The 2022 vote: Governor’s race and public policy
Two candidates, one in the mainstream, one in the Gilded Age.
Jobs/economy: In this respect, Mastriano fits in with the traditional Reagan/Bush Republican “jobs” approach: if we keep cutting taxes and slashing regulations, maybe sooner or later they’ll actually create some jobs. He has said he would establish a “strike force” within each state agency that would aim to slash at least 55,000 statewide regulations in his first year in office. He also wants to work with the legislature to eliminate two regulations for every new one created. He has said he would lift certain taxes and regulations on natural gas drillers, although his campaign has not specified which ones. As a state senator, he has sponsored legislation n that would reverse the Wolf administration’s morat moratorium on new leases for natural gas exploration in state parks and forests. Eh, state parks and forests: who needs them?
Unlike Mastriano, Shapiro actually has a jobs program. He has advocated for developing innovation hubs — including around manufacturing, life sciences, and national defense technologies — and connecting businesses in those industries with research institutions and research and development funding. He said he would also create a new office of economic growth and development to help businesses wanting to expand or relocate to Pennsylvania navigate the permitting and regulation processes.
Shapiro has said he would create jobs by plugging abandoned wells, modernizing homes and businesses through energy efficiency programs, investing in sewer and stormwater projects, and repairing structurally deficient bridges and roads.
Education: Mastriano said in a March radio interview that he wants to cut state per-student public school funding in half and redirecting much of that remaining funding from schools to parents with children for them to fund their child’s education, making Pennsylvania the first state ever to destroy its public school system. Somewhat redundantly, he wants to ban “critical race theory” curricula – a catchall term in right-wing spheres to describe “anything that “makes students feel guilty because they’re white” or “makes students hate America.’ —from the public schools that would no longer exist.
Shapiro has campaigned as a strong supporter of public schools. In May, his office filed a court brief in support of six school districts and others who have sued the state, arguing that the state formula has led to chronic disinvestment in some schools. He has advocated for less reliance on standardized tests, and for increasing vocational, technical, and computer training in classrooms. He has said that if elected, he would appoint at least two parents to the state Board of Education, the highest educational authority in the state that creates academic standards.
Energy and Environment. Mastriano has promised to pull Pennsylvania out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an interstate program aimed at cutting carbon emissions from power plants, on the first day of his administration. In a 2018 interview, he called climate change “fake science,” and has vowed as governor to encourage more energy production. As a senator he introduced legislation that would allow new drilling in state parks, reduce permitting fees, and exempt gas producers from the state’s corporate income tax. Shapiro has argued Pennsylvania can retain its position as a top energy-producing state while also setting aggressive climate action goals. Under his watch in 2020, the Office of Attorney General released a grand jury report that found government agencies had failed to properly oversee and regulate the fracking industry and recommended a series of regulatory and transparency changes. His office has prosecuted gas drillers and criminally charged pipeline developers with environmental crimes. Shapiro has not committed to keeping Pennsylvania in RGGI. On climate action, Shapiro has set a target of generating 30% of Pennsylvania’s energy from renewable sources by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.
If they had been in Johnstown that horrible day, one of them would have helped the survivors; the other would have worried whether the South Forks Rod and Gun Club needed help to rebuild.
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