00:00 - The following program is sponsored in part by customers

00:03 - bank.

00:15 - Welcome to the PCN Capital preview.

00:17 - I'm Francine Schertzer.

00:18 - Today we'll discuss the governor's housing plan.

00:21 - But first we're joined by Charles Thompson, reporter for PennLive.

00:25 - You wrote an article

00:25 - commemorating the anniversary of the arson attack on the governor's residence.

00:29 - What new insights have you learned about how the attack was able to occur?

00:34 - Well,

00:36 - you know, we didn't answer.

00:38 - We didn't get every question answered.

00:40 - But, we did get some new light shed on

00:44 - some of the unanswered questions about that really horrific,

00:48 - firebombing of the governor's residence in Harrisburg. And,

00:52 - the main thing was that,

00:54 - Jeffrey Miller, the consultant who was hired by the state police

00:57 - to kind of lead thereafter action review and make security recommendations

01:02 - to kind of prevent this from happening again.

01:05 - Granted us an interview.

01:07 - He they the state police have never released his report

01:10 - and they still have it.

01:11 - They didn't make it available to me for this story, but,

01:15 - but Jeff Miller did take a phone call and talked a little bit about his work,

01:18 - and we gleaned some new details about what happened that night

01:22 - that enabled Cody Bulmer to penetrate, penetrate the property.

01:29 - Start to break into the building,

01:31 - get into the building, set fires and and get out all that,

01:37 - do all that without ever being confronted

01:39 - by a trooper, which was really hard

01:43 - to shake for, for folks that have spent any time around that property.

01:47 - The new insights were that,

01:50 - we learned that in combination

01:53 - with talking to prosecutors who might have had to prosecute the case.

01:57 - Looking at the fire report and,

02:00 - talking to Jeff Miller, we learned that

02:04 - the troopers that were on duty that night never actually saw Cody Balmer.

02:07 - They never actually laid their eyes on him.

02:09 - And, it's it seems that they didn't even know

02:13 - that they had a live intruder on the property

02:17 - until after the fire was put out, which was kind of an interesting detail

02:21 - that, you know, I mean, one of the big unanswered questions, Francine, was,

02:26 - how could he have been on that property and been damaging the building

02:30 - for about two minutes, and it was seen on the live feed

02:35 - of the security

02:37 - cameras and surveillance cameras at the residence.

02:40 - And the troopers on duty would never have picked that up.

02:43 - But they did, and, but, you know, the existence of Jeffrey Balmer

02:47 - as a live intruder on the scene really wasn't picked up

02:51 - until after the fire, when they started to review

02:54 - some of that surveillance footage to see what had happened.

02:58 - Your article, the surveillance footage suggests

03:00 - the perpetrator was inside for 100 seconds.

03:03 - How did what are the contributing factors that the state troopers

03:06 - did not know that he was present until after the fact?

03:11 - You know, some is is just,

03:15 - bad luck, I think you'd say.

03:17 - And some was just,

03:19 - kind of a,

03:21 - And when I say bad luck,

03:23 - when Bulmer first arrived at the scene, he was

03:27 - he was hanging outside the property for a few minutes, and he was

03:32 - in the line

03:33 - of sight of some security cameras on Geiger Street.

03:36 - But he either

03:39 - because he knew the cameras were there or because of chance, he

03:42 - he kind of hung back in the shadows of of Geiger Street,

03:46 - almost like an alley that runs along the south side of the property.

03:50 - And he kind of hung back in some shadows. And,

03:54 - Miller's review was that

03:57 - he said probably about eight out of ten people who looked at that video

04:00 - would never have seen anybody on that on that feed, because he was wearing black.

04:05 - It was nighttime and he was in shadows.

04:07 - And, so

04:10 - then when he went over the fence,

04:15 - so he was never confronted when he was just loitering outside

04:18 - when he went over the fence.

04:19 - A motion detector triggered a trooper went out to sort of

04:25 - police the area to see what triggered that motion detector.

04:29 - But there, Bulmer picked his spot.

04:32 - He was in the area of the grounds that some,

04:37 - you know, it's loosely called Penn's Woods.

04:39 - It's a it's a garden area and it's grown.

04:42 - It had been grown up with shrubs and trees and plantings.

04:47 - And he hid himself in that area.

04:49 - And this trooper may be operating with a little bit of the context of like,

04:53 - well, you know, we we've never had a breach of this fence.

04:58 - It's always been a squirrel or a rabbit or a possum that sets these detectors off.

05:03 - Went around and, French auto.

05:05 - The Duff County D.A.

05:06 - says the video shows that he looked pretty thoroughly with a flashlight,

05:11 - but they didn't come across Cody Bulmer at that point.

05:14 - Then the scene clears of that trooper and Cody Bulmer makes his move.

05:18 - And this is the part where, as somebody who had been

05:21 - has been at the residence as an invited guest and as an uninvited guest,

05:25 - sometimes I found it hard to believe that he could start to do this stuff

05:30 - and not be confronted with somebody saying, stop, freeze!

05:34 - Right.

05:34 - But, Bulmer goes up to the property,

05:37 - starts to break out that window, throws the first Molotov cocktail

05:41 - in, then he goes to a second window and breaks in and enters and,

05:46 - at that point,

05:48 - well, I haven't seen the trooper's statements

05:51 - that actually, were working in the control room that night.

05:55 - What the consensus of Jeffrey Miller was and French harteau

05:59 - the Dauphin County D.A. was.

06:01 - Is that

06:02 - they may have only had, 1 or 2 sets of eyes.

06:07 - Two sets of eyes, Max.

06:09 - One set of eyes, maybe on a whole panel of security monitors

06:15 - and other security devices that were not,

06:20 - state of the art.

06:21 - And, it just became, you know, like, for example,

06:24 - if if there was a detection of the guy

06:27 - breaking in into the, into the, piano room or the or the State dining room,

06:33 - it wouldn't have zoomed in on that or alerted to that feed, but there were just,

06:37 - like too many things to monitor and not enough people to monitor them.

06:41 - Is what it boiled down to.

06:43 - Jeffrey Miller had characterized

06:45 - this as a systemic failure on multiple systems not being upgraded.

06:49 - Did you get any clarity on any specific projects

06:51 - that were either denied or put on hold, perhaps for financial reasons?

06:56 - No, I have a pending request on that. But,

06:59 - we, I didn't really I didn't really

07:05 - understand that to be part of the problem until kind of late in the reporting.

07:09 - And this story, you know, was kind

07:13 - of marking one year out. And,

07:16 - so we had some new stuff from Jeffrey Miller.

07:20 - My bosses decided, let's let's go with that story.

