ftnUnfl, Saturday, Novimbtr 20,1993
Governor
(CondnuMtfroiii Pag* AM)
ship, and promotion here and
abroad, preserving farmland, and
“making the Department of Agri
culture as user-friendly as
possible.”
On question three, the Bottle
Bill-type legislation, Singel said
that since recycling began in the
state in 1988, “we have been deve
loping new markets for recyclable
materials. We recycled less than
five percent of the waste stream
just three years ago. We now recy
cle 17 percent of the waste stream,
and we’re moving very aggres
sively in that direction.” He said 5
million people recycle material in
the state today. “I want to make
sure all commodities get recycled,
no just bottles.” He wants to work
with the program they have now.
On the preserving wetlands
question, Singel said that his gen
eral philosophy is that “where rea
son prevails, progress follows. I
will ask the farming community to
help me define once and for all
wetlands, so that we can strike that
proper balance between environ
mental and economic concerns.”
On the question of property
devaluation. Single said that “if
some action of government results
in the devaluing or taking of prop
erty. then, yes, you are entitled to
compensation, period.”
On the transient worker law
question, the lieutenant governor
said that transient farm workers
“are human beings.
“I’m really disheartened by any
suggestion that we can throw them
off into the streets and deny legiti
mate benefits. But in addition to
that, there are legitimate economic
concerns that impact on all the
farm community in
Pennsylvania.”
Mike Fisher
The number one issue facing the
state is how to create new jobs for
Pennsylvania, according to Mike
Fisher, who has served 18 years in
state government, according to a
release prepared by his campaign.
Fisher's platform will include
also the number two goal, he said,
which concerns improving the
educational system for the future
of the state. “What I think we need
to do in education is get back to the
basics," he said. “That’s why I
think we need to get back to read
ing, writing, science, arithmetic,
rather than trying to get into new
efforts such as outcome-based
education and other issues that get
us away from the basics.” Fisher
said he has been a leader in oppos
ing outcome-based education in
the state senate.
Bills that Fisher helped put forth
in the Senate include those to
improve economic growth, reform
the state’s product liability laws,
reform the state’s welfare system,
improve accountability in educa
tion, and others.
On the property tax reform
question, Fisher said before that is
done, it is important to start mak
ing spending cuts and other curbs
on spending. On the PDA funding
priority, because of agriculture’s
status as the number one industry,
he said programs are neded that are
effective. On the Bottle Bill legis
lation, he said we need more public
education, and more markets for
bottles and cans. On preserving
wedands, he said we have to go
back “to the common-sense
approach. Some wetlands need to
be protected,” he said, but that no
bureaucrat should have the right to
tell a fanner what he can and can’t
do with land. On the devaluation
compensation question, Fisher
said we need to find a way to create
Candidates
a fund to provide monies so that
people can be compensated, but
not through new taxes. On the
transient worker question, Fisher
said that employment costs need to
be focused on, and his platform
dictates that more significant
reform is needed in the state.
Earl Baker
Baker is running for governor
“because I’m concerned our peo
ple have lost faith in Pennsylvani
a’s future,” according to tire cam
paign flier. He is strong on local
tax reform and said, at the banquet,
that as a Chester County commis
sioner, realized how important
agriculture was to the county and
state.
“We worked hard to keep the
New Bolton Center open, because
that’s so important to our entire
agricultural industry." he said.
“It’s one of the things that this
administration has been a failure
MM M
on.
He told the forum that DER
needs reform, but “no matter what
we do with DER, we can cut it into
two pieces or three pieces or five
pieces it doesn’t really matter,
unless we change the attitude of
the people in DER to be more
cooperative and educational,
rather than adversarial.”
On the property tax reform
question, he said he was in favor of
an adaptable local tax system.
According to Baker, his legisla
tion, the Real Estate Property Tax
Relief Act, could help agriculture.
On the PDA funding question, he
said he would make marketing his
first emphasis, and it “would have
to be much stronger than it is right
now.” On the Bottle Bill legisla
tion, he said “I think we need to
seriously study other states that
have enacted the deposit laws.” On
the preserving wetlands question.
Baker said that he served on the
conservation district of Chester
County for 12 years, and there are
gradations of wetlands. “We
should establish those that are the
most high value in sensitivity and
really work hard to preserve
them.” On the devaluation com
pensation question, according to
Baker, more research on applying
zoning to ag is needed. On the
transient worker question, Baker
said he is against the “blanket
extension of labor laws to cover
seasonal and migrant workers.”
Ernie Preate
“We have problems in this state,
mostly problems created by peo
ple, people who were short on vis
ion and long on partisanship,”
Ernie Preate told the forum.
The current administration,
according to Preate, has been a fai
lure in many ways. “They gave us
the highest corporate net income
tax on employees in the United
States.” He decried the failing wel
fare system, an environmental sys
tem that “strangles initiative,” and
lots of red tape in productivity and
regulation.
“What this state needs is an
advocate to the private sector, an
advocate for the small business
man, an advocate for the farmer,”
said Preate.
On the property tax reform
question. Preate said he would
support reform, but that local gov
ernment should be allowed to
select a mix of taxes which is most
important for their community. He
wants to end the partisanship and
gridlock in Harrisburg, he said,
because “everybody agrees that
it’s time for leadership and vis
ion.” On the PDA funding priority,
Pteate said that he would support
Debate At
strong funding for PDA. “I would
support funding for a veterinary
school.” he said. “I think it was a
tragedy that we left the University
of Pennsylvania Veterinary School
go twisting, slowly, in the wind,
while it was debated whether to
fund it.” On the Bottle Bill legisla
tion, he said he thought it was time
“wc had a mandatory recycling
law in this state” and that the legis
lature should “step up and stop
ducking the issue.” On the preserv
ing wetlands question, Preatc said
that a "drainage ditch or a man
made Cum pond is not my idea of a
wetland, and all the language and
the mumho-jumbo that comes out
of the Department of Environmen
tal Resources in Harrisburg is not
going to change what is reality.”
