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Friday, May 05, 2006
Posted 11:00 PM by

Perzel's cup runneth over



Look who's laughing all the way to the bank. It's Pennsylvania Speak of the House John Perzel.Pennsylvania Speaker of the House John Perzel is dead-set against publically listing the gifts lobbyists bestow on state representatives and is hammering out a "disclosure law" behind closed doors.

But Perzel detailed gifts totaling $34,315.80 in his latest annual statement of financial interests (pdf) filing on March 6.

The state requires all elected officials and public employees to fill the form out each year to make public their conflicts of interests.

Perzel received numerous cash gifts from companies during his Jan. 4, 2005 swearing in ceremony. Among them: $3,000 from Wachovia Bank, $1,000 from Comcast, $500 from the Hospital and Healthsystem Association, $500 each from PECO Energy and Exelon, $250 from the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association.

Then there were the trips.

The law firm of Klett Rooney Lieber & Schorling gave Perzel a $500 ticket to Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Fla. on Feb. 6, 2005. The Eagles lost the game to the Patriots. Klett Rooney represents the Steelers in all legal transactions except players' contracts.

The "Association Promoting Relations Between PA, USA & Fujian Province, China" paid $12,500 for a "realtionship-building" trip to the province from July 11-20. The association is chaired by Julie Wong, a Philadelphia real estate broker, developer and former banker.

Advance America, Cash Advance Centers Inc. then paid $4,134 to send Perzel to Las Vegas for the 2005 National Speaker's Conference from Sept. 28 to Oct.2.

While he was in Sin City, the State Legislative Leaders Foundation gave Perzel $2,231.80.

All of this was on top of the $112,689 he makes as Speaker and the $20,000 he receives for being on the board of GEO Group Inc.

To read more about Perzel's involvement with GEO, click here.
PERZEL'S STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL INTEREST

In order to read John Perzel's statement, you must have Adobe's pdf reader installed in your browser. To down a free copy, click here or on the icon below:


Rep. John Perzel
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