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Hanna addresses property taxes, more

LOCK HAVEN -- Property taxes were a clear point of focus Wednesday night during state Rep. and Minority Whip Michael K. Hanna Sr.'s town hall meeting at the Red Eye Center.

"I believe something will pass in this two-year cycle," Hanna, D-Lock Haven, said regarding the subject and warned of the dangers of merely assuming that the bill won't pass.

Originally focused on the elimination of property taxes in exchange for a slightly higher income tax and sales tax, the bill has been found to be ineffectual in its current form.

Currently, school property taxes bring in between $12 billion to $14 billion, Hanna said. The original plan of raising the sales tax and income tax by 1 percent will not add up to enough money to replace the property taxes, he said.

A compromise involving reducing property taxes by 30 percent to 40 percent is on the table at the moment, although Hanna mentioned that the Senate doesn't like the plan and is trying to find another way around the problem so the tax still can be eliminated.

A related concern for many is the rumored closing of Bucktail High School in Renovo. Hanna confirmed that, per his understanding, such a closing is not planned and only is being discussed in the event of the Property Tax Elimination Act passing in its entirety.

Hanna said a planned large investment in the Renovo power plant will be made in coming months -- 300 to 500 construction jobs lasting for up to five years will be generated.

A potential closure of the high school would come at a very bad time for Renovo in light of this project, and Hanna confirmed that "the people of Renovo will have my full support to keep that facility operational."

He also mentioned the state budget and reassured attendees that "everyone learned from last session that there were no winners."

Hearings on the budget are underway, with actions to be taken soon afterward. The budget is Gov. Tom Wolf's latest attempt at battling a $2 billion deficit: this year, instead of increasing taxes across the board, he plans to trim government spending, while possibly taxing the Marcellus Shale industry heavier and closing a loophole that allows corporations that operate subsidiaries here but are headquartered elsewhere to avoid paying their full due in Pennsylvania.

The only place Hanna noted an increase in the budget was in the area of education, where Wolf continues to try to undo the nearly 19 percent slashes inflicted by his predecessor.

"It's not big increases, but it's better than cuts," Hanna said.

One issue on the horizon, Hanna said, is that of the funding of the state police. Currently, state police patrol municipalities without their own local police force; however, the costs of that service have become crippling, he said.

The agency costs about $830 million annually, which is paid for by gas taxes and license fees that are supposed to be used for road and bridge repair. To help offset this, Hanna said Wolf is considering a $25 per resident fee, paid for by the municipalities that need police coverage, in addition to budgetary cutbacks.

Another major subject of discussion was that of colleges -- the PASSHE system in general, college debt and tuition costs, and Lock Haven University specifically. To quell unease about the topic of campus closings and mergers, Hanna reassured attendees that Lock Haven is one of the two best financially managed universities and still serves a population of over 4,000 students.

A related issue was the creation and implementation of standardized testing, which was a good example of Legislature causing more problems than it solved, Hanna said.

Schools had to take students out of technical and certificate tracks and put them back into general classrooms in an attempt to meet standardized requirements, with the school's funding on the line. This has led to a dearth of technically skilled workers entering the workforce, although Hanna said that this allowed for a potential way for several of the state colleges to refocus themselves in an attempt to become financially sustainable.

Attendees expressed concerns over various budget cuts the Trump administration is imposing at the federal level, especially regarding environmental protections and education.

Hanna said Pennsylvania fortunately controls much of its own future in these departments: for example, the state regulates its own environmental policies and funds its own agencies, with the Department of Environmental Protection looking at a 1.3 percent reduction for the upcoming fiscal year as opposed to the 20 percent cut that Trump is reported to be planning federally.

The same is true of education, with most education funding happening at the state level, not federal.

Hanna said he knows a lot of people who work at the Department of Environmental Protection and, regardless of federal laws, "they will never roll over for the desecration of our natural resources."

In addition, while his constituents frequently ask for more job creation, jobs created without environmental consciousness, such as those enabled by the use of eminent domain for gas pipelines in West Virginia, are "jobs for this generation and nothing for the next," he said.

Other topics that surfaced included Pennsylvania's eventual upgrade to the Real ID driver's license, which would allow citizens access to airports and government buildings.

"We want to do it, but first we need to figure out how to do it," Hanna said, expressing concern over the $200 million to $300 million cost to the state for the upgrade service.

The subject of the Affordable Care Act also came up a couple times throughout the night, with Hanna emphatically stating that if it is repealed, it must be replaced.

If the health care law were to be simply repealed, Hanna said, it would incur an additional $1.3 billion in costs to the state of Pennsylvania, which would be absolutely crippling given how much the state has struggled with the deficit it currently bears.

Hanna closed the evening by asserting that he doesn't want the discussion to end with the town hall and urged everyone to use his website and email address to get in contact with him.

"We do have an email address, and we respond to all of the emails as quickly as we can," he said, chuckling as he conceded that "they don't always answer people as quickly as they'd like."

Hanna may be reached by email at Rephanna@pahouse.ne.