He said we need mote sensible and
reasonably regulations and DER.
“If there’s ever an agency that
needs to get reformed, it’s that.”
On the property devaluation ques
tion, we need regulation that is
sensible and that farmers should be
compensated if they could no lon
ger use the property for how it has
been historically used. On the
transient worker question. Preale
said the state should go through a
“cost-benefit analysis” to deter
mine exactly what the economic
impact is going to be before pass
ing regulations. “We have to have
government that works in partner
ship with the farm community.”
Bob O’Donnell
O’Donnell, democrat, said he is
“a city boy, bom and bred,” and
has relied on the PFB to provide
him information and observation
on what to do regarding ag issues.
But as for the future of farming, he
said it is “not clear to me that we
will be able to follow in that way of
live,” he said. “We’re losing
approximately 1,000 farms a year
in Pennsylvania. And I think that
puts that way of life severely in
jeopardy.”
O’Donnell said he believes that
regarding state government, “I
think we’ve lost our way, and state
government is no longer fulfilling
its commitment to the working
people in this state.” He said the
school system has falling stan
dards and rising violence and an
economy where jobs are at risk and
Suzet, a Holstein, set a world milk record. Honored at the recent World Dairy Expo
are from left, Robert and Mariann Thomson, Nancy Thomson and daughter Laura;
Alton, Janet and son Eric Ling, and Steve Kerr, CEO, National Holstein Association.
New World Milk Record of 59,300 m Set
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. A new
world record for milk production
has been set by Robthom Suzet
Paddy in the herd of the Robert M.
Thomson Jr. family of Spring
field, Missouri.
Farm Bureau Forum
the future is in doubt.
On the property tax reform
question, O’Donnell said that he
supports change to permit greater
flexibility at the local Ivel, includ
ing a de-emphasis of property tax
and a move to more income and
sales “mix." The state has been
picking up SO percent of the cost of
education, and “we’re not getting
our money’s worth.” On the PDA
funding question, he said the PDA
is a “catalyst and strategist for this
industry” and funding would have
to be commensurate with the role
of die department On the Bottle
Bill, he said he favors the deposit
law. “I’m a co-sponsor of the bill,
period,” On preserving wetlands.
O’Donnell said that he said that
more needs to be done on looking
at the impact this has on jobs and
economic development On the
devaluation question, he said you
can’t take property without due
process of taw, and, as important
ly, when economic activity has
been impared. “If you’re losing
money, you ought to get reim
bursed.” On the transient worker
question, he said that he has exper
ience in drafting and crafting legis
lation that embodies most of what
the forum has heard on the subject,
and a “useful experience” is seeing
what the executive branch of the
government does to it. He said in
his administration that he would
make an executive branch to lake
these conflicting values of farmers
and be able to draw the line “in the
way that reflects the common
sense and is able to make the dis
tinction between operating a fami
ly form and a steel mill.”
Charles Volpe
“I’m the only person not holding
elective office on this state,” said
Volpe, who said his campaign will
not accept “one cent of any
PAC (Political Action Committee)
or special interest money.
"We need an independent gov
ernor in Harrisburg, and I find that
we have lost that connection,” said
the insurance businessman, who
operates a 32-employee firm and is
in charge of many of the wcek-to
week operations of the business.
Volpe, running as democrat, in
his flier, said we are taxing “small
businesses to death. Once again.
I’ll fight the insurance industry for
Born December 1, 1986, Suzet
recently completed a365-day pro
duction record with 59,300 lbs.
milk, 2.297 lbs. fat and 2,038 lbs.
protein on a twicc-a-day milking
as verified by the Holstein Asso
lower workers’ compensation
rates and lower insurance rates.”
Volpe said that he spends time at
farms. He was told a “fairly scary
story” about a diary fanner, who
obtains $12.75 a hundredweight
for milk, how that price has
remained constant for 13 or 14
years. But the fanner then showed
Volpe a farm tractor, bought five
years ago. that cost $15,500 now
cost $25,000. “We need to change
the way we do business in Harris
burg,” he said.
Chi the property tax reform
question, Volpe said he supports
reform, but that he advocates a per
district, by county, median incom
e. “All houses below the median
income should be given a home
stead 'exemption, and senior citi
zens on fixed income should
receive an exemption, depending
on ability to pay." He said that his
plan to announce property tax
reform will be released later this
year on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
On the PDA funding question,
Volpe said he will strongly support
the department. “What’s good for
how farmers and agriculture help
our economy is good for the entire
business community and economy
in Pennsylvania.” He said he
would widen the responsibilty of
the PDA at the expense of the
DER. “We have too many environ
mental people coming out of DER,
environmental engineers, who
know very little about what the far
mer does, in imposing stringent
regulations that farmers can’t live
with”
Volpe said he would support
Bottle Bin legislation. On wet
lands, Volpe said that farmers told
him that what consitutes a wetland,
according to DER, “is that every
time a cow urinates on a knothole
in the fence on the farm, that seems
to constitute a wetland.” Meaning
ful reform about the definition and
regulation is needed. On the deva
luation question, Volpe said that
farmers need more protection from
government and that farmers need
to be compensated if property is
taken. Also, the economic security
zone needs to be expanded beyond
just farmlands. On the transient
worker question, he said it is too
easy to obtain welfare in the state,
and that reform is necessary.
ciation. During her lactation, start
ed at 5 years, 6 months, Suzet
peaked at 200 lbs. and averaged
162 lbs. per day.
DHIA Supervisor Nash of
(Turn to Pag* A3S)