07:23 - And if we can find some more out about what was left on the cutting room

07:27 - floor of past budget requests and that sort of thing, we'll

07:30 - we'll follow up with that.

07:32 - What kind of

07:32 - security upgrades have been put in place since the governor's attack last year?

07:36 - A ton of them, a ton of them.

07:39 - I mean, first of all, there's the hardware upgrades, right?

07:43 - There's there's a brand new perimeter

07:47 - fencing all around the property, which is about,

07:52 - 4 or 5ft higher than what had been there.

07:55 - It's now ten, ten feet high, and it's got these antique climbing rails

08:00 - that actually kind of curve out toward the street.

08:03 - So, they're they're

08:06 - pretty much, you know, a guy like Cody Ballmer's

08:09 - not just going to be able to jump the fence.

08:13 - There's new surveillance cameras

08:15 - of 2025 vintage, which probably,

08:19 - you know, I'm not privy to the details, but I would imagine that

08:22 - they have all kinds of, you know, like I aided devices to,

08:27 - to sort of help define.

08:29 - Okay, you've had a breach here.

08:32 - We can,

08:34 - you know, let's let's

08:34 - focus in like this camera gets highlighted and focus is in

08:38 - and alerts troopers attention to that that particular area,

08:44 - there's better lighting

08:46 - throughout the property.

08:49 - And they have, things like that.

08:52 - No, there were no new alarms triggered when Cody Balmer went up to the property

08:56 - and started to break out glass.

08:59 - As I understand it, if the if the window was opened,

09:02 - that would have triggered an alarm.

09:04 - But just the simple act of breaking the pane didn't.

09:07 - And now they have shatter resistant glass on all the windows,

09:11 - and they also have sensors on the windows

09:14 - so that that kind of thing would be alerted to by the troopers.

09:20 - And then there's sprinklers in the building.

09:22 - Fire sprinklers.

09:23 - Which had, you know, this building had predated by a few years.

09:27 - And, finally, state police has added a complement

09:31 - of uniformed officers

09:34 - that are kind of stationed at the residence.

09:37 - So if they have,

09:40 - one important concept

09:41 - about this was when they discovered there was a fire,

09:44 - and that's when they called 911 and brought called for the cavalry.

09:49 - As I said, they didn't know they had an intruder.

09:52 - But what the troopers did was they immediately

09:55 - turned to, we got to get these 20 guests

09:58 - out of the building, including Governor Shapiro and his family.

10:02 - Some security analysts say that was a win, because at the end of the day,

10:06 - the protectors were protected and they never encountered Cody Bulmer

10:10 - and all that sort of thing.

10:12 - But now they they actually have a small force of uniform

10:17 - kind of copying what the Secret Service has at Washington,

10:22 - at the white House, uniformed, detail that is kind of close to the scene

10:27 - there and can kind of rush in and make more of an offensive stop

10:32 - to any intruder than they felt the state police have the capacity to do that night.

10:38 - So lots and and by the way, taxpayers are paying for this,

10:43 - $32 million.

10:44 - What's the projected price tag of all these things?

10:47 - Just just the hardware. Yeah.

10:49 - We've been speaking with Charles Thompson.

10:50 - Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

10:52 - Sure thing. Thank you. Forensic.

10:54 - More of the PC and Capitol preview after the short break.

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11:59 - Welcome back.

12:00 - Our guest today, our Emma Hertz, president and CEO of Health Spark Foundation

12:05 - Leah Eppinger,

12:06 - president of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Planning Association.

12:10 - And Representative John Inglis, part of governor

12:13 - part of governor Josh Shapiro's budget address this year included a housing plan.

12:17 - Why has housing availability

12:18 - and affordability been difficult, particularly in Pennsylvania?

12:23 - While we're certainly not the only state,

12:25 - you know, going through this affordability crisis, I'm

12:28 - a big part of the affordability crisis is housing.

12:32 - From 2017 to 2023, we see

12:35 - Pennsylvania ranked 44th out of 50 states in terms of housing built.

12:40 - At that same time, we saw rent increase by 46%.

12:43 - So, we're certainly not even in the middle.

12:46 - We are behind and we're looking to take action here and really get us,

12:52 - more affordable housing, increasing our housing stock.

12:54 - So, the governor's plan calls for an additional 185,000

13:00 - units homes to meet current demand and support future economic growth.

13:04 - And so we are trying to, there's a

13:08 - a group of representatives that, and it's a bipartisan group that,

13:13 - we are basically throwing everything we can at this crisis

13:16 - to, to address it.

13:20 - How do you quantify

13:21 - the scope of Pennsylvania's housing needs?

13:24 - Yeah, I think, there was a lot of data driven work done in the housing plan.

13:28 - There were roundtables held throughout the Commonwealth to sort of determine

13:32 - what each, region of the Commonwealth really needed.

13:36 - But the data shows that, as Representative Inglis stated, we are we are behind

13:42 - and the growth of our state continues to be on the forefront of most states

13:46 - in the, in the nation.

13:47 - We continue to grow at a high rate, but our housing stock is behind.

13:51 - And that is something that we continue to see as a challenge.

13:55 - From a municipality perspective, all the way down to our,

13:59 - 2560 municipalities here in Pennsylvania, up to a federal level,

14:04 - because there's a lot of money coming in

14:06 - from the federal government that we need to really get out,

14:10 - and get into those municipalities so we can help sort of move that needle.

14:14 - What else to see this in the stories that are being told

14:16 - from people in our community.

14:18 - So we hear about seniors who are unable to afford the property taxes

14:22 - on their current home,

14:23 - and they're also not able to move out of that home and downsize,

14:26 - because the cost of the new home that they would purchase,

14:28 - that smaller actually cost more than their current mortgage does.

14:32 - Or we hear about people who are facing eviction and can't afford their rent,

14:36 - as rents are increasing year

14:37 - over year in some cases over 200% in some municipalities.

14:41 - And so I think that in addition to the data that the Housing Action Plan

14:45 - lays out, we hear these are really personal,

14:47 - compelling stories that say our our housing market

14:50 - just isn't working for folks and we need to do something about it,

14:53 - both at the local level and at the state level.

14:56 - How are other states addressing their housing needs?

14:58 - Are there models that we should

14:59 - perhaps replicate that could be helpful in Pennsylvania?

15:04 - So I feel that a lot of

15:05 - these bills that, have been introduced recently, including ADUs,

15:09 - municipal occupancy reform, parking reform, these aren't unique.

15:14 - We didn't, you know, come up with these.

15:15 - We are using the blueprint that is showing success across the country

15:19 - in many other states that have adopted these, these pieces of legislation.

15:24 - And we'll get into the specifics of those a little bit later into the program.

