Issues
Environment
Urban Forestry
The Pennsylvania State Forestry department should have a bureau dedicated solely to urban forestry. It should take a proactive role in planting trees throughout urban areas. The Fairmount Park Commission does not do this, and the City of Philadelphia does very little. The City of Philadelphia could easily accept 100 trees per division x thirty divisions/ward x sixty-six wards = 198,000 trees. Greening up Philadelphia would transform the city, just as removing 50,000 abandoned cars transformed many neighborhoods in the city.
An additional 100 trees in each division would make the 172nd Legislative District in northeast Philadelphia much better; there would be more shade, cleaner air, it would be better looking, and it would increase property values.
Public Transportation
Public transportation should be expanded. It should be made more comfortable than SEPTA is now. SEPTA's transportation centers need much more adequate, clean and comfortable public bathrooms, as well as modern amenities such as internet hot spots and direct hard wire hook-ups. We need more routes, and more timely runs. The subway should be extended to the Naval Shipyard and then through it. (This was nicely described in a recent Op-Ed piece in the Phila. Daily News by my political adversary John Dougherty of Local #98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.) The EL should be extended underground up both Bustleton and Frankford Avenues to the Bucks County line.
Our environment will improve as we get more cars off the road. Public transportation must be made safe and comfortable and timely. Buy the new train cars from United States manufacturers. The job we save may be our own.
A light rail line should run up and own US Route 1 from Poquessing Creek to Cobbs Creek.
In many ways SEPTA is one of the best things about the Delaware Valley, but the method of financing is ridiculous. It is horribly regressive, expensive and cumbersome to administer, and time consuming to use. All buses, trolleys, trains, and subways should be free. Get on, do your business, attend to your pleasures, visit your family, explore the region, get off. It is a natural monopoly. It is the state government's responsibility. Nobody has to stop and pay a fee, have correct change, or possess the new week's pass, when they run their smog churning, eight cylinder, over weight, Detroit beast of burden onto the Roosevelt Expressway, Interstate - 95, the Surekill Distressway, Lincoln Drive, or Vine Street's crosstown trench. No the cars go free on free government highways and streets. SEPTA should be free, too.
Health Care
I support House Bill 1660 and Senate Bill 400. If elected, I will be the prime sponsor of HB 1660 next year, as the current prime sponsor Rep. Kathy Manderino is retiring at the end of this term. When I re-introduce HB 1660, I will change the funding mechanism to make it more progressive.
HB 1660 provides single payer (state of Pennsylvania), universal, comprehensive, free, high quality health care coverage to Pennsylvania's citizens. It is the number one reason why I am running for office. It is the number one reason why I ran in 2004, 2006, and 2008. I am not surprised that the health care coverage is our highest national domestic priority right now. The system is broken. Too many people are uninsured or underinsured. Some are going bankrupt from impossible health care bills, while others are spending every penny they have. Thousands of senior citizens, ineligible for Medicaid, are "forced" to buy very expensive 'medigap' policies to cover the large co-payments, deductibles, and gaps in Medicare.
Emergency rooms are being misused as doctors' offices. We do not have enough general practitioners. Delivery rooms are closing and doctors are being overcharged for malpractice insurance. Hospitals in low-income neighborhoods are being closed for lack of revenue.
HB 1660 fixes all these problems, and does it for less aggregate cost than we pay statewide today. HB 1660 prevents all future personal medical bankruptcies, saves all local governments money, saves the state government money, saves businesses money, and forces those businesses which never provided health coverage to begin sharing their part of the burden.
In a large part, savings come from having a single non-profit administrator, buying prescription medications for every use in the state, and by doing routine medicine in a physician's office, not the emergency room.
Education
The School Funding and Accountability Act should be fully implemented and funded. In the 2009/2010 budget it was under funded. This is a very difficult time financially for the state; nevertheless, not missing a payment on four sports stadiums, while underfunding the most important educational law we have is a very misguided investment priority. Does billionaire Jeff Lurie mean more to us than Pennsylvania's school children? This law, when fully phased in in 2014, will have increased the annual spending per pupil in the Phila. School District from $8,559.51 to $13,484.81. Mind you, this is far short of Lower Merion Township's $20,000 annual per pupil spending, but it will transform Philadelphia schools.
