The Capital Times
Lt. Governor Baker Knoll visits PSH
Baker Knoll emphasizes
importance of leadership
By Michael Green
Staff reporter
mrg222@psu.edu
On Thursday, September 23,
Pennsylvania State University-
Harrisburg had the privilege of
hosting a representative of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The honorable Lieutenant
Governor Katherine Baker Knoll
was on campus to discuss PSH’s
strategic programs and needs.
During her visit, Her Honor met
with various student leaders for a
half hour to discuss problems
and interests of the student body
and how state government was
involved.
In her long career, Lt. Governor
Baker Knoll has been State
Treasurer, created the
Pennsylvania student loan pro
gram, and has numerous other
accomplishments in finance,
transportation, housing, educa
tion, environmental work, human
rights, small business develop
ment and urban and rural revital
ization efforts.
One of the most important top
ics to Baker Knoll is leadership,
and how young people must
become the new generation of
leaders for our communities.
Without effective leadership, it is
easy for issues of interest to the
younger generation to get lost in
the shuffle of other political con
cerns.
Knoll believes that the area of
young leadership most visibly
lacking right now is voter aware
ness and turnout. During the
Vietnam era, she was involved in
HIA adds new terminal, transportation center
New HIA terminal adds
convience to ease the
worried minds of trav
els passing through
By Christian Torres
Staff Reporter
cgtlll@psu.edu
Thinking of flying out of BWI or
Philadelphia? Here is one ques
tion, well, maybe two. First off, is
there enough money for that
guzzler called a car to make that
trip; second, consider the
Harrisburg International Airport.
Ah, didn’t think of that one, huh?
Located only across the street
from Penn State Harrisburg, the
airport is sort of an unknown in
the PSH neighborhood. Not
many students know that they
can get virtually around the world
by using HIA. Perhaps it is time
to look a little closer.
The airport has just finished
construction on its brand new
terminal, and it is quite the termi
nal. It is the first airport com
pletely built and designed since
September 11, 2001. The new
the effort to allow persons 18
years old to vote, but the high
young voter turnout of that era
has declined to the lowest voter
participation of any age group.
She agrees with student con
cerns over the lack of attention
paid to student concerns, such
as the meager status of state
support for higher education. As
a previous State Treasurer,
One of the most important top
ics to Baker Knoll is leader
ship, and how young people
must become the new genera
tion of leaders for our commu-
Baker Knoll was heavily involved
in the student aid programs of
the Pennsylvania Higher
Education Assistance Agency
(PHEAA), and is proud of the fact
that nursing students are subsi
dized by the state, through she
agrees that most other students
do not have similar programs.
In addition, Baker Knoll sug
gests that much of the reason for
the “Brain Drain”, or massive out
flow of educated young people
from the state, is the state’s rep
utation of being anti-young peo
ple. Since older voters have a far
higher voter turnout, obviously
elected officials have no reason
to pay attention to the concerns
of younger citizens. Student
readers mentioned that during
last year’s “Rally at the
Rotunda”; some elected officials
terminal features new conces
sions, restaurants and brand
new stores including the
Perfectly Pennsylvania Gift Shop
and for all of you chocolate
lovers, the Hershey Chocolate
World store.
The terminal also features the
Susquehanna Club, the airport
run frequent flier lounge. The
club features a small meeting
and conference room, tele
phones, fax machines, computer
ports and more. And speaking of
computers, the terminal building
also features wireless internet
throughout the building for any
one who has a compatible lap
top computer.
Attached to the new terminal is
the brand new multi-modale
transportation center. The four
story facility provides a three
story parking garage for short
term, hourly, daily and long-term
parking. The first level can
accommodate any kind of
ground transportation including
busses, limos, taxis and more.
There is also a first floor lobby
which can give travelers access
seemed less than interested in
issues affecting students in the
commonwealth.
Baker Knoll mentioned one
case in which an incumbent state
representative near State
College was defeated by well
organized pro-student vote
turnout, only to be defeated 2
years later for re-election when
students were no longer interest-
nities.
Other reasons that many give
for the “Brain Drain” is high
taxes, but Pennsylvania taxes
are actually not higher than most
states, far lower than such
states as New York, New Jersey,
Maryland, California, and roughly
as high as Georgia, all popular
destinations for departing stu
dents. The image of
Pennsylvania as a high-tax state
is not deserved, and the com
monwealth offers opportunity to
those people who are interested
in creating new jobs and new
products.
As part of an effort to stench the
flow of educated residents and
future high-tech jobs, Baker Knoll
is involved in efforts to work
together with other states in the
region, such as New Jersey, New
to six rental car counters, bath
rooms and a seating area.
The transportation center is
attached to the new terminal via
a climate-controlled sky bridge.
The new terminal also has a
unique Y shape to it. According
to Scott Miller, manager of mar
keting and public relations at the
airport, it will make the airport
more flexible to receive more
flights and perhaps more airlines.