15:27 - That is, Pennsylvania's housing needs spread evenly throughout the state

15:30 - or the particular regions that are more highly in need.

15:34 - Yeah, I think, the answer, the short answer is yes.

15:37 - Every area of the Commonwealth needs more housing.

15:41 - You're going to focus increase number

15:43 - of unit needs in Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh

15:47 - is, and Philadelphia County, obviously where the cities are.

15:50 - But in the housing plan, there's a specific map that shows

15:54 - the exact needs that each

15:56 - sort of think there's seven regions at the state is broken down to.

16:00 - So you have Philadelphia in number one,

16:03 - Pittsburgh, number two, Allegheny County region.

16:05 - And actually central where we are here, Dauphin, Cumberland, Perry,

16:10 - Lancaster, York

16:11 - as the third highest region of need.

16:14 - And it sort of trickles as you go to the northern tier.

16:17 - There's just not as many, but it's really population based.

16:20 - So you can tell that the need is certainly demanded around

16:23 - our high city areas and things like that.

16:26 - And there are some areas where renters are having more trouble.

16:29 - And so proposing solutions that specifically address

16:32 - renter protections and the cost of rising rents is important.

16:35 - And then other areas across the state where actually

16:38 - homeowners are the ones that are more cost burdened than others.

16:41 - And so looking at a more granular level to see in which counties,

16:45 - we see those different areas of need, that will help to tailor

16:48 - more specific strategies to, the population that needs them.

16:52 - Back in 2024, the governor signed an executive order tasking

16:56 - the Department of Community and Economic Development to create a statewide plan.

16:59 - Can you talk a little bit about perhaps your role,

17:01 - your contribution in that, and how that has started to come together

17:04 - to get to the progress that we're at today?

17:06 - Sure.

17:07 - So, the plan, as I mentioned earlier, went and held, that the department

17:12 - with Department of Human Services went around the Commonwealth and held

17:16 - multiple different listening sessions that just allowed different areas.

17:20 - And they invited there was probably 30 to 45 people

17:24 - at each of those round tables representing different agencies,

17:28 - both from a human service side and from a sort of economic

17:31 - development housing side. And they listened.

17:34 - So in the housing plan, you can actually see what they heard

17:37 - and how they're addressing it.

17:38 - And I think that's a really important

17:40 - piece of the plan, because a lot of times we see a plan that was made in a vacuum.

17:45 - You know, four people got together and wrote a plan,

17:47 - but this plan was really drawn out by what was happening out on the ground

17:52 - and what was happening. So I think,

17:54 - over,

17:56 - over that development of the plan, they did a survey over

18:01 - 2500 responses were received from that survey.

18:04 - There were 15 table.

18:06 - Excuse me more than I really originally said,

18:09 - but we're not just hearing from agencies like ours.

18:11 - They're hearing from, like Emma mentioned, people who are living in these

18:14 - communities, renters, homeowners,

18:18 - employers who are having trouble finding employees

18:21 - to work where they live, which is a really big one.

18:25 - And the approach to the plan really talks about,

18:28 - best practices from Pennsylvania, but also from other states.

18:31 - As we talked a little bit about,

18:33 - were there any surprises in the findings that you've seen from this plan,

18:37 - particularly regarding Pennsylvania's needs or perhaps how

18:41 - we might compare to other states?

18:45 - Well, I mean, I can just

18:46 - I can say that, you know, having the,

18:50 - being the prime sponsor on the Adu bill, for example,

18:53 - when the when the governor mentioned it directly in his his address this year,

18:58 - we the governor's plan was a bit secret, you know,

19:01 - and we were all waiting in anticipation to see how what this housing plan

19:04 - was going to look like.

19:05 - And, and certainly, you know,

19:08 - I can speak for myself here.

19:11 - I was confident that the governor's plan would be addressing

19:13 - the needs of the state, but, for him to mention that, that certainly,

19:18 - excited me in terms of,

19:20 - the prospect of having this Adu,

19:23 - accessory dwelling unit legislation go through,

19:26 - I was surprised to see how far behind Pennsylvania

19:29 - was compared to other states in terms of housing production.

19:32 - In my area, our kind of in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania,

19:35 - if you drive around, you see, you know, new construction going up all the time.

19:39 - And so you think that we're producing at an inappropriate rate,

19:42 - but to see that we're 44th in the nation is really interesting.

19:45 - And then to see the data behind why and the reasons behind why, including that

19:49 - local regulation

19:50 - and local permitting and the red tape that happens at the municipal level is

19:54 - is part of the reason that we're having those production crises.

19:58 - And so I was glad to see as well that the action plan also addresses

20:02 - those issues and doesn't make light of the impact

20:05 - that local regulation has on production levels.

20:08 - What do you think are some of the contributing factors

20:10 - that were hiking up the costs of production?

20:13 - So as I

20:13 - mentioned, one of the major drivers is local permitting and red tape.

20:17 - That makes it incredibly difficult and expensive for builders

20:21 - to actually build in municipalities every single one of our municipalities.

20:25 - And you can tell me how many there are,

20:27 - thousands of municipalities across the Commonwealth

20:30 - have their own regulations on zoning and permitting,

20:32 - which means that any bills are coming in, has to learn

20:35 - all of those different regulations in order to build a home.

20:37 - It's estimated that in Pennsylvania, the cost of navigating through

20:41 - that process contributes to 30% of the cost

20:44 - of construction, compared to 25% in other states.

20:48 - So that's a significant driver.

20:49 - And looking at how we can streamline that process, how we can set state standards

20:54 - to simplify that process for builders

20:56 - will really have an impact on affordability across the state.

20:59 - On the topic of permitting, since Governor Shapiro has been in this current office,

21:03 - he's really made a priority of streamlining the permitting process

21:07 - for various facets of business.

21:08 - Are there areas that you'd like to see that type of streamlining happening happen

21:12 - to help the housing market?

21:13 - Yeah, absolutely.

21:15 - There's a lot of state requirements when it comes to larger

21:19 - housing developments.

21:19 - If you want to build a single family, that's one thing.

21:21 - But if you're building a larger community or multiple homes, you really

21:25 - you have to go through a state process.

21:26 - And that could at a minimum include three different state departments.

21:31 - So streamlining that process is something the governor has really committed to

21:34 - working towards.

21:36 - If they can be aligned, sort of working in parallel versus

21:40 - sort of a domino, I think that would really improve

21:43 - the opportunities for us to promote the Commonwealth as a great place to come.

21:48 - And build, and that's really something we're looking for.

21:50 - Into Emma's point earlier, there are 1740 zoning ordinances in Pennsylvania.

21:56 - So, great.

