakers to whether they thought a new state budget was forthcoming.

I got a reminder last Wednesday during a conference call from local Republican state representatives. They were afraid that Gov. Ed Rendell is trying to create a last-minute budget crisis, and set up Republicans to take the blame.

They said that last year, members of the public were more likely to blame General Assembly Republicans than the governor when the state budget passed late and 250,000 "non-essential" state workers were "furloughed" for a day.

They said they were ready to work straight through to the June 30th deadline. But Democrats said the bill comprising the state budget wouldn't even be out of committee until June 23.

Rendell has his agenda. They have theirs. And Rendell, they claimed, was trying to use the upcoming deadline for leverage -- essentially putting them up against a cliff edge where they'd have no choice but to make compromises.

I couldn't say if he is or not. But that would be consistent with the way things typically get done in Harrisburg.

For years, budget negotiations culminated with an all-night session of one side waiting for the other to compromise first. When the legislature passed a pay raise after midnight in 2005, many critics accused the lawmakers of taking advantage of the late hour to sneak it past.

Whether that was true or not, they've since acknowledged that it didn't look good and set aside the all-nighters. But not, apparently, the brinksmanship.

It reminds me of the situation with me and Steve, a friend with whom I shared an apartment years ago.

Steve was a good guy. He was also a slob, which was problematic because I was a slob too. There was no Felix in the mix; just a couple of Oscars.

Our apartment would get pretty disgusting. But I didn't want to clean because it was mostly his mess and I always ended up cleaning. He didn't want to clean because, I assume, he was thinking the exact same thing.

The only time either one of us would clean was when we were having people over.

And the one who would eventually relent and break out the mop was always the one with the most to lose if our visitors saw the apartment in its natural state. I'd clean if I was having a get-together for people from work, or he'd do it if he was bringing over a woman he was trying to impress.

Even then, the cleaning would take place only after the more motivated of us became resigned to the fact that the other simply wasn't going to tackle the mountain of dirty dishes in the kitchen, or the Chamber of Horrors that was our bathroom.

As I'm sure you can imagine, the cleaning was always a half-hearted, last-minute affair. No problem. When our guests were suitably appalled at the state of our apartment, we could simply blame each other.

Maybe it's just human nature. When you have two factions with diametrically opposed goals, one isn't likely to relent unless and until given a motivation to do so.

Then again, Steve and I were a couple of immature, beer-addled 23-year-olds. I'd like to think the elected lawmakers in Harrisburg could do a better job of housekeeping than we did.

I got a reminder last week, when I received a phone call from one of state Rep. Bev Mackereth's staffers. The Repubican members of the state House of Representatives wanted to talk to me on a conference call.

A friend of mine e-mailed it to blogger Ben Smith, who's on www.politico.com. Last night, Mr. Smith posted a link to it on his blog, which I thought was really cool of him.

Last I checked, it had more than 1,300 views. So lots and lots of people have seem me prancing around for my litte fairie dance. Which is ... uh ... good, I guess.

Waugh is a volunteer firefighter himself, so legislation pertaining to emergency service providers has always been something of particular interest to him.

So just now, I got this radical idea. Those e-mails are about local politics. And this blog is about local politics. What if -- stay with me, here -- I posted those press releases on my blog? Good Lord! That's just crazy enough to work! OK, here's one I got today from state Rep. Stan Saylor, R-Windsor Township. Usually, we edit these down for size in our newspaper, when we run them in those columns of two- or three-paragraph news items called "briefs."

Since I've got more space to work with here, and since it's not oppresively long, I might as well run this in its entirety.

I think I'm setting a new precedent for this blog, here. Man, I love it when other people do my work for me!

Earlier this week, I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Mel Kulbicki, a Penn State York political science professor whom I often call when I'm looking for cogent analysis of national politics.

Kulbicki believes that Clinton did everything right -- by 1996 and 2000 standards. She swooped in early and traded on her party establishment credentials to pick up all the big donors.

What she didn't count on was the rapidity at which the very nature of campaigning is changing, rendering effective techniques from just a few years back as passe as the megaphone.

That means the countdown is starting for passage of a new state budget. The ostensible completion date is the end of the fiscal year, June 30th. Although state lawmakers have been known to miss that deadline in the past.

I'll be writing more about the state budget process -- or as I like to call it, the Cavalcade of Migraines.

Meanwhile, here's the text of a press release about an informational meeting that state Rep. Eugene DePasquale, D-West Manchester, has scheduled for the state budget:

State Rep. Eugene DePasquale, D-West Manchester, will host a town hall meeting Thursday for residents living in the 95th Legislative District to discuss issues surrounding the 2008-09 state budget.

The meeting will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 5, at the Spring Garden Township Building, 340 Tri Hill Road in York.

DePasquale said he is hosting the town hall meeting to provide a forum for constituents to learn more about the budget process and find out what proposals are being offered. In addition, he said the meeting will allow residents to ask questions, express concerns and provide input regarding important quality-of-life issues.

"The state budget is the most important proposal that we pass each and every year, yet it is a process that is not well known by the public," DePasquale said. "This town hall meeting will give citizens the opportunity to learn more about the process and what I am hoping to accomplish this budget season."

DePasquale will be joined by Mary Soderberg, executive deputy secretary of the budget and the state's chief financial officer, and Dave Smith, central Pennsylvania regional manager for Good Schools Pennsylvania.

"I encourage my constituents to attend this meeting and share with me their thoughts on how we can improve the state's funding plan,” he said. "After all – it is their money."

Questions or additional information can be obtained by contacting DePasquale’s constituent service office at 717-848-9595, or through his Web site at www.pahouse.com/depasquale.