Patti Borger knows what it takes to bring good-paying jobs back to Carbon County, reduce property taxes, support education, and protect the environment.
Patti Borger is a long-time resident, business owner, and farmer in Carbon County. She knows what it takes to bring progress back to Carbon County.
- * Property Tax: Patti Borger will work to reduce property taxes by supporting a school funding partnership with the State. The state should provide 50% of school funding. The funding will come from eliminating corporate loopholes (like the Delaware Loophole) and by taxing gas drillers just like West Virginia and all other states with natural gas deposits in shale.
- * Jobs: The unemployment rate in Carbon County is the highest in the Lehigh Valley. 95% of the businesses in Carbon County employ fifty employees or less. Patti Borger believes that we need programs that apply to these small businesses and give tax incentives for adding jobs to the payroll. She also believes that corporations that accept tax incentives and then fail to produce jobs should be required to return funds to the taxpayers.
- * Schools: Patti Borger will work to restore the $3.7 million that has been cut from Carbon County Schools and to reverse the increases in State College tuition. She will vote to fund schools and colleges by maximizing lottery revenues, by enacting a smokeless tobacco tax and by taking federal monies to fund expanded Medicaid, saving the State an estimated $400 million per year.1
- * The Environment: Patti Borger believes that clean water, pure air and the beautiful environment of Carbon County are assets which should be protected.
- * The Economy: Carbon County's wages are thousands of dollars below the State Average and even lower than nearby counties. Patti Borger supports an increase in the minimum wage and the tipped minimum wage similar to the increase that was enacted in New Jersey by a vote of the people.2 The minimum wage would be increased to $8.25, the tipped minimum to $4.95 with annual increases to keep up with the cost-of-living. Experts3 predict that the ripple effect of increasing the minimum wage will increase wages for one in five workers, not just those at the lowest levels of pay.
1 http://www.psea.org/apps/budget/reports 2/3/13. Report on Local School Funding. Pa. State Education Assoc. provides analysis of school funding with each budget.
2 http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/11/nj_voters_approve_constitutional_amendment_raising_minimum_wage.html
3 Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, Keystone Research Center http://www.pennbpc.org
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