21:57 - If you come here and great if you want to learn those.

21:59 - But God forbid, you have a, you know, parcel in more than one municipality,

22:03 - then you're dealing with two completely separate and maybe not conforming.

22:07 - Zoning ordinances.

22:08 - So it's really important that we give municipalities support,

22:13 - we give them these state standards that will allow them to be more effective

22:17 - and efficient with their zoning practices, which will allow them to be more

22:21 - open and welcoming to the development community.

22:24 - Representatives. One jump on this as well.

22:25 - I think. I think in the end, you know, we,

22:29 - all these bills that we came out with,

22:31 - a couple months ago at the, press conference,

22:35 - our goal is to throw everything we can at this crisis.

22:38 - Right.

22:38 - So some are incentive based, but then there's some that are aimed

22:41 - at cutting red tape and really empowering property owners in terms of,

22:46 - you know, developing the property that they own, as they wish.

22:50 - As a recent home buyer, I can say that,

22:56 - you know, the amount of money that I spent on my house,

22:59 - I never thought I would be spending, you know, and I never thought that

23:02 - I would have to wait until the age of 38 to own my first home.

23:07 - And so a lot of these pieces of legislation

23:10 - are aimed at including

23:13 - the younger generations in this American dream of home ownership, we often hear

23:18 - about local control, for various topics that we've discussed here on CN.

23:22 - But in this, issue in particular, how do you get local governments on board

23:27 - with the potential for perhaps losing some of that local control

23:30 - in the name of streamlining or making streamlining

23:32 - or making things more affordable?

23:34 - Yeah, I think, as a planning community, that's something that we continue

23:38 - to work on.

23:39 - As, as local municipalities at times struggle with capacity.

23:43 - That's one of the biggest issues we have.

23:45 - Some really great large first and second class townships who have great

23:49 - municipal staff who can support the needs of the township.

23:52 - And then we have other places where there's one person that does everything,

23:55 - and that person can't wear every hat all the time.

23:58 - So I think it's really important that we use this housing action plan

24:02 - as a jumping start to create capacity and assist,

24:06 - those local municipalities in what they want.

24:09 - I think another thing we need to do is tell more stories.

24:12 - I think we need to remind people what,

24:16 - a duplex looks like or a triplex looks like.

24:19 - We've been building those since, people came to the United States.

24:23 - You know, that is something that is the backbone of our communities.

24:26 - And people forget what they look like until you go into their communities

24:29 - and you show them a picture and say, hey, this is a triplex,

24:33 - because it's actually a picture from their own community.

24:35 - And that's really important. They're like, oh, we love that place.

24:38 - Our neighbors are fantastic.

24:39 - Their daughter goes and play soccer with my daughter.

24:42 - Those are the types of stories.

24:43 - And then they go, oh,

24:44 - maybe triplexes aren't the worst thing that could be in our communities.

24:48 - And I think it's really important that those stories drive,

24:52 - the responses that we're having at that local level.

24:55 - I don't think Pennsylvania is going to revert and change away

24:59 - from its municipal structure.

25:00 - I think we're too ingrained in our system.

25:03 - But I think that the state and this housing plan can be the jump start

25:07 - to help engage municipalities, educate municipalities, talk to elected officials,

25:12 - and really tell the stories of what their communities could look like,

25:15 - listen to what they're telling us and then implement those.

25:18 - Those implications into their zoning ordinances and permitting process is,

25:22 - I think, a piece of this is also listening to Pennsylvanians

25:25 - and what they're saying.

25:26 - So a recent poll, conducted by

25:31 - the 10,000 Friends Coalition demonstrated

25:33 - that 84% of Pennsylvanians want, the state legislature to take action.

25:38 - And really only 12% of Pennsylvania voters believe

25:41 - that their city or town is doing enough to address housing affordability.

25:44 - Only 12%.

25:45 - So that leaves a lot of opportunity for municipal governments to recognize

25:49 - that these are real challenges that their own residents are facing,

25:53 - and that there's a lot of opportunity for them to be taking local action

25:56 - through zoning and permitting

25:57 - and local partnerships, as well with their county government

26:00 - and their state government to actually address the needs of their residents.

26:04 - And so I think that sharing that information with them, and also

26:07 - as Leah pointed out, is providing that support through,

26:12 - model ordinances, through training and education, through incentives.

26:15 - All of that needs to get done to support municipalities

26:18 - in doing what the residents are already asking them to do.

26:21 - From a more granular, granular level, how does zoning impact our ability

26:26 - to increase construction?

26:29 - So zoning one on one really allows,

26:32 - really dig deep into what municipalities want their future to look like.

26:36 - So, municipal governments get together and say, you know, they take a map and say

26:40 - and draw lines and say,

26:41 - we want to see commercial here, located on our main streets.

26:45 - We want to see residential here.

26:47 - But what we're really doing is we're, we're separating our uses.

26:51 - I mean, that's the basis of zoning is two separate uses.

26:54 - So enabling and allowing municipalities, which they can do now,

26:59 - integrating those uses back into the sort of fabric of their communities.

27:03 - How we built towns originally.

27:06 - The shop with the apartment above on that main street

27:09 - allows people to live where they work and walk to work,

27:13 - and have their dry cleaner on the corner and their daycare around the corner,

27:17 - and their parents potentially live, you know, less than a mile away to help

27:20 - with childcare costs and things like that.

27:23 - Those are the neighborhoods

27:23 - that people sort of have this ideal about, but we're not building that way.

27:27 - So the zoning really needs to we've created a zoning

27:30 - that really prioritizes single family homes.

27:34 - And we've reduced density outside of our city areas.

27:37 - We've really reduced density, which takes infrastructure costs through the roof.

27:40 - Transportation options are gone.

27:43 - So you have to own a car and you're not able

27:46 - to really engage in that community feel, because everybody's so separate.

27:49 - So we're looking at zoning as a tool to bring our communities

27:52 - back together and weave housing back into the fabric of our neighborhoods.

27:57 - And that's really the tool.

27:58 - Zoning is that tool. And it's a great tool.

28:01 - It's just implementing and having the wherewithal to say, yes,

28:05 - we want our communities to feel togetherness.

28:08 - We want our communities and our neighborhoods to to feel the way

28:12 - that we, you know, idolize our past and things like that.

28:15 - What can be done to maintain the region's local character

28:18 - while still increasing capacity, capacity in the population and given region.

28:24 - One really promising strategy outlined in the plan that we're also looking

28:27 - at in southeastern Pennsylvania is supporting residential developers.

28:31 - So these are small scale kind of mom and pop developers

28:34 - who have developed less than five properties on their own,

28:36 - and folks who see a property in their neighborhood

28:38 - and want to redevelop it and resell it at an affordable rate.

