Sarah Speed Provides Positions for York Dispatch

By Sarah D. Speed

Speed Addresses the Economic and Transportation Issues

The non-partisan Independent Fiscal Office presentation in January reported that unless the State is willing to address both lowering spending and increasing revenue, we face continued deficits up to 2017. Pennsylvania's painfully slow economic recovery is not due to a weak workforce or lack of small businesses. It is due to a state government whose focus has become protecting the largest corporations. What person wants to risk starting or expanding a small business knowing that the state is unwilling to address huge inequities in the tax code that are blatantly designed to foster and protect large businesses to the detriment of small business and the local economy? Yet every Chamber of Business and Industry study confirms that small businesses are the backbone of job creation. Rather than state government focusing on solutions designed to provide yet another tax break to large corporations such as an additional capital stock tax reduction, I propose a measure designed to benefit small businesses. Providing a loss carry-forward option which large corporations already enjoy to small non-corporate business would do far more to drive investment and job creation. Prudent stewardship requires balance and fairness in taxation as well as expenditures.

2. Transportation

Governor Corbett's Transportation Funding Advisory Commission determined that many of Pennsylvania's highways and bridges are in need of reconstruction, repair, and maintenance beyond what present funding can address. We can begin to address these projects at current funding levels by redirecting present funds within PennDOT by sharing technology with other agencies and by standardizing engineering and construction elements. For example, standardizing the length of all bridges approximating 50'at 50' saves design costs, permits bulk purchases of materials, and creates a uniform construction fee. The Commission also recommended removing the cap on the oil franchise tax. The cap was last adjusted in the mid-eighties and because the tax is calculated by assessing millage against the wholesale price of fuel by distributors, it is substantially out of date. Additionally the state should consider removing funding of the State Police from the highway Motor License fund. Municipalities such as those in the 47th District which pay for local police departments should not have their taxes used to supply state police protection to municipalities that do not fund local police and instead those funds should be used to improve local roads and bridges.

3. Highway Safety & Distracted Drivers

As the number of drivers on the highways continues to increase...and especially on roadways that were not designed to safely handle the volume of traffic they now bear on a daily basis, measures to assure safe driving habits are necessary. It is to York County's credit that Rep. Eugene DePasquale persevered to enact the ban on texting while driving. As some Legislators argued while debating the issue, enforcing the texting ban is extraordinarily difficult while drivers are permitted to use handheld cell phones for calls. The distraction of searching the address book for and entering a number is just as distracting as texting. Many citizens of the 47th that I have discussed this issue with agree that if a driver can afford a cell phone they should also be required to utilize an earpiece and or another hands free system. The motorcycle helmet issue, on the other hand creates a danger only to the individual making that choice. I believe the present helmet restrictions and requirements are adequate.