Preceded by Thomas Lamb Preceded by District Created Succeeded by Frank Pecora | Preceded by Jack McGregor Succeeded by Henry Messinger Name Thomas Nolan | |
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Constituency Parts of Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties | ||
Thomas Martin Nolan (October 24, 1916 – April 7, 1989) is a former Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate and Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
He represented the 34th legislative district in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1969 to 1970. He was then elected to represent the 44th senatorial district in the Pennsylvania Senate in 1970.
During a 1971 debate, Governor Milton Shapp's proposed a 5% state income tax. Nolan was one of two democratic holdouts in the Pennsylvania Senate. When the suggested rate was reduced to 3.5%, Nolan finally agreed to vote in favor of it. It was alleged that Nolan's brother Edward, was offered a bribe in exchange for convincing his brother to vote in favor of the tax. The matter was referred to the FBI, the Allegheny County District Attorney, and U.S. Attorney Richard Thornburgh, but no charges were ever filed.
Thom Nolan served in the Senate until 1978.
He and three other defendants, including Vince Fumo and Pete Carmiel, were convicted of placing "ghost workers" on state payroll. The charges were later thrown out.