08:26 - 43.539 My name is Tammy Halstead and I am the first Vice President.

08:26 - 46.485 I hope everybody enjoyed your breakfast.

08:26 - 49.479 Getting to know our vendors.

08:26 - 52.257 Our first session

08:26 - 55.284 this morning is a legislative panel,

08:26 - 58.755 and we want to,

08:26 - 00.366 take this opportunity

08:27 - 03.760 to learn about issues affecting our communities.

08:27 - 07.172 We appreciate the times that the members

08:27 - 10.199 took from their schedules to be here today.

08:27 - 14.036 Joining us today are Senator David Argo.

08:27 - 17.149 Senator Patty Kim.

08:27 - 19.618 Representative Joe Shirazi.

08:27 - 22.645 Representative Chad Reichard.

08:27 - 34.933 And that was in, exactly the right order.

08:27 - 37.960 But you can see their name tags.

08:27 - 41.306 So we're looking forward to hearing from you.

08:27 - 44.343 And at this time, I'm going to turn the program over

08:27 - 48.614 to Ron Garretson, our senior director of government affairs.

08:27 - 51.607 And he's going to lead the panel. Thank you all.

08:27 - 55.087 Thank you, Tammy.

08:27 - 59.182 And, it's really good to, see a really great crowd here.

08:27 - 01.427 It's always a,

08:28 - 04.587 member favorite session that we have every year

08:28 - 07.957 here at, the SAB Annual conference.

08:28 - 11.627 It's really it gets to the heart of why

08:28 - 14.807 borough officials gather every year,

08:28 - 18.668 really to, to to hear, to connect with other people,

08:28 - 22.915 to collaborate and to hear from our legislators.

08:28 - 26.576 What's on the legislative horizon from Harrisburg?

08:28 - 30.813 You know, local government is really where policy meets the pavement.

08:28 - 35.518 It's where residents feel the impact of state decisions most directly

08:28 - 38.497 and where the partnerships between municipal leaders

08:28 - 41.524 and the General Assembly matter every single day.

08:28 - 45.595 Borough officials know better than anyone the challenges facing our boroughs

08:28 - 49.432 between infrastructure, public safety, housing,

08:28 - 52.568 economic development and data centers

08:28 - 57.483 demand cooperation between local officials

08:28 - 00.676 and the lawmakers who shape statewide policy.

08:29 - 04.447 Today's panel brings together members of the General Assembly

08:29 - 08.150 who are directly involved in the legislation that affects your borough.

08:29 - 11.364 We thought we'd,

08:29 - 14.366 change it up this year, the last 3 or 4 years.

08:29 - 18.537 We brought in the chairs of the local government committee and both the House

08:29 - 19.506 and the Senate.

08:29 - 23.542 So we thought we'd mix it up a little bit and get a, diverse

08:29 - 27.136 view from around the state, from different senators and representatives.

08:29 - 34.377 I'll start by, doing some short, bios, and then we'll get into the discussion.

08:29 - 38.381 Our first panelist is Senator Dave Argyle.

08:29 - 43.996 Senator Argyle represents 102 municipal municipalities in northeast

08:29 - 47.957 Pennsylvania, Schuylkill and Carbon counties, and part of Luzerne County.

08:29 - 51.727 As Senator for the 29th Senatorial District,

08:29 - 56.799 Senator Argyle is a member of the Senate Republican Majority leadership team.

08:29 - 00.603 As chairman of its Senate Majority Policy Committee.

08:30 - 06.242 Senator, our top priority is revitalizing our older industrial communities.

08:30 - 11.323 Growing up, he witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of job

08:30 - 15.818 losses in manufacturing and mining because of his grassroots work.

08:30 - 19.522 Blighted communities have witnessed a positive transformation

08:30 - 21.633 across the Commonwealth.

08:30 - 24.469 Senator Argyle served as a member of the Pennsylvania.

08:30 - 30.199 House of Representatives from 1984 to 22009,

08:30 - 33.669 before winning his current seat in the Pennsylvania Senate.

08:30 - 38.708 And I'd be remiss if I didn't, mention that Senator Argyle is chair

08:30 - 42.745 of the state Blight Task Force, so we thank him for his work in that.

08:30 - 46.315 And, please welcome Senator Argyle.

08:30 - 55.291 Our our next panelist is Senator Patty Kim.

08:30 - 59.037 Senator Kim represents the 15th senatorial district,

08:30 - 01.640 which includes Lower Dauphin County.

08:31 - 04.667 She serves as the chair of the Senate Local Government Committee

08:31 - 06.945 for the Senate Democrats.

08:31 - 10.515 Senator Kim brings a local government experience to her role,

08:31 - 14.477 as she served on Harrisburg City Council for six years,

08:31 - 18.547 including a term as the vice president of council.

08:31 - 21.526 She then served six terms, representing

08:31 - 24.854 the 103rd district in the state House.

08:31 - 28.734 Throughout her legislative career, Senator Kim has been

08:31 - 33.095 a strong advocate for education funding, small business growth,

08:31 - 37.133 and ensuring access to quality health care for all Pennsylvanians.

08:31 - 40.703 She has championed legislation to raise the minimum wage,

08:31 - 45.441 and has earned recognition for her efforts to bridge bipartisan divide.

08:31 - 51.447 Partizan divides and work collaboratively to achieve practical solutions

08:31 - 55.117 for the challenges facing working families.

08:31 - 56.952 Please welcome Senator Patty Kim.

08:32 - 05.394 Next on our panel is Representative Chad Reichert.

08:32 - 10.575 Representative Reichert was raised in Franklin County and serves and serves

08:32 - 15.337 his neighbors of the 90th Legislative District in the Pennsylvania State House.

08:32 - 18.908 He was first elected to the state House of Representatives

08:32 - 21.720 in 2020 for representative.

08:32 - 25.448 Reichert is an advocate for farmers, farmland preservation,

08:32 - 27.626 and workforce development.

08:32 - 31.229 He's a fiscal conservative who believes wasteful government spending

08:32 - 35.333 must be eliminated and is a defender of firearm owner rights,

08:32 - 38.527 medical freedom and parental rights and education.

08:32 - 43.632 Representative Reichert currently serves as on the House Local Government Committee

08:32 - 46.936 and has a long history of working in local government.

08:32 - 49.347 He served on the Washington Township.

08:32 - 52.575 Board of Supervisors, including a stint as its chairman.

08:32 - 57.246 He also served as the township's planning and zoning officer.

08:32 - 00.316 Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Representative Chad Ryker.

08:33 - 06.265 And rounding

08:33 - 09.291 out our panel is Representative Joe Cerise.

08:33 - 14.372 State Representative Cerise first took office as the as a state

08:33 - 17.776 representative for the 146th Legislative.

08:33 - 20.903 District in November of 2018.

08:33 - 22.614 Has it been that long?

08:33 - 25.641 While?

08:33 - 29.645 Representing portions of Montgomery County.

08:33 - 33.825 Joe's legislative priorities include the fair funding of education

08:33 - 39.164 to reduce property taxes on residents, charter school reform, and the restoration

08:33 - 43.058 of passenger train service between Pottstown and Philadelphia.

08:33 - 47.797 He believes in working across the aisle with both Democrats and Republicans

08:33 - 52.101 to accomplish meaningful results for the people of Pennsylvania.

08:33 - 55.147 He currently serves as the majority chair

08:33 - 59.074 of the Pennsylvania House Communications and Technology Committee.

08:33 - 03.321 Representative Saric has experience in local government,

08:34 - 09.427 as he served 12 years on the Spring-ford Area School Board, which include included

08:34 - 13.455 three years as president and three years as vice president.

08:34 - 16.358 Please welcome Representative Joe Cyr, easy.

08:34 - 24.934 Now, I'll give you, a little bit of rundown on our,

08:34 - 27.646 on our format this morning.

08:34 - 32.942 We'll go down the, panelists, each panelist will make a presentation.

08:34 - 36.612 And then at that time, after,

08:34 - 41.016 the presentations are finished, we'll open it up for questions.

08:34 - 44.496 And then we'll have everybody who has a question

08:34 - 47.523 just come to the mic after the presentations are done.

08:34 - 52.862 So without further ado, we'll begin our, presentations with Senator Argyle.

08:34 - 55.240 Senator, thanks.

08:34 - 57.409 Thanks for the invitation to join you.

08:34 - 01.537 This, this Monday morning and especially, for what you do.

08:35 - 05.884 I've done some, teaching as an adjunct over the years, and I've always tried

08:35 - 09.120 to remind my students that, you know, they want to talk about president

08:35 - 13.515 or they want to talk about the governor, that, I have seen what you all do.

08:35 - 17.186 Really move communities ahead all across Pennsylvania.

08:35 - 19.731 And I thank you for what you do.

08:35 - 22.400 As as noted, I represent the 29th.

08:35 - 25.628 Senate District, Schuylkill, carbon and lower Luzerne counties.

08:35 - 27.473 If my numbers are

08:35 - 31.443 correct, 48 boroughs, two cities and 52 townships.

08:35 - 31.978 All right.

08:35 - 35.004 So I've got a lot of partners in those three counties.

08:35 - 39.441 And because of the history of my my district in, in the coal region,

08:35 - 40.852 I've spent a lot of time

08:35 - 45.147 with your association, as was indicated on, on blight issues.

08:35 - 49.694 And so when, when I was in the house, someone from Lower Bucks County told me

08:35 - 52.364 one time that you go anywhere in the world,

08:35 - 56.091 you find a community that has seen some economic distress,

08:35 - 59.070 the loss of a steel mill, the loss of a coal mine,

08:35 - 02.665 and you're going to see some blight and might have a little you might have a lot.

08:36 - 06.435 And and so because of the partnership

08:36 - 10.248 between the House, between the Senate, between umpteen different governors

08:36 - 15.253 and your, your local association, I think we've helped to to remind people

08:36 - 20.349 that this is not just a Philadelphia or a Pittsburgh issue.

08:36 - 24.095 And so if you look back, just, since,

08:36 - 29.801 I started chairing the task force in 2009 and we've moved to head on on land banks

08:36 - 33.538 and conservatorship, permit denial and,

08:36 - 37.132 many different options for, for demolition funding.

08:36 - 39.411 And for some of you, that may be a big deal.

08:36 - 43.148 And some of you, if you're lucky, you're probably taking a nap right now.

08:36 - 43.915 And I'm jealous.

08:36 - 44.383 All right.

08:36 - 47.910 But, the key, I think, in

08:36 - 53.148 many ways was, was act 152 of 2016, which for the first time,

08:36 - 57.128 allowed counties to tack on a $15 fee over

08:36 - 00.456 just about every document that goes through the recorder and deeds office.

08:37 - 03.768 And the deal is, if it's raised in your county,

08:37 - 06.771 it stays in in your county.

08:37 - 10.875 31 counties have have enacted the fee because the the meeting like this.

08:37 - 14.470 We were talking one time and people said, hey, you know, these tools are great.

08:37 - 17.215 Send us cash.

08:37 - 17.817 All right.

08:37 - 21.853 And so, if your county is not in the yellow,

08:37 - 26.048 and I think we'll have Mary Beth, we'll have maps, available at some point.

08:37 - 30.386 You know, you you might want to talk to your your county commissioners.

08:37 - 34.490 The result, again, has been millions of dollars in blight removal

08:37 - 38.761 because those guys that come in with the bulldozers and the the backhoes,

08:37 - 40.338 they don't work for free.

08:37 - 43.365 All right. And so it does take cash.

08:37 - 48.480 We also, one of my, colleagues in the Senate, worked on, on act

08:37 - 54.109 48 of 2024, which allows counties to add up to a $250 fee

08:37 - 58.847 on, on property sold at delinquent tax sale or sheriff sale.

08:37 - 04.662 Again, to try to help, either with demolition or with rehab.

08:38 - 07.499 And 11 different counties have enacted that fee.

08:38 - 10.759 But understand that, you know, the fight never ends.

08:38 - 13.905 I feel sometimes like we we clean up one block

08:38 - 18.100 and then a house on the on the next, the next street starts to fall down.

08:38 - 22.638 We, we are working to try through Senate Bill 345

08:38 - 25.650 to, to increase the $15 fee.

08:38 - 29.320 We understand that, you know, inflation hits and $15

08:38 - 32.981 doesn't buy you as much as it did in, in 2016.

08:38 - 38.587 And so we're looking on, on, trying to get you some more dollars in that way.

08:38 - 42.634 794 Senate Bill 794 will increase

08:38 - 46.361 the amount of insurance money that a municipality can withhold

08:38 - 51.076 from a fire damaged property until the repairs are made or demolished.

08:38 - 56.572 Again, something that people brought up to me at a, meeting like this.

08:38 - 59.141 Our colleague, representative Zack,

08:39 - 01.387 known in Schuylkill.

08:39 - 05.457 County, not just as the representative, but as one of the owners of Mrs.

08:39 - 09.685 T's pierogies, which in the coal regions is a very big deal.

08:39 - 13.522 Has a bill on vacant property registration

08:39 - 16.935 to encourage people to either sell or redevelop their property.

08:39 - 19.704 So it just doesn't sit there rotting.

08:39 - 22.173 Year after year after year.

08:39 - 26.144 My old friend Bob Freeman in the house has a bill to try

08:39 - 31.440 to allow, more communities to come into the land bank program.

08:39 - 34.452 Right now you have to have 10,000 people or more.

