Union CEO Calls Majority Leader a Liar - Commonwealth Foundation

Union CEO Wendell Young issued a press release Wednesday claiming, “there’s no nice way to put this but he [House Majority Leader Mike Turzai] is not telling the truth and he knows it.”

This is what pscyhologists call projection— that is, attributing what you do (in this case, not telling the truth) to others.

Young, for instance, claims a state-commissioned report found “a transition to privatization would cost $1.4 billion over five years.” Not true.

The report actually indicated that the total cost of running the PLCB would be $1.4 billion during the five years it takes to transition to a private system. But those annual operating costs would decline from $500 million to less than $100 million. Without privatization, the PLCB’s operating costs would be about $2.4 billion over those same five years. That is, privatization would save state taxpayers $1 billion in operating costs.

We’ve pointed out Wendell’s error on this point consistently, but he continues to repeat it.

But this is to be expected; Wendell has a long history of misrepenting the truth. He claims Rep. Turzai puts “politics above Pennsylvanians,” yet:

Wendell puts his personal politics above the well-documented majority of Pennsylvanians that want the state out of the liquor business.
Wendell has misled the public, spending more than $1 million—from taxpayer collected union dues—on factually inaccurate ads.
Wendell puts his personal politics above the interests of his own members and fee payers, by incorrectly disclosing how their dues and fees are spent.
Wendell puts his personal politics above Pennsylvania law, by failing to register as a lobbyist, despite exceeding the law’s minimum requirements by significant sums.

The truth is, the liquor privatization plan put forth by House Majority Leader Mike Turzai last year, which passed in March of 2013, put Pennsylvania taxpayers and consumers first. Pennsylvanians on both sides of the aisle are tired of the state’s Prohibition-era liquor system, which has more government control than any state other than Utah.

Liquor privatization is only about politics within the Capitol, and that’s because Wendell Young spends millions of both workers’ dues and fair share fees to keep it that way. And as taxpayers, we continue to pay to collect the money that is used against this commonsense reform that would finally put Pennsylvanians – not politics – first.