28:42 - And so that is something that's not bringing in some massive new developer

28:45 - to build 100 units at a time, but really looking property by property.

28:49 - So that's one example of a strategy that could be implemented in more areas

28:53 - across the state that would retain that feel,

28:55 - but also put more affordable housing properties back on the market.

28:58 - What would need to be involved to make sweeping changes in zoning laws?

29:04 - Generally that

29:05 - a lot, has to do at the, at the legislative level.

29:08 - So I think the bills that are currently,

29:11 - on the table that are being looked at both in committee,

29:14 - and on the floor are critical to sort of that, that low hanging fruit.

29:18 - Step one.

29:18 - And, you know, we're so grateful for our, our team that's really been able

29:24 - to engage with our legislature because that's going to be step one.

29:27 - I think saying yes at the legislative level is really going to trickle

29:31 - into some municipalities, allowing them the fortitude to say,

29:35 - yes, we want this here.

29:37 - So I think that's step one.

29:38 - I think we're also at a place right now at the Commonwealth where,

29:42 - when we do our polling that talks about housing,

29:44 - it is very bipartisan, where Republicans, Democrats

29:48 - and independents all know that housing is a problem.

29:51 - So we're in this really special moment where our legislature can work together

29:56 - and compromise on these really critical issues

29:58 - so that our local municipalities can be supported.

30:01 - And the elected officials who, you know, are doing this as a volunteer position.

30:05 - Let's remember, most most elected officials at the local government are

30:09 - volunteers.

30:10 - Are really feeling supported by the actions taken by the state.

30:13 - And I think, you know, raising up these issues in the housing plan

30:17 - and having representatives who are really taking it and running with

30:20 - it is such a critical step to allow us to engage in a in a better market.

30:24 - We'll continue our discussion in just a moment,

30:26 - but first, let's give our guests a break while we look at what's coming up on PCN.

30:31 - On the next PCN capital preview, we're joined

30:33 - by speaker of the Pennsylvania House Representative Joanna McClinton.

30:36 - She'll be here tomorrow morning live at 9 a.m..

30:39 - A student competition called.

30:41 - This Pitch is Coming Your Way from Bucknell University.

30:44 - Students

30:45 - try to outdo each other to win prizes that can turn their ideas into reality.

30:49 - It streams on PCN select tonight at 6 p.m.

30:53 - on the issues.

30:54 - Continues our series with candidates running in the May primary.

30:57 - We'll have two Republicans running for the nomination for Lieutenant Governor.

31:00 - First, Jason Richie will be here Wednesday at 7 p.m.,

31:04 - followed by John Ventura at 730 on Journalists Roundtable

31:09 - this week, the guest will be Boris Crouch, New York from W.Va.,

31:12 - Jackson White from spotlight PA enters a Christopher from PennLive.

31:17 - They join us Thursday night at seven on the issues,

31:21 - has the latest news about festivities as America nears its 250th birthday.

31:26 - The executive director of America 250 PR Cassandra

31:29 - Coleman brings us up to date Thursday at 10 a.m.

31:33 - you can watch this show and all of our public affairs

31:35 - programing free of charge by visiting PC and select.com.

31:39 - While you're there, you can download our streaming service PCN

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31:51 - Visit PCN TV.com.

31:53 - Now let's get back into our discussion about Housing.

31:56 - Spotlight PA reported earlier this year, at least six states, including California,

32:00 - Massachusetts and New York,

32:02 - have already created incentive programs which give communities that adopt

32:05 - pro housing pro housing policy for state funding.

32:08 - Is this something that's being considered in Pennsylvania?

32:12 - Yes. At the,

32:15 - press conference that we recently had, we had,

32:18 - representative, Jared Solomon,

32:21 - his his pieces of legislation are much more aimed at the incentive route

32:25 - of, of trying to incentivize, incentivize, developers

32:30 - into, increasing our housing stock

32:33 - less.

32:34 - You're given Shapiro proposed a $50 million home repair program,

32:37 - but that was not included in the budget.

32:39 - Why has that been difficult to pass?

32:42 - Yeah, I think, hope and repair is a is a critical part of this piece.

32:46 - As we have seen over,

32:50 - more than half of Pennsylvanians live in homes that are 50 years or more old.

32:54 - And that is really, difficult.

32:56 - You have a first time home buyer coming into a home that's 50 or 60 years old.

33:00 - They're thrilled they bought a house, and then something breaks

33:03 - and they don't know what to do, and they don't know how to repair it.

33:06 - The whole home repairs program that was in place over

33:08 - the last couple of years has been critical to helping first time home buyers,

33:11 - as well as homeowners who have been in their home for many years.

33:15 - It's a

33:16 - critical piece, but I think it can also be, weaved

33:19 - into other parts of some of the bills that are being introduced.

33:23 - And I think there's other ways to engage communities to allow those sort of home

33:27 - repairs to these, to the existing building stock,

33:31 - to get passed out into communities, whether that's a trickle into the county

33:34 - programs, which can really be much more on the ground versus the state program,

33:38 - it also makes it easier, for a local person who may not, you know,

33:42 - a resident who doesn't work in government may not know the steps

33:45 - that it takes to be engaged in a state level funding program.

33:49 - So it's organizations like Emma's that are really on the ground

33:52 - working with homeowners and communities to get those funds out.

33:56 - And I think that will continue to be shown in the in budgets to come.

34:00 - Are there other resources currently available to help homeowners

34:03 - stay into their homes?

34:06 - I think county

34:07 - programs across the commonwealth have,

34:10 - repair funds, and they can be run out of different

34:14 - federal funds, home funds, Cdbg funds can be allocated.

34:17 - Some,

34:19 - some counties really focus

34:21 - their own tax base on on creating programs like this.

34:25 - So it's really county dependent, you know, and with the, you know,

34:28 - 67 counties, there's a variety of of choices out there.

34:32 - But I think there are some really great programs that exist

34:35 - that we can mirror in other and use examples from existing programs

34:39 - that are being really successful and mirror them across the Commonwealth.

34:42 - I think you're bringing up a good point, though,

34:44 - in that there's a myriad of resources and programs out there.

34:46 - They change depending on the funding year.

34:49 - And, you know, what's happening at the federal level,

34:51 - as well as what's happening at the state and county level.

34:53 - And so just providing more information that's accessible

34:57 - to Pennsylvanians or to housing program providers is really critical.

35:00 - One of the pieces that is lined in outlined in the plan

35:03 - is to have a more navigable database of those resources online

35:08 - so that folks can find out what opportunities are available for them.

35:11 - The governor's plan

35:12 - would require the legislature to support $1 billion in infrastructure improvements.