08:39 - 37.088 And, and I agree with him that, you know, really,

08:39 - 40.149 we should allow communities of any size to form one.

08:39 - 43.628 And then there's the very related issue of housing.

08:39 - 47.990 It was mentioned I, I chair the policy committee for, for the Senate.

08:39 - 50.301 And this is an issue that is really moved

08:39 - 54.663 to the top of the agenda in the three counties that I represent.

08:39 - 58.700 You remember what you learned in high school economics about supply and demand?

08:39 - 00.378 They weren't kidding.

08:40 - 00.946 All right.

08:40 - 05.207 And so as, as the supply in Pennsylvania has become restricted,

08:40 - 08.911 I think we've seen what what that's done to to housing costs.

08:40 - 14.092 And so, we're we're looking in, in southwestern Pennsylvania, parts

08:40 - 14.560 to find out.

08:40 - 18.563 Recently had me out there and everybody that came in said that,

08:40 - 22.457 you know, in order to to build houses in Pennsylvania, it takes too long.

08:40 - 23.868 It's too expensive.

08:40 - 24.936 It's too uncertain.

08:40 - 26.271 We've heard it from employers.

08:40 - 28.139 We've heard it from employees.

08:40 - 29.774 We've heard it from families.

08:40 - 33.511 And so we're trying to, look at ways now

08:40 - 38.716 to to cut some of the unnecessary, regulatory hurdle to speed up.

08:40 - 43.812 This is my favorite adaptive reuse of vacant schools and industrial buildings

08:40 - 50.619 and and try just to breathe more new life into, so many of our towns.

08:40 - 54.990 I've worked with a lot of, local elected officials in, in my communities.

08:40 - 56.935 Republicans and Democrats.

08:40 - 00.829 And, you know, blight doesn't have an R or a D, behind it.

08:41 - 05.300 And and I've really seen, you know, communities begin to move ahead.

08:41 - 08.971 Rather than tear down that old 1874,

08:41 - 12.074 train station in the heart of my community.

08:41 - 15.987 They fixed it up, and now it's it's the pride of the community.

08:41 - 18.356 And a pretty good place to eat.

08:41 - 20.725 Just down the street, in Tamaqua.

08:41 - 23.494 They're taking an old Rite Aid that was sitting.

08:41 - 25.663 I'm sure we all have empty Rite Aid.

08:41 - 28.366 This is going to be a new dental college.

08:41 - 28.634 All right?

08:41 - 31.760 We're going to be training dentist in downtown Tamaqua.

08:41 - 33.371 Because Temple University

08:41 - 37.275 believes that, you know, we just don't have enough rural dentists.

08:41 - 37.910 And apparently,

08:41 - 41.670 the academic research indicates that if you train in the small town,

08:41 - 46.818 you're more likely to sometime practice in a small town, up in Shenandoah,

08:41 - 50.078 which used to have 30,000 people and now has 5000.

08:41 - 53.315 You can imagine what that does to an old coal region community.

08:41 - 59.297 We just help them with a new, downtown building and, a Penn State classroom.

08:41 - 02.734 And so again and again, I think we've seen some of these solutions

08:42 - 05.761 that we can achieve when we work together.

08:42 - 08.830 I just want to thank you for for the ideas in the past

08:42 - 10.408 and keep those ideas coming.

08:42 - 12.901 And again, thank you for what you do every day.

08:42 - 20.585 Thank you, Senator Argyle.

08:42 - 23.388 Next on the panel is Senator Patty Kim.

08:42 - 26.415 Thank you, Ron, and good morning, everyone.

08:42 - 29.685 Ron forgot to tell you that you're in my senatorial district.

08:42 - 32.688 Welcome to Hershey, the sweetest place on earth.

08:42 - 35.633 Hey, Joe.

08:42 - 36.302 We're on.

08:42 - 37.335 We're on the same party.

08:42 - 40.329 Like, relax.

08:42 - 43.174 So I wanted to tell you a little bit

08:42 - 47.302 about Milton Hershey, who founded, Hershey Town, obviously.

08:42 - 52.483 And I thought, as looking at the history, he started as a caramel company.

08:42 - 54.118 I don't know if you guys knew that.

08:42 - 57.088 And he went all over the country

08:42 - 00.858 and internationally to do research on what's the best confectionery.

08:43 - 02.894 And he thought it was caramel.

08:43 - 05.963 But one trip to Chicago, he looked at some German

08:43 - 09.358 chocolate making machine and said to himself,

08:43 - 14.062 I think the chocolate is going to be more popular than the caramel.

08:43 - 18.133 In 1900, he sold his Lancaster Caramel Company

08:43 - 21.503 in Lancaster for $1 million,

08:43 - 24.773 in 1900, million dollars.

08:43 - 29.311 And he put all that money into investing in Hershey chocolates.

08:43 - 34.726 And as you can see what it is today, we have, the Hershey Milton School

08:43 - 38.987 that helps kids from disadvantaged, homes to thrive.

08:43 - 42.734 We have Hershey Medical Center, we have the town and so on and so on.

08:43 - 46.762 If you didn't make that decision, Hershey would not be the way it is today.

08:43 - 49.374 Why am I saying this?

08:43 - 53.034 Because I think that at the local level, the borough

08:43 - 58.807 members, the council members are so close to the ground that they could predict

08:43 - 02.611 that caramel is good, but Hershey is better.

08:44 - 06.591 You guys have a smaller district.

08:44 - 08.192 You're in tune with folks.

08:44 - 10.995 So kind of like the canary in the coal mine.

08:44 - 15.366 You guys knew that, our fire department's

08:44 - 19.261 volunteer programs aren't doing well and that they can't survive.

08:44 - 23.074 I mean, how much does a truck now like, $1.4 million?

08:44 - 25.276 Mind blowing.

08:44 - 28.212 I had, two burros combine.

08:44 - 30.615 To, you know, share services.

08:44 - 32.350 They were my first ones to do that.

08:44 - 33.918 And I think that was really important.

08:44 - 37.488 You guys know my burros keep asking me for Parks and Recreation money.

08:44 - 40.849 You guys knew that the quality of life for families are in the parks.

08:44 - 42.860 Did you know that, kids?

08:44 - 45.887 I have, like, a 19 year old, but a little bit younger.

08:44 - 50.759 Hang out at target and walk in circles because they have nothing to do.

08:44 - 53.604 Because the malls died and those large township.

08:44 - 54.739 It is so depressing.

08:44 - 57.766 Our kids are walking in target for entertainment.

08:44 - 01.946 Burros know that we need that third space somewhere that safe, where families

08:45 - 04.973 can come together and have belongings burrows and do that first.

08:45 - 08.977 So I just encourage you guys, since you are closer to the ground,

08:45 - 13.024 that you need to communicate and shout out what the problems are,

08:45 - 15.193 because guess what? It's going to be with the burros.

08:45 - 17.595 It's going to be the townships. It's going to be the cities.

08:45 - 21.089 You guys are on the ground, and I really appreciate the work that you do.

08:45 - 26.094 So, things that we're working on, I don't know if you guys can relate.

08:45 - 29.631 So I have two burros that make up one school district.

08:45 - 31.576 It's tiny.

08:45 - 33.711 We have 1300 students.

08:45 - 36.872 They're in recovery right now because they can't the taxpayers cannot,

08:45 - 39.283 sustain the school district.

08:45 - 43.144 So, working with PDA to see if we can bridge some of the gaps.

08:45 - 46.424 But it is like they're paying so much property taxes

08:45 - 49.327 and getting bare minimum of of education.

08:45 - 50.628 And it's so sad.

08:45 - 55.724 So what I'm trying to do is to, guess what are our tech schools booming?

08:45 - 57.535 Dauphin County vo tech.

08:45 - 02.430 They had to turn away 600 kids who wanted to go and get technical education.

08:46 - 05.009 How do I get this

08:46 - 07.712 school district that is struggling to somehow

08:46 - 12.116 get somewhere, you know, an area that is very popular and put it together,

08:46 - 14.886 maybe in the same building and trying to help them in that way

08:46 - 18.823 so that we can get students and help with the with the whole area.

08:46 - 20.791 So doing something like that.

08:46 - 23.661 I have a steel town, I represent steel town.

08:46 - 25.730 And that steel mill left us.

08:46 - 28.299 And I know this is not something that's new.

08:46 - 32.503 But Senator, Piscataway I know in Allegheny.

08:46 - 36.598 County and I came together for a bill called the Forages Act.

08:46 - 40.244 It's, the acronym is fueling

08:46 - 43.738 opportunities for the revitalization, growth, and Efficiency of Steel.

08:46 - 48.443 It's a legislative package to revitalize the state's struggling steel sector.

08:46 - 51.889 It features tax credits and sales tax exemptions

08:46 - 55.450 to incentivize in-state production and technological upgrades.

08:46 - 58.529 So that's something that we're working on to make sure that we get

08:46 - 01.556 our steel mills, that they don't die out.

08:47 - 04.735 The other thing that I'm working on is

08:47 - 07.505 revitalization of downtown Harrisburg.

08:47 - 08.739 I know it's not a borough,

08:47 - 11.766 but I know that a lot of you are working on revitalizing your downtown.

08:47 - 13.477 Pre-COVID.

08:47 - 13.712 Okay.

08:47 - 18.139 First of all, Harrisburg is about 50,000, and population pre-COVID.

08:47 - 21.752 Every day we would increase our population

08:47 - 26.181 by 30,000 people because of the state workers, the hospital workers.

08:47 - 31.086 And since Covid, we have 7000 less people coming into downtown.

08:47 - 34.865 And so our restaurants were struggling.

08:47 - 37.735 Some of the entertainment parts were struggling.

08:47 - 40.638 And when that vacuum, when we created that vacuum,

08:47 - 43.608 we had the unhoused come in and take space.

08:47 - 45.509 So we were really having a hard time.

08:47 - 49.547 My downtown, has been spiraling, but thanks to,

08:47 - 53.475 my delegation colleagues, in the house,

08:47 - 57.379 Governor Shapiro dq'd the mayor.

08:47 - 00.391 It took a long time to get us on the same page, but

08:48 - 05.020 we're on the same page and laser focused on getting Harrisburg back on track.

08:48 - 09.800 I have a chief of staff, and I told Doug, who has an economic development

08:48 - 12.169 background, you're going to do this full time.

08:48 - 15.897 We can't get anything done unless we work on it every single day.

08:48 - 19.176 And so now we are the downtown's a little bit safer.

08:48 - 22.203 We have a parking issue where it's too expensive per hour.

08:48 - 25.206 If you guys get a ticket, I can't help you.

08:48 - 30.187 It's $5 an hour for parking.

08:48 - 31.288 It is ridiculous.

08:48 - 35.583 It was helped to, pay for our incinerator debacle, and it's a help to paying debt.

08:48 - 39.697 So anyways, we have a a problem, but we're working on it.

08:48 - 40.165 We're getting more.

08:48 - 42.700 So we're all the restaurants who are there that are struggling.

08:48 - 44.669 I went door to door instead of campaigning.

08:48 - 45.337 I went door to door.

08:48 - 48.697 These restaurants to make sure that they have what they need to stay.

08:48 - 51.409 And once they stay, we're going to stabilize things.

08:48 - 54.578 And then other businesses are starting slowly but surely to come back.

08:48 - 57.605 And so I know that the boroughs have,

08:48 - 00.384 those types of challenges to get people back in.

08:49 - 03.611 But those kids at target are motivating me

08:49 - 06.991 to, do more than just restaurants,

08:49 - 10.995 give them spaces where they can be safe and interact and get off their phones.

08:49 - 12.963 And you know how they say, touch grass, whatever.

08:49 - 14.665 It is the cool thing to say.

08:49 - 16.000 But to really interact with people.

08:49 - 17.735 So that's my motivation.

08:49 - 19.937 And I'm going to stop there because I'd be interested

08:49 - 22.363 in hearing questions from the audience. Thank you so much.

08:49 - 29.146 Thank you, Senator Kim.

08:49 - 32.173 Next is Representative Chad Reichert.

08:49 - 34.852 Well good morning.

08:49 - 37.555 I just want to start off with just a thank you, right.

08:49 - 39.957 I mean, what you guys do every single day.

08:49 - 42.593 By serving your communities, I mean not have them for the paycheck.

08:49 - 43.828 No one's getting rich.

08:49 - 45.996 As a member of borough council, right.

08:49 - 48.866 So thank you for the service that you do.

08:49 - 53.428 And I know it goes, sometimes with without the thanks that you all deserve.

08:49 - 57.398 As Senator Kim was saying, I think the driving force behind

08:49 - 01.002 what I think our view for local government should be, as is local control.

08:50 - 03.214 Has anyone ever had a meeting

08:50 - 06.508 with a bunch of citizens showing up with pitchforks and torches?

08:50 - 07.953 Yeah. Right.

08:50 - 11.622 So you guys hear firsthand from the citizens about what they want

08:50 - 14.846 in their community, how they want it to be viewed, how they want it to be shaped.

08:50 - 16.660 And that's reflected in your ordinances.

08:50 - 17.895 Whether it's your

08:50 - 21.022 your land use, your planning, your zoning, whatever, whatever the case is,

08:50 - 22.900 that's what drives people to come out.

08:50 - 25.960 And you are the first people to hear that, whether positive or negative,

08:50 - 29.006 and whether those changes should be made, not us in Harrisburg,

08:50 - 30.975 you know, not anyone down in DC.

