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Gary Gregory looks to upset Tarah Toohil in the 116th

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Marsicano hopes to change the country’s direction

<p>As the matriarch of a family with foster children, state Rep. Tarah Toohil believes she has learned all she needs to know about getting things done in Harrisburg.</p><p>Toohil, R-Butler Township, and her husband have been foster parents since February 2016 and are co-founders of a Hazleton foster care nonprofit called Brandon&#8217;s Forever Home.</p><p>Using skills she learned at Northeastern University and Dickinson College&#8217;s School of Law, Toohil said she fights hard for her constituents in the 116th District on all four discussed topics: two of which were asked of each local candidate &#8212; education funding and online gambling &#8212; and two selected for this race &#8212; immigration and combating the drug trade.</p><p>The largest area of Toohil&#8217;s constituency is the Hazleton Area School District, which recently cut kindergarten to half days because of a budget deficit. She said the new formula Gov. Tom Wolf uses did not reduce the district&#8217;s state funding but did not increase it, either.</p><p>&#8220;We have high (English as a Second Language) and high special education,&#8221; Toohil said of two specialized areas of education that allowed the district&#8217;s funding to stay the same.</p><p>She noted Hazleton Area has an early learning center and believes the district is being inconsistent in its early learning plans when it is &#8220;emphasizing the importance of pre-k&#8221; but then cutting back.</p><p>&#8220;They should follow through; kids should not be going backwards,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Toohil said she would push for teachers who have been laid off to apply to other districts as Hazleton&#8217;s classrooms &#8220;are busting at the seams&#8221; with students, referring to 800 new students who entered the district this year.</p><p>She credits low housing prices and a boom in industrial park jobs with bringing people, and their children, to the area.</p><p>For those same reasons, she is cautious about immigration into Pennsylvania.</p><p>&#8220;We have a lot of challenges,&#8221; she said about the federal government allowing refugees in on tourist visas who then stay in the country to pursue an education.</p><p>Not everything about immigration is bad, Toohil notes.</p><p>&#8220;There are positive things,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Communities were experiencing a decline, now community growth.&#8221;</p><p>She also dislikes the way the government gives no path to citizenship for children who graduate after 12th grade.</p><p>&#8220;Some of them are in the top 100 of their class,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Because immigration is a hot topic in Hazleton, Toohil believes there is a need to close borders &#8212; not just for immigration reasons but also to combat the drug trade in her community. She calls the area between Interstates 80 and 81 a &#8220;drug corridor.&#8221;</p><p>For Toohill, the war on drugs is personal. Her foster children have told her a friend&#8217;s sibling passed away. When she was a kid, she said, her friends had car accidents and DUIs but they were few and far between.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s every demographic, every race, doesn&#8217;t matter who you are,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Toohil is hesitant to expand gaming for the online variety, saying her constituents were supposed to get property tax relief with slots and tables and that hasn&#8217;t happened. She wants to look at a rebate program because people are losing their homes and not feeling the relief they were promised.</p><p>&#8220;We need to fix what we have,&#8221; she said but didn&#8217;t rule out the idea of online gambling completely. &#8220;With the budget deficits, all the options are on the table.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_Toohil_Tarah.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Toohil </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_Toohil_Tarah.jpg</photo0><caption0>Toohil </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_farm8_faa-cmyk.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">State Rep. Tarah Toohil gets of the hay wagon after a tour of the Bloss Farm in Wapwallopen. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_farm8_faa-cmyk.jpg</photo1><caption1>State Rep. Tarah Toohil gets of the hay wagon after a tour of the Bloss Farm in Wapwallopen. </caption1><photoCredit1>Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_TTL030116impasse2_toned.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">State Rep. Tarah Toohil (R-PA) listens to State Rep. Ed Pashinski (D-PA) talk about the urgency to pass a state budget. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_TTL030116impasse2_toned.jpg</photo2><caption2>State Rep. Tarah Toohil (R-PA) listens to State Rep. Ed Pashinski (D-PA) talk about the urgency to pass a state budget. </caption2><photoCredit2>Sean McKeag file photo | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Melanie Mizenko</p><p>mmizenko@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>TARAH TOOHIL</strong></p><p><strong>Political party:</strong> Republican</p><p><strong>Incumbent:</strong> Yes</p><p><strong>Age:</strong> 37</p><p><strong>Hometown:</strong> Drums</p><p><strong>Family:</strong> husband, Scot Burkhardt; foster children</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Melanie Mizenko at 570-991-6116 or on Twitter @TL_MMizenko</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Issues are personal for 116th District incumbent Tarah Toohil