Pileggi plays while PA pays
State Sen. Dominic Pileggi accepted a trip to the Super Bowl from
the Pittsburgh Steelers organization—airfare and lodging included. It must be
nice —as many Pennsylvanians are struggling to find work and to put food on the
table.
The senator’s district encompasses the built-out suburbs of
Delaware County (Chester, Marcus Hook, etc.) along with rural Southern Chester
County, yet our senator has failed to legislatively address “smart
growth” land use policies. The Pennsylvania land use law (Municipalities
Planning Code) should be amended to better allow for revitalization of these
old Delco towns while giving municipalities like Franklin and Upper Oxford (in
Southern Chester County) the ability to save the best farmland soils on planet
earth.
As the senate majority leader, he has the ability to set the
agenda; year after year passes with no action on this suburban sprawl issue.
We need real property tax reform—something the senator
stands firmly against. In the meantime, our legislature needs to get back to
funding 50 percent of our schools as they did in the early 80s. Too much burden
is placed on property owners to fund education. Sen. Pileggi, with his 2009
Senate Bill 850, which called for drastic cuts in state education funding, has
shown that he doesn’t care about passing the burden to property owners. Resist
the Pileggi pile on. The less the state funds, the more school boards have to
look to property owners to pick up the tab.
Pennsylvania is the only state that doesn’t have a natural
gas severance tax. Meanwhile, as indicated, our schools go underfunded. The senator
was instrumental in killing the severance tax that the House democrats passed
over to the Senate in the last term.
Sen. Pileggi sets policy to help him continue to lead his
caucus. If he started fighting for the residents of his district, he knows that
he would not get chosen leader by his fellow Republican Senators. He is simply
co-opted by the Pennsylvania establishment, out of touch with the needs of his
constituents, and serving the rich while pushing more of our fellow
Pennsylvanians into poverty.
Peter Jesson
Chadds Ford Township
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