08:50 - 32.643 It's you folks on the local level.

08:50 - 35.470 So preserving local control is an absolute must.

08:50 - 40.551 You know, I'm a obviously the junior member up here.

08:50 - 43.754 I'm the new person to the legislature, so I'm fortunate

08:50 - 46.748 to have a lot of experience here to to be able to lean on.

08:50 - 50.561 So my, my legislative portfolio portfolio isn't quite as,

08:50 - 54.365 impressive or, expansive as everyone else.

08:50 - 56.233 But there is there's one piece of legislation

08:50 - 57.735 that I've been working on, and it was an idea

08:50 - 01.396 that came from, Green Castle's chief of police, Chief Petty Stick.

08:51 - 04.141 It's, small little borough in Franklin County.

08:51 - 06.510 You know, less than 5000 people.

08:51 - 09.847 They have a a police department, as I'm sure many of you all do as well.

08:51 - 12.874 I'm one of your your funding challenges, obviously is providing,

08:51 - 15.152 you know, resources to your police department.

08:51 - 19.557 There's state grants available out there for, training and such.

08:51 - 23.828 Mo packed and and I think what we found was that a lot of the larger

08:51 - 25.095 municipalities, you know, your,

08:51 - 29.133 your Philadelphia's, your writings were taking up a lot of that money,

08:51 - 32.903 but smaller municipalities weren't having a chance to access some of that.

08:51 - 36.831 So I have legislation that's in the House Judiciary Committee

08:51 - 40.744 that essentially would set aside 20% of grant

08:51 - 45.540 funding in MoPac for municipalities with a population of 20,000 or less.

08:51 - 47.518 And if that money is not used and it goes back

08:51 - 50.221 and then everyone else can, can utilize that as well.

08:51 - 51.355 But at the end of the day,

08:51 - 54.382 what that means is that the small guy has a bite at the apple, too.

08:51 - 57.661 And and I think that's something that we should really very seriously

08:51 - 58.863 consider as we're crafting

08:51 - 02.557 policy in Harrisburg, is ensuring that our small guys have a chance

08:52 - 06.160 at the same grants and the same opportunities that the big guys do.

08:52 - 09.240 So if that's something that is of interest to you, please

08:52 - 10.674 contact your state rep

08:52 - 13.668 and let them know that this is something you'd like to see move forward.

08:52 - 17.648 But at the end of the day, the thing that I really enjoy

08:52 - 21.376 about burros, again, my, my my background was in the township, but there was,

08:52 - 25.422 early on in my career, I was a staffer, for our state senator at the time.

08:52 - 27.524 And I remember meeting with our long time

08:52 - 29.827 borough manager down in Waynesboro, Lloyd Hamburger.

08:52 - 31.228 I'm sure some of you might know him.

08:52 - 33.898 He was here for 40 years. I think he served.

08:52 - 38.068 And and he told me once, he said, you know, his the thing that he loved

08:52 - 41.472 most about being a manager in the borough is the borough has a heart, right?

08:52 - 44.666 It has a downtown that has it, has life to it.

08:52 - 48.069 You know, 250 years ago in the founding of our country,

08:52 - 50.080 you know, where we're all the proclamations

08:52 - 53.775 were there, right in the square, the town, the center of the town, and

08:52 - 57.054 it's that same

08:52 - 00.481 cause that I think just, you know, reverberates around the boroughs,

08:53 - 03.527 across this Commonwealth, that that, that center that, you know,

08:53 - 06.897 where we sit on Memorial Day and watch the parades come through

08:53 - 10.391 or we have our community events, we have that focus on our downtown.

08:53 - 13.671 And it truly is the heart of America.

08:53 - 16.698 So I just want to thank you all again for everything that you do

08:53 - 19.777 to keep the heartbeat of America alive with our boroughs.

08:53 - 23.781 And, certainly looking forward to working with Ron and Logan.

08:53 - 25.649 You guys have a great team here in Harrisburg.

08:53 - 28.676 I don't think that there's a local government meeting that they miss.

08:53 - 30.921 I think they might live in the capital.

08:53 - 33.757 I see them, all the time in the hallways.

08:53 - 35.059 So, that's our.

08:53 - 37.461 But you guys are certainly well represented there.

08:53 - 39.029 They are great advocates.

08:53 - 42.232 And, again, I'm I'm new to the legislature,

08:53 - 45.536 but certainly looking forward to making your lives a little easier

08:53 - 47.962 and keeping the heartbeat of America alive. So thank you.

08:53 - 55.546 Thank you, Representative Riker.

08:53 - 59.683 And now, rounding out our, our panel is Representative.

08:53 - 02.710 Joe's Harrisburg representative chairman.

08:54 - 03.887 Well, thank you very much.

08:54 - 06.256 And thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning.

08:54 - 09.193 I appreciate the opportunity to be able to speak with all of you.

08:54 - 12.463 And, you know, I don't know if a lot of you heard

08:54 - 15.490 the word data center before.

08:54 - 17.501 I figured it'd be a good icebreaker.

08:54 - 20.070 Right.

08:54 - 22.940 We you are the front lines,

08:54 - 25.943 like we said by my colleagues of everything that happens.

08:54 - 29.546 And being a former school board member, we worked very closely

08:54 - 32.640 with our boroughs and municipalities on issues.

08:54 - 36.511 And today we see a huge issue that stands before us

08:54 - 39.957 in how to deal with these data centers and what we should do.

08:54 - 43.794 And we sit here in Harrisburg and we say, well, but we know we

08:54 - 47.588 we said who said again and again and again the issue lies out here.

08:54 - 51.859 The decision lies with all of you, and we need to empower you

08:54 - 56.798 to give the power to feel like you can do what you feel is best for your community.

08:54 - 01.169 So one bit of legislation that I'm about to introduce

08:55 - 04.639 sends the full power back to the community

08:55 - 07.942 and giving you the opportunity, if you wanted a referendum

08:55 - 10.988 to allow you for certain sized projects

08:55 - 14.782 to go to the public and say, do you want this or don't you want this?

08:55 - 18.619 Because as a school board member, we had the option to use referendum.

08:55 - 19.997 So why shouldn't the boroughs

08:55 - 22.166 and the municipalities have the same option

08:55 - 24.435 if they choose to do it and allow the people to say

08:55 - 25.899 what they want in their communities?

08:55 - 35.446 I didn't grow up here in Pennsylvania.

08:55 - 37.648 I don't know if you can tell by my accent.

08:55 - 39.817 Yeah, a little bit to Brooklyn.

08:55 - 43.478 Italians grew up in New York, and growing up in New York,

08:55 - 48.358 the community I grew up in had the downtown, the downtown USA,

08:55 - 52.262 which all of the boroughs have throughout this commonwealth that keeps us alive.

08:55 - 55.332 Now I have the opportunity to represent Rory's for it,

08:55 - 58.469 and Pottstown, I know that your president is from Roy's ward.

08:55 - 00.237 Tom, wave your hand over there. Great.

08:56 - 03.264 Guy's been in Roy's for for many years representing the great community.

08:56 - 05.509 I know if anyone is here from Pottstown.

08:56 - 07.678 But I do see trap that's out there.

08:56 - 10.380 Raise your hand trap right next to me. Spring city.

08:56 - 12.149 The mayor of Spring City is here.

08:56 - 15.119 Who is adjacent to Roy's Ford.

08:56 - 20.023 And why I bring this up is because the downtown USA is what everybody wants.

08:56 - 22.860 Again, our children shouldn't be walking at target.

08:56 - 25.062 And I never knew that before. Patty, thanks for telling me.

08:56 - 27.831 I wonder why the kids kept going around. I went to target.

08:56 - 29.099 I'm sure it was going on now.

08:56 - 33.504 I know, but we grew up where we walked downtown.

08:56 - 37.441 We went to the candy store, the restaurant where you went to the little shops,

08:56 - 38.109 and you hung around

08:56 - 42.079 and you went to the park and played in the park till someone's mother

08:56 - 45.139 yelled down the lane to bring you home because we didn't have cell phones.

08:56 - 48.673 Which always surprised my kid, how we knew where to go and who to meet.

08:56 - 52.856 But yeah, it's the real thing.

08:56 - 57.895 But we need to let you all feel that you have the ability

08:56 - 02.132 because you are, like my colleague said, the heartbeat of this Commonwealth.

08:57 - 06.336 And I served on tourism for a while, and we visited the small towns

08:57 - 07.671 around the Commonwealth.

08:57 - 11.408 And when we look at how we're about to celebrate the 250th anniversary

08:57 - 16.037 of this nation, people want to come and see what the communities are about,

08:57 - 19.416 what's happening in the community, and they want to feel the local fare.

08:57 - 23.420 They don't want to go to the chain stores or the the chain restaurants.

08:57 - 27.291 They want to go to the mom and pops, and they want to be able to feel that.

08:57 - 28.659 And as legislators,

08:57 - 31.852 we need to give you the ability to keep those mom and pops open.

08:57 - 35.332 So representative Lee James, who comes from such a different area

08:57 - 38.426 than I come from, completely different background than I come from,

08:57 - 40.404 he and I got together on a bill to be able

08:57 - 44.341 to keep those small businesses alive and revitalize as much as we can.

08:57 - 47.468 Now, downtown Burrows, which has been out there and we've been

08:57 - 48.513 we passed through the house.

08:57 - 51.415 We're hoping the senators can pass it through the Senate.

08:57 - 55.185 But keeping our downtowns alive in addition

08:57 - 58.212 to that and I it was referred to it by two of my colleagues.

08:57 - 01.616 I believe that we should be able to do more joint services together,

08:58 - 06.087 because some of our smaller boroughs can't handle what some of our largest can.

08:58 - 10.133 So let's incentivize you to work across the line.

08:58 - 12.302 And I often say, what is the line?

08:58 - 13.337 It's a fictitious line

08:58 - 17.307 that we made up because right here and I don't laugh about it,

08:58 - 21.335 but there's a little line here that says, well, this is and I use as an example,

08:58 - 25.206 this is North Coventry or East Vincent and this is Limerick Township.

08:58 - 28.785 And I'm going to tell you what why I bring this up,

08:58 - 33.781 a data center is being built or proposed, on the Limerick side.

08:58 - 38.319 And a former staffer on mine named Pam Hacker lives in East Vincent Township.

08:58 - 41.798 Pam is 503

08:58 - 45.026 away from the data center that's being built in Limerick Township.

08:58 - 46.370 But because she lives in, he's.

08:58 - 49.072 Vincent has no right to say anything about it.

08:58 - 52.099 This is an issue that we're dealing with throughout the Commonwealth.

08:58 - 54.044 There is no real line there.

08:58 - 57.071 We made it up because that's the way we had to divide up a state.

08:58 - 00.717 It's her backyard, so we have to find a way to empower all of

08:59 - 05.079 you to let those residents also have a say when we do regional planning,

08:59 - 08.349 because they need to be able to say because it's also affecting them.

08:59 - 12.219 So it's a challenge that's been here and one of my colleagues has a bill

08:59 - 16.967 not on that, but on taxation, because if it's a large company comes

08:59 - 20.370 and it's 500ft from the line of your community and all that

08:59 - 23.698 money stays in that community it came to, how is it fair to everybody else,

08:59 - 27.210 if you get a grant from the state of Pennsylvania

08:59 - 30.547 to bring in a massive industry in ABC Township,

08:59 - 34.809 and it sits on the verge of death, Township, should that money not be

08:59 - 36.987 put out to everybody,

08:59 - 40.490 should one school district or one municipality only benefit from that?

08:59 - 43.617 When it was a state grant that brought all that industry there?

08:59 - 48.389 Paul Friel from, Chester County is proposing

08:59 - 52.059 that there's a way to use shared revenue across the Commonwealth.

08:59 - 53.603 I don't know how it'll go.

08:59 - 56.540 But it's definitely a proposition that's out there.

08:59 - 01.435 And then we look at our fire companies, which Patti Kim alluded to.

09:00 - 05.115 One truck, $1.4 million, and everybody wants a new shiny truck.

09:00 - 09.243 I can't blame them, but is there a way now we can start to give the incentives

09:00 - 12.723 to merge our fire companies, to bring them together?

09:00 - 17.184 In one community in Pottstown, we have four fire companies for five miles,

09:00 - 21.288 for fire companies that everybody wants to truck for.

09:00 - 24.525 I went to them and said, you all can't have a truck.

09:00 - 27.104 I don't know what to say. I wish I had the money.

09:00 - 28.705 But there's no way to do it.

09:00 - 31.732 And now they're looking to become one company,

09:00 - 34.044 and I'm going to bring up something because I think it's important.

09:00 - 35.712 And it may not be what you wanted to hear today,

09:00 - 37.614 but I'm going to bring it up anyway.

09:00 - 39.449 The mayor of Spring City stand up for a minute.

09:00 - 43.086 Adam Adam has been a firefighter for years, serves

09:00 - 46.113 as mayor of Spring City.

09:00 - 51.361 A very good friend of mine came to me

09:00 - 54.522 and said, you know, we need a way to protect our local firefighters.

09:00 - 57.901 Boroughs and municipalities can't always afford this.

09:00 - 00.737 We need a way to screen them for cancer,

09:01 - 01.838 and we need to pay for it

09:01 - 05.699 from a state level to make sure that these volunteers in our small towns,

09:01 - 10.180 who are saving millions and millions of dollars of tax dollars

09:01 - 13.207 by volunteering their service, are protected.

