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First Posted: 2/4/2014 Issues, with bacon on the side.
The League of Women Voters of the Wilkes-Barre Area hosted eight state lawmakers, including state Reps. Mike Carroll and Phyllis Mundy who represent Greater Pittston, on Feb. 1 for its annual Legislative Breakfast.
The lawmakers gave opinions on a host of statewide issues, including healthcare, reducing the size of the state government, the budget, property tax reform and the minimum wage.
Healthcare
Gov. Tom Corbett e wants to reform the Medicaid program in Pennsylvania before it&#8217;s expanded under the federal Affordable Care Act.
Mundy, D-Kingston, participating in her final such forum because she is retiring, said she &#8220;wholeheartedly&#8221; supports the Medicaid expansion and called it a &#8220;moral responsibility&#8221; for the state.
She said it&#8217;s a missed opportunity for additional revenue for the state.
&#8220;These are the working poor,&#8221; Mundy said. &#8220;These are people who are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid but too rich to qualify for subsidies on the healthcare exchanges. They&#8217;re caught in the middle in the low income categories and we need to cover them.&#8221;
Carroll, D-Avoca, said the Corbett administration&#8217;s decision not to accept the Medicaid expansion was a mistake.
&#8220;That sort of analysis shortchanges the moral obligation that we have in trying to provide an opportunity for people to have healthcare; these are folks that work and are caught in between&#8230;.,&#8221; Carroll said.
He spoke of one family from Pittston that is trapped in between.
&#8220;They won&#8217;t be able to obtain healthcare because of this decision,&#8221; Carroll said.
Carroll said the state should have expanded, then re-examine, the issue once the state has to start supporting it.
&#8220;It seems to me the prudent thing to do would be to participate in the Affordable Care Act&#8217;s provisions fully as other states have done &#8230; and if there was a financial decision that we were faced with, how we would pay for the balance on the premiums that would be due, we could examine it at that time.&#8221;
Size of government
Carroll, D-Avoca, co-sponsored a bill that would reduce the size of general assembly from 203 members to 153 and the state senate from 50 to 40.
&#8220;I think we can do the job with less than 203,&#8221; Carroll said. But he added the change must be made to the state constitution and he&#8217;d like to see redistricting reform be added to the measure.
&#8220;I&#8217;m hopeful, if we get close to the finish line, we also change the constitution to address redistricting reform,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Those two are one in the same in terms of the nature of the general assembly and the makeup of the general assembly. Once we reduce the size of the general assembly and the senate, we absolutely have to take a look at the redistricting process.
Carroll would also support reforms in campaign finance law in &#8220;trying to reign in some of the Wild West attitudes we have in the state&#8221;
&#8220;We absolutely have to take a look at the redistricting process as well,&#8221; Carroll said. &#8220;Imagine a scenario where we have fewer members in the house and senate and the districts are drawn in such a way that you could have even more weird-shaped districts that defy logic.&#8221;
Mundy said campaign finance reform and redistricting reform has to be coupled with reducing the size of the legislature. Said combining the house and the senate into unicameral body is the only way to see true cost savings.
&#8220;It has been widely acknowledged, even by the Speaker of the House, that the bills we have already voted on do not save any money,&#8221; Mundy said. &#8220;The only way to truly save a lot of money by reducing the size of the legislature is to go to a unicameral legislature. But I think what we need to do is call a Constitutional Convention to discuss redistricting, campaign finance and the size of the legislature.&#8221;
Property tax reform
The lawmakers generally supported but had many reservations about House Bill 76, which eliminates property taxes and raises personal income tax from 3.07 to 4.34 percent and sales tax from 6 to 7 percent.
Mundy and Carroll both supported the measure, but both see problems.
&#8220;It shifts the burden of school taxes from businesses to individuals,&#8221; Munday said. &#8220;Businesses, because they don&#8217;t pay personal income tax to help fund public education, they would benefit tremendously. The Walmarts. The Costcos. The big box stores.&#8221;
She said it has constitutional issues as well because it taxes services to individuals, like accounting, but it does not tax similar services to businesses. She said the bill, if passed, would be tied up in court for a long time.
But she said she voted for it because, &#8220;we need to address the issue. A week doesn&#8217;t&#8217; go by that i don&#8217;t hear from a constituent about property taxes.&#8221;
Mundy said Pennsylvanian&#8217;s aren&#8217;t paying higher state taxes: &#8220;You&#8217;re paying higher property taxes. And that&#8217;s partly because we&#8217;re not funding public education the way we should at the state level.&#8221;
She said the state has cut business taxed over $1 billion since Corbett took office.
