Regionalization

How can we encourage regionalization as a method of increasing efficiencies and saving money
Proposer Jon Geeting Jon Geeting Verbatim The 5K Plan! Only jurisidictions with 5000 people or more will be recognized by the state as legal municipalities after 2020. State doesn't decide who merges with who, but it has to happen. And it gets rid of about 78% of PA's municipal governments. http://www.jongeeting.net/?p=4629 Empowering counties is so key. Like Cuyahoga County in Ohio, PA counties should start offering a menu of municipal services that their constituent municipalities can contract for, rather than provide in-house. Police, fire protection, purchasing, planning and zoning support, etc. The state should encourage this by giving more block grant money to counties who offer a Municipal Menu. Over time, more municipalities will see the savings and economy of scale and contract with the county, and eventually we'll mostly have countywide services. http://www.cleveland.com/cuyahogacounty/index.ssf/2012/06/cuyahoga_county_offers_services_in_pursuit_of_regionalism.html Doing it with carrots alone won't cut it though. There needs to be a stick. Check out New Jersey's shared service bill. http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/12/11/29/sweeney-wields-big-stick-as-senate-passes-shared-services-bill/ First, our state constitution, with amendments passed in the 1960's, makes "big stick" difficult. Municipalities enjoy tremendous protections from annexations by larger municipalities. Everything requires the voters of municipalities to consent. The "big stick" legislation is constitutional amendments. A constitutional amendment requires consideration in both chambers of the General Assembly in two concurrent sessions and then approval by the voters through referendum. To be entirely clear, municipalities can take action of their own accord with consent of the voters, but "big stick" is largely unavailable under current circumstances. With that clarified, we started brainstorming the incentives side of things. The state, through the Center for Local Government Services, does finance consolidation and shared services studies. I've seen those studies yield tangible results and I've seen those studies produce a report that gets shelved. While more funding is always welcome, a mechanism exists to start helping in that process. But after the studies are complete, when trying to entice municipalities to give up control to realize the cost-saving and regionalize benefits of operation, what incentives could help. Came up with a list: (1)state cost-sharing for start-up costs associated with the newly shared services, (2) priority consideration for state-funded grant programs for 5-10 years after merger (PennDot, DCNR, PennVest, Dept of Ed, DCED, etc--comes with the benefit of not costing the state anything b/c the funding is already in place), (3) waiver of matching fund requirements for state funded grant programs 5-10 years after merger (low cost for state, less impact for state funded investments, but might be worth it if it creates significant local gov't savings), (4) Pension incentives for municipal employees (generated from a concern that some pension funds are better balanced/performing than other funds), (5) state assumes debt from distressed municipalities or manages a restructuring process to consolidate and better manage debt (a response to the concern that a municipality with high debt is viewed as a liability to another municipality). There are a few bills that are floating around that have made little progress in this category. They include SB 162, 159 and 161 introduced by Sen. Yudichak. These bills would create various financial incentives and assistance to assist in mergers/service sharing. SB 497 introduced by Sen. Eichelberger would update and amend the 3rd Class City code. In regards to municipalities: I think the state should make the process easier and possible give an incentive to consolidate. From that point, the thrust of the consolidation should be given to the counties since they are far more knowledgeable about the localities. They can then work with the individual municipalities to consolidate and do what is obviously best in the minds of the citizens. As an example, in Cumberland County, we have a three neighboring townships with a population of less than 4,000 (one with a population of less than 200) while other townships in the county have upwards of 20,000. There is no reason those can't be consolidated into one. But, again, these discussions should start locally.

Jon Geeting Geoff Brace

Geoff Brace

Geoff Brace

Geoff Brace Dashell Fittry

David Hanel

Geoffrey Roche J Rizzo Mertz

rewriting the municipal code to have more transport planning and zoning done at the county level rather than at the local level. also. revising the process for municipal consolidation simplifying. and establishing rules saying municipalities/school districts below a certain threshold in population or size are ineligible for block grants.include an exemption if municipality/district is more than 60% open space/agricultural use. Also the state and counties must pay property and school taxes on there property. this would help county seats a great deal with there tax base Consolidated municipalities I was reading a study a few days ago about the fragmented nature of local government and how it translates into rural townships and other entities not having the necessary tax base to deliver even the most basic service. Over the course of the last couple of years I have been researching how Pennsylvania could consolidate a number of municipalities by merging their governance into their respective county's government. Basically, granting more localized control to the counties. Perhaps, we should be exploring the avenue of expanding the membership of county boards of commissioners, abolish second-class townships, grant more powers and flexibility to first-class townships, and to third-, and second-class cities. I think we can streamline our local governance by simplifying the relevant constitutional articles. This could mean our cities and more developed townships would be better suited to creating tax codes that are more responsive to the needs of their residents, are better prepared to meet the ever changing economic times, and end the fragmented nature of Pennsylvania's local governance. Furthermore, some of the fundamental flaws in our local tax structure could be rectified as well. Maryland and New York states have an interesting model we could borrow from. Thoughts?