09:01 - 16.219 So in the next few weeks, we're hoping and praying

09:01 - 20.123 that Adam's bill will get put forth to allow every firefighter

09:01 - 22.893 to have a screening for cancer, to make sure they're healthy

09:01 - 25.228 and save our firefighters in this Commonwealth,

09:01 - 26.954 which also saved us millions of dollars.

09:01 - 33.704 I'm proud to

09:01 - 35.205 represent Pennsylvania,

09:01 - 38.833 and as I often say, we may only represent 64,000 people get to vote for us,

09:01 - 42.036 but we represent almost 13 million people in this Commonwealth.

09:01 - 43.847 And this is a great state.

09:01 - 47.274 And what makes this state so great is our small towns and our communities

09:01 - 49.786 and being able to help all of you.

09:01 - 51.855 But we need to hear from you.

09:01 - 55.692 We want you to contact us as often as you possibly can.

09:01 - 58.795 When you have issues, don't send the form

09:01 - 01.822 letter.

09:02 - 04.959 Please don't

09:02 - 06.837 come and see us.

09:02 - 10.440 I mean, I try and meet with my borough's municipalities constantly.

09:02 - 12.142 They see you out at places.

09:02 - 13.610 Tell us what you want us to do.

09:02 - 15.345 That's where our bills come from.

09:02 - 17.881 Tell us what works and what doesn't work.

09:02 - 20.341 And it doesn't matter what party we are,

09:02 - 24.578 Democrat or Republican, I could care less what party we are,

09:02 - 28.148 what we all are as Pennsylvanians, and we need to be reminded of that.

09:02 - 36.166 So thank you for serving.

09:02 - 38.435 Thank you for being the front lines.

09:02 - 41.137 Thank you for all you're doing to make sure our state shines.

09:02 - 42.572 And I appreciate the opportunity to be here.

09:02 - 45.599 I look forward to your questions.

09:02 - 49.514 Thank you.

09:02 - 51.081 Representative sir. Easy. Wow.

09:02 - 55.185 That's a really, depth of issues

09:02 - 58.221 which we've covered here and the last few minutes.

09:02 - 02.592 And, now is the, next part of the program.

09:03 - 05.886 We're just going to open it up, to all the members,

09:03 - 10.600 if you have any questions on any of the issues which have been covered,

09:03 - 16.030 or if you have other legislative issues or anything that's on your mind,

09:03 - 19.509 come up to the microphones there in the aisles.

09:03 - 21.011 There's four of them.

09:03 - 25.806 I what I'd ask of you is to, state your name,

09:03 - 29.143 the borough that you're with, maybe even the county.

09:03 - 32.455 And a short question so that we could get in

09:03 - 36.393 as many questions as possible, and then we'll,

09:03 - 40.554 open it up to any panelist that wants to, answer the question.

09:03 - 43.133 But we'll start down here in the front.

09:03 - 43.868 Hello, everyone.

09:03 - 45.769 I'm, my name is Joseph Falcone.

09:03 - 48.796 I'm from Dickson City Borough in Lackawanna County,

09:03 - 52.075 and I am here to see you. So.

09:03 - 56.437 So my first, my first and my I guess my question is surrounds,

09:03 - 59.773 you know, liquid fuels and how it's calculated, you know,

09:03 - 03.177 calculated on the length of roads, not on the width of roads necessarily.

09:04 - 04.188 Probably.

09:04 - 06.423 Maybe we can do something to change that.

09:04 - 10.927 But, biggest issue that I have as a borough is, on state roads,

09:04 - 15.231 we don't get liquid fuels for them, but we are required to, do the maintenance

09:04 - 19.760 on the infrastructure underneath that road yet and, township's that's not the case.

09:04 - 25.942 So we didn't design the road, that infrastructure, we didn't install it yet.

09:04 - 27.477 We're required to maintain it.

09:04 - 29.980 And we don't have the resources to do that.

09:04 - 33.516 You know, we have sections of a state road that runs through our municipality

09:04 - 35.118 that's six lanes wide.

09:04 - 37.821 It'd be impossible for us to be able to do that.

09:04 - 43.393 So I, you know, we pay the same taxes, same, gas tax, same income tax.

09:04 - 46.229 I just like to be represented equally as townships.

09:04 - 47.821 Thank you. So.

09:04 - 51.435 Thank you.

09:04 - 54.204 And, I had the opportunity to be at Dickson,

09:04 - 56.940 when the fire had happened at the hospital,

09:04 - 59.409 and we went to the firehouse there, and I think Jimmy Haddock.

09:04 - 01.945 Is Jimmy your representative up there?

09:05 - 04.447 They said, oh, yeah, we were all up in the fire.

09:05 - 06.282 So I don't serve on transportation.

09:05 - 07.751 I'm communications and technology.

09:05 - 11.412 So if you want AI to come in and, you know, call me up, we definitely do that.

09:05 - 15.883 But your argument is a good argument and it's one that we hear all too often.

09:05 - 19.763 We need to relook at the way we handle our local roads throughout the Commonwealth.

09:05 - 25.159 I have one of the worst highways as far as, 22 for 22.

09:05 - 27.570 Yeah, if anyone's ever driven up for 22,

09:05 - 30.473 it's like driving on the driving on the moon with craters.

09:05 - 36.437 So I can't speak it on that level because I never even served on transportation.

09:05 - 39.616 But I'm a loud mouth when it comes transportation, for sure.

09:05 - 41.685 And I believe that you're right. We need to be.

09:05 - 44.654 We need to find a better plan to be able to fund these roads,

09:05 - 45.755 to be able to take care of it.

09:05 - 49.492 Now, in Rogers Ford, they turn the road from it was a state road.

09:05 - 52.519 They took control of the road back, which was a shocker.

09:05 - 54.864 Come on. You want a road back is beyond me.

09:05 - 57.467 But they they took the road back from the state.

09:05 - 00.003 But I think it is an issue that needs to come up.

09:06 - 04.474 And I'd like to see a formal presentation from the burros to the Department

09:06 - 06.810 of Transportation and the Transportation Committee

09:06 - 09.512 on how you want to see this handled, because it's a huge issue.

09:06 - 11.781 And make sure even though panic doesn't represent you,

09:06 - 13.725 just give them hell all the time up in that area.

09:06 - 19.789 Anyone else want to comment on that issue or.

09:06 - 20.857 No, no.

09:06 - 23.626 All right, well.

09:06 - 27.087 We'll move on then to, Doctor Bolton here.

09:06 - 31.658 Thank you for adjusting this for the short folks.

09:06 - 32.703 My pleasure.

09:06 - 35.729 Doctor David Bolton, North York borough.

09:06 - 39.876 Just to piggyback quick, we have a road in North

09:06 - 43.437 York, North George Street that comes down through.

09:06 - 48.275 We just had to go out and get $600,000 in grants for storm water

09:06 - 54.491 along the state road, because the laws say that the boroughs have to pay for that.

09:06 - 57.393 The townships don't. So,

09:06 - 59.195 one quick note.

09:06 - 02.222 Data centers, let's start calling them data mills.

09:07 - 04.400 Let's start thinking about that.

09:07 - 06.269 Because of the water consumption.

09:07 - 08.505 Let's put them on rivers and creeks.

09:07 - 13.100 Let's get them solarize, and let's get them out of our town centers

09:07 - 17.137 and our commercial centers and put them where they can

09:07 - 21.575 effectively work without affecting our infrastructures.

09:07 - 24.812 And water is a big part of that. But

09:07 - 26.724 so. So the

09:07 - 29.726 reason I'm standing up here is because a couple of years ago,

09:07 - 32.853 I did an extensive, research

09:07 - 36.356 on property taxes and school choice.

09:07 - 41.571 I published a dissertation on that,

09:07 - 45.508 what is the problem in my study?

09:07 - 48.535 It effectively works to shift

09:07 - 51.638 all of the property taxes to a consumption tax.

09:07 - 56.252 Now, we know that people that have more money are going to purchase more things.

09:07 - 57.387 Bigger things.

09:07 - 00.581 We put luxury, sales tax on that,

09:08 - 03.827 at 6 to 8%.

09:08 - 06.854 And it works. It covers the shortfall.

09:08 - 12.202 Senator Argyle, I, I've done look through his research.

09:08 - 17.264 I've commented on him extensively in my research and it works.

09:08 - 18.908 Where's the problem?

09:08 - 21.935 And why can't we get this done? And

09:08 - 27.283 sure, the problem is simple, human nature.

09:08 - 29.552 And if you want, I'll. I'll show you the scars.

09:08 - 32.579 I have all over my body from dealing with this issue.

09:08 - 34.181 People loved half of the bill.

09:08 - 36.693 They love the idea

09:08 - 40.287 of getting rid of an unfair, mechanism

09:08 - 45.959 that dates back to at least the 1800s on how we fund our public schools.

09:08 - 49.706 And if you read the state constitution, it's one of the most important things

09:08 - 51.574 that we are charged to do.

09:08 - 55.302 And so whenever you talk about getting rid of the property tax,

09:08 - 58.514 everybody's pretty much hell yeah.

09:08 - 04.187 Then you say now to fill the gap, we need to put the sales tax on more items.

09:09 - 07.247 We need to up the sales tax, we need to up the property tax.

09:09 - 11.294 And all of a sudden, the constituents across Pennsylvania

09:09 - 14.388 start talking to their representatives and senators, and they start saying,

09:09 - 16.366 we don't like that part.

09:09 - 19.135 All right, well, you can't do one without the other.

09:09 - 23.973 And, when we brought it to the floor of the Senate the last time and it died on

09:09 - 28.011 a, 24, 24 vote, what we saw

09:09 - 33.907 was that those areas that were building new schools, that were raising taxes,

09:09 - 35.385 that had people going

09:09 - 38.912 to local government meetings and saying, damn it, do something.

09:09 - 41.114 Those senators voted yes.

09:09 - 45.828 Senators that weren't hearing it were like,

09:09 - 48.855 so you want me to put up a really nasty vote?

09:09 - 51.701 And it's not an issue in my district.

09:09 - 55.362 And so I think as it becomes a bigger and a bigger issue across Pennsylvania,

09:09 - 57.006 I think we have more of a chance.

09:09 - 00.033 But I'm not going to sit here and tell you, it's going to be easy

09:10 - 04.871 because a lot of us have worked on it for a long time, and it's it's nasty.

09:10 - 10.677 And I think we just saw some, some elections, where it was used as an issue.

09:10 - 14.147 But again, the people that write the political, TV ads,

09:10 - 17.660 they were only talking about half the bill for some odd reason.

09:10 - 18.362 Okay.

09:10 - 21.364 And so, you know, in a way, we've met the, the,

09:10 - 24.624 the enemy and it is simple human nature, fear of change.

09:10 - 27.403 And I'm going to share something.

09:10 - 31.298 Being a former school board member, 500 districts is too much.

09:10 - 34.310 That is, we are paying.

09:10 - 37.080 And I was not popular at a meeting in Montgomery County.

09:10 - 37.948 The issue

09:10 - 40.783 when I mentioned we had 22 school districts that the superintendents

09:10 - 43.810 made an average of $300,000 apiece, plus benefits,

09:10 - 47.056 and I almost was killed by the superintendents on the way out.

09:10 - 50.751 And I've been a huge, huge supporter of public education and all that.

09:10 - 54.097 But we need to start looking at and it's Representative Scott

09:10 - 57.691 who just put a bill out for it, merging our districts together

09:10 - 01.261 and looking at where it works and it doesn't work everywhere,

09:11 - 05.565 but looking at how it works, incentivizing back office reform

09:11 - 08.444 because every district doesn't need a director of transportation,

09:11 - 11.471 a director of cafeteria services, a director of facilities.

09:11 - 14.083 We need to look at how we can be strategic.

09:11 - 17.653 But all of you, as boroughs, also need to do something that we did in

09:11 - 21.314 our district is meet with your school districts on a regular basis.

09:11 - 24.694 They need to understand what's being built in your communities.

09:11 - 25.728 They need to have input.

09:11 - 30.633 Because if you go to build three, 4 or 5, 600 houses, 600 houses

09:11 - 34.461 is building a new elementary school at an average cost of $50 million.

09:11 - 37.874 So understand that when you go to do that, which might sound great,

09:11 - 39.208 this building is coming in.

09:11 - 42.111 We're going to have to build a new school, but also when you want

09:11 - 46.239 to put the burden on the school district for a new traffic study or a new life

09:11 - 49.609 or a new improvement, you're putting it on all the taxpayers.

09:11 - 52.879 So sometimes waive those fees for the school district,

09:11 - 54.157 because it's only going to come back

09:11 - 56.159 because you're going to pay a new school taxes.

09:11 - 00.129 So there are definitely ways to reduce what our property taxes are.

09:12 - 03.290 Even if we didn't go to that type of program with a vote may not come through,

09:12 - 06.010 but we all have to be willing to work together in order to do it

09:12 - 08.738 right.

09:12 - 11.174 Thank you. Ron.

09:12 - 15.068 Senator Kim, I can, I agree with, my colleagues here.

09:12 - 17.380 Just one example for the city of Harrisburg.

09:12 - 21.274 You know, we are about 50% tax exempt properties thanks to the capital.

09:12 - 23.319 We love being the capital city. We love it.

09:12 - 24.921 They don't pay taxes.

09:12 - 29.649 And then the rest of the residents, the again, the 50,000, 1 in 4 live in poverty.

