Wagner says he has plan to help state’s urban areas

PHILADELPHIA — Scott Wagner, the Republican nominee for governor, rolled out a plan to help struggling cities Tuesday and said that Democrats have taken urban areas for granted.

“When you look around your communities, and especially Philadelphia, and see what Democrats like Tom Wolf have delivered, what do you have to lose by taking a chance on someone committed to engaging and improving your life?” Mr. Wagner said at an event for the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia.

“When Philadelphians and those who live in cities across Pennsylvania go home tonight, they should take a look at their neighborhoods and ask themselves if it looks like they’re being forsaken,” he said.

The Wolf campaign said Mr. Wagner would be a “disaster for the people of Pennsylvania,” citing, among other things, his support for cuts to education funding under former Gov. Tom Corbett.

Mr. Wagner, a former state senator from York County and founder of a waste-hauling business, said he would establish a fund to provide access to low-interest loans “for citizens seeking to start a business in their local communities — especially in our most distressed areas.”

He said public assistance programs had largely failed to lift Pennsylvanians out of poverty, adding that he would “overhaul any program that is not providing a pathway to financial independence or adequately supporting our most needy.”

The Wolf campaign said Mr. Wagner would not help the needy. Mr. Wagner said during the primary campaign that Pennsylvania should roll back the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. More than 700,000 people in Pennsylvania have enrolled in Medicaid since Mr. Wolf expanded it in 2015.

On Tuesday, Mr. Wagner told reporters that no one would lose insurance if he were governor, but that he would seek a waiver from the federal government.

The Wolf campaign has also pointed to his remarks to a tea party group a couple of years ago that he was angered that the state didn’t tax seniors’ retirement income. Mr. Wagner now says he would not levy such a tax.

“It’s clear what Pennsylvanians would lose if Scott Wagner were elected governor,” said Beth Melena, spokeswoman for the Wolf campaign.