Good Thursday Morning, Fellow Seekers.

In a scolding missive, former Gov. Ed Rendell has hit back at House Republicans who accused him of spending "frivolously" on "unaccountable handouts" during last summer's Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

In a May 22 letter to House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, and Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, Rendell denied that the convention's Host Committee, which he chaired, finished 2016 with a reported $4 million surplus.

And no, the state isn't getting back any of the $10 million that lawmakers approved, and Gov. Tom Wolf doled out, in advance of the weeklong party conclave in South Philly last July.

"I regret that you sent this letter to me without first contacting me because I could have given you information that would have corrected many of the misstatements and inaccuracies in the letter," Rendell opened.

In their May 18 letter to Rendell, the two Republicans said the taxpayers "want and need our money back," amid a tight budget season in which the state faces a massive, $3 billion budget deficit.

"Respectfully, we don't have the funds to spend frivolously for unaccountable handouts," the Republicans wrote. "Please return the money that rightly belongs to the taxpayers."

In a stinging rebuke, Rendell told Turzai and Reed that, while he was sympathetic to their efforts to balance the state's books, that solution rested with them - not with him and the host committee.

"As to not having State funds to spend frivolously, I understand the Commonwealth's dilemma. A $3 billion deficit will only be bridged by making hard choices to both raise revenue and take money out of the budget as we did when I became Governor and inherited a $2.4 billion deficit from the prior administration," he wrote.

Rendell argued that the host committee ended last year with closer to $2.1 million in its bank accounts, and pointedly defended how the money was spent.

Rendell also told the Republican leaders that the host committee was not obligated to return any surplus money to the state from the $10 million, taxpayer-funded grant that lawmakers approved in advance of the weeklong party conclave in South Philadelphia.

"The Legislature approved this contract and at no time, did it have any provisions saying that if the Host Committee, through its own fundraising efforts, produced a surplus, would that surplus be given back to the State," Rendell told Turzai and Reed.

He continued, "I assume this was done because, as is the case with the vast majority of our economic development grants, the Commonwealth assumed that the benefits to it and its citizens would far exceed the amount of the grant. That is exactly what happened here."

The House Appropriations Committee, chaired by Rep. Stan Saylor, R-York, will hold a July 13 hearing on the host committee's spending. Rendell has indicated he will attend, a House Republican spokesman said.

Rendell also defended the bonuses paid to host committee staffers, including a $310,000 payout to a senior staffer.

Convention staffers, and Rendell, have argued that no taxpayer money was used to pay for the bonuses, saying that the payouts came from private funds the convention raised. State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale is going through the host committee's books to make sure that's the case.

"You correctly categorize the remaining $900,000 as money that I decided to give out to our staff and volunteers," he wrote, referring to claims that Reed and Turzai raised in their initial communication.

"First, you should understand that $129,000 went to volunteers and student interns, many of whom worked for over 3 months, full-time and received absolutely no compensation at all," Rendell wrote. "Given how hard they had worked and under such adverse conditions, we felt this would be a small way of thanking them for their efforts."

Gov. Tom Wolf, Rendell's fellow Democrat, who attended the convention last summer, has also been sharply critical of how the host committee spent its surplus.

The committee spent additional money on grants to the Philadelphia schools and repaying the city of Philadelphia for the municipal services the convention consumed last July.

Rendell closed by telling Turzai and Reed that, if the state needed to scrape together some cash, "I would suggest that it is time for Pennsylvania to join every other shale state in The Union and enact a severance tax. Estimates are that this could produce as much as $500 million which would certainly be helpful in dealing with your deficit."

"So, thank you for your letter. I hope this has cleared up some of your questions," Rendell finished drily.

Read Rendell's full letter below:

EGR Response Re- Host Committee Letter by jmicek on Scribd

Read Turzai's and Reed's letter:

Letter to Ed Rendell from Mike Turzai and Dave Reed by jmicek on Scribd