09:12 - 33.963 And so we're going to say you don't have to pay property taxes

09:12 - 37.733 huge when, but you're going to pay more for your clothing,

09:12 - 41.037 your food, you're going to pay something, your pension, your retirement.

09:12 - 46.299 And so for that property tax elimination, again, I love the title.

09:12 - 48.478 It's not going to work for every place.

09:12 - 51.638 And I think it's going to hurt, my area even more.

09:12 - 57.277 Countywide, man, I grew up in Virginia countywide school district.

09:12 - 59.255 Oh my gosh.

09:12 - 03.059 The efficiency, the ability to have more sports

09:13 - 05.294 and programing for kids, you know, kids who don't do

09:13 - 07.663 well in school will go to school to for lacrosse

09:13 - 11.024 or there's so many more options countywide.

09:13 - 14.327 Please, we can do that. But we just have to.

09:13 - 18.040 A lot of people need to bring down the ego and, collaborate.

09:13 - 19.642 But I think that's where we need to go.

09:13 - 23.069 67 counties, school districts versus 500.

09:13 - 24.330 I think that's the way to go.

09:13 - 31.087 Okay.

09:13 - 34.181 We're moving on to the next question in the back corner.

09:13 - 38.251 Hi, I'm Joanne toasty baozi from Belfast borough.

09:13 - 41.731 First of all, Senator Kim, I also grew up in Virginia

09:13 - 43.566 with the county wide school district.

09:13 - 46.593 And I agree with you 100%.

09:13 - 49.372 I have two quick questions.

09:13 - 54.534 One of them is kind of the other side of the data center issue.

09:13 - 59.739 We definitely need to make sure that we don't hurt our residents with,

09:13 - 04.778 bringing in excess costs for the water and the electricity and all that.

09:14 - 07.857 The other side for borough governments

09:14 - 11.084 is that has I comes in where

09:14 - 16.265 expect where we need often for the slightly larger boroughs to look at

09:14 - 20.327 how we can strategically use a I

09:14 - 23.597 but we don't have the tools or the knowledge,

09:14 - 27.434 how to do that effectively and safely

09:14 - 31.238 combined with the, open records law,

09:14 - 34.784 is there something that the legislature can do?

09:14 - 36.319 That's my first question.

09:14 - 38.521 The other I'm flipping over to transportation.

09:14 - 42.391 Last year, the, legislature, did

09:14 - 46.662 not fund, public transit as necessary.

09:14 - 51.057 Throughout the state are smaller boroughs and townships

09:14 - 55.228 do not, are have are struggling to get on.

09:14 - 58.665 We lost our public transit and we've closed together

09:14 - 01.177 transit system for our borough.

09:15 - 05.848 The surrounding townships have nothing, and we're and we're being the county.

09:15 - 09.018 See, it's a real problem for the whole county

09:15 - 12.045 because of the lack of public transportation.

09:15 - 15.548 So what are you all going to do about that one?

09:15 - 16.615 What she said?

09:15 - 21.521 What she.

09:15 - 24.234 Sounded.

09:15 - 25.334 You were.

09:15 - 26.502 You were reaching for the mic.

09:15 - 29.071 It was you could you can draw straws too.

09:15 - 32.732 So I'll, I'll take on your I, first of all, Bell phone County.

09:15 - 35.778 We got our dog there at a great, dog place.

09:15 - 37.713 Was not a puppy mill, by the way.

09:15 - 41.384 So, you know, great little town to go out to, do business.

09:15 - 46.155 But the I up tomorrow, representative or Ty,

09:15 - 47.590 who is my co-chair on

09:15 - 51.251 the communications technology committee, he and I did a bill together

09:15 - 56.365 for education of AI to making sure that we put money into educating

09:15 - 00.360 not only our students, but our communities to understand what this really is

09:16 - 01.570 and how to really use it,

09:16 - 05.074 because it's come at us so fast and so hard that there's really been

09:16 - 09.602 no opportunity, to use it for that when it comes to the transportation issue,

09:16 - 11.081 this is

09:16 - 14.774 important to all of you from small town USA, small town Pennsylvania,

09:16 - 19.779 because the fight on the funding for transportation was about Septa,

09:16 - 23.459 which is basically in the greater Philadelphia area, that we were

09:16 - 26.495 putting all this money into that, and no one really wanted to hear.

09:16 - 30.199 It wasn't just about Septa, it was about what you just brought out,

09:16 - 33.693 that your borough lost the only transportation that it had.

09:16 - 35.571 Your representatives

09:16 - 39.032 and your senators need to hear that, and they need to hear that loud and clear,

09:16 - 42.812 where Septa is the biggest funder that we need to put money in for.

09:16 - 47.249 And if we lose that money in Septa, about 2 million people transportation in

09:16 - 50.844 the southeast will freeze, where about 40% of the state's budget comes from.

09:16 - 52.555 But it's not only about that.

09:16 - 55.582 My small community in Pottstown needed the money for that.

09:16 - 59.619 So in this budget that we hopefully starting today,

09:16 - 02.598 will not be here till August fighting for,

09:17 - 06.135 we should see a solution to this that we didn't in the last budget.

09:17 - 09.162 We kick the can down the lane, which I think was a massive mistake.

09:17 - 12.074 But your voice needs to be heard in those small communities

09:17 - 14.410 that you also want to see a solution to it.

09:17 - 16.779 Because all we were hearing is we're funding Septa

09:17 - 18.748 that's sucking all the money out of transportation.

09:17 - 20.383 And that wasn't true.

09:17 - 23.219 Your smaller towns will lost that money and you lost your ability

09:17 - 25.345 to transportation. But that was never heard.

09:17 - 31.193 So Reichert was right to talk a little bit about the I, too.

09:17 - 34.430 I mean, I, you know, certainly as a, you know, with my background as a planning

09:17 - 36.165 and zoning guy and, and I can certainly see

09:17 - 40.035 a, a use for it and, you know, like flood maps and planning and that sort of stuff.

09:17 - 43.739 I think there's an absolute positive that we can use for now.

09:17 - 46.675 I think I still has a lot of bugs that we need to work out.

09:17 - 50.980 I mean, my, my fiance has pretty much every food allergy known to man.

09:17 - 52.081 And whenever we do a

09:17 - 54.884 I search, I mean, it comes back with some pretty conflicting

09:17 - 57.753 and almost things that could almost kill her.

09:17 - 59.188 So, I mean, there's there's some

09:17 - 01.791 there's there are a lot of things, some challenges that we still have with.

09:18 - 05.118 I, fortunately, Chairman Shirazi

09:18 - 09.131 is, is really tackling that, with the, comms and tech committee.

09:18 - 11.367 So I think that there's some, some potential regulations.

09:18 - 15.805 I think the questions in particular with, right to know

09:18 - 17.673 and keeping records and that sort of stuff,

09:18 - 20.176 that's certainly something I think we'll have to take a look at.

09:18 - 21.844 And I know there's some right to know

09:18 - 25.815 reform legislation going through based off of, Supreme Court case.

09:18 - 29.385 So maybe it might be an opportunity to include that as well.

09:18 - 32.054 But, back to the broader data center.

09:18 - 35.758 Question and I think the two ladies from

09:18 - 37.760 Virginia might be able to speak about this

09:18 - 39.595 a little bit more intelligently than I can.

09:18 - 41.297 You know, when when you look at the data centers,

09:18 - 44.724 one thing that they keep advertising is the tax revenue. And.

09:18 - 48.571 I think in Virginia, they have a personal property tax, right?

09:18 - 51.931 I mean, they they tax you on your lawnmower, they tax you on that stuff.

09:18 - 55.611 So whenever the property taxes are being calculated in Virginia,

09:18 - 56.979 they're being taxed on the servers

09:18 - 00.082 and all the stuff on the inside of the data center in Pennsylvania.

09:19 - 01.350 It's just the shell in the land.

09:19 - 05.421 So I don't necessarily think that this is going to be the tax boon

09:19 - 07.156 that everyone believes it's going to be,

09:19 - 11.026 just based off of how tax structures and different, states work.

09:19 - 15.030 So, you know, I thought Doctor Bolton's point earlier,

09:19 - 16.899 I mean, there are a lot of resources that are being

09:19 - 19.926 chewed up by these data centers, whether it's electricity or water.

09:19 - 25.508 I, I would caution everyone to be very, very mindful of what they're looking at

09:19 - 28.844 in, property tax revenue that might potentially

09:19 - 31.580 come in to a municipality or a school district or a county.

09:19 - 35.017 It, might be based off of some calculations from another state

09:19 - 36.876 that has a different tax structure. So

09:19 - 39.455 thank you,

09:19 - 40.123 Senator Kim.

09:19 - 43.993 I just want to commend the our local residents,

09:19 - 47.763 I think a former city council member and looking at our budget,

09:19 - 52.926 the structural deficit trying to pay for fire and police and all the employees,

09:19 - 56.038 the data centers are very tempting in the beginning.

09:19 - 59.299 Like, we would just get a windfall of, you know, like it would be my

09:20 - 02.611 it would solve all of our problems.

09:20 - 06.081 But because the residents showed up and showed out at these meetings,

09:20 - 07.983 they pushed back on us.

09:20 - 10.753 And that was I. I wish they would hear that.

09:20 - 11.854 You know, a lot of elected

09:20 - 14.881 officials have changed their minds because of the pressure and the

09:20 - 18.918 the push from the local, local residents.

09:20 - 19.995 And they did their work.

09:20 - 20.230 You know,

09:20 - 25.000 we talk about us being dysfunctional, partly true that we don't get things done,

09:20 - 30.306 but the local residents really changed the way we thought about data centers.

09:20 - 31.440 And I just want to commend them.

09:20 - 33.976 We're on PC and by the way, so no f words.

09:20 - 37.437 Joe. Oh, okay.

09:20 - 43.576 I have to say.

09:20 - 45.521 So if they're listening to PC,

09:20 - 48.548 I got a lot more interesting.

09:20 - 50.827 I'm grateful for the

09:20 - 53.853 for the pushback and their voices.

09:20 - 57.633 Okay.

09:20 - 00.860 We're going to move on to the next question down front. Jen.

09:21 - 02.671 Good morning panel.

09:21 - 04.273 My name is Jen Dean Inman.

09:21 - 06.442 I'm the borough council president of Boston, PA.

09:21 - 09.469 And if you don't know where that is, come north of I-80.

09:21 - 12.939 We are the southernmost borough in Potter County.

09:21 - 15.584 So my first I have two quick questions.

09:21 - 20.522 One, that I would like to direct to Senator Argo, being that it's about Blake.

09:21 - 24.050 But a second question to the four of you that none of you addressed

09:21 - 28.464 the first for you, Senator, by the way, also West Chester born.

09:21 - 30.633 So nice to see you, sir.

09:21 - 33.660 For rural burrows, without local business sectors and a

09:21 - 38.998 viable industrial sites that we are trying to activate,

09:21 - 43.979 what is the state's current appetite for pairing economic development

09:21 - 47.383 tools with municipal stabilization

09:21 - 50.576 funding other than DC Ed?

09:21 - 56.149 Say that again.

09:21 - 57.494 For rural

09:21 - 00.929 boroughs such as my own with under 500 people.

09:22 - 02.631 So sorry, representative.

09:22 - 06.159 Sorry I cut my teeth at goodwill, but Pottstown is not small.

09:22 - 09.905 For us rural boroughs

09:22 - 13.499 with local business, without a local business sector.

09:22 - 18.438 But we have viable industrial sites that we are trying

09:22 - 21.674 to rehabilitate, revitalize.

09:22 - 27.222 What is the state's current appetite for pairing economic development

09:22 - 32.628 on these building with municipal stabilization funding?

09:22 - 37.824 In other words, is there another door we can open besides DCD

09:22 - 43.162 to help blighted properties, abandoned industrial properties?

09:22 - 47.667 Up where I am, I sit neatly between Emporium and Counter Sport

09:22 - 50.713 and the three of us, including Port Allegheny, all

09:22 - 54.440 have these buildings that sit empty, sir.

09:22 - 58.587 Yeah, and I don't want to get into the I data

09:22 - 02.324 center debate, but we don't necessarily want that.

09:23 - 04.693 We keep the wild, wild.

09:23 - 08.230 And I when I was, I chaired the House Urban.

09:23 - 11.791 Affairs Committee, many, many years ago, and we went to counters for it.

09:23 - 15.104 And I remember my colleagues were like, we're going where?

09:23 - 18.707 But but yeah, but revitalization is revitalization,

09:23 - 21.243 whether it's in a big community or a small community.

09:23 - 25.238 And when I when I looked at it and my Penn State grad school days,

09:23 - 31.077 when the kiosks were the flavor of the month at DCD,

09:23 - 34.847 and we learned very quickly that tax incentives are helpful.

09:23 - 38.818 But if you don't have the infrastructure, if you don't have the water, the sewer,

09:23 - 43.198 the borough manager or the county manager who will kind of hold hands

09:23 - 46.826 for some of these communities, for some of these programs, you know,

09:23 - 48.370 they're going to go somewhere else.

09:23 - 51.340 One of the in my study,

09:23 - 54.643 someone had tried to put a kiosk that has some pretty,

09:23 - 57.970 pretty hefty tax benefits in the bottom of the strip mine.

09:23 - 02.217 It's now a tax free strip mine because, again, the employees couldn't

09:24 - 05.244 get there, the water couldn't get there, the sewer couldn't get there.

