Joe Stands Up for our Local Communities' Rights
Joe will fight to put local control back in the hands of those who know their community the best: elected municipal officials who served our interests well over the last 200 plus years. He wants to protect our homes and our environment from unregulated drilling that has been documented to foul the water and air, and drive down home values.
Short of a complete repeal of Act 13 a number of amendments have been proposed that would restore our local zoning rights, increase the impact fees to repair road damage, etc, strengthen environmental protections, and ensure that doctors have the right to full medical disclosure and transparency regarding the chemicals used in fracking.
Quinn Wants Big Government
Incumbent Quinn was a leader of the effort to pass Act 13, the gas fracking bill, to have Harrisburg seize control of local zoning and taxes from people in our communities. Act 13 takes the decision-making that has always been in the hands of local communities and gives it to the state to make "one size fits all" decisions for gas drilling in all parts of Pennsylvania.
Act 13, the Marcellus Shale bill that was recently passed by the State Legislature has become a lightning rod for many across the State. Local borough and township officials are no longer able to fulfill their duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of their residents. The state has removed the ability of local elected officials to pass any ordinance concerning gas and oil operations, which must be permitted even in residential zones. The lax regulations under the law permits a drilling rig or impoundment pond full of toxic wastewater to be placed as close as 300 feet, a football field length, to a home or school. Pipelines and compressor stations can also be placed in residential areas creating possibility of air, water and land pollution . The law provides for no MEANINGFUL impact fees despite the great damage to local roads etc, removes all LOCAL CONTROL of zoning, and limits disclosure of TOXIC CHEMICALS used in the fracking process.
Quinn abandoned the principles that she said would guide her decision and that she sent in writing to her constituents only weeks before the vote. Since the vote she has refused to explain to the press or residents why she voted the opposite way she said she would.
Joe Wants Everyone to Pay Their Fair Share
Act 13 could have generated millions of dollars in revenues by adequately taxing the Marcellus Shale industry who take our resources for profit and should be taxed fairly. Look to Texas, Oklahoma and Alaska, all energy industry-friendly states, which tax their wells at rates substantially higher than we do in Pennsylvania. An appropriate tax would be a source of revenue that could help protect our environment, improve the very infrastructure needed to support this new important business and improve the lot of our citizenry by supporting improved education and the care of our citizens. The only long-term jobs to come from this bill, will be those who work at cleaning up its mess.
Quinn Raises Taxes
Incumbent Quinn's votes to cut education have left us a principal short in Palisades, forced rescheduling in Central Bucks, and divided Pennridge School District pitting seniors against students, while letting a football field deteriorate. Quinn's cuts have put 14,000 people in education out of work over the last two years.
Quinn voted to cut hundreds of millions from the state's education budget and this year the governor has proposed another 30% cut in education. That means residents will see their property taxes rise in order to make up the shortfall from the state.
Education is a vehicle by which all Pennsylvanians attempt to secure a better future for themselves and their children. The future economic viability of the state is in its educated workforce. We must strive to embrace education as the engine of our economy now and far into the future. If we don't we will surely have a citizenry that will be far more dependent on the welfare of the state than itself.
Gov. Corbett's 2012-2013 proposed budget, slashes education spending by $30 million for early education, $78 million for primary and secondary education and $249 million for higher education.
Joe Supports the Environment
As someone who grew up on a farm in Buckingham and has hunted his whole life, Joe knows our first priority must be the safety of our citizens and our groundwater. We cannot rely on self-policing by energy companies exploiting Marcellus Shale. Joe will immediately appear before the House Environmental Resources & Energy Committee, something Quinn has never done, to fight to see that gas drilling doesn't destroy communities like Nockamixon.
Quinn Votes Against the Environment
Incumbent Quinn has voted to slice nearly 20 percent over the past two years from the Department of Environmental Protection budget. This year $38 million taken from the Keystone Fund/Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, a fund that supports parks and forests is on the block. The Department has an estimated $1 billion logjam of park and forest projects that would create thousands of private sector jobs in Pennsylvania.
Joe Believes Everyone Should be Able to Vote
Joe will fight to break down barriers to voting. Voting is a fundamental right that must be guarded at all cost or the deaths of millions of our fighting men and women from the American Revolution to Afghanistan will have been wasted. Our election ensures and protects the essence of our democracy. Joe thinks the Voter ID Bill is a solution looking for a problem. It is un-democratic and un-American as it will disenfranchise many legitimately registered voters who do not have one of the types of required Photo ID, for example, a driver's license or passport.
Quinn Voted For Voter Suppression Before She Voted Against It
Incumbent Quinn voted for an even more repressive voter ID bill in committee that would have made it more difficult for a wide range of voters to exercise their most important right as citizens. At a recent forum in Nockamixon she publicly stated that, "Voting is a privilege, not a right." Quinn only changed her vote on the Voter ID Bill after hundreds of residents contacted her office to let her know how unhappy they were with the bill. But she did nothing during the floor debate to stop the voter ID Bill from passing.
Quinn Votes Against Seniors
Despite AARP opposition, Quinn the incumbent voted to limit punitive damage awards in nursing homes and other long term care facilities. She voted for cuts in state funding to nursing homes, cut funding to senior programs, and has paved the way for higher property taxes on seniors.
Joe Will Fight For Seniors
Joe knows the issues of seniors as he is already a member of AARP. He wants to make sure that the people he has known his whole life in this community can continue to get the care they need, to afford the medicine they must have, and maintain a quality and dignity on their life. Joe knows that the increase in property taxes by budget cuts in Harrisburg can be an undue burdon for many seniors.
Joe is A Man of His Word
Joe wants to go to Harrisburg to make government work for the people in our community. Perhaps Harrisburg needs more regular Joes like him to represent the regular Joes at home, instead of career politicians who already receive a lifetime pension and cushy health benefits and forget what life is like in the real world. He has run a successful business for thirty three years and one thing his customers can always count on is his integrity and honesty, something that is severely lacking in Harrisburg today. This doesn't make him much different from you and your neighbors, but it would be certainly be unusual in Harrisburg.
Quinn Says One Thing At Home and Votes Another Way in Harrisburg
Incumbent Quinn is a real life Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde. She hosts student art exhibitions in her local office, then goes to Harrisburg and cuts the funding for school art programs. She holds senior forums, but then goes to Harrisburg and cuts funding for seniors. She send s a newsletter to every voter's home telling us where she stands on the controversial gas drilling issue and then goes to Harrisburg and leads the effort to do the opposite of what she says she would do. Quinn has become a career politician who is more interested in working for her party and big business then the people she is supposed to represent and the small businesses that struggle to survive.