As a nine-term state legislator, state Rep. Stephen Barrar is fairly well known, but the 160^th Legislative District has changed.

Because of redistricting, the 160^th lost some municipalities from its eastern edge, but picked up Pennsbury and Kennett Townships as well as Kennett Square on the western side.

Barrar, 60, of Upper Chichester, is seeking another two-year term as representative and wants those who don’t yet know him to think of him as a “community politician, not a Harrisburg politician.”

“My job is in Harrisburg, but I represent nine communities here, and I try to be a very important part of that community. I want people to know that when they have a problem, I’m the guy to turn to,” he said.

Barrar is a US Navy veteran, former businessman, and chairman of the state’s Veterans’ Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee.

He said his most significant accomplishment in office was in changing requirements for teen drivers’ licenses. The change requires 16-year-olds to have a minimum of 40 hours of instruction over a six-month period before they can get their permanent license.

“Fatality rates dropped better than 50 percent. The bad part is we’re still having horrific accidents where we lose four or five drivers at a time,” he said.

Another area he feels good about is being part of the effort to save refineries in Marcus Hook two years ago. If the plants had closed, thousands of jobs would have been lost. Marcus Hook is not within the 160^th Legislative District, but many of the refinery employees are district residents, he said.

While the grandfather of three is pleased with those results, he admits to missing the “elusive goal” of property tax reform.

Barrar said most people have no problem with property taxes for county and township government, but have a major problem with those taxes going toward education.

He said he backed House Bills 76 and 1776 that would have shifted funding for education from property taxes to sales and income taxes.

“Funding of education has been the greatest challenge for Pennsylvania,” Barrar said. “The problem with education — even with the Marcellus Shale Tax that [Democratic Party candidate for governor Tom Wolfe] has talked about — is that funding for education increases every year by about $600 million.”

While the Marcellus Shale Tax would generate that amount of revenue, he said, it would only solve educational funding problems for one year. Though he wants to go to a bill like House Bill 76 that would shift the bulk of education funding away from property taxes, some property taxes would still go to the schools.

“But it would exist for local, basically debt service, or new construction projects,” Barrar said.

Under that type of system, he said as an illustration, if the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board opted to build a new school or renovate the middle school, local property taxes would go to fund that project, but the remainder of the operating budget would come from sales and income taxes.

He sees education funding and the economy as the biggest issues in this year’s election.

Education is also one of the key issues for Whitney Hoffman, his Democratic Party opponent in this election. They both agree that less money is going to the classroom.

According to the incumbent Republican, that’s because of high salaries and benefits.

Barrar cited a Commonwealth Foundation study that said education spending has gone up more than 20 percent during the last eight years.

“That’s not totally outrageous,” he said, “but the cost of salaries and benefits over those eight years increased by 108 percent…If we want to spend the same amount of dollars, we’re either going to have to increase [taxes] at the local level or the state level to meet that demand.”

The best way to fund education, Barrar said, is to improve the economy.

To grow the economy, Barrar said the legislature should look at the state’s tax policies and the regulatory costs placed on businesses.

He said the state’s corporate tax rate of 9.9 percent is one of the highest in the country, as is the state’s unemployment compensation. Workers’ compensation costs are also increasing. Those facts make Pennsylvania “ a very expensive state to do business in.”

Yet, he’s willing to consider increasing taxes on Marcellus Shale.

“The support in the legislature is probably 70 or 80 percent to do it. The problem is that half the people want a 3 to 5 percent tax, and the other half wants a 5 to 10 percent tax. That would put us at the highest in the nation. That would be something that would disenfranchise a lot of companies from coming here,” he said.

“Government can’t create jobs,” he added, “but it can create an atmosphere that is inviting to businesses.

Barrar took issue with some of the statements his opponent made in a recent interview. Hoffman said Barrar has done little to improve the Conchester Highway, Route 322.

“I’ve heard her say numerous times that I’ve done nothing about the Conchester, which couldn’t be further from the truth,” he said.

Barrar said he made deals with two former governors — Ridge and Rendell — to vote for their pet projects in exchange for their promises to continue funding for the Conchester project, and that funding is in place for several stages of improvement.

Barrar and Hoffman are both scheduled to attend a meet-the-candidates’ night at Fox Hill Farm in Concord Township on Oct. 9.