Critz engages public in meeting
Jobs, Social Security and health care were among a myriad of topics area residents raised with U.S. Rep. Mark Critz during a telephone town hall meeting Thursday morning. Critz said, Southwestern Pennsylvania could become the world leader in the energy field and there is great potential for jobs in the industry, and he predicted there soon would be a demand for machinists and welders.
Critz, D-Johnstown, said sources of energy-related jobs include Marcellus shale gas drilling, Consol Energy’s recent state permit to build a coal refuse slurry pond at the Bailey Mine in Greene County, a Cambria County firm that produces blades for wind turbines, a Westmoreland County company that makes solar energy panels in part of the former Sony plant, the U.S. Energy Department’s national Energy Technology Laboratory in South Park and Westinghouse’s plans to build a new facility north of Pittsburgh for nuclear energy development.
“I want to focus on energy,” Critz said. “Western Pennsylvania could be the energy capital of the world.”
He said he supports coal mining and believes the industry should be given time to make mining and coal-burning power plants less polluting.
The need to give the coal industry time to clean up was the reason Critz gave for opposing the cap and trade bill.
The bill would allow the government to set a cap on the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted nationally and issue emission permits to companies. Companies that emit less pollution would be allowed to sell some of their permits to companies that generate more emissions. The national emission level would gradually decrease.
“I do think cap and trade moves too quickly. We have to allow the coal industry to make improvements,” Critz said.
He said half of the country’s energy supply comes from coal-fired power plants and coal is an important part of the state economy.
But energy isn’t the only field with employment potential, he said.
“A generation of machinists and welders is going to retire. We’re going to have a shortage of machinists and welders,” Critz said.
People used to be able to obtain those jobs through apprenticeships, but mathematical knowledge is now required and vocational-technical schools and community colleges are good places for training and education, he said.
Turning to another question, Critz said Social Security, which he described as a compact between the government and people, must be protected especially with the influx of retiring baby boomers entering the system.
Raising the payroll cap from which Social Security taxes could be taken would make Social Security last longer and is being discussed by lawmakers in Washington, D.C., he said, adding that he does not support privatizing the system.
“The privatization scheme should not go any further,” Critz said.
Several questions about health care were raised.
The House of Representatives recently passed a measure reversing a 21-percent reduction in reimbursement for doctors for treating patients receiving Medicare and TRICARE benefits, Critz said.
The House version would extend those reimbursements for 18 months through next spring, but the Senate version would extend the reimbursements for five month through the end of this year, he said, adding that he believes the reimbursements should be permanent.
The new national health-care law will extend the life of Medicare by 10 years, but Critz said he found it disturbing that the law did not address those reimbursements.
Lawmakers will have to come up with a way to pay for those reimbursements, which would impact the budget, he said.
Responding to another question, Critz said real estate taxes is a local and state government issue, but unfunded mandates from the federal and state governments play a part in local taxes.
The federal government hands mandates with no money to pay for them to states and state governments pass them and their own unfunded mandates to local governments and school districts, he said.
“These types of disconnects dive me crazy,” Critz said.
Citing the federal No Child Left Behind Act as an example, he said the idea of the law to improve education was noble, but it required states to pay for implementation. State governments said they couldn’t afford the cost so they passed it along to local school districts, he said.
Property tax reform has to come from local and state government, Critz said, adding that gaming revenue was supposed to reduce taxes.
“Gaming was supposed to alleviate property taxes, but I haven’t seen it,” Critz said.
Why doesn’t the federal government have a balanced budget?
“That’s a loaded question,” Critz said.
Revenues haven’t exceeded expenditures since the Bill Clinton administration, he said. After Clinton left the office, “huge” tax breaks were provided for the wealthy, the country engaged in two wars, and tax revenue sharply declined, Critz said.
Every bill that could spur the economy, but impacts the budget is scrutinized because of concerns about increasing the national debt, he said.
Lawmakers have to find ways to increase tax revenue and reduce the deficit, he said.
Asked about offshore oil drilling, Critz said he would have supported the industry before the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Since the accident, he said he has heard about minor leaks and other problems in the industry that never before came to light.
Before the accident, BP pledged that it could contain any offshore drilling problem that resulted in a 250,000-gallons-per-day leak, Critz said. However, BP’s underwater well is releasing far less than that and the company can’t control it, he said.