“Because of the Y shape in our
building, we can actually extend
the airport out in a ‘y’,” Miller
said. “The building can actually
be doubled by doing that and it
gives us (the airport) more room
to work with in terms of adding
new gates.”
Perhaps the most important
feature of the airport is the new
baggage handling center.
According to Miller, the new bag
gage handling facility has cut
down the time travelers have to
wait at check-in counters.
“Our new system is a brand
new system where the baggage
goes straight from the counter to
our security facility downstairs,”
News
York, and Delaware.
She says that much of the rea
son many people think that
California is a good place to live
and do business is because of
the sheer size and resources
that California can put forth to
lobby for it’s interests. The com
bined population of the four
states involved in this effort is
considerably larger than
California, and hopefully this
allows for more effective coordi
nation of regional programs.
Baker Knoll also explained
some of the Rendell administra
tion’s programs to improve
Pennsylvania. One that she is
particularly enthusiastic about is
“Growing Greener II”, a proposed
$BOO million dollar bond issue to
clean up and preserve the envi
ronment, an active interest of
Her Honor.
Part of the $BOO million will go
to increasing the cleanup of toxic
waste sites, the reuse of previ
ously used industrial sites, while
state programs such as fisheries
and state parks will be able to
repair older facilities and build
new places to enjoy the environ
ment.
This bond issue would be fund
ed by taxing trash and emissions
of toxic substances. The General
Assembly was unable to fit this
proposal onto the November bal
lot, but a proposal to place the
idea on the May primary ballot is
to be discussed in the next sev
eral weeks in Harrisburg.
Another project, which was just
approved, is a $5 billion dollar
economic stimulation plan to
encourage and support private
investment in the common
wealth. This program is designed
to encourage investment in
Photos courtesy of HIA Web site
Miller said. “The old system
would have made travelers wait
for the ticket agents to take their
bags to x-ray machines which
were located in the ticket counter
area. Now the new system cuts
all of that out and it gets less hec
tic (in the terminal).”
As for the old terminal building,
Miller says that it just won’t be
abandoned. “We are planning to
turn the old building into our air
port corporate center and we are
also considering adding facilities
to the old building for the U.S.
customs,” Miller said.
With all of the great things that
are happening at the airport,
there could possibly be a black
cloud on the horizon. U.S.
Airways, one of the biggest carri
ers at the airport, has rumored
that it could shut down in
February if it doesn’t receive
major cuts in wages from its
employees. Miller says that while
the airport is watching the situa
tion closely, there is probably no
Photo courtesy of www.governor.state.pa.us
Pennsylvania firms that the mar
ketplace cannot or will not fund
at a reasonable price. Hopefully,
many of these new firms will gen
erate new jobs and new revenue
for the commonwealth.
Finally, the recently passed
slots law and related property tax
reform are expected to generate
billions of dollars of economic
activity, create thousands of new
jobs, and relieve the property tax
burden on homeowners.
At the end of her talk, Baker
Knoll thanked students for inter
est in state government, and
hopes that the campus voter reg
istration leads to a high student
turnout
According to the governor’s
need to really worry. “One of our
other big carriers, United, has
been operating under bankruptcy
for a couple of years,” Miller said.
“So I am not really worried about
the (U.S. Airways) situation and
even if they would shut down, I
think it would only hurt us tem
porarily. We have other airlines
that could probably take the
flights from U.S. Airways fairly
quickly.”
Miller says that the new terminal
is the just the beginning in the
airport’s effort to compete with
larger airports. “The airport
expansion is only one part of the
project, we also want to provide
comparible prices to the bigger
airports,” Miller said. “I think peo
ple need to realize that going to
the bigger airports will save you
money, but not much. We are
working very hard with the air
lines that are already here to give
prices comparable with BWI and
Philly. For instance, we have got
ten United and U.S. Airways to
Web site, Baker Knoll is the first
woman ever to be elected to the
position of lieutenant governor in
the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania. Before her posi
tion in public office, she was a
businessperson and a school
teacher. She is involved in many
organizations througout the
state, such as the YMCA, Boys
and Girls Clubs and NAACP.
She has four children. Her late
husband, Charles, was a United
States Postmaster.
To learn more about Catherine
Baker Knoll and he Rendell
administration’s various pro
grams and initiatives, visit
www.governor.state.pa.us.
give usprices comparible with
Baltimore and Philadelphia. We
also want to get more airlines in
here as well."
According to HlA's Web site, the
airport first began as a U.S. Army
base. Soon after, it became
Olmsted Air Force Base, and
planes began landing there in
1918. The airport began serving
the public in 1969 after became
Harrisburg International Airport.
HIA is operated by eight major
airlines serving more than 1.3
million people a year. The air
lines that operate out of HIA are
Air Canada, American Eagle,
Continental Airlines. Delta
Airlines, Northwest Airlines,
Transmeridian Airlines. United
Airlines and U.S. Airways.
The airport is owned by the
Susquehanna Area Regional
Airport Authority, which also
owns the Capital City Airport.
For more information on the air
port. contact the airport's Web
site at www.flyhia.com.