Reichley Report

Summer 2010

Newsletter for the People of the 134th Legislative District

PRSRT STDU.S. POSTAGE

PAID

HARRISBURG, PAPERMIT NO. 432

Lehigh County: 1245 Chestnut Street, Unit #5, Emmaus, PA 18049 Phone: (610) 965-9933Berks County: Bally Brook Industrial Park, 20 North Front Street, Bally, PA 19503 Phone: (610) 845-1425

Kids Expo

When:Saturday, Sept. 11Time:11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Place:DaVinci Center3145 Hamilton Blvd., AllentownWho:Sen. Pat Browne (R-16) and I will be holding ourfourth annual Kids Expo. Admission to the event is free of charge to the public. Refreshments will be provided. TheDaVinci Science Center is a unique science and technologyeducational center providing educational fun and inspira-tion for the imagination. Hope to see you there.

Senior Expo

When:Friday, Sept. 24Time:10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Place:Luther Crest Retirement Community800 Hausman RoadSouth Whitehall Township

Reichley to Hold Town Meetings in October

Seating is limited. Please RSVP to 610-965-9933 or e-mail dreichle@pahousegop.com if you would like to attend.Walk-ins are always welcome.

•Saturday, Oct. 2; 8:30 to 10 a.m.Bally Senior Center425 Chestnut St., Bally•Wednesday, Oct. 6; 7 to 8:30 p.m. Cetronia Fire Company18 South Scenic St., Allentown•Friday, Oct. 8; 8:30 to 10 a.m.Emmaus Fire Company No. 150 South 6th St., Emmaus•Saturday, Oct. 9; 8:30 to 10 a.m. Lehigh Lodge2100 Route 100 South, Macungie

Upcoming Events

Survey Property Taxes/School Budgeting

Dear Friends and Neighbors,As your state representative, I believe it is important to get your feedback on important issues facing the Legislature.Ihave put together a brief survey on my website –

RepReichley.com

– and would appreciate it if you take just a few minutesto go online and let me know your thoughts. Please click on “Property Tax Survey” and check the appropriate boxes toanswer the questions.

You can also participate in the survey by visiting one of my district ofﬁces. Hard copies will be available at the ofﬁce. In

Emmaus, please stop by 1245 Chestnut St., Unit No. 5 on weekdays, or if you’re in Berks County, please stop in Bally Brook

Industrial Park on 20 N. Front St. in Bally on Wednesdays or Thursdays. You can also call one of our ofﬁces to do the survey.

In Emmaus, the phone number is (610) 965-9933. In Bally, the phone number is (610) 845-1425.A member of our staff at either location will be happy to help you participate in the survey.

At the 2009 Kids Expo, Rep. Reichley had fun with participants at the interactivesea creature water tank.

Water Updates in Bally and Hereford

After almost eight years of inconvenience and imposition on residents, the construction of a new public water system wellsite to replace a contaminated well in Bally is complete. Electrical service has been connected for the new well by Met-Ed andthe final testing will be taking place in August. If all goes according to plan, residents using the Bally public water supply should be able to use the tap water running in their house by Labor Day.As Bally residents know all too well, a new public water system well had to be installed after the discovery of the presenceof 1,4-dioxane in Bally. On June 22, our office organized a public meeting with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)to inform residents of the progress in the construction of the new well, the anticipated commencement of public water use andinstruction on how residents can flush their home water systems.In a separate development, based on concerns raised with my office by Hereford residents, the EPA will be holding another community meeting to discuss proposed changes to the location of the treatment facility to be constructed at the Crossley FarmsSuperfund site. Look for a meeting notice in the mail from the EPA in September.The conclusion of the budget process by our constitutional deadline of June 30 is sort of good a story/bad story episode fromHarrisburg. Yes, the Legislature demonstrated we can overcome some partisan bickering and achieve our main task of any givenyear by completing the budget on time. And yes, this $28 billion budget does not rely on any tax increases to support the

