Mar 11, 2018 3 min read

I was disappointed to read the one-sided view of retiring Republican state Rep. John Maher, of whom I was a constituent for 16 years of living in Upper St. Clair (“Maher Has Served His Constituents Well,” editorial, Feb. 13).

Maher’s work on open records was indeed laudable, and he is an articulate, intelligent, educated individual and a certified public accountant. That is where my praise for him ends.

As the Observer-Reporter noted, Maher was recently admitted to the Accelerated Rehabilitation program for driving while highly intoxicated. How does one excuse this in one who makes the laws?

In all the years that he was my House member, I have never seen him explain his positions in a newspaper editorial or opinion piece, never challenging his colleagues when they embarrassed the House or failed to lead. If one is not informed, they would have no way of knowing who John Maher is, as aside from his action on the floor of the House, he has been the invisible man.

Maher claims to be a fiscal conservative, but he voted for the 2001 retroactive pension enhancement bill, which provided nothing for current retirees, but a 25 percent boost for the rank-and-file worker and 50 percent for legislators, providing even more perverse incentive for them to serve for life. He stood by silently over the years as the deficit in the pension funds reached as much as $70 billion, more than twice the commonwealth’s total 2017 fiscal year annual budget, and despite legislation that was passed to stem the red ink, the debt hangs around our necks like a noose.

The “fiscal conservative” also voted for the 2005 middle-of-the-night legislative pay grab, a means to shovel even more tax dollars to our “public servants” on top of automatic cost-of-living adjustments. Neither Maher nor his greedy colleagues anticipated the public backlash that would ensue. They were eventually forced to eat crow, voting to rescind the bipartisan act of greed.

Maher, a smoker, shamefully voted against the Clean Indoor Air Act, which, although riddled with exemptions, finally served to ban smoking in most public places, including workplaces, stores and restaurants. Did he see no conflict of interest in voting on the measure as one who wished to continue inflicting secondhand smoke on others? How many of us would like to go back to the days of being asked “smoking or nonsmoking” by the host at a restaurant? How many of us would like to return to being forced to ingest what a former U.S. surgeon general labeled a Class A carcinogen?

Maher’s damaging votes and betrayal of purported conservative principles never landed him in trouble with the Upper St. Clair Republican Committee, which always placed its stamp of approval on him because he has an “R” after his name. The committee also proudly endorsed Donald Trump for president: Enough said.

Oren Spiegler is a resident of Washington.