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Bartolotta challenging Solobay in Senate election

By The Following Is The First Of Two Articles On The Race For The State Senate Seat In The 46th District, Which Includes All Of Gre 6 min read
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The candidates running to represent the 46th District in the state Senate in the November election discussed taxes, pension and liquor sales in a recent meeting with the Herald-Standard editorial board.

Republican business owner Camera Bartolotta of Monongahela is challenging incumbent Democrat Tim Solobay of Canonsburg to represent the district, which encompasses all of Greene County, most of Washington County and parts of Allegheny, Beaver and Westmoreland counties.

Bartolotta, who has owned Duke of Oil in Monongahela for 26 years, is running a reform campaign and said she won’t accept a state pension, per diems or pay raises if elected.

“My campaign is about government reform,” Bartolotta said.

Solobay, who has served 12 years in the state House of Representatives and four years in the state Senate, said unemployment has dramatically declined in the area due to natural gas development and the economy has diversified during his tenure in the Legislature.

Unemployment climbed to double digit figures in the 1980s, but the gas industry has lead the turnaround in employment and other industries such as health care, banking and education have grown since then, Solobay said.

He said Washington County is ranked third in the nation in job creation and opportunity.

Tax reform and pensions

The candidates had different opinions on Act 76, a proposed bill that which would eliminate school district real estate taxes and replace them by raising sales and income taxes, and equalize district subsidies.

Bartolotta said too many senior citizens are being forced out of their homes because of property taxes, citing the state’s employee pension plan as the problem.

“If we stabilize the pension problem, we wouldn’t have to raise property taxes,” she said.

The Legislature should focus in tax and rent relief, tax freezes for seniors and fixing the pension plan, she said.

Bartolotta said she would like to eliminate property taxes, but she does not want higher taxes on service industries.

Solobay said he would support a hybrid method of addressing property taxes.

The hybrid approach would expand the sales tax to certain goods and services, and maintain property taxes on commercial and industrial property only, he said.

He said the pension plan has only a slight impact on taxes. Increased employee contributions and Act 120, a recently passed law that changed vesting rules and the amount a retiree can withdraw, is helping the plan return to solvency, he said.

Solobay and Bartolotta disagreed on the severity of the pension plan funding problem.

Act 120 has reduced the pressure on the plan, which is almost 80 percent funded now, Solobay said.

He said claims that the plan is underfunded by $40 million would be true only if all employees retired at once.

The pension fund is growing and is not facing an imminent crisis, but a stock market crash on the scale of the 2008 crash would create a problem, he said.

Bartolotta said $610 million in new money is transferred into the pension fund every year.

She said placing employees in 401K plans or another type of reform is needed to make sure current and future retirees receive their pensions.

Turning to education, Bartolotta said federal subsidies evaporated and the state is now spending more on education than ever before. Fixing the state’s pension would free up more money for education, she said.

“How much is enough,” Bartolotta asked rhetorically about spending on education.

Students should be able to leave failing schools and failing schools should be improved, she said.

Solobay said school districts were told to spend the federal stimulus money on capital expenses and not operating costs, but many spent the money on operations anyway.

Shale extraction tax, DEP oversight

Solobay he would consider supporting a severance tax if it included a capital recovery provision that would allow gas drillers to recover the amount of money they invested in a well before the tax would take effect.

He said Act 13, the law that created the impact fee that the state assesses on gas wells, could be changed in order to impose severance taxes on the gas extracted from wells.

He said the impact fee has provided vital funding to communities.

However, gas drillers also pay sales, corporation, income and wage taxes, which some other gas producing states do not assess, he said.

Bartolotta said Act 13 has helped create jobs and stimulate the economy, and changing it might not be easy.

She said the gas industry wouldn’t like the severance tax. The tax would chase much of the industry away from the state, dissuade Chevron from possibly building an office in Washington County and jeopardize jobs, she said.

The candidates gave the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) different grades in their oversight of the gas industry.

Bartolotta said the DEP could do a better job. The industry must abide by regulations and be held accountable, she said.

Solobay said the DEP is doing a good job, but the agency probably wants more staff.

“The gas industry is probably the most regulated industry,” Solobay said.

No gas company wants a disaster, he said. Technology has improved the drilling process and, he said, he believes drilling is being done safely.

Liquor store privatization

The candidates disagreed on state control of the alcohol distribution system.

Solobay said the current state store system generates revenue for the state and privatizing liquor sales would hurt the 4,000 families that rely on state store jobs.

“It turns money into the treasury,” Solobay said.

He said the system should be modernized by offering more selections, allowing sales in grocery stores and permitting shipments of wine from other areas.

Selling beer in grocery stores would hurt beer distribution businesses, Solobay said.

Bartolotta said the state should get out of the liquor business completely.

Taxpayers subsidize state stores that don’t make money and consumers want privatization, she said.

Residents who live near state borders buy liquor in neighboring states that don’t have state stores, Bartolotta said, adding that most states have private systems.

The state is losing liquor tax revenue because the lack of selection in state stores and competition from neighboring states, she said.

Medical marijuana

Both candidates oppose legalizing marijuana for recreational use, but support marijuana use for medical reasons.

Solobay said he voted in favor a bill that would permit the medical use of non-euphoric marijuana.

He said it is good medication for cancer and seizure patients, cheaper than other drugs and has fewer side effects than some other medication.

Bartolotta said non-euphoric marijuana has proven to be the only drug that helps some patients and she wholeheartedly supports its use.

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