$12,531.10
POTTSTOWN, PA – Our nation’s unemployment is at 9% (and that figure does not take into account folks who want to work…but can’t find jobs).
Folks in the U.S. are so desperate for employment these days that they will work in the U.S. for $.25 an hour. Yes…you read that figure correctly…twenty five cents an hour.
While everyone else in America is struggling financially (and with 15.7% of Pottstown residents living in poverty), Pottstown School Board member Thomas Hylton, who prides himself on telling others how to suck it up and live modesty, has spent $12,531.10 in the past six months on his hyper-focused political stoogery. That’s close to $2,100 a month. Way more than the median mortgage payment of $686 or the median monthly rent of $544 that Pottstown residents spend on housing.
How do we know how much money Hytlon has spent in the past six months? Did we make these numbers up? Of course not. The facts are right here in black and white courtesy of our good friends at the Montgomery County Open Records Office:
PCFRG 2011 Post Primary Expense Report
Remember those two dirty marketing flyers that Hylton mailed to Pottstown voters in the days before last month’s primary election? Of course you remember….this piece and this piece of junk mail where Hylton had the absolute cojones to bully three female candidates by name-calling them “excessive spenders”?
How much did Hylton spend on those two flyers alone? $3,345.42
It’s almost as if Tom Hylton suffers from some kind of undiagnosed mental disorder for him to be spending that kind of money when so many of our fellow Pottstown citizens are struggling to survive.
And where does all of this expendable income come from? Especially in these dire fiscal times? Damned if we know…but we do know this. According to the 2010 budget posted online of Tom Hylton’s so-called non-profit Trees, Inc., the organization’s assets (as of December 31, 2010) is stated as being over $80,000. The curious thing about that budget posted online is the title of the PDF (which is how Tom Hylton named the file). The title of the file is: 2010-budget-for-web-12-31-10. So…does that mean that there’s a different 2010 budget that wasn’t posted online?
Hmmm. It kinds makes you stop and think, doesn’t it?
Who says money doesn’t grow on trees?
Thank you SP for sharing this very important information with the people of Pottstown. It’s important that you continue to help inform readers about local issues like this.
Even though Tom Hylton demands that everyone else conduct their business in an open and professional manner, I find it ironic that he never posted this financial information on his website until your site did.
What happened to conducting business in an open and professional manner? I guess that’s another rule that only applies to others and conveniently doesn’t apply to Tom Hylton.
Since you publish posts at least weekly and since you also adhere to the highest journalistic principles, I’m going to fill out the entry form and submit your site for a Pulitzer Prize in journalism. You put The Mercury to shame! You’ve exposed Tom Hylton for the total fraud that he is! Shame on him!
Keep up the great work SP!
When I think about the good this money could do in Pottstown I want to cry. There are so many worthy activities going on for the benefit of the community and money is always in short supply.
Can you just imagine what a hero he could have been to so many who work so hard to make a difference?
But every one of his choices have only served to create angst and hard feelings that hold Pottstown back.
If the light ever dawns on him, and he as a conscience, maybe he will rectify the harm he has done here in service to his own EGO.