Gettysburg Rising candidate debate re-cap
Marty Qually (Dem-91st), Matt Nelson (Dem-193rd) and Dan Moul (Rep-91st), with moderator Jenny Dumont.
[This is based on notes taken during the October 11 debate and is not a transcript. All remarks are paraphrased unless they are put in quotes. No effort was made to fact-check, this is just what the candidates said.]
Jenny Dumont introduced the three candidates and laid out the ground rules. Each candidate would have two minutes to make introductory remarks followed by questions. The candidates, alphabetically, were:
Dan Moul, Republican incumbent in the 91st district;
Matt Nelson, Democratic candidate in the 193rd district;
Marty Qually, Democratic candidate in the 91st district.
Torren Ecker, Republican candidate in the 193rddistrict, was invited but didn’t attend.
Introductory Remarks. All three candidates began with personal introductions and references to their longtime local connections. These are not included here.
Qually: My opponent says “we’re getting screwed by Harrisburg,” but he voted against 911, against adding police stations, against other local funding. I’m concerned that services are being taken away. After seven years on the county commission, I’ve learned that the best way to get things done is to work with your colleagues of both parties.
Nelson: My experience in a startup business convinced me to run for office. I learned about working with people and getting things done. That’s a important perspective to bring to Harrisburg.
Moul: I’ve been doing this for 12 years. I serve on the Ag, Game and Fish, Tourism, and Children and Youth committees. I have a great staff but I run a very lean office. Every year, we rank 4thin the amount of money we turn back to the state. I’ve been endorsed by a long list of groups [NFIB, Chamber of Commerce, Realtors, NRA, Pro-life, others].”If you are running for a position and have to run your opponent down …. [allotted time expired]
Q: What is the biggest challenge you face if you win?
Qually: Taxes. State puts many unfunded mandates on the local governments. Affects every level of government, schools, counties, boroughs, … We’re paying too much to the state and not getting our fair share.
Nelson: The challenge between moving forward and maintaining the status quo. I hear candidates calling for smaller government, more efficient government. But I also see funding for schools and roads going down. We need to fund schools and roads, as well as ending gerrymandering.
Moul: I think my opponent’s answer may be word for word the answer I gave last week. Yes, we don’t get enough money back and to change that, we need to change the funding formula. According to the “hold harmless” formula, you can’t get less school money than you did last year. This helps districts with declining enrollment and hurts those with growing enrollment. We get $2500 a student from the state; the state average is $6000. The problem is, the people who are benefiting from this formula aren’t going to let it change.
Q: Do you support the gas severance tax?
Moul: We already have an “impact fee” of 1 ½%, which is exactly the same as a severance tax. Adams County gets, I think, $86,000 a year from this tax. Why I don’t support a full severance tax is that Pennsylvania already has the highest corporate income tax rate in the country: 9.9%. It’s too high. If we added a severance tax, the companies would leave for the 34 other states who have natural gas and those jobs would go with them.
Nelson: I would support a severance tax. We need to pay for state government functions. We don’t need to raise taxes on individuals. I think we should reform the corporate income tax,
Qually: I’d support the severance tax if it can reduce property taxes. I’d much rather raise revenue from taxpayers who don’t live here, such as national companies who exploit our natural resources. The government needs to raise revenue, and it also needs to pay the environmental cost that these resource exploitation companies are responsible for.
Q: State support for higher education has declined. The state used to pay half the cost of the state higher education system but now pays only 18%. This is putting a college education out of the reach of many low income people and making the American Dream impossible. What will you do to ensure adequate funding for the state higher education system?
Moul: I have no idea about your numbers, it could be anything. I do know that last year we paid $453M of your tax dollars and that’s slated to go up to $468M. What’s happening is that the cost of running higher education has outpaced our ability to fund it. “I have nothing against professors,” but the lowest paid fulltime professor in the state university system makes more than $100K a year and they only have to work 12 hours a week. I think the state is paying its share.
Nelson: Public education is critical. Pennsylvania ranks 47thof 50 states in support of higher education. Only 10% of our state college graduates come from the lower 50% in income. Other natural gas states, like Wyoming and North Dakota, tax the resource exploiters and plow the money back into higher education. And people know that the young people in that state will be well educated
Qually: We have to support higher education. But we also have to recognize that not all people will go to a four year college. Many of the jobs of tomorrow are not the jobs of today. Trade schools and community colleges are also an important part of the higher education system. We also need to elect officials who understand budgets. Every year I have been a county commissioner, the county’s bond rating has gone up, while the state’s bond rating continues to dip; our rainy day fund is growing … [time expired]
Q: Infrastructure funding.
Moul: We need to make Pennsylvania business friendly. We need to make sure we don’t over-regulate and attract better paying jobs. We also need to improve bridges and roads. I demanded (and got) funding for a number of important road projects in the district.
Nelson: Public infrastructure is important. We need to look at the funding formula. While roads and bridges are important, we also need to look at rural broadband. If you go a few miles north of Gettysburg, you have no broadband access. This is vital for rural areas.
Qually: Transportation funding is very complex, a mixture of state, county, municipal, and federal funds. We need better public input mechanisms. The state changed the funding formula and the county is losing money.
Q: Eliminate school property tax?
Qually: I don’t believe property tax is the only way to fund schools. There isn’t a statewide solution, localities need some measure of control. Locally, increasing the sales tax would result in tourists and skiers paying a lot of our school costs, and I like that idea.
Nelson: We need to reform the property tax. Giant multi-state companies such as Wal-Mart and Target need to pay – if you do business in Pennsylvania you should pay tax in Pennsylvania. We also need to end corporate welfare.
Moul: A bill to let counties impose their own sales tax has been around Harrisburg for years but has never seen the light of day because the people who benefit from the present system (we’re not paying any property taxes, why should we increase our property taxes?). Regarding HB 1776, I’m a co-sponsor. “Nothing would make me happier than getting it passed.” But people getting the lion’s share of the money, you’re not going to get them to vote to change the system.
One minute wrap-up
Qually: As a county commissioner, I’ve gotten things done. We have a new police shooting range and electronic recycling program.
Nelson: I’m tired of the inaction and gridlock. We can’t keep sending the same people back to Harrisburg.
Moul: “It’s pretty rich to say ‘my opponent voted against this, this, and this and not say why.” Does anyone think I’d vote against my township? I voted against the whole budget because it borrows money from the tobacco settlement fund for current expenses. That’s taking money from our children.