To the Editor:
State Senator Pileggi accepted a trip to the Super Bowl from the Pittsburgh Steelers organization – airfare and lodging included. It must be nice – as many Pennsylvanians are struggling to find work and to put food on the table.
The Senator’s District encompasses the built-out suburbs of Delaware County (Chester, Marcus Hook, etc…) along with rural Southern Chester County, yet our Senator has failed to legislatively address “smart growth” land use policies. The Pennsylvania land use law (Municipalities Planning Code) should be amended to better allow for revitalization of these old Delco towns while giving municipalities like Franklin and Upper Oxford (in Southern Chester County) the ability to save the best farmland soils on planet earth.
As the Senate Majority Leader, he has the ability to set the agenda; year after year passes with no action on this suburban sprawl issue.
We need real property tax reform – something the Senator stands firmly against. In the meantime, our legislature needs to get back to funding 50 percent of our schools as they did in the early 80’s. Too much burden is placed on property owners to fund education. Senator Pileggi, with his 2009 Senate Bill 850, which called for drastic cuts in state education funding, has shown that he doesn’t care about passing the burden to property owners. Resist the Pileggi pile on. The less the state funds, the more school boards have to look to property owners to pick up the tab.
PA is the only state that doesn’t have a natural gas severance tax. Meanwhile, as indicated, our schools go underfunded. The Senator was instrumental in killing the severance tax that the House Democrats passed over to the Senate in the last term.
Senator Pileggi sets policy to help him continue to lead his caucus. If he started fighting for the residents of his district, he knows that he would not get chosen leader by his fellow Republican Senators. He is simply co-opted by the PA Establishment, out of touch with the needs of his constituents, and serving the rich while pushing more of our fellow Pennsylvanians into poverty.
Peter Jesson
Chadds Ford
