Rep. Petri Holds Town Hall

Amidst strife about Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed 2011-2012 budget, Rep. Scott Petri (R-Bucks) said "the good news for Pennsylvania's future is we have coal and Marcellus Shale," adding that the extraction and control of both resources must be handled safely and smartly.

In a town hall held at the last night, about 20 community members listened while Petri made a fairly detailed presentation about the upcoming state budget. 

Petri took the audience through 22 slides that provided everything from background information, including the $4.1 billion state deficit Corbett claims he inherited, how Corbett plans to rectify that loss, the economic outlook, Pennsylvania government's greatest revenue sources and an in-depth breakdown of the proposed budget itself.

"I think it's important before the budget gets passed to try to reach out to the people," Petri said, noting the evening's event was the first of several town hall meetings of its kind.

"There's no point in getting to the budget then saying to the community, 'What do you think?'" he said.

One point he made clear in his presentation is that the spending number, once verified, will be locked in stone. That figure comes from research done in Harrisburg by economists and other officials and is a prediction of how much revenue Pennsylvania will take in for the upcoming fiscal year.

However, the task of calculating that number is not an easy one, Petri pointed out, and for the past several years, spending has increased more dramatically than inflaction. This is the major cause for a deficit.

Further along in the slides, Petri talked about unemployment numbers and how he believes they are higher than the chart represented. 

"Approximately 50 percent of people are doing worse than they were ... two years ago," he said. 

On the map that laid out unemployment rates, only five counties had a rate less than 6.4 percent, and Petri pointed out that those are the places where the Marcellus Shale industry is booming. He said "our goal ought to be, as a state, to raise enough money to run a responsible department of environmental protection" so that these industries can continue without affecting the water supply.

Another hot issue he spent time discussing is the drastic cut to higher education funding. In the proposed budget, state-owned universities would see a 53 percent reduction in funding and state-related universities (Penn State, Temple, Pitt and Lincoln) would see a 50-52 percent cut in funds.

"We dropped a bomb on their doorstep," Petri said, referring to families with students at those universities. 

During the public comment, several people brought their own issues with the budget to the table to have Petri discuss and explain. 

One man said he thinks the state needs to stop putting so much money into basic education and rely on good ideas because the scores aren't getting much better.

To that, Churchville resident Christine Bishop, a teacher, replied, "The reason why education costs so much is because we're trying to create people who are then going to become decent citizens. There are a lot of things we are up against."

Carla Higgins, a woman from Richboro who works for a not-for-profit organization, said she is disgusted with the amount of bureaucracy involved with certain regulations and updates.

"How much money is wasted from that?" she asked.

Petri replied the new administration is looking for feedback exactly like her's.

"It's a new day and government cannot afford to operate in the way that things have occurred," he said.

Petri ended the meeting by answering a question about how the average citizen can best contact the people making major decisions.

"Write to the governor and tell him how you feel," Petri said, adding the evening's commentary "demonstrates that there's no easy solutions here. Pennsylvania is very diverse."