Conspiracy theorists could say that the east got bad news and is spreading rumors of good news in order to get the cash rolling. I guess stranger things have happened, and if it makes you feel better about the rumors-knock yourself out.
The east merger committee got a late start at this. The only money they got was their share of the money the company contributed. The LAA committee had the APA treasury and the west pilots had AOL's fund raising machine. With the late start, fund raising wasn't the biggest priority.
East pilots have to fund this, just as west pilots had to fund theirs and LAA pilots used their dues to fund theirs. The east committee has no access to any other funds.
There is no excuse for any east pilot not to send money, except maybe those retiring this year. In our other mergers we were assessed for these costs, but the LAA pilots had the funds they needed and they say there is no way to assess just one group.