09:24 - 08.614 And and they they needed a professional manager

09:24 - 10.759 to, to to work out all these details.

09:24 - 14.062 And so, you can't do one without the other also.

09:24 - 16.665 I mean Potter County did the demolition fee. All right.

09:24 - 20.726 So that was proof that this isn't just a big city issue.

09:24 - 24.430 But now I would think that, that there are ways.

09:24 - 27.700 But if you don't want to look at dq'd, you're really

09:24 - 30.646 you're putting your hands behind your back on this.

09:24 - 32.748 That's that's where most of the goodies are for

09:24 - 36.051 most of it is helping to Carley, who's sitting in this room,

09:24 - 39.078 has been a wonderful, wonderful help to us.

09:24 - 43.015 However, I'm wondering if there are other opportunities that we can knock on.

09:24 - 47.887 We we have seen some success as well with the, the Chris program.

09:24 - 51.123 The legislature has authorized,

09:24 - 53.836 the governor to do, two of those a year.

09:24 - 55.637 Tamaqua is taking benefit of it.

09:24 - 00.533 It's one of the reasons why we're getting a new, dental college, in in Tamaqua.

09:25 - 04.237 Most governors have been a little reluctant to do it.

09:25 - 09.751 And, and but that would be, I think another way that should this

09:25 - 14.814 governor offer, it could be it could be utilized by more communities.

09:25 - 18.861 Thank you, sir, and my last question is to all four of you.

09:25 - 21.029 And none of you address this.

09:25 - 23.289 So I live in the health care desert

09:25 - 26.068 and it is a real problem.

09:25 - 29.262 And we recently lost Bradford Regional E.R.

09:25 - 32.875 we are watching in real time the dismantling

09:25 - 36.669 of UPMC Cole, a critical access hospital.

09:25 - 40.439 Only in general is losing services

09:25 - 44.377 just about once a month now thanks to Kaleida.

09:25 - 47.356 So for boroughs that are 45,

09:25 - 50.516 60, 120 minutes from the nearest hospital,

09:25 - 53.896 any remaining acute care for that,

09:25 - 56.989 what is the state's actual plan?

09:25 - 02.471 And is there a legislation moving that addresses rural health care access

09:26 - 05.741 specifically, or are we just going to sit and watch this

09:26 - 09.835 happen? You.

09:26 - 16.785 So yes, you're much bigger than Pottstown but voice for the smaller.

09:26 - 17.953 So I should have referred to them first.

09:26 - 21.723 But Pottstown is going through that with the hospital that we have there right

09:26 - 24.593 now. Yes. But sir Gilbert's ville just opened up.

09:26 - 28.721 But but what I'm what I'm getting at is that Lisa Borowski

09:26 - 33.192 has gotten a bill about, equity firms coming in and taking over and dismantling

09:26 - 34.970 health care in the Commonwealth.

09:26 - 36.471 We've also tried to pass a bill

09:26 - 38.941 for the smaller communities that can't find physicians

09:26 - 42.077 to allow nurse practitioners to practice in the community.

09:26 - 45.538 So at least there is, something of medical in those who salaries.

09:26 - 49.108 This is a huge issue that our health committee has definitely taken on.

09:26 - 52.411 No one is sitting back on it at all because we all know it.

09:26 - 54.456 It's affecting each and every one of us.

09:26 - 59.485 And while I may come from a more dense area, even in our area,

09:26 - 02.864 as these hospitals are disappearing and Gilbert's ville is not a full hospital

09:27 - 04.933 that open by any stretch of the imagination,

09:27 - 08.661 it's more like a little bit of a a little bit better than a walk in clinic.

09:27 - 12.965 But even in my community that I'll refer to as Pottstown,

09:27 - 14.743 when cancer disappeared

09:27 - 18.914 and ICU disappeared and maternity disappeared, and those people may not have

09:27 - 23.376 transportation to go a half hour to either Phoenixville or up to Redding,

09:27 - 25.387 where we all experiencing it.

09:27 - 30.483 We saw that the governor tried to help in, Chester County or Delco.

09:27 - 32.594 I can't remember which one that Dell Delco.

09:27 - 34.963 Yeah, well, we put

09:27 - 38.924 crosier tens of millions of dollars for them just to walk anyway.

09:27 - 42.004 So these are definitely issues that we know.

09:27 - 46.432 And we we yell about it a lot in caucus to try and find the solution

09:27 - 47.642 and how we can.

09:27 - 50.779 Because when all these big corporations came in and took over health

09:27 - 53.949 care throughout not only the Commonwealth, with the United States in and care

09:27 - 57.043 about any of us, they cared about profit at the end of the day,

09:27 - 58.754 not keeping us alive.

09:27 - 01.056 Oh, how much money are we going to make now?

09:28 - 02.357 We're trying to grab back that

09:28 - 06.194 and say, no, you need to care about local and local control of these facilities.

09:28 - 09.355 And Lisa Borowski, I think, has two bills that address this.

09:28 - 11.601 Yeah.

09:28 - 15.937 So Tower Health is 100% backed by UPMC.

09:28 - 18.673 So that should say a lot. Also.

09:28 - 19.208 Yeah.

09:28 - 21.510 But yeah thank you.

09:28 - 23.078 Okay.

09:28 - 25.480 Thank thank you Jen.

09:28 - 28.483 We'll move on to our next, question.

09:28 - 29.951 Right here down front.

09:28 - 34.547 Jason on the line is, four city Borough council up above, Scranton, Pennsylvania.

09:28 - 38.660 I just wanted to get back to the debate about the doing away

09:28 - 40.796 with the school taxes.

09:28 - 45.033 Now, how would the local municipalities actually fund themselves?

09:28 - 48.236 Would we just still keep the state property or the local property

09:28 - 51.497 tax and then the school tax would just be eliminated?

09:28 - 53.942 Or is it both of them that get eliminated through the.

09:28 - 56.344 No, it's just the school district property tax.

09:28 - 00.573 We had so much difficulty, dealing with that.

09:29 - 05.387 I understand property taxes can also raise some issues

09:29 - 09.257 with boroughs and counties, but we said no, just just school districts.

09:29 - 10.826 That's where quite honestly.

09:29 - 12.327 And I don't think that message actually

09:29 - 16.288 got out that well to local municipalities because there was just

09:29 - 20.268 no school districts, only were were the focus of the bill.

09:29 - 22.404 Thank you. Okay. Good question.

09:29 - 25.931 Well, next question will move to the back of the room.

09:29 - 27.665 Sorry.

09:29 - 30.479 David O'Donnell,

09:29 - 33.506 sellersville Borough, Bucks County.

09:29 - 36.842 So I want to go back to the data center piece.

09:29 - 41.189 I appreciate the idea of getting referendums and everything,

09:29 - 45.050 because it is nice to have the ability to say yes or no,

09:29 - 51.290 but we're saying yes or no to a very flawed product, so to say, like,

09:29 - 57.873 the regulations around it need to be fast tracked in a major way

09:29 - 01.042 because there's no regulations on the noise,

09:30 - 04.112 there's no regulations on how they use energy or anything else.

09:30 - 07.215 Like, I appreciate what you said before about, you know, Virginia with,

09:30 - 10.552 how they go with property pieces and everything.

09:30 - 12.187 That's that would be fantastic.

09:30 - 15.314 But we all know that's not going to happen here. So

09:30 - 21.153 it comes down to the disconnect between local and state,

09:30 - 24.924 which is how they get these data centers in

09:30 - 29.161 even when people are trying to fight against it.

09:30 - 34.342 So what are you guys doing to ensure that the regulations,

09:30 - 37.369 even when these data centers do get put in, don't

09:30 - 40.806 destroy.

09:30 - 44.086 Right, right.

09:30 - 46.521 Just do I love having you guys all here.

09:30 - 48.924 Could I just do a quick survey?

09:30 - 53.285 Who is working on an ordinance that would, control data centers right now?

09:30 - 55.664 Good. Okay.

09:30 - 59.534 And is this all set in stone, or you just have a set in stone?

09:30 - 01.937 It's an ordinance right now,

09:31 - 05.874 so very few who would be supportive of doing a moratorium.

09:31 - 08.901 So you guys get these ordinances in place.

09:31 - 12.614 Okay,

09:31 - 14.749 last question.

09:31 - 19.888 Who is for local control versus the state doing it?

09:31 - 22.891 Local control, please.

09:31 - 23.793 Thank you.

09:31 - 28.420 And how about state statewide if you're okay.

09:31 - 29.966 Thank you.

09:31 - 31.266 That's super helpful.

09:31 - 31.600 Yeah.

09:31 - 32.134 That's super hot.

09:31 - 34.502 One thing and you probably know this already,

09:31 - 36.671 but it was kind of astonishing

09:31 - 38.974 to some of the folks that I'm working with back home.

09:31 - 41.409 I think it was the Wall Street Journal had come out with an article

09:31 - 44.870 that said the most of these are not going to be built.

09:31 - 49.508 We're at a time where, you know, developers, what do they do?

09:31 - 50.386 They develop.

09:31 - 52.587 All right. So they're out there. How about here?

09:31 - 54.556 How about here? How about here? How about here?

09:31 - 58.460 And if a community welcomes, something like this because of the tax

09:31 - 01.820 benefits or whatever, you know, those are more likely to go ahead

09:32 - 06.592 if a community, through legal methods says essentially go to hell,

09:32 - 08.570 they're probably going to look somewhere else,

09:32 - 11.206 probably being, I guess, the operative word.

09:32 - 15.343 But we're in that stage right now where there's a whole lot suggested.

09:32 - 18.771 And I guess I think everybody tells me we need some.

09:32 - 21.016 We don't need one on every corner.

09:32 - 24.319 And and so what would it appears to me right now is we're still in

09:32 - 29.048 that early stage where developers are doing their thing and prospecting

09:32 - 33.218 and trying to see, you know, where does it fit, where does it not fit.

09:32 - 37.966 And those that seem to be the most welcomed are those

09:32 - 41.827 that don't have a lot of neighbors, preferably no neighbors.

09:32 - 46.665 Find the old abandoned steel mill or the old abandoned, coal mine site

09:32 - 49.844 that, you know, you're not going to have any

09:32 - 53.305 anybody showing up at the borough council meeting saying, hell no.

09:32 - 55.483 But the ones that come in and say,

09:32 - 59.354 well, we'd like to take that, you know, that beautiful green piece of,

09:32 - 03.582 you know, farmland that's in, 200 people's backyards?

09:33 - 05.894 You're probably going to hear about that one.

09:33 - 09.864 And so that still seems to be the stage that we're in right now,

09:33 - 12.200 but we're all learning a lot more about this issue,

09:33 - 15.227 let's be honest, than we, any of us knew five years ago.

09:33 - 16.438 It's trial by fire.

09:33 - 16.839 Yeah.

09:33 - 18.573 Representative Ryker,

09:33 - 21.810 as I say, I would encourage you to handle this more on the local level.

09:33 - 23.745 I mean, you know, conditional uses, right?

09:33 - 28.374 I mean, you can go and you can have noise, you know, studies you can have

09:33 - 29.884 if for solar. We did glare.

09:33 - 30.952 I mean, a lot of these things

09:33 - 34.723 can be handled in a conditional use, I think far more effectively.

09:33 - 38.059 And per the requirements and needs

09:33 - 41.196 of your municipality than we can on the state with a broad statewide thing.

09:33 - 44.966 So again, that's why I think local control is absolutely critical to this.

09:33 - 48.269 I mean, we don't want any sort of fast track in the Commonwealth

09:33 - 50.505 where these things are get, you know, extra approval.

09:33 - 52.807 And as soon as the Commonwealth starts putting their fingers in that

09:33 - 54.843 and then you start to lose local control.

09:33 - 57.645 So again, I think as chair. Sorry.

09:33 - 59.280 So you're saying I think, you know,

09:33 - 02.550 the fight is, is on the local level here and we'll give you every tool that we can.

09:34 - 05.286 But at the end of the day, I think boroughs

09:34 - 08.313 and municipalities are the best suited to be able to regulate

09:34 - 12.427 the placement of these things through zoning, through conditional use.

09:34 - 15.687 They can handle some of the, you know, the, the ill effects on the community.

09:34 - 19.801 And, and I think as, as chair Cerise, you're saying, you know, even a referendum

09:34 - 23.228 might be a great way for our community to be able to voice

09:34 - 26.498 one way or another, whether they want a project of this magnitude.

09:34 - 28.610 There are

09:34 - 31.746 to your question, there are probably 25 bills right now

09:34 - 36.909 in the House under regulation of how the data centers can be, built.

09:34 - 40.746 I know I'm working on five because I met with my local community members

09:34 - 42.424 and the things that they had to say that

09:34 - 44.426 we're trying to come out with but one other bill

09:34 - 46.828 that we're pushing hard, that I've been trying to get a pass

09:34 - 50.632 because my township brought it to my attention, was they cannot have

09:34 - 53.659 an NDA of any way, shape or form.

09:34 - 56.504 They have to say who wants to build on that property?

09:34 - 00.098 Because it's the right of everybody, the people, and of course, all of you

09:35 - 02.844 to be able to say if they want them in their community or not,

09:35 - 04.403 that's what local control looks like.

09:35 - 09.218 All right.

09:35 - 11.052 We're running about.

09:35 - 12.654 We have about five minutes left.

09:35 - 15.523 We'll try to get to all the questions. So quick, quick question.

09:35 - 19.017 And we'll try to do the lightning round here in the back there.