current

funding levels.However, this budget increases overall state spending in the coming fiscal year by $207.2 million. It also relies on a projected$850 million in additional funding to be approved by the federal government to pay for Medical Assistance program costs.Congress eventually reduced this sum to $595 million, which leaves the state budget $255 million short, meaning further budgetcuts or tax increases proposed by the governor will be needed by October.As the Republican vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, I believe the spending in the final approved budgetshould have been reduced below last year’s total. Because of the termination of federal stimulus funds in 2011, we have a built-in deficit of $2.5 billion next year. We also have an estimated $475 million deficit in transportation funding resulting from therejection of I-80 tolling by federal authorities, and Pennsylvania is also looking at a $5 billion deficit in its public employee pension funds by 2012 if we do not take corrective action. As a result, I do not believe there was any option but to reduce statespending, and I voted against this year’s budget.At a time in our nation’s economy when families and businesses are struggling to make ends meet, government shouldreduce spending too, most notably by cutting back on wasteful spending in the Department of Public Welfare and by eliminatingcorporate welfare at the Department of Community and Economic Development. We need to focus your tax dollars on providingessential services for mental health treatment, libraries, veterans programs, protecting the environment and improving education.By concentrating on funding the programs we truly need and delivering services in a more efficient way by contracting out to private sector providers where feasible, I believe we can restore our state budget solvency in the next few years.

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I voted against the state budget bill not only because we needed to show we could reduce state spending in the midst of theworst recession in 70 years, but also because of the misplaced priorities within the budget agreement. For instance, the state budgetcut early education funding by $2.2 million, but gave the Philadelphia School District a 26 percent increase in its budget.

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While recognizing the special challenges facing the Philadelphia School District, Philadelphia got more than one quarter - $65 million of the $250 million - in additional school funding allocated for ﬁscal year 2010-11 for basic education for the state’s500 school districts. IN ADDITION,

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College tuition assistance grants were cut by $15 million.

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Environmental protection funding was cut by $5.7 million.

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Public library funding was cut by $5.5 million.

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Mental health services were cut by $33.8 million, BUT

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Cash assistance in Department of Public Welfare increased by $9.6 million, and

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More than $300 million was provided to Gov. Ed Rendell for his own personal distribution including:o$10 million in the capital budget for an Arlen Specter Library in Philadelphia and; o$10 million for a Congressman John Murtha Library in Johnstown.

School District Funding for Berks and Lehigh Counties

Please consult the below chart to see how your school district did in terms of the state basic education funding and specialeducation funding it received from the state during the 2010-11 ﬁscal year budget.

State Spending Should Be Brought Under Better Control

School District

Boyertown AreaBrandywine Heights AreaEast PennParklandSalisburyUpper Perkiomen

2010-11 StateBasic Education Total

$14,823,416$4,010,798$11,350,745$7,015,900$2,270,726$8,771,911

2010-11 State BasicEducation Funding Inc.

$590,175, 4.15%$84,643, 2.16%$640,479, 5.98%$430,189, 6.53%$44,524, 2.0%$223,993, 2.6%

2010-11 State SpecialEducation Funding

$3,138,632$986,912$2,950,647$3,261,776$782,505$1,603,102

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regular e-mail updates

or to receive this newsletter electronically, please visit mywebsite,

RepReichley.com

, and sign up under ContactMe. Interested persons can also contact my ofﬁce at 1245Chestnut St. in Emmaus by phone at (610) 965-9933 or email me at

dreichle@pahousegop.com

to stay informed.I can be found on Facebook.com/RepDougReichley,Twitter.com/RepReichley, and Youtube.com/RepReichley,where I post regular legislative and local event updates,videos, photos and more. Links to those sites are also onmy website.

Railroad Grade CrossingUpgrade Completedon Route 100and Spring Creek Road

In response to complaints about the condition of the railroadcrossing on Route 100 south of Spring Creek Road, I was pleasedto work with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation(PennDOT), Norfolk Southern Railroad and local municipalofﬁcials to have the crossing improved on June 13.As a result, Norfolk Southern railroad crossing upgrades weredone over a weekend with as little disruption to local commutersas possible, and it is hoped motorists will notice a smoother rideon that portion of the highway.