Sean Indignado Kitchen

Economic Development
How can we increase economic development and job creation in our cities? Coordinate better with other municipalities and counties?
Proposer Andrew Chew Verbatim Investment in infrastructure will help by helping cities attract and retain businesses and maybe even change some peoples' negative perceptions of urban areas. I haven't thought this idea through completely, but here's something: infrastructure reinvestment districts that would work a bit like a mini CRIZ. Some portion of state taxes collected in the zone would be set aside for reinvestment in public projects - transit, roads and bridges, utilities, stormwater, streetscaping, parks/public spaces, etc. Encourage cities to end minimum parking requirements. A major major drag on infill and adaptive reuse opportunities. Water authorities ability to jump 1000 ft needs to be looked at. Locally we have to reduce the distance that LCA can force any development to hook up to public water and sewer from 1,000 feet from any part of one property that has public water to 100 feet to any part of the property to be subdivided. This is the biggest reason for out of control sprawl the valley has. Look up a google map and look at Lower Macungie serviced by LCA with the 1000ft rule vs. Whitehall with it's own authority which has a 175 foot hookup law. Clear difference. Whitehall has efficiency in compact density. They still have alot of farms and fields on the outer edges. Lower Macungie has leap frogged and sprawled to all it's borders in a wildly ineffcient pattern that's going to force us to raise property tax.

Jon Geeting Ronald William

Urban Blight
What can we do to best address blight related issues?
Proposer Ken Heffentra ger Verbatim Concerning the urban blight issue there needs to be a more simplified law regarding the seizure of properties I'm talking about properties that are dormant for years we at the Tenant Association have been asked on several occasions if we know how a contractor or property management group can get hold of a property to rehabilitate and put it back into circulation and we say start with the city or bank owned ones and their response is that it's to much of a hassle, so we have companies wanting to help and all the get is walls thrown up, stricter laws on absentee landlords would be a start landlords who have no real connection with the city we have come across properties that are blighted for years and the owner lives in another state we need to pull people together to start the ball rolling with ideas and start finding unconventional ways to get this done, Ken Heffentrager VP Tenant Association of Allentown Land value tax - extend it to all municipal classes. Currently only third class cities, second class A cities, second class cities, home rule cities, and third class school districts precisely coterminous with a third class city are allowed to split their property tax rates out into land and buildings. We need a state law enabling any local government to do it. This is a direct tax on land speculation that will help push blightlords with properties in appreciating areas to shit or get off the pot. Fix up the property now, or sell it to somebody who will. The regular property tax coddles people who want to treat physical buildings as mere financial investments. A great deal of work has already been done in Harrisburg by a legislative committee dealing with blight. Some of their recommendations were adopted, but I still there are still more. Set aside state or city tax funds to fund exterior repair or replacement for owner occupied blighted properties. Provide funds as a grant to be be repaid at time of transfer of property. For non-owner occupied properties provide loan interest loans for the same blight issues. The paperwork and guidelines must be very basic not like standard mortgage process. I would recommend 5-10 contractors approved by city to handle the work. Thoughts?

Jon Geeting

Charlie Schmehl William J Thompso n Jr

Tax Reform
How can we best achieve real property tax reform that is revenue neutral? Is this a reasonable goal?
Proposer Ronald William Marty Flynn Verbatim Repeal uniformity clause. For suburban municipality like Lower Macungie we need to be able to split the property tax rate so we can tax commercial & industrial users at a higher rate then residential since they are the users that generate the impacts locally. We need an effective school funding formula that isn't based on your zip code!