35:16 - What do you hear from your colleagues in the House regarding, their willingness

35:20 - to support something with that type of price tag?

35:23 - Well,

35:23 - I think it's always important to be investing in infrastructure.

35:26 - I think that that item,

35:29 - you know, is going to get a lot of support, from my side, you know,

35:32 - my caucus.

35:34 - But certainly, you know, with, with the current situation,

35:39 - basically, I mean, it's important to point out that,

35:43 - the current processes and current systems have have gotten us into this crisis.

35:47 - And so we really need to try new initiatives.

35:51 - We really need to throw everything at this, this crisis

35:54 - in order to make housing more obtainable.

35:58 - I think that's right.

35:59 - I think at the local level, we are in some sense robbing

36:02 - Peter to pay Paul when it comes to these housing programs.

36:04 - Do we invest in emergency supports

36:06 - for people experiencing homelessness or do we support whole home repair?

36:10 - And that's really a choice that nobody wants to be making.

36:12 - And so more investment is always needed.

36:15 - And it can't come in these drips and dribbles.

36:17 - It really needs to be a large shock of investment into the system to actually

36:21 - be able to meet the needs that we have.

36:23 - I'd like to look at some of the legislative remedies

36:25 - that are being proposed, represent your sponsoring House Bill 2186,

36:29 - which would provide for accessory housing units.

36:31 - Can you explain what your bill to do?

36:33 - Yeah.

36:33 - So accessory dwelling units are,

36:36 - a variety of things can be classified as an Adu.

36:39 - It can be an addition on a house.

36:41 - It can be a basement or garage conversion into a living space.

36:46 - It can be, a separate,

36:49 - housing structure on the property.

36:51 - But, the bottom line is whether it's a granny flat for a senior

36:56 - or whether it is, additional living space

37:00 - for, the younger generations.

37:03 - It could also be an extra source of income

37:05 - for for the homeowner themselves.

37:08 - You know, supplemental income, but,

37:11 - it's really the ADUs are aimed

37:14 - at increasing higher density population,

37:18 - you know, by empowering property owners

37:21 - and giving that by right to them,

37:25 - that choice to, to build an Adu,

37:28 - you're also sponsoring legislation that would involve

37:30 - allowing duplex triplex, quad plex housing.

37:33 - Why has that been a difficulty?

37:37 - Well, I'm newer to the housing.

37:40 - You know,

37:42 - I've, I've gone through a lot of crash

37:44 - courses, but what what is the history been with the duplexes and triplex?

37:47 - I often rely on the experts, believe me.

37:50 - You know, when it comes to the history of it all,

37:52 - I read zoning ordinances for fun.

37:54 - So I guess that makes me, a very big nerd here.

37:57 - But, the duplex triplex in quad plex again is something that I talked about

38:01 - a little bit earlier in the sense that people are pushing back on it

38:04 - because they don't want to see those, those buildings in their communities.

38:08 - So there's a big look on what a duplex is, what a triplex is.

38:12 - And, you know, I always go into communities

38:14 - when I'm presenting at municipal meetings, like I said earlier with pictures,

38:18 - because that's going to be your biggest ability to make that change.

38:21 - I think the the impact of that will allow communities

38:26 - to be, protective of their infrastructure needs.

38:29 - Going back to our infrastructure conversation,

38:33 - density allows for a stronger central community.

38:36 - And as we allow sprawl to continue out, we're really putting an impact

38:40 - on our infrastructure needs.

38:41 - So by bringing communities back to the center and bringing it

38:44 - together, where where infrastructure already exists will,

38:49 - can help municipalities actually save money going forward,

38:52 - bring tax base into their communities without burdening themselves

38:55 - with the large infrastructure costs of expanding out.

38:59 - It's been a struggle because it's it's a look.

39:02 - It's a feel.

39:03 - Multifamily is not always considered,

39:06 - what people want to see

39:07 - in their neighborhoods, but it's really an opportunity to bring,

39:11 - the workforce and community members, where they want to be.

39:15 - Honestly, a lot of people want to buy where they grew up.

39:18 - And can they live in the community? They grew up in.

39:20 - And most of the time right now, the answer is no.

39:23 - So I think that Bill can be really impactful

39:25 - on creating opportunities to to improve that, to move that needle to.

39:29 - Yes, this might be a bit of a departure, but how important of a consideration

39:32 - is it to develop property close to perhaps where where the jobs are close to

39:36 - perhaps mass transit?

39:38 - Is that a significant part of the conversation as well?

39:41 - So this bill has not been introduced yet, but,

39:44 - I'm the prime sponsor on a transit oriented development.

39:47 - And in our mind, that is, a piece of legislation.

39:50 - It is a BMS of of of a bill.

39:54 - It's going to be a very, very, intensive bill.

39:57 - But, the point is we we also have a, transit crisis with lower ridership.

40:04 - And so it makes sense for, you know, a policy that's going to be

40:07 - two birds with one stone where we are increasing ridership

40:10 - and basically developing more along those transit lines to

40:15 - to make it easier for commuting, while also, generating revenue.

40:20 - And that's another policy idea that's really popular

40:22 - with residents here in the state.

40:24 - Over 80% of Pennsylvanians want to see more affordable

40:27 - housing built in transit areas.

40:29 - Representative Rick Scott is sponsoring a bill

40:31 - that would prohibit parking minimums.

40:33 - How do parking requirements play into the idea of development?

40:37 - So parking is,

40:39 - as really driven the the expansion of of land use.

40:44 - So we move to a car culture.

40:47 - And because of that we said, great, everyone needs two

40:49 - parking spaces per home.

40:51 - And then it was two and a half parking spaces for homes.

40:54 - Then it was three.

40:55 - And now we're gobbling up land for parking.

40:57 - And now we're seeing a lot of people in the community who don't have vehicles

41:01 - or who share vehicles because they are related to transit.

41:04 - So you can really walk that back.

41:05 - So right now we have parking minimums.

41:07 - We want to move to parking maximums.

41:09 - So you can only have this many and you can and bring it back.

41:12 - So in my in my day job I develop housing.

41:18 - And this is something that really changes if a project can be built or not.

41:23 - How much money my spending on a parking lot

41:25 - and how many parking spaces do I need, and can I fit all of that

41:28 - on the plot of land that makes the most sense?

41:31 - That is close to,

41:33 - infrastructure, that has

41:34 - transportation nearby, health nearby, child care nearby.

41:39 - So these are all the boxes that developers need to tick in their brains

41:42 - in order to make sure a project will pencil

41:44 - at the end of the day, because in the reality,

41:46 - that's what we have to we have to get to the bottom line, right?

