For a legislator who passed the 'Right to Know' law, state
Sen. Dominic F. Pileggi certainly always seems to keep his constituents in the
dark.
Last week I attended an Avon Grove School Board meeting
along with a few hundred anxious parents. The school board was courageous in
calling the meeting to break the news to the community that they not only were
considering raising property taxes by 5.9 percent, but were seriously weighing
cutting the middle school athletics program, mostly due to the brutal state
education funding cuts being proposed by Gov. Tom Corbett. They even reached
out to the newspapers in the area to inform the community of their budget
situation.
The board has already cut millions of dollars from their
budget and are essentially informing the community that it would be nearly
impossible to solely cut their way out of this shortfall in state funding.
Gov. Corbett announced a 200 million dollar corporate tax
giveaway just days before proposing these draconian education cuts to K-12,
state and state-related universities.
As a community, all of us deserve an explanation from our
elected state officials as to their position on the proposed state budget.
Sen. Pileggi should hold forums around his district to
explain the budget process and where he stands on the proposed cuts. Reaching
out to his constituents through the area newspapers would also be helpful.
He needs to answer questions like:
- Does he support the 200 million dollar corporate tax break, especially when
college students and every resident paying property taxes is being asked to
sacrifice?
- Will he fight for a Marcellus shale natural gas severance tax to gain revenue
to help avoid or greatly reduce these education cuts?
- Why are we the only state in the nation that does not levy this severance tax
(even Texas and West VA has a severance tax)?
- Why did the Senate, under his leadership, break the deal with us House
Democrats, to pass a severance tax by October of 2010?
- Why does he not support finding alternative means of funding our schools
other than property taxes, especially now when cutting state education funding
only forces school boards to raise property taxes?
- Why does he not support legislation I introduced last term that calls for our
casinos to surrender $250 million dollars they use for promotional giveaways -
to the property tax relief fund?
These are just some of the questions that need to be answered. Why is Senator
Pileggi refusing to face his constituents or inform us of what's going on with
the proposed state budget?
As your state senator, as I did as a state representative, I will be in
constant communication with residents through the press and will hold forums to
explain what is going on in Harrisburg and where I stand on important issues.
Constituents deserve nothing less. We deserve the 'Right to Know'.
Tom Houghton,
Former state representative and candidate for state senate in 2012
London Grove Township
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading...
Comments