Apr 12, 2006 By Jackie Beranek 4 min read

Robert Helterbran of Ligonier believes that Harrisburg is due for some good government reforms. That’s why he said he is seeking the Republican nomination for state representative in the 59th District, challenging incumbent Jess Stairs.

Helterbran’s qualifications include owning and operating R.R. Helterbran Construction for the past 34 years in Virginia and Pennsylvania and managing a building supply store for 18 months in Lynchburg, Va.

He is serving his second term on Ligonier council and said that he coached junior high basketball for the Ligonier Valley School District and worked with various programs at the local YMCA.

Helterbran said the reason he decided to run for the House of Representatives is because “it’s time we had people in the Legislature who care more for the people of Pennsylvania than themselves.”

He said the majority of legislators voted themselves a pay raise in the middle of the night and then took the raise early in the form of unvouchered expenses. He additionally said, “Our representative (Stairs) has claimed repeatedly that the taking of the unvouchered expenses was unconstitutional, yet he took them himself.”

Helterbran said as a state representative he would be committed to reforming state government and restoring the integrity and respect it deserves.

“I will work to reduce the size of state government, eliminate wasteful governmental spending, reduce or eliminate property taxes, keep our doctors in Pennsylvania through tort reforms, eliminate walking around money (WAMs) for legislators and end future legislative pay raises without voter approval,” he said.

Helterbran said one issue that really upset him is the Uniform Construction Code (UCC) that has caused so many problems for municipalities across the state. He said a lot of people in Ligonier Borough had problems with the code concerning occupancy permits and said he learned that Stairs didn’t know anything about the UCC bill until it was ready to be passed.

“We have to do better than that,” said Helterbran. “It was his responsibility to know what he was voting for. The majority of Harrisburg representatives didn’t and still don’t understand the UCC bill, but yet they voted in favor of it.”

Helterbran said when the bill was passed all of the municipalities in the state should have been notified as well as all the inspection agencies. He said no one knew about it and if it wouldn’t have been for a Ligonier newspaper editor who stumbled across it on his computer, people still wouldn’t know about it.

Helterbran said he doesn’t believe that anything a representative does should be held back or kept secret. He said, “When you are a serving the people you are an open book. Representatives should realize this and behave accordingly and not be afraid to vote on something that you are not going to want to be disclosed.”

Helterbran said he also supports a 10-day “cooling off” period before a bill, in its final form, is put to a vote. However he stressed that a 10-day “cooling off” period will not do any good unless representatives are paying attention and the bill is brought to the public’s attention.

Helterbran, a former high school teacher said, another problem he would like to work on is fair and equitable funding for school districts across the state.

“Ligonier has a major problem of very wealthy people that skew the results of the average income figures,” said Helterbran “and something has to be done about that because we are basically looked at as a very wealthy district that doesn’t need a lot, but we do.”

Helterbran said the majority of the people in the area are actually considered poor and in Ligonier Borough about 60 or 65 percent of the residents are senior citizens, which is bad because they are footing the school district’s bills through property taxes.