Whose priorities are these?

By Charles Hample

Here is the Transcript From the Lititz Record Express article on Budget Priorities Published Thursday July 17th 2014 Lititz Record Express

Our community needs reasonable and responsible representation in Harrisburg. We should not continue to balance our budget on unreliable sources of revenue while ignoring commonsense solutions and leaving money on the table. Our neighboring states are dealing with budget surpluses this fiscal year and so should Pennsylvania! Steve Mentzer is in lockstep with Tom Corbett and will tell you the budget doesn't raise taxes and is fiscally responsible. Doesn't raise taxes on whom, the natural gas industry? As a homeowner in Warwick Township, I know I've seen my property taxes go up each of the past 4 years to make up for the decline in state education funding.

Steve Mentzer would have you believe that within the budget is an increase in funding for public education. This is a fallacy, just ask Warwick and Manheim Township school board members. The fact of the matter is that none of the so called "increased funding" for education can be used to help balance their budgets. The money comes with yet another instructional manual from Harrisburg telling them how to spend it. It is time to start trusting local government to do what's best for our communities. It's obvious that Steve Mentzer is a party extremist who is out of touch with what the taxpayers and parents in the 97th District want, which is a leader who will stand up against the status quo and represent everyone in our community regardless of political party.

We must stop wasting time and tax dollars on such partisan legislation and start focusing on the real problems in Pennsylvania + like creating jobs and improving education. Party extremists such as Steve Mentzer, Tom Corbett and their allies stick their heads in the sand when it comes to new funding sources. Make no mistake about it: I support new revenue sources that will lead to budget surpluses in coming years. This will at least slow down the demands we are putting on our homeowners, consumers and our labor force in respect to how much they are taxed. There is an estimated $2 billion in revenue we should be targeting through a severance tax on natural gas drillers, closing tax loopholes and accepting federal money to expand our Medicaid Program at no cost to the people of the Commonwealth.

I support our public schools. As a special education teacher in the School District of Lancaster I understand the pressures and needs of our students and teachers. As a father of three children and a homeowner I understand the sacrifices we're asking of our working families. I want to empower our teachers, strengthen our schools, secure our public pensions and reduce our property taxes. There are ways to accomplish these goals in a budget that is both reasonable and on point + the $29.1 billion Corbett/Mentzer budget is neither.