Monessen Democrat joins campaign
Democrat Bernard Sarra of Monessen recently announced his candidacy for state representative in the 58th Legislative District in the May primary. Sarra, 42, said he is no stranger to the political arena, and should he be elected, all of his plans deal with reform. “I am frustrated with the arrogance of the state government today,” said Sarra. “We, the people, no longer seem to matter. When the status of our state Legislature and special interest supercedes the people, I believe it is time for us to take back our government.”
Sarra said that a reduction in property tax is at the top of his list if he is elected.
“We need a workable plan that will let us do something substantial,” said Sarra. “The previous plan for tax reduction was tied to slot (machines) and that is of no substance. That is why so many school districts opted out of it.”
Sarra said that in the state’s general budget, $26 million is used at the leadership’s discretion for state representatives. He said that the poorest school districts should each get $1 million of that money, which already is in the budget, and it should be mandated that $1 million must be used to reduce the local tax bill.
“In Monessen, one of the poorest districts, that would mean a 17-mill tax reduction to the taxpayers, and the money is already in the budget,” said Sarra. “We don’t need to put another quarter in a slot machine.”
Sarra, a 10-year veteran of the Monessen School Board, said that the government also should be helping districts find areas where they can cut costs.
He said he believes that school districts could save a lot of money by combining administration whenever possible. For instance, Sarra suggested hiring one superintendent to handle more than one district.
“Say that each superintendent gets paid $100,000 per year,” said Sarra. “If you can eliminate some of them and pay one person $250,000, you can reduce costs.”
Sarra, a former volunteer firefighter, said that another issue he wants to change is the lack of funding for local fire departments.
“They only receive grant money when it is convenient,” said Sarra. “Why don’t we do what is really necessary to create a permanent funding stream to the fire departments?”
He said that while the departments “need tax dollars of some sort,” the funding could be provided without hurting local taxpayers.
Sarra said departments should either be funded on a state level, or state taxes could be reduced, allowing people’s tax dollars to satisfy their local needs.
“I used to be a fireman,” said Sarra. “I understand their needs. The fire department is non-existent to people until they need them. At the point of incident, you need them to do the most they can do in the least amount of time. We have to take care of our first responders.”
Sarra also said he would recommend cutting the size of the state Legislature to save tax money because he believes that half of the members currently in the Legislature would be enough to take care of the state’s needs.
“They should do some redistricting,” said Sarra. “It might cost me a seat but I would be willing to do that for the benefit of the taxpayers.”
Sarra said the people “deserve an elected official who knows how to listen, takes your concerns to the House, and isn’t worried about keeping special interest groups happy or getting their publicity photos taken to justify their existence.”
Also running for the 58th District seat on the Democratic ticket are incumbent Ted Harhai and Jodie Goughnour. Pete McConnell is running on the Republican ticket.