09:35 - 24.823 Dave Wescott and from Littles Town Borough in Adams County.

09:35 - 27.869 Going to go totally different direction.

09:35 - 31.105 This has to do with DEP and,

09:35 - 36.201 Pennsylvania state unfunded mandates that they have had in the past

09:35 - 39.314 and are going to continue to do in the future.

09:35 - 40.882 Give us an example.

09:35 - 47.655 The last one, which was the Latin copper, where burns and also the townships

09:35 - 54.195 that had water and sewer had to fund entirely for the surveys involved.

09:35 - 58.266 Without the DEP even doing one single test

09:35 - 01.293 to find out whether or not it was an issue or not.

09:36 - 05.206 So what is the state going to do to be able to help the borough

09:36 - 10.168 so that they don't have to 100% pay for those unfunded mandates

09:36 - 12.314 or positive?

09:36 - 16.275 Reichert Ms4 right. Ms4.

09:36 - 20.455 Yeah, I mean, I know it's more than a mix for, drinking water, blood and copper

09:36 - 24.926 and or the lighting properly and also and also a future for,

09:36 - 28.420 the Chesapeake Bay initiative and so on and so forth.

09:36 - 30.932 All of them have been unfunded mandates.

09:36 - 36.271 For example, in 2012, DEP came out with us

09:36 - 41.876 needing to do a work for our sewer works for the Chesapeake Bay initiative.

09:36 - 46.271 We spent $8.8 million on a bond in order to pay for it.

09:36 - 50.585 We will still be paying for it in 2035.

09:36 - 53.655 To finish it off is depending on how big your municipality I might.

09:36 - 56.682 My my municipality is 4000. What?

09:36 - 56.991 Right. Wait.

09:36 - 57.126 What?

09:36 - 59.060 I'm saying like I think Greencastle borough

09:36 - 02.363 had to do a project that wasn't even in their municipality, right?

09:37 - 04.999 In order to get the ms4 credits and all that sort of stuff.

09:37 - 06.301 So I'm very familiar with this

09:37 - 08.303 and with the long and short of it is, is that,

09:37 - 12.040 you know, the Ms4 regulations developed, you know, 30 plus years ago

09:37 - 15.109 for larger municipalities, and they're being applied to smaller

09:37 - 18.313 municipalities based off of population density as things change.

09:37 - 21.349 And the problem is, is that the regulations haven't kept up

09:37 - 23.451 with what the reality of the situation is, right?

09:37 - 26.454 I mean, where you've got, you know, quarter acre plus lots

09:37 - 29.457 and, you know, water, storm water runs off through the grass.

09:37 - 31.125 And that into a system is very different

09:37 - 31.694 than when you've got

09:37 - 35.496 an urbanized environment where you've got, you know, concrete and asphalt

09:37 - 36.564 and all that sort of stuff.

09:37 - 40.335 So the problem really comes down to the fact is that you've got to square peg

09:37 - 42.370 in a round hole with these regulations.

09:37 - 45.640 So I think, yes, I mean, that's an absolute priority for me.

09:37 - 48.276 And I think a lot of our colleagues here is trying to find a way

09:37 - 51.546 to get regulations that actually make sense for the realities

09:37 - 55.483 of the situations that municipalities like Little Town or Greencastle or,

09:37 - 59.411 you know, pick a pick a municipality that's in Club Ms4 has to deal with.

09:37 - 01.222 It's absolutely ridiculous.

09:38 - 04.726 And I and I hope that we can sit down with DEP and kind of come up

09:38 - 07.362 with a solution to this, that again, it makes sense.

09:38 - 09.497 No one wants to drink polluted water, right?

09:38 - 12.433 No one wants to have, you know, all this runoff and everything, but

09:38 - 15.903 the regulations have to make sense for what the reality of the situation is.

09:38 - 18.106 And you all face that every single day.

09:38 - 19.974 You are the ones that have to put up the bill for it.

09:38 - 22.410 We are the ones that have to deal with the storm water,

09:38 - 24.646 you know, fees that are assessed on our things that you know,

09:38 - 26.247 are now going through the courts and everything.

09:38 - 29.408 So yes, absolutely, we need to have those conversations.

09:38 - 30.285 And I think we needed

09:38 - 33.087 to have those conversations five years ago, ten years ago.

09:38 - 36.114 But, you know, and that the problem is, is that again,

09:38 - 38.860 that's we absolutely need to address this.

09:38 - 41.763 And we need to figure out regulations, updated regulations

09:38 - 43.264 that makes sense for the realities

09:38 - 46.324 of some of the small, smaller boroughs that are now in Club Ms4

09:38 - 47.535 or with the water,

09:38 - 49.837 earthy, lead and copper rules and that sort of stuff,

09:38 - 51.506 because that's going to be the next big thing

09:38 - 52.740 that's going to be coming on all over

09:38 - 55.767 ratepayers, as well as whenever you've got to go through and identify

09:38 - 56.911 all of the lead,

09:38 - 58.913 you know, you're doing the studies and everything that you guys

09:38 - 01.683 have been going through now and then the remediation

09:39 - 05.019 and everything with the, you know, everything has to be done by 2030.

09:39 - 06.821 I mean, is it is going to be so unrealistic.

09:39 - 07.623 And, you know,

09:39 - 09.724 if you think you've had some contentious meetings now, wait

09:39 - 13.094 till your residents and ratepayers start to get those bills and start showing up.

09:39 - 14.118 So yeah,

09:39 - 17.556 no. What exactly.

09:39 - 19.834 Yeah, yeah.

09:39 - 22.861 Taxpayers in our town stop.

09:39 - 26.965 I agree with you 100%.

09:39 - 27.543 Okay.

09:39 - 30.044 So we're going to we're going to move on to the next question.

09:39 - 31.612 Thank you very much for your question.

09:39 - 34.415 One last question here down front.

09:39 - 35.883 Because we're running out of time.

09:39 - 38.519 So, my name is Grace.

09:39 - 41.546 I am a council person for Wilson Barrow in Northampton County.

09:39 - 43.925 Bob Freeman is actually my roughhouse representative,

09:39 - 45.326 so I would the Bob Freeman.

09:39 - 49.387 My question for you is, for borough budgets,

09:39 - 53.935 borough, council, one of the biggest things that we have is our budgets.

09:39 - 55.036 Which budgets?

09:39 - 57.739 As you. I'm a treasurer, I'm a tax preparer.

09:39 - 00.308 So I know a lot of financial things in my background.

09:40 - 03.368 And the two biggest things with budgets, both at home with Borough

09:40 - 06.605 and everything else, is income and expenses.

09:40 - 09.650 There's not a lot we can do of expenses, especially with the rising

09:40 - 10.818 cost of health care,

09:40 - 13.621 which at least for our borough, was one of the biggest reasons

09:40 - 16.648 why we had issues with our budget this year.

09:40 - 20.595 However, with the minimum wage of Pennsylvania being 725 an hour

09:40 - 25.891 compared to the rest of our thing, of our neighboring states.

09:40 - 29.003 Not only I promise, I'm trying to get to the question

09:40 - 31.239 as quickly as I can because I respect everybody. Time.

09:40 - 36.077 Because not only with increasing the income help our local areas,

09:40 - 39.471 because it would allow us to not raise our it

09:40 - 43.117 and also give us more additional thing, but it would also help Pennsylvania

09:40 - 44.719 to increase more grants as well.

09:40 - 49.080 Is there any way that we can increase the minimum wage to help forever

09:40 - 51.192 in multiple ways, by increasing our grants,

09:40 - 53.752 as well as increasing our local budgets as well?

09:40 - 55.330 Thank you Chris.

09:40 - 56.931 Happy to answer that.

09:40 - 57.366 Thank you.

09:40 - 00.392 I will tell Bob Freeman that he got a Whoo-Hoo today.

09:41 - 02.203 He's going to love that.

09:41 - 03.105 I'm gonna see him tonight.

09:41 - 06.374 So City of Harrisburg went through at 47.

09:41 - 08.042 We were economic distressed.

09:41 - 12.280 And once we got into act 47, with the help of the state, we were able to have more.

09:41 - 14.348 Let's say, tools in your toolbox.

09:41 - 17.852 And I don't think a borough, a township, a city

09:41 - 21.389 should go into financial distress to have more things that they can do

09:41 - 23.324 in order to raise revenue for their district.

09:41 - 27.361 So I am looking for ways that you can do this outside of act

09:41 - 30.388 47, to be able to raise revenue.

09:41 - 31.366 There's a drink tax.

09:41 - 34.202 Let's say, you know, things for people out of town coming in.

09:41 - 37.338 We'll have to pay more, so that we can help with our,

09:41 - 40.441 our daily revenues raising the middle age, 725

09:41 - 44.378 an hour right now absolutely hasn't been raised for over 16 years.

09:41 - 47.882 It's on the table and I'm hopeful that it will get passed.

09:41 - 50.084 I know some of us are not for that.

09:41 - 51.786 But I think it's long overdue.

09:41 - 55.280 We should have done it, increased it slowly over time.

09:41 - 57.949 Instead of getting from 725 to 15.

09:41 - 00.027 It's.

09:42 - 02.730 Yeah. So it would be more of a transition.

09:42 - 05.757 But I think we should have done that as, cost inflation rose.

09:42 - 08.736 Thank you so much for your question.

09:42 - 10.605 Well, thank you, very much,

09:42 - 14.275 everyone, for attending this morning and for our panelists.

09:42 - 17.745 You know, we really appreciate,

09:42 - 20.739 your service.

09:42 - 22.950 You want to you have a quick question.

09:42 - 23.552 You can.

09:42 - 24.719 I'm sorry. Okay. I've been here.

09:42 - 25.053 Yeah.

09:42 - 28.079 Yeah.

09:42 - 32.760 Well, first, I just wanted to.

09:42 - 35.029 I'm sorry. I'm Joe are from, Darby Bar.

09:42 - 38.132 The newly elected mayor and Derby,

09:42 - 41.860 one of the first touch on, chairman services.

09:42 - 47.265 I believe he just mentioned, one of Delco finest state rep, Barrass,

09:42 - 50.311 to legislation, that's currently,

09:42 - 53.314 is in committee, one one past the House.

09:42 - 54.949 I think the other is in nice.

09:42 - 57.075 So I just wanted to, encourage all of us to,

09:42 - 00.554 call our state reps and make sure they get behind

09:43 - 04.115 that bill as well, because my community, where I'm from in Delaware County,

09:43 - 09.054 we are very much suffering from, the, health care desert,

09:43 - 13.067 as the other lady mentioned, in her community.

09:43 - 14.969 So this is something that we're suffering

09:43 - 17.038 from everywhere in other parts of the state.

09:43 - 18.940 So I just wanted to recognize that,

09:43 - 21.342 call your reps and make sure they fully get behind this.

09:43 - 24.879 I was at the, the day Crosier Hospital closed.

09:43 - 29.441 And I know Governor Shapiro made it very clear that he's not in support

09:43 - 33.821 of, private equity, basically profiting off our suffering.

09:43 - 36.657 So I encourage you all to make that call to your legislators.

09:43 - 38.626 Rep.

09:43 - 42.229 Ryker, I wanted to also get,

09:43 - 45.256 because I was looking at this online and couldn't seem to get that bill.

09:43 - 49.094 You said you have something in, Judiciary Committee currently,

09:43 - 51.305 I think, House bills 2150.

09:43 - 54.976 I'm pretty sure that's the number on it, I guess 212150.

09:43 - 55.643 Is it?

09:43 - 56.111 Thank you.

09:43 - 00.472 And that's the one required, request in 20% for small amount.

09:44 - 01.816 Thank you so much for that.

09:44 - 04.652 Because, you know, a lot of us, we don't have the staff,

09:44 - 08.022 the manpower for Grant writers and to be as competitive.

09:44 - 11.258 So I think that's going to be very helpful, in some of our cases.

09:44 - 13.427 So thank you for that. So here's my question.

09:44 - 16.130 Yeah. I'm sorry.

09:44 - 19.767 As one of the youngest, as one of the younger mayor in,

09:44 - 23.528 in the Commonwealth, the youngest in my boys history, under 30 years old.

09:44 - 27.908 I've seen a growing interest, from young professionals

09:44 - 32.370 on both sides of the aisle, basically wanting to serve at the local level.

09:44 - 36.751 So I was wondering what, can the state do to basically encourage

09:44 - 39.944 the next generation of leaders to answer municipal leadership?

09:44 - 42.056 That's the one part of my question.

09:44 - 44.149 And then the second part is,

09:44 - 46.827 I'm in my first year in office.

09:44 - 48.462 So I'm new to this.

09:44 - 51.565 But I want to think proactively and think longer term.

09:44 - 56.037 So, I'm interested in what do you guys believe as state officials is going to be

09:44 - 59.898 the biggest challenges facing Pennsylvania borrowers over the next five years?

09:45 - 03.568 And what should we, as local leaders, begin preparing for now?

09:45 - 06.013 So just two questions.

09:45 - 10.508 How can just those out of your question, you just get elevated?

09:45 - 14.112 Yeah.

09:45 - 15.157 Sure.

09:45 - 19.527 I think I think we can, certainly the panel can talk with you afterwards

09:45 - 21.062 if they they have some.

09:45 - 22.396 We really, short on time.

09:45 - 25.099 We want to be respectful of everyone's time.

09:45 - 27.868 Sorry we ran out of time, again.