It will take committed legislators to continue to phase in the increased spending in the School Funding and Accountability Act for the next four budgets. Legislators will need to have education as a priority. It is certainly mine.
Consumer Issues
The state government should cap credit card interest at 10%. This is a fair policy, which balances the needs of consumers against the needs of the bankers. Governments role is to regulate the market place when industry practices get out of hand.
People are staying in debt too long. The current high interest rates are illegal. Low income and working class folks who need to borrow less than $5,000 should not be charged anything more than 10%. Too many Pennsylvanians live paycheck to paycheck. Too many Pennsylvanians receive no, or too little, health care coverage through employment. Borrowing small amounts of money becomes necessary from time to time. People need to have access to credit, but the rates need to be fair.
Banks are making exorbitant profits these days from credit card borrowing. They can easily reduce interest rates and still make substantial profits. Current credit card rates make it difficult for people to get out from under a few thousand dollars of debt if their income is low. Our public policy must make it easier working citizens to pay their debt, while banks still profit. A cap on interest rates will do just that.
With all the public discussion about payday lenders and predatory lenders these days, usury credit card rates are often overlooked. A credit card issuer (bank) that charges 29% to borrow a little money is legal loan sharking. If, elected to office, I will introduce bills to cap credit card interest rates at 10% in Pennsylvania.
Late fees and other predatory practices must be eliminated. In concert with usury interest rates "fees" can make it impossible for low income borrowers to ever pay off a 'balance.'
Finally, a well funded Office of Consumer Protection with subpoena power, enforcement power, and severe penalties must be established to police the market places corresponding to the many different industries in Pennsylvania.
Taxation
Taxation should be progressive. We should tax ourselves when we are having a good year, not when we are having a bad year. We should not tax people who are receiving government subsidies, grants, and aid through government programs for the poor. We should tax the dead, the wealthy, and corporations.
We should not toll Interstate 80 through the middle of Pennsylvania. Tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike should be slowly phased out.
Sin taxes sound great, but they are regressive; and public health education programs are probably more effective in reducing the harmful behaviors of smoking, drinking, and chewing.
Park user fees are also regressive and can easily be avoided. Most licensing fees also fall into this category.
Earned income is a good thing to tax, if taxed according to a progressive formula. Unearned income is perhaps the best thing to tax, and again in a progressive way.
Real estate property taxes should include a homestead exemption up to a level that includes most people's homes.
The Pennsylvania sales tax should maintain it's exemption for food and clothing. It should also exempt other necessities of life.
Policing and Crime
Law enforcement and crime prevention are major issues in the 172nd District. Northeast Philadelphia needs more police officers to enforce the laws and help catch those that break the law. Our business corridors can use more bicycle patrol officers. High schools also need a greater police presents during opening and closing times. As drugs are becoming increasingly prevalent in the 172nd District, we need an increased presence of narcotics officers.
All town watches should a full time police officer assigned to them. The benefit of a town watch magnifies the ability of the police to be effective. Town watches should have a full time police organizer/liaison assigned to them.
We also need more social workers to help people cope with hard times, poverty, job loss, and drug and alcohol dependence. In this long recession, too many of our neighbors have lost jobs. Some are facing eviction like my neighbor on Greeby Street, to whom I spoke the last week of January. On my block some neighbors are working very hard to stay clean and sober. They have overcome rough times and bad choices. Social workers at public or non-profit agencies are helping them keep their lives together, and live productively and independently.
In addition, we need more teachers and coaches to better occupy teenagers in after school activities from 3 PM to 5 PM. Organized activities for positive behavior is a great prevention program. Time spent learning and doing sports, arts, business, and academics after school channels teenagers into community affirming behaviors.
Police officers, social workers, and teachers/coaches cost money; however, it is far less money than is necessary to pick-up the pieces of a broken society and then attempting to put the society back together again.