Environment, schools top town hall issues
Concerns including the environment and public education have been weighing heavy on people’s minds lately.
Phoenixville residents had the opportunity March 11 to ask questions about those subjects and several others during a town hall meeting held by state Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19th Dist.
Just over 50 people showed up to Franklin Commons at 10 a.m. to discuss with the senator a variety of topics including issues with school funding and curriculum and measures that can be taken locally to help with environmental protection.
One attendee addressed the school funding issue by asking Dinniman about the possible switch from funding schools through property taxes to fund- ing them through income taxes.
“I understand they want to switch it based on income tax in- stead of property tax,” he said. “I think they’re limited by howmuch property tax they can raise you ... Once they get into your income, you have an unlimited resource to some things and at what point do you draw the line to properly fund the schools, yet protect the person who’s struggling to make it in this economy?”
“We have the greatest disparity of per pupil spending in the nation,” said Dinniman in response. “While here in Chester County our property tax, because of the value of the land, because of our growing commercial development, can cover what we need for school funding adequately, that’s good. But understand that in twothirds of the commonwealth, property tax is no longer sustainable for funding education or for funding local government ... We’re going to have to figure something out. One answer among many is Act 1 of 2006. It gives districts the right, if they so choose, to do a referendum in which the citizens
can decide which percentage they want on property tax and what percentage they want on income but that has to come from the school board itself.”
Several other questions regarding sick days for teachers and the creation of curriculum were also brought up during the meeting.
Others focused their attention on climate change and how the senator was planning to work toward fighting it.
“As a person on the committee for environmental resources and energy, my question is what you can do to combat climate change and make Pennsylvania a leader in that,” asked Frank Otto.
Dinniman responded by stating that he wished he could domore and describing the natural gas industry’s hold on legislation.
“The natural gas industry has control over much of what happens in the Leg- islature, so that I’ll never be able to get an environmental piece of legislation through,” said Dinniman. “Unless on a rare occasion when I really fight it and get enough support, I can get something through ... It’s very difficult whether it deals with a carbon footprint, or where the pipelines go, whether it deals with the leakage of methane into the environment.”
Dinniman continued to describe the need for emergency planning when it comes to pipelines and returned to that discussion later in the meeting when another question from Terry Schultz was asked about pipeline safety.
“We have no guarantee of pipeline safety,” Dinniman reiterated. “I understand the economic renaissance that can come through natural gas and the jobs, and no one opposes that. But I believe we can have our cake and eat it too. If we can produce pipelines that are safe, pipelines that will not do environmental damage, that we can protect our citizens. It might cost a little more money, but considering the amount of money that is going to be made by these companies, we’re not talking a tremendous amount. I have put in a bill that will tax the pipelines. A portion of the tax goes to the local community to take care of any environmental damage, usually water runoff. A portion of the tax goes to the county to take care of emergency services and training.”
Other topics that attendees brought up included the security of voting systems, the need for address- ing affordable housing and gun violence, advocating for land preservation and suggestions on how to prevent government officials from lying without consequence. The town hall lasted two and a half hours and Dinniman spoke with attendees who did not get the opportunity to ask a question outside the room afterward.
The event was the second of two town halls held over the past week by Dinniman. The first was a live telephone town hall on March 7.