Whispering Farms/Whitfield Estates Neighborhood Improvements

One of the most frustrating and difficult of our local issueshas been the bankruptcy of TH Properties and the interruptionof construction work to complete the development knownas Whispering Farms/Whitfield Estates in Upper MacungieTownship. Due to the poor real estate market in recent years, THProperties filed for bankruptcy protection more than a year ago, which caused the builder tosuspend operations.For more than a year, our office has organized a seriesof meetings to discuss theseissues with TH Properties (THP),representatives of National PennBank, Upper Macungie Townshipand the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection(DEP). At my request, the bankruptcy court judge overseeingTHP’s case held a hearing last January to address the grievancesof one THP home buyer. On July 13, residents were given anupdate that the former TH Properties sites should be taken over by a new builder in September.While completion of the development will bewelcome, residents’ comments at the July 13 meetingillustrated the ongoing frustrations with basic qualityof life issues such as removal of construction debris. Inresponse to these concerns,Upper Macungie TownshipSupervisor Kathy Rader andI toured the developmentwith residents on July 27 tosee for ourselves the mosttroublesome deficiencies.We put a plan in place for the township to enforceclean up of the vacant lots by the end of August, and will continue to press thedeveloper to address concerns such as unfinished roads, poor maintenance of undeveloped properties, storm water runoff and erosion controls.

House Passes Pension System Reform Bill

Pension costs for state employees and public schoolemployees are a key contributor to the escalating pressure onschool property tax increases. Unfortunately, there is no magicwand to solve this problem, and we are limited by several courtrulings in terms of how we can address the financial crisis.In June, the House overwhelmingly approved House Bill2497, which proposes to change how employer contributionrates are calculated. The bill, now before the Senate, reduces property tax pressures on homeowners by capping the rateof increase in employer contributions. This cap lessensthe anticipated spike over the next few years in employer contribution rates in these funds and the concurrent pressureon taxes. In addition, the bill reverts benefits for new hires to2001 levels.The Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS)and the State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS) are the pension plans for thousands of Pennsylvania teachers and public employees. Both are defined benefit plans, which meanseach employee is contractually promised a specific retirement benefit. This benefit is established by a formula based on yearsof employment. Plans are funded from investments made byPSERS and SERS, employee contributions, and employer contributions – which are paid for by taxpayers.In 2012, PSERS and SERS will be faced with a $5 billion cost spike. Deficits occurred because of inconsistentcontribution levels from the state and school districts, enhancedretirement benefits that were enacted in 2001, and two stock market crashes in the same decade which reduced anticipatedinvestment income. The state Supreme Court has ruled onthree occasions that the Legislature cannot default on or reduce these defined benefit pension payments. As a resultof these rulings, Pennsylvania taxpayers must cover retiree benefit costs. Our task in Harrisburg is to minimize possibletax increases in coming years by finding some means of cushioning the impact upon taxpayers.House Bill 2479 is not an ideal solution. I supported the bill because it is an important first step toward keeping the systemssolvent while reducing immediate property tax pressures. The bill mitigates tax increases for the next five years, recalculatesthe liabilities of the pension funds over a 30-year period, andcuts $25 billion in pension costs for new hires by returningto 2001 benefit levels.Many people have advocated for a wholesale conversionof these pension funds from defined benefit plans to definedcontribution plans, as are commonly found in the privatesector. Barred by court rulings though, we cannot force currentretirees or employees into a defined contribution plan. Thiscan only be done with future employees and conversion toa defined contribution plan does not address how to pay for the predicted $5 billion shortfall by 2012. However, we willcontinue to work on other proposals to limit the impact of these pensions on taxpayers.

On July 27, Rep. Reichleyattended a walk-through of Whispering Farms to see some of the undeveloped and unmaintained vacant lotsthat have resulted from theTHP bankruptcy, which hasthwarted new homes frombeing built.