&#8220;A lot of that has resulted in higher property taxes for property owners in Pennsylvania,&#8221; she said.
Carroll said House Bill 76 is a &#8220;vehicle to have a conversation relative to school property taxes.&#8221;
He said he draws a line between residential and all other property taxes, including commercial, business and vacation properties.
&#8220;The prospect of a $1 million vacation home at Lake Wallenpaupack owned by a couple from New Jersey getting a tax break which will reduce their to liability to zero, so I can raise your income and sales tax is not something that is appealing to me,&#8221; Carroll said.
Carroll said he&#8217;d hope to come to agreement by reducing property taxes for homesteads and farmsteads and raise the (sales and income) taxes necessary to provide relief on that front. He suggested a 50-percent property tax reduction immediately on primary homes and farms and an increase in sales and income tax to make up the difference.
&#8220;The beauty of that model is that it would continue to give local folks the ability to have a say in how their school districts operate because if House Bill 76 becomes law, we can wipe out school boards across the state. There&#8217;s no reason to have school boards if the Commonwealth is providing all the tax revenue for the district.
State budget
As Gov. Tom Corbett readied his new budget, which was unveiled on Tuesday, the panel was asked about ways to generate new revenue for the state.
But the primary item each Democratic lawmaker brought to the table was a severance tax on Marcellus Shale drilling.
Carroll said such a severance tax could help in the state&#8217;s pension crisis.
&#8220;The skyrocketing contribution the Commonwealth and the school districts will have to make over the next 20 years is unsustainable,&#8221; Carroll said. &#8220;There&#8217;s no way that the school districts especially could meet that obligation.&#8221;
He said the amount is $42 billion.
Mundy said the over the last 4 years, the state has cut business taxes $2.1 billion.
&#8220;And you wonder why we have a budget problem,&#8221; Mundy asked. &#8220;If that had resulted in more jobs, and if we weren&#8217;t the worst state in the Northeast in terms of job creation, one might feel that was appropriate.&#8221;
She said the cuts, credits and incentives have not been been linked to job creation, and she said any such benefits need to be directly tied to new jobs.
She said to generate additional cash, the state needs to close the Delaware and other tax loopholes that allow PA companies to incorporate in Delaware and avoid taxation.
She said she also supports any severance tax on Marcellus Shale drilling and supports enhancing liquor store convenience which would generate $125 million additional dollars.
Minimum wage
Panelists differed on a proposal to raise the state minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour. Gov. Tom Corbett has opposed the measure, saying a such an increase could slow the state&#8217;s economic recovery.
But Carroll and Mundy both supported the measure.
Carroll was a co-sponsor of the $10.10 bill.
He said raising the minimum wage and expanding Medicare on the state level are two ways the state can help the working poor.
&#8220;Those two steps are substantive and would have a direct, positive impact on the quality of life for the working poor,&#8221;
State Rep. Tarah Toohil, a Republican from Bulter Township, would like to see more information on how an increase would impact employers.
&#8220;If an employer, say McDonald&#8217;s, is going to have to raise the minimum wage for 40-50 employees, how is that then going to affect the business?,&#8221; Toohil said. &#8220;Are you going to have to start laying people off, are you going to have less employees because someone is going to have to bear that burden?&#8221;
Mundy is outraged as a taxpayer in Pennsylvania.
&#8220;I am literally subsidizing the corporate profits of McDonald&#8217;s because their employees are so poorly paid that they qualify for food stamps and Medicaid,&#8221; Mundy said. &#8220;There&#8217;s something very wrong with that. If you work full time, you should not have to live in poverty.&#8221;
She said she will co-sponsor any bill that raised the minimum wage. She would even consider a little less or a plan to phase in an increase.
Looking ahead
The candidates were each given time to discuss their priorities in the coming year.
Carroll mentioned pension reform, basic education funding, cyber school/charter school funding and the way it&#8217;s affecting public schools, oversight of the recently-passed transportation bill and continue to be an ambassador in Harrisburg for the 118th District.
Mundy hopes to continue to oversee and influence tax policy and tax fairness, closing corporate tax loopholes, charter and cyber school reform, work to increase the minimum wage, work to repeal the voter ID law, work to improve the environmental challenges the state is facing because of Marcellus Shale drilling.

Carroll, Mundy discuss state issues