41:49 - So if we're creating the need for more parking,

41:52 - we're reducing our ability to have projects completed.

41:55 - So if we can walk that back and that's through zoning,

41:58 - and that's something that zoning really has to change and really could be

42:02 - that tool to make to move the needle on that change referendum.

42:05 - I'm going to come back to you represent tree con is sponsoring

42:07 - a bill known as the Golden Girls legislation. Can you explain this one?

42:10 - Yeah.

42:10 - So, right now in in Pennsylvania, it is technically illegal for

42:15 - more than two people who are not related to,

42:19 - be living together in the same home.

42:22 - So the Golden Girls, bill, it's named after the Golden Girls because, right now,

42:28 - Dorothy, Rose, Blanche,

42:30 - and who am I missing?

42:34 - Thought rose.

42:35 - Blanche.

42:36 - Sophia. Sophia.

42:37 - Thank you, thank you. You can forget Sophia.

42:40 - Right now, they would not be able to live in Pennsylvania.

42:43 - And so, I called Blanche when we were first,

42:47 - you know, divvying up the roles, but,

42:50 - but the golden Girls bill is just aimed at once again,

42:54 - especially when we look at younger generations.

42:57 - Why wouldn't three younger people will be able to,

43:01 - you know, invest in a home together?

43:04 - You know, why are we prohibiting that from happening?

43:06 - And I think that's a bill that's going to be much more popular among,

43:10 - younger people who just want to maybe

43:13 - make an investment in a home, with with fellow friends.

43:17 - One more piece of legislation I want to look at.

43:19 - Senator Carolyn,

43:20 - commit is sponsoring a bill to eliminate source of income rejections.

43:23 - Why does it matter whether that source of income comes from a paycheck versus

43:27 - a government subsidy?

43:30 - I mean, right

43:30 - now, it is, perfectly legal for a landlord to deny somebody,

43:35 - entry into an apartment because of where their income comes from.

43:38 - So regardless of whether or not they can actually afford that unit,

43:41 - if someone receives their income from Social Security or from a government

43:45 - source, and the landlord doesn't want to receive that, they don't have to.

43:49 - And what that does is it

43:51 - prevents people who have the ability

43:53 - to pay for apartments for moving into them, or,

43:55 - you know, from for paying for those units for moving in.

43:58 - And we see that this has real impacts among low income

44:01 - people, among people of color, among women with children.

44:04 - There's a real disparate impact on specific populations across the state.

44:09 - And so there are other states that have, and cities that have passed

44:13 - this kind of legislation as a protection for vulnerable populations.

44:17 - And it's something that would be really powerful in supporting some of our

44:20 - most vulnerable residents across the state and accessing affordable housing.

44:24 - What are the specific concerns to renters have?

44:27 - There's also

44:28 - concerns around, criminal history and around eviction history.

44:31 - So right now, if you are, if a landlord files for eviction

44:36 - against a tenant, that filing will remain on the tenant's record forever.

44:40 - Even if that, eviction actually never was found in favor of the landlord,

44:45 - that will remain on the tenant's record and can prevent them from actually

44:48 - being qualified to or being accepted into a future unit.

44:52 - Same goes for, criminal history.

44:55 - And so there's broad ability for landlords to prevent folks

44:58 - with any kind of criminal history from entering into a unit.

45:01 - And so there's certainly a look at whether or not we can reduce that

45:05 - so that, you know, folks

45:06 - who have nonviolent offenses or offenses from a long time ago

45:09 - that isn't impacting their ability to actually retain a unit.

45:12 - And really, what all this does is it comes back to,

45:15 - you know, how are we supporting people, to actually maintain stable housing?

45:19 - We have a rise in homelessness across the state of Pennsylvania.

45:23 - We've seen a 12% increase in homelessness over the last few years,

45:26 - and we need to reduce that number.

45:28 - And part of that means getting people into housing that they can afford.

45:32 - And so we need to reduce the ways in which people are being prohibited

45:35 - from attaining housing,

45:36 - and provide more opportunity for them to gain that housing

45:38 - than stabilize in that housing.

45:40 - Are there currently any legal tools, either limiting,

45:43 - the costs of rental applications or perhaps the the rate that,

45:47 - landlord is able to continue to increase rent?

45:52 - Right now there aren't

45:53 - unfortunately, in fact, I just got a call about a week ago

45:57 - about a woman who's lived in her home for almost eight years, and the property

46:01 - was purchased by a new landlord, and now they're raising everybody's rent by $200.

46:06 - May not seem like a lot, but $200 for someone who is on a fixed income.

46:11 - She's a senior on Social Security.

46:13 - That's pushing her almost a 50% of her income,

46:17 - being on a home she's lived in for eight plus years

46:20 - and had no issues with the landlord, just a new person coming in.

46:23 - Unfortunately, right now, there are no protections.

46:25 - No, you know, cap on the percentage per year that can be increased.

46:29 - And that's another tool that, you know, our legislator could really look at

46:33 - and see, if we can implement things like that, other states have rules

46:37 - and have laws in place.

46:39 - We have not done that yet.

46:41 - And I think it would be really critical to help some of our most

46:44 - vulnerable populations, but even some of,

46:47 - you know, new renters and people who are just

46:50 - you know, moving out of their parents home or graduating from college

46:54 - who have no rental experience, they're finding difficulty

46:57 - getting into places as well.

46:58 - And we're seeing more and more parents cosigning

47:02 - rental agreements or mortgages for for people.

47:05 - And then they're tying up their finances with a child's home, going forward.

47:11 - And that, you know, sometimes works out great and sometimes does not.

47:15 - The Pennsylvania Capital Star reported that while 74% of white.

47:18 - Pennsylvanians owned their home, just 45% of black residents do.

47:21 - Why is there such a disparity?

47:24 - I think, we've seen this over.

47:26 - I think every state has seen this.

47:28 - I don't think, Pennsylvania is special here.

47:30 - I think there's a lack of education and,

47:33 - understanding on the process in the system.

47:36 - And I think that's something that, I've partnered with banks

47:40 - across, our local region to try to hold, first time home buyer classes.

47:44 - Let's talk to people about how to how to get into a home.

47:48 - And then my organization does a number of sort of how to stay in your home.

47:51 - So my maintenance team will teach first time home buyers basics

47:55 - how to change a light switch, how to change a faucet, things like that.

47:58 - These are all skills that not everybody has.

48:01 - And that really stops people from wanting to own their home.

48:04 - They like being able to pick up the phone and say,

48:06 - hey, my faucets broken and someone appears to fix it.

48:08 - That feels like a safety net.