Education
How can we best improve education in our urban areas? Generate additional funding? Work with surrounding school districts?
Proposer William Thompson Cindy OKeefe Verbatim Work with surrounding school districts to see what their magic formula is to produce more studious kids. Another solution is to enlist senior citizens to volunteer to mentor and aide teachers which will insure a better America! The magic formula is having a community who values education, who expects good results from their kids, no child going to school hungry or neglected, less poverty & transience, enough supplies for each child, a more appropriate curriculum, updated to today's needs & fitting today's jobs, respect for teachers and what they sacrifice for their students, ie spending their own money on school supplies that are rightfully district responsibilities. We need community wide involvement, tutoring, mentoring. I am not a teacher, btw. Just a caring parent of a former student. One of the problems is layoffs (particularly by seniority) remove some of the most motivated teachers and many of the teachers who can relate best to students. consolidate districts so the richest of the rich can share some of that wealth with the poorest of the poor and EVERY child receives an equal education. Bill, it's funny, I think there are bills out there that would do just that. ASD has multiple very active mentor programs - United Way's Compass program has done a fantastic job - but I wonder what else is out there. Very good points. The ASD needs positive role models and programs that can keep kids off the street hustling and get them dreaming of a positive future. In urban settings it takes the community to support the youth because individual households fail due to socioeconomic issues. I would make things mandatory.... After school you play a sport or belong to one of many programs until your parent can come get you. I truly believe volunteers can move mountains if empowered. Penn Manor, Hempfield and Manheim Township plan to unveil an open campus project that is believed to be the first collaborative effort of its kind in Pennsylvania http://lancasteronline.com/news/three-school-districts-here-will-merge-teaching-efforts/article_44b9ea44-81cb-53e3-8bac-4369080a7ae7.html Thanks to social media and technology, education does not have to be about a specific building. There are so many ways for urban areas to provide educational opportunities. The state already has apprenticeship programs in place. There are also online classes that work with the existing school programs. So, if a student wants to take a class on media presentations but the school does not have the class, the student can take it (for class credit) at home or during study hall. There are at least 3 programs already in use by the school districts in the state. One of the biggest problems I have seen with offering out of classroom opportunities to students is that they become scheduling nightmares for the guidance counselors. Maybe having a regional coordinator (like an IU) would help in that area and keep costs low. I suggested school district consolidation many years ago, but was told other districts would never want to join ASD. Just imagine how much could be saved in administrative costs alone! 501 School Districts means 501 Superintendents. We should have school districts report to a county administration building. Then we will only need 42 Superintendents. That would save $68,850,000 in Superintendents salaries. 459 jobs @ $150,000 per position. Not to mention the savings in all of the office staff. Numbers do not lie. This is how Virginia handles there education. It works!!!

Charlie Schmehl Christine Bauder Mike Schlossberg William Thompson

Monica Miller Monica Miller

Monica Miller Gloria Hanna Hanby Jeff Barber

Other
Proposer Hillary Smith Geoffrey Roche Sean Indignado Verbatim Public involvement in PennDot districts, there are municipalities with issues that are solely addressed by PennDot engineers with little input from the communities being affected by plans and changes We need the Certificate of Need Program back in Pennsylvania because it saves money in healthcare which is a key component of the triple aim! What are the best ideas to promote smart growth, especially in the Montgomery County / Bucks County suburbs where sprawl seems to be picking up as we come out of this recession? Can we look at setbacks shorter for new developments, try to get rid of strip malls, implement mix useage with developments of new strip malls, reduce the amount of impervious roads? Would these type of changes come from reopening the municipal planning code and taking power away from the 40,000 municipalities we have in PA and give it to counties or local planning commissions? First, thank you for adding me to the group! I agree that redistricting must be made non-partisan. Granted, this would need to be done through a constitutional amendment because reapportionment is part of the state's constitution, which makes any change more difficult to achieve. There are a multitude of ways to change the way this occurs, but I really like the way Iowa runs their reapportionment: https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2013/12/08/iowaredistricting-takes-partisanship-out-mapmaking/efehCnJvNtLMIAFSQ8gp7I/story.html Here is the link to the state's constitution, Article 2, Section 17: http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Constitution.html Additionally, I wanted to post Sen. Leach's post about redistricting from December which speaks to the problem of having partisan reapportionment: http://www.keystonepolitics.com/2013/12/daylin-leachs-re-gerrymandered-congressional-map-elects-13-democrats-5republicans/ The cap on R licenses is an underappreciated and huge problem for PA's older core cities. These places "want" to be clusters of restaurants and bars, and other entertainment services like concert venues, in addition to non-tradable services. But we can't get the critical mass of restaurants we need because PA rations the best restaurant business model that's in use in most states. In most states, a restaurant works like a movie theater. Just like how popcorn and soda cross-subsidizes movie tickets in a theater, booze cross-subsidizes the food in most restaurants in other states, and in restaurants here that get one of the rationed R licenses. If we sold R licenses to anyone and everyone for a flat fee ($5000?) then everyone could use this business model, and PA's older core cities would see a boom in restaurants, bars, concert venues, grocery stores, etc. I've even seen bookstores and *video stores* in some other cities whose core business is selling beer. Every kind of retail service business is more profitable with booze cross-subsidies. We need to stop rationing the right to use this awesome business model. http://www.keystonepolitics.com/2012/07/dan-moul/ Do you know if the efforts to expand internet access to the general population (and touists) via free WiFi has had a positive impact for the cities such as Philly & NYC?

Dashell Fittry

Jon Geeting

Janet Romero