Top Issues
Communities in Control
Datacenter development seems to be today’s version of this debate, but it keep coming up until everyone understands the core concepts: Our laws and ordinances are there to protect and preserve our communities. Health, resource, and financial risks should not be dismissed too quickly. Transparency is critical for trust.
People and communities are the priority. If there is a reasonable chance that a new development might hurt the health or well-being of the families that live in the community, then the community deserves to reject or delay that development until the community is satisfied.
A Good Mix of Great Jobs
Western PA is undergoing real economic change, including new industries and businesses like AI, robotics and advanced batteries are making local investments that our kids will be thankful to have. That proximity is an opportunity. It’s our responsibility to make sure we capitalize on it, through education, worker protections and long-term sustainability.
Our kids need exposure to where the economy is headed, our workers need union support, training centers and other pathways to great jobs in promising fields. Only then can our entrepreneurs and business owners proceed into these sectors or supply the goods and services those new industries and workers will need.
Minimum Wage
The minimum wage was created to protect workers and support a basic standard of living. Pennsylvania's minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 for almost 20 years. Raising it is long overdue. There’s a catch though: doing it correctly means addressing the full picture. Healthcare providers, from home health aides to small practices, operate on reimbursement rates set by the state. People who depend on their services are guaranteed to lose their healthcare if we don’t increase reimbursement rates as part of the minimum wage increase plan.
Getting wages right and getting reimbursement rates right are closely related. Fix one without the other and working families still lose. But don’t let them tell you the minimum wage was never meant to support people.
A Fair Chance at the Future
Accessible Healthcare
Health care in Washington County should not depend on where you live, where you work, or whether Harrisburg and Washington can agree on a budget. But right now, too many families are one bad break away from losing coverage. Proposed cuts to Medicaid threaten more than 300,000 Pennsylvanians, and the providers who serve our communities, from home health aides to small practices, who are already operating on reimbursement rates that have not kept up with the cost of doing business.
Raising Pennsylvania's minimum wage is part of the answer. It would lift tens of thousands of workers off Medicaid and save the state hundreds of millions of dollars a year. But it has to be done right. If wages go up and reimbursement rates stay flat, providers get squeezed and the people who depend on their services lose access. Getting wages right and getting reimbursement right are the same problem, and our next representative needs to understand that.
Every child in Washington County deserves a real shot in life, no matter what their parents do or which school district they live in. Right now, that is not what we have. Some districts can offer career and technical programs, mental health services, and special education support. Others are stretched so thin they are borrowing money just to keep classrooms open.
Pennsylvania is working to fix this. The state has started putting real money into an adequacy formula that sends the most help to the schools that need it the most. But progress has been slow, and small and rural communities are still waiting. Our schools need to be ready to give every student the tools to compete, whether that means college, a trade, or a career in a field that did not exist ten years ago.