48:10 - But what they're doing is they're not growing their wealth

48:12 - and growing their income, and that's disproportionate to,

48:16 - different communities.

48:17 - And and I think that's just a story of our nation.

48:21 - We've been talking about, the governor's plan for housing.

48:25 - What are the prospects and what are the next steps moving forward? Now?

48:29 - Well, today, I am proud to say that I have the Adu bill,

48:34 - moving through the housing committee this morning at 11 a.m..

48:37 - They are moving eight pieces of legislation through the committee today.

48:41 - So, it's a busy day for housing and community development.

48:44 - Committee for sure.

48:46 - But, anything to add?

48:48 - But, yeah, I think, DCD is really strategically

48:51 - aligning their future plans with implementing the housing plan.

48:55 - They are, gearing up to hire a deputy secretary of housing

49:00 - who will be tasked to implement this plan with coordination of many different,

49:05 - Commonwealth departments to DHS specifically.

49:08 - So I think,

49:10 - they're putting their money where their mouth is on this one.

49:13 - They're creating a position that's never existed before.

49:15 - They're moving all the housing programs under this,

49:18 - deputy secretary to allow there to be streamlining of these programs.

49:22 - So maybe we're not going to be so,

49:25 - so separate in the way that we implement these programs.

49:28 - And I think that step one is really going to dictate how

49:31 - we move forward as a commonwealth implementing this plan.

49:34 - And I'll give you the last word. Sure.

49:36 - I think this also provides

49:37 - a real pathway for local residents who have been dissatisfied

49:40 - with what they're seeing happening in local government.

49:42 - Take this information and say, look, this is a real problem across Pennsylvania.

49:46 - We have real data to support what a problem it is.

49:49 - And also we have strategies here.

49:51 - So whether you're a local business or your local government,

49:54 - state legislature,

49:55 - a nonprofit organization, there's a place for taking action in this plan.

49:59 - And I think that what this does is it empowers all of us to be more educated on

50:03 - how we can be addressing the affordability crisis

50:05 - our guests have been Emma Hertz, president and CEO of Health Spark Foundation

50:10 - Leah Pitcher,

50:11 - president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American.

50:13 - Planning Association, and Representative John Inglis, thank you all for joining us

50:18 - recently and recently spoke with Senator Nick Miller

50:20 - about his legislation to allow local police to utilize radar.

50:24 - Welcome to our program.

50:26 - You are sponsoring legislation to modernize the equipment police use.

50:30 - Tell us about this bill.

50:32 - Yeah.

50:32 - Well, first of all, thanks for having me on,

50:34 - and I really appreciate you taking the time to talk about this.

50:37 - This is something that's been kind of floating around Harrisburg

50:40 - for a number of different sessions.

50:42 - This is about giving local radar, or the municipalities

50:45 - the ability to opt in, to use local radar for their police.

50:49 - We've seen, folks got flying around our local communities,

50:53 - putting our students and families at risk.

50:56 - And also our police officers locally are using outdated technology.

51:00 - We're the last state in the country,

51:03 - that would be able to allow to, to use this radar technology.

51:06 - But the current stuff that they're using and red, we've actually been told

51:09 - that the manufacturer is slowing operations down.

51:12 - We don't have a designated date just yet that they're going to stop

51:16 - using that, but, unless we want, you know, police using

51:19 - stopwatches out on the side of the road and putting them in harm's way.

51:23 - This is something that we've got bipartisan support.

51:26 - We're looking forward to hopefully get that done this session.

51:29 - Was there a specific reason why municipal police

51:32 - were not allowed to use radar in the past?

51:35 - It's just a statewide

51:37 - preemption on not allowing municipalities to opt into it.

51:41 - So this bill would address that.

51:42 - I don't know, like years past.

51:44 - I think it's more of just making sure that the language allows municipalities,

51:48 - to be able to use the technology to opt into it.

51:51 - And why is our is better than the current practice,

51:54 - other than the fact that they may discontinue the equipment?

51:58 - Yeah.

51:58 - The technology going away, because it's that outdated.

52:01 - But just the, you know, seeing folks, we've had,

52:05 - local police station, really just give us some information

52:10 - that people are flying, like 67mph in, you know, 35 mile per hour zones.

52:15 - Around school zones.

52:16 - We know the challenges around with people flying by school.

52:19 - School busses.

52:21 - You know, this is technology that, you know, I fear

52:24 - that municipalities it backed off on police,

52:27 - enforcing speeding unless they have state police support.

52:31 - And I just think that that's we need that presence

52:34 - and that enforcement to really hold people accountable.

52:37 - You know, there's a reason why we have speed limits,

52:39 - especially in residential areas.

52:41 - And we've seen just all kinds of, traffic,

52:44 - not just accidents, but citations.

52:47 - Which I think with radar, I know with radar, since the last one,

52:51 - the state we've seen successful in other states,

52:54 - would be a net benefit for their communities.

52:56 - Now, this legislation, you mentioned is a bipartisan effort between you, fellow.

53:01 - Democrat, Senator Santa and Republican Senator Rothman.

53:05 - They're co-sponsoring.

53:06 - How did they get involved with this bill?

53:09 - Yeah, I know that this is building on a number of different proposals

53:12 - in past, cycles and sessions.

53:16 - But the way to get it done is working together, working

53:18 - across the aisle, in both the House and the Senate.

53:21 - If we if we really want to.

53:23 - Because get this done this time around.

53:25 - We have to work in a bipartisan way.

53:28 - What have you heard from local police and constituents about this legislation?

53:32 - They've been very supportive.

53:34 - I can think of a number of police chiefs that when I first got in office

53:37 - just a couple of years ago,

53:39 - we have to have radar or we're using outdated technology.

53:42 - We've got police officers on the side of roads, in harm's way.

53:47 - We need to get this done.

53:48 - It's been floating out there. We need to start working on it.

53:50 - And the only way to get it done is working together.

53:53 - Lastly, where is this bill in the legislative process currently?

53:57 - So we just got it introduced.

53:59 - It's now in the transportation committee.

54:02 - We are talking to the House transportation chair about,

54:05 - introduction house side, about a companion bill.

54:08 - I really want to see it start to get some momentum here

54:11 - going into budget season and see if we can get something done.

54:14 - This session before it ends.

54:15 - Senator Nick Miller, thank you for your time.

54:18 - Yeah, thanks for having me.

54:23 - That concludes today's show.

54:24 - Join us for tomorrow's episode of the PCN Capitol Preview.

54:27 - Speaker of the Pennsylvania House

54:29 - Joanna McClinton will be here to discuss the state House legislative agenda.

54:33 - That's tomorrow morning live at 9 a.m..

54:36 - I'm Francine Schertzer. Thank you for watching.