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PRO-LIFE:
I am Pro Life and feel life should be
treated with complete care from fetus to
death. I strongly support adoption as a
viable alternative if a pregnancy is
unwanted or the mother feels incapable
of caring for the child.
more>>
THE
RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS:
A check of history makes it clear that
our forefathers meant for the second
amendment to guarantee the right of an
individual to bear arms.
more>>
PENNSYLVANIA LIQUOR LAW:
I take a firm position that all wines,
liquors and beers should only be sold in
bars, 6-pack shops, distributors, and
state owned stores.
more>>
ZERO TOLERANCE POLICE LIABILITY:
If a police officer is killed in the
line of duty by a weapon (gun/knife),
then life without parole should be a
mandatory sentence.
more>> |
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FEATURED ISSUES
No School Tax for Seniors
I believe that all seniors at
age 62 should receive a 50%
reduction in property school
tax. At age 65 they should
receive a full 100% reduction.
This would also come with strict
guidelines to be eligible to
qualify for this tax relief
program. This would only be
eligible on your primary
residence and you would have to
own the home for ten years prior
to age 62. You must also be
current and in good standing
with all property taxes during
that ten years. You also
couldn’t have filed bankruptcy
during that same ten year period
or anytime after for you to
qualify for the tax relief. This
would be a great economic boost
to our senior community and to
our business economics.
Seniors:
I fully support our
senior community and feel we
need increased programs to help
them manage their day to day
issues which continue to support
our economy. We need more
programs like Senior Life and
increased community
eating/exercise centers designed
for seniors only. With the
increasing number of seniors who
have Type II Diabetes and the
lack of care that is available,
health care costs to treat this
problem are rising by alarming
numbers. This expense is being
passed on to all of us with
higher premiums. Diabetes is
reaching higher levels in
seniors, simply because most
have very poor eating habits due
to fixed incomes or lack of
exercise/activities programs.
Pennsylvanians need to accept
this and understand the impact
this will have over a period of
time
Economic Development:
Pennsylvania needs to be a more
business friendly state. As we
all know our area and state
continues to lose population and
jobs to our neighboring states.
We need programs and funding
that help businesses expand and
develop their products and
services. The state needs to
implement tax credits and low
interest loan programs for
increasing the number of
employees a company has. This
program is already in place but
only for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class
cities. This needs to be offered
to the businesses in townships
and boroughs not just inside the
city limits.
Minimum Wage:
Minimum wage needs to be
seriously looked at. We can’t
continue to let this be ignored
like we have in the past. In the
past, we went ten plus years
with only 1 small increase, then
turned around and enforced a
$2.00 per hour minimum wage
increase and expected businesses
and the general public to absorb
and fund such a raise. Minimum
wage should have been raised in
smaller increments every fifteen
to eighteen months over that ten
year period. What is really sad
about how this was handled in
the past is that we forgot the
major impact that this mistake
will have on our senior citizens
on fixed incomes. As employers
increased their products and
services to handle such a large
increase in wage cost in a short
period of time, we forgot what
this does to our seniors on
fixed incomes. A slow moderate
increase from $5.15 to $7.15
over a 10 year period helps the
senior population absorb the
increases easier, rather than
what we have to deal with now.
Tax Dollars for Stadiums
This is a subject that should be
looked into and most
Pennsylvanians should express
their concerns and frustrations
on this issue. I don’t feel the
State should continue to fund
these stadiums with hundreds of
millions in taxpayer’s money for
sporting teams who have the same
people using the stadiums game
after game. The seats in these
stadiums are sold out to the
same 68,000 plus season ticket
holders year after year. The
state funded more than 250
million dollars to build Heinz
Field and yet you can’t buy a
ticket to a Steelers game. When
we as taxpayers do this, we
subsidize the team owners so
they can then pay multi-million
dollar contracts to all the
athletes. They then turn around
and take the money from their
salaries and buy homes and
luxury items all over the world
with our tax dollars. The state
should put a surcharge on all
tickets at stadiums they fund
until they recoup the state
portion of money that was used
to build the project. The state
also should have a luxury sports
tax for any athlete that signs
million dollar plus contracts to
help keep some of that money in
our tax system.
Police/Fire Protection:
We read weekly in our newspaper
that our volunteer firefighters
and police departments in our
townships/boroughs are
struggling to make ends meet to
replace equipment. The city
taxes our residents for
commuting into the city to work,
to subsidize their police, fire
and public works equipment. This
I feel is double jeopardy since
we are already paying an
occupational tax for these
services. This tax law must be
addressed to keep these taxes in
the townships and boroughs of
our residents or should be
eliminated. We need to look at
all of our police and fire
personnel, to make sure they
have the resources and funding
to serve the general pubic, with
the best and safest equipment
available. State grant money and
other resources need to be found
where needed.
Turnpike/219
Interchange:
I believe the construction of a
new turnpike interchange, where
219 intersects, would be a huge
economic boost to most of
Somerset and all of Cambria
County. The interchange would be
a quick slip interchange which
would also have restrictions so
that no commercial entities
would be permitted to build at
the exit. This would not affect
the current businesses which are
located at the existing Somerset
interchange. This would be a
major highway boost to the
Somerset and Cambria markets.
UNIONS
I personally take a lot of pride
in today’s blue collar worker.
Our area has a history of a very
strong blue collar workforce
that continues to strive to
make, build, ship, and produce
some of the finest products in
the world. In all of my jobs and
businesses, I have always had
the will power to jump in and
help my fellow workers. I also
believe that all organized
workforces should continue to
push forward for a better
tomorrow and a safer work
environment for all middle and
low income wage earners. I truly
believe if we continue to fall
victim to big business, we will
continue to eliminate the middle
class and that will be the
downfall of our country. The
middle class in the United
States is the engine that drives
the country forward, and
organized workforces need to
continue to preserve that part
of the economy.
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