Snyder, Fischer debate issues in 50th District race
Democratic Greene County Commissioner Pam Snyder and Republican businessman Mark W. Fischer of Waynesburg, candidates for the 50th Legislative District seat in the state House of Representatives, share similar opinions on the small games of chance law, term limits for legislators, property taxes and the need for more transportation funding.
They also expressed differing opinions on several other issues in a recent meeting with the HeraldStandard.com editorial board.
One of the topics on which their opinions diverge is the state’s voter identification law, which requires voters to show a photo identification before they can vote.
Fischer said he supports the law even though he does not believe voter fraud is a problem locally.
Counties with larger populations are more susceptible to voter fraud and the state must ensure that people who vote are who they are supposed to be, he said.
Photo identification is needed to drive and buy alcohol and cigarettes, and should be required for voting, Fischer said.
The state Department of Transportation (PennDOT) is providing non-driver photo identification cards for people who don’t drive, he said.
“I think the law is a bit cumbersome,” Snyder said.
State money being spent to provide photo identification to people who don’t drive could be spent on restoring some of the spending cuts made to human service agencies, Snyder said.
Nothing is more important than the right to vote, and Snyder said she hopes the law doesn’t hinder voting. She said the state should make it easier for people to vote.
A week after the candidates’ meeting with the editorial board, a Commonwealth Court judge issued a ruling prohibiting the state from enforcing the law.
Poll workers will be allowed to ask voters for photo identification, but voters will be allowed to cast their ballots if they don’t have identification.
Turning to education, some school districts in Fayette, Greene and Washington counties did not make the Adequate Yearly Progress standards in the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Fischer said districts spend an average of $15,000 a year to educate each student, but test scores have fallen for the last 10 years.
Spending more money won’t solve the problem. Instead, he said teachers and administrators must be held accountable for test results and should not be given pay raises regardless of test scores.
“We can’t do the same thing and expect better results,” Fischer said.
Snyder called the No Child Left Behind law ridiculous. She said one of her daughters was a summa cum laude student in college, but didn’t fare as well on standardized tests in high school or her Scholastic Aptitude Test.
Teachers and administrators work hard to help students succeed, but districts need options for funding education, she said.
Schools in affluent areas provide their students with laptop computers and other resources that poorer schools can’t afford. School districts should not be forced to use property taxes to fund education, Snyder said.
The state should give counties the option to raise sales taxes to reduce the reliance on property taxes, which are too high, she said.
Counties are able to provide a “big bang for a small buck,” Snyder said. Counties are able to operate courts, prisons, human services and other services and departments with limited budgets, Snyder said.
Fischer agreed that property taxes are too high, but raising sales taxes would cause people to shop in West Virginia to avoid the higher taxes.
The only way to reduce taxes is to reduce spending, he said.
To reduce Fayette County’s high unemployment rate, which, at 9.3 percent, is much higher than Greene and Washington counties, Fischer said the business climate must be improved.
He said the completion of the Mon/Fayette Expressway should help the county prosper, but he doesn’t know why its unemployment rate was so much higher than the neighboring counties. The overall depressed economy is probably a factor, Fischer said.
Snyder said the natural gas and coal industries create more jobs in Greene County than in Fayette County, even though many Fayette County residents work in those industries in Greene County.
Greene County works with its Workforce Investment Board and Westmoreland County Community College to make sure training for gas industry jobs was available and entities in Fayette County should work together to find a solutions, she said.
The candidates agreed that more money is needed for roads and public transit.
Fischer said the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has been unfairly saddled with a $450 million annual payment to the state Department of Transportation and is facing a huge debt. The plan to toll Interstate 80 failed, which was another blow to the commission, he said.
“They didn’t think this through,” he said about the Legislature, which passed that law mandating the payments.
People avoid the commission’s highways because of high tolls now and the problem will get worse when tolls increase, he said.
Toll rates should be set at an amount that will attract vehicle traffic, then the commission’s debt should be restructured, Fischer said.
Snyder said a comprehensive transportation funding plan is sorely needed.
Democrats and Republicans in Harrisburg should work together like the Greene County commissioners do to find a solution, she said, adding that there never has been a split vote among the commissioners during her tenure.
Raising vehicle registration fees and cutting costs by eliminating registration stickers would help, Snyder said.
She said recommendations in the Governor’s Transportation Advisory Committee report would generate $2.5 billion in revenue over five years and that it should be implemented.
Snyder and Fischer agreed that the Small Games of Chance law will hurt local volunteer fire departments and other nonprofit organization that rely on bingo and other games to raise operating money.
“This is a huge problem for these organizations,” Fischer said.
“This is a ridiculous piece of legislation,” Snyder said.
Both said they support term limits.
“Twelve years would be enough,” Snyder said.
Fischer said legislators should be allowed to serve up to eight years.