09:45 - 30.471 You know, we I just want to thank the panel.

09:45 - 34.165 SAB thank you for your service.

09:45 - 37.912 We thank you also for an open door and all of your offices.

09:45 - 41.749 We enjoy working with you, bringing our concerns to you.

09:45 - 43.651 And you've really been receptive over the years.

09:45 - 45.176 So I just want to thank you.

09:45 - 49.925 All right.

09:45 - 51.392 We're going to start.

09:45 - 54.328 So I'd like to welcome this morning,

09:45 - 57.355 Tom cook and his staff.

09:45 - 01.459 He is the Pennsylvania State Fire commissioner.

09:46 - 06.507 And they are going to provide valuable updates on several important

09:46 - 09.534 topics, such as recruitment and retention of fire

09:46 - 14.348 personnel, community risk, reduction, grants

09:46 - 18.743 and loans, as well as the Pennsylvania State Fire Academy.

09:46 - 21.779 So please welcome Tom cook and staff.

09:46 - 28.553 You can.

09:46 - 29.831 Okay.

09:46 - 32.857 Thank you.

09:46 - 37.061 Good morning. Yes.

09:46 - 38.907 All right.

09:46 - 40.608 We're off on the right foot at least. Right.

09:46 - 42.810 I don't have to wake everyone up.

09:46 - 45.713 Appreciate the opportunity to come out,

09:46 - 48.740 and talk a little bit.

09:46 - 53.020 I think the fact that this presentation had to be moved

09:46 - 56.957 into a general session room instead of one of the breakout session

09:46 - 00.552 rooms, speaks to the importance of the topic in the Commonwealth.

09:47 - 02.097 All right.

09:47 - 05.023 And as the state fire commissioner,

09:47 - 07.835 you know, our mission and our

09:47 - 14.032 role is to assist local government and the fire companies with providing

09:47 - 17.735 appropriate fire protection across the Commonwealth.

09:47 - 21.949 The commission really doesn't have regulatory

09:47 - 25.777 authority over the fire departments, which is one of the biggest frustrations

09:47 - 31.249 for me, my staff and probably most of you as municipal officials.

09:47 - 31.726 Okay.

09:47 - 36.463 So we're going to do a real quick overview for anybody that has not seen a

09:47 - 40.225 presentation by the Commission about what the commission is, what it does,

09:47 - 43.404 and then my intent as we move more

09:47 - 46.564 into an open floor Q&A session

09:47 - 51.512 to see, you know, what specific things we can provide information

09:47 - 55.540 to you, all that matter to you at home.

09:47 - 56.618 All right.

09:47 - 59.420 Does that sound good?

09:47 - 01.455 All right.

09:48 - 03.724 So we'll talk about

09:48 - 06.884 the difference in fire services across the Commonwealth.

09:48 - 09.630 And then we'll go through the program areas

09:48 - 13.391 that we deal with that at the commission in Harrisburg.

09:48 - 14.802 All right.

09:48 - 18.763 So when we look at providing fire protection,

09:48 - 23.877 as you all are aware, the municipal codes place the responsibility

09:48 - 27.605 for fire protection squarely on the shoulders of the municipality.

09:48 - 31.242 But the municipal code does not tell you

09:48 - 34.788 specifically how to accomplish that goal.

09:48 - 40.251 It's up to you to develop a plan at the local level that meets the local needs.

09:48 - 41.663 All right.

09:48 - 46.267 Because I can tell you, when you visit one of the 2072

09:48 - 50.628 fire departments across the Commonwealth, you visited one fire department.

09:48 - 54.432 None of the 2072 are the same.

09:48 - 57.378 Okay.

09:48 - 02.206 So you have to have a flexible approach to this, right?

09:49 - 05.286 And when you look at providing fire protection,

09:49 - 08.413 we like to break things down into three categories.

09:49 - 11.983 You have your volunteer fire company,

09:49 - 15.396 which is typically an independent chart, independently

09:49 - 18.890 chartered nonprofit corporation under Pennsylvania law.

09:49 - 23.837 And then there is either a written or a verbal agreement

09:49 - 28.008 between the municipality and the volunteer fire company to provide fire protection

09:49 - 32.537 services to the municipality, or maybe multiple municipalities.

09:49 - 37.675 Then on the other side, you have the municipal career, fire department,

09:49 - 41.388 where the municipality actually organizes

09:49 - 44.358 the fire company under the municipal government.

09:49 - 49.287 It's now a department of the municipal entity and staffed,

09:49 - 53.858 and all of the operating costs are absorbed by the municipal entity.

09:49 - 57.137 So those kind of are our two bookends.

09:49 - 58.696 And then in between

09:50 - 01.275 we have this label we

09:50 - 04.302 use that's combination fire departments.

09:50 - 08.339 And that's where you see the most variation across the Commonwealth.

09:50 - 10.118 Okay.

09:50 - 14.688 So again how creative can we get in organizing fire

09:50 - 18.416 protection for our community is it's a very big bucket.

09:50 - 20.061 All right.

09:50 - 25.189 And there's a lot of different ways to approach that from municipally,

09:50 - 28.526 municipal employees staffing fire trucks

09:50 - 33.841 all the way over to, you know, a pass through of municipal funding.

09:50 - 35.843 And then the actual volunteer fire

09:50 - 38.870 company becomes the employer of the career firefighters.

09:50 - 42.440 And anything in between, any combination in between.

09:50 - 46.110 Okay.

09:50 - 49.814 So we provide funding and financial support

09:50 - 54.118 through a lot of different programs.

09:50 - 57.922 You know, that can be accessed through our website.

09:50 - 03.070 And we are seeking additional funding opportunities

09:51 - 06.864 to support the specific needs that have been identified.

09:51 - 09.843 So from the federal level,

09:51 - 13.070 you can look at the assistance the firefighters grant programs,

09:51 - 18.075 the Safer program, the Fire and Life Safety Grant program.

09:51 - 22.747 There is still some, congressional,

09:51 - 27.227 funding opportunities available if you're lucky enough to compete.

09:51 - 30.354 And we're not right within.

09:51 - 33.066 And I'm trying to keep up with the slide.

09:51 - 36.093 So the on or off, I don't know.

09:51 - 38.672 Within the office.

09:51 - 39.474 Right.

09:51 - 43.401 We manage what we refer to as our annual grant program,

09:51 - 46.580 which is actually officially the fire company and.

09:51 - 49.550 EMS company Grant program.

09:51 - 52.686 And that's probably the one that we all hear the most about

09:51 - 56.113 because it's been in existence since, 1983.

09:51 - 58.126 All right.

09:51 - 03.263 And that's we get up, we get a funding source from gaming funds

09:52 - 08.025 and a couple other smaller sources that sets the available pool of money.

09:52 - 11.229 We take our applications, we take the pool of money.

09:52 - 14.208 We divide it by the number of approved applications.

09:52 - 17.211 And that determines what the awards are each year.

09:52 - 21.973 Right now for this year, we're averaging what is it every 14.

09:52 - 24.719 Oh for the amount.

09:52 - 25.819 Yeah.

09:52 - 27.654 14 to 16. Somewhere in there.

09:52 - 30.224 Yeah. Average for the fire companies. Okay.

09:52 - 34.886 And for the EMS companies they're getting close to 15,000 each company.

09:52 - 37.431 Right. Helps.

09:52 - 39.566 Not enough to operate a fire company.

09:52 - 43.094 You know, you can't operate a fire company on $14,000 a year.

09:52 - 44.705 Right.

09:52 - 47.107 But it helps plug the gap.

09:52 - 51.969 A couple of years ago, we implemented two different capital grant programs.

09:52 - 57.375 The municipal fire, department capital grant, which is.

09:52 - 59.620 We define them in this department.

09:52 - 04.682 They have to have two municipal employees whose primary job is fire suppression.

09:53 - 09.263 Then that fire department becomes eligible for funding under that capital

09:53 - 10.931 grant program.

09:53 - 13.767 The problem with that program is the funding

09:53 - 15.936 is extremely limited right now.

09:53 - 19.497 We get a total of $450,000 to distribute.

09:53 - 21.365 It is a competitive grant.

09:53 - 25.570 So we take applications, we score applications,

09:53 - 30.541 and we award funding number one down until we run out of funding.

09:53 - 35.613 Right now that program's oversubscribed by almost $5 million.

09:53 - 37.625 Okay.

09:53 - 40.785 That's the need across the Commonwealth for funding.

09:53 - 46.157 We also have a training center, capital grant, that, same problem.

09:53 - 49.694 It has a total funding of about $450,000,

09:53 - 54.432 and we're oversubscribed on that one by a few million dollars as well.

09:53 - 57.077 All right.

09:53 - 00.104 Then we have our loan program.

09:54 - 03.507 I can't really see if I'm on or off. So.

09:54 - 06.644 Oh. I'm ahead.

09:54 - 09.590 Okay.

09:54 - 12.459 Usually I'm behind

09:54 - 14.127 as they'll they'll be.

09:54 - 17.154 Feel free to tell you when they get a chance.

09:54 - 18.632 If not.

09:54 - 20.100 But that's why you hire good staff.

09:54 - 22.004 They're supposed to be ahead of the boss, right?

09:54 - 23.504 Right.

09:54 - 28.466 But the loan program is we make a 2% loan, right?

09:54 - 34.548 That we can fund up to, a certain cap on fire

09:54 - 38.318 apparatus and a certain cap on, facilities.

09:54 - 42.213 And I'll let me explain caps later if we get into that.

09:54 - 46.183 There is a merger bonus in the loan program

09:54 - 49.196 that if you merge companies, the loans

09:54 - 52.223 will convert to 1% loans.

09:54 - 53.400 Okay.

09:54 - 56.694 But the caps are nowhere near

09:54 - 01.565 the cost of the projects that we're trying to fund.

09:55 - 02.477 All right.

09:55 - 06.137 So fire apparatus, which is a big topic right now.

09:55 - 09.416 Million dollars for a pumper.

09:55 - 12.443 We can make a loan of $500,000.

09:55 - 16.781 Okay. So.

09:55 - 21.419 Great.

09:55 - 22.896 Okay.

09:55 - 23.164 Yeah.

09:55 - 26.667 This this is the Abc13 or the unconventional gas.

09:55 - 28.969 Well, grant program.

09:55 - 33.164 So where there are Marcellus shale wells being drilled.

09:55 - 35.776 Those counties or counties that are.

09:55 - 38.779 But those counties, we have a grant program

09:55 - 43.974 where we can provide funding to support response to emergencies at those sites.

09:55 - 46.087 All right.

09:55 - 49.313 Again, it's not a super high funded program.

09:55 - 52.926 This year, we gave out a total, amount

09:55 - 56.454 of $433,000 across the whole program.

09:55 - 00.491 Okay.

09:56 - 04.462 And then that's the laundry list.

09:56 - 07.841 Right.

09:56 - 08.676 Other funding.

09:56 - 10.143 Right.

09:56 - 12.679 Relief. Yes.

09:56 - 17.751 So there's a 2% tax on foreign fire insurance.

09:56 - 20.687 So fire insurance policies that are written by companies

09:56 - 24.882 headquartered outside the Commonwealth are assessed at 2% tax.

09:56 - 29.687 That 2% tax is then distributed into three big pots.

09:56 - 34.391 Approximately 42% of the money goes into municipal pensions,

09:56 - 38.572 and then 9% of the money collected goes to the volunteer

09:56 - 42.166 fire service through the Volunteer Firefighters Relief program.

09:56 - 46.103 The original intent of volunteer relief was to provide

09:56 - 49.149 for members of the volunteer fire service

09:56 - 52.743 that were injured or made ill in the line of duty.

09:56 - 56.690 Over the years, the legislation has been mandated

09:56 - 00.785 to become much more oriented to operational funding.

09:57 - 04.598 We are preparing to support an initiative

09:57 - 07.992 from the Pennsylvania Fire and Emergency Services Institute

09:57 - 13.831 to make a legislative change to this program based upon the recommendations

09:57 - 17.635 the commission submitted in December of 2023.

09:57 - 18.946 All right.

09:57 - 23.741 We're going to try and streamline the bureaucratic process with this program

09:57 - 27.621 and basically turn it into an operational funding program.

09:57 - 32.483 As long as you're paying for, supplemental aid and

09:57 - 36.520 coverage for the members of the volunteer fire service.

09:57 - 37.398 Right.

09:57 - 41.859 But it is over the years, the eligible uses have been expanded.

09:57 - 45.005 It's more of the money's going to operational costs

09:57 - 48.032 than anything else right now.

09:57 - 52.670 Well, it's wonderful to be.

09:57 - 56.349 The FG and say for AFG is the federal Program assistance.

09:57 - 58.785 The Fire Fighters Grant program.

09:57 - 00.720 All right. Competitive grant.

09:58 - 05.216 The trick that we need help reinforcing with the fire companies,

09:58 - 08.195 just because the fire company wants something.

09:58 - 11.222 You have to read the notice of funding opportunities.

09:58 - 16.393 And if what you want is not listed in the high priority category for the year,

09:58 - 20.240 it's not going to get funded

09:58 - 23.801 because they run out of money funding the high priority projects

09:58 - 27.247 before they get to the the median for the low

09:58 - 30.274 priority projects.

09:58 - 33.587 I think we talked about everything else.

09:58 - 34.355 Right.

09:58 - 37.381 Recruitment and retention.

09:58 - 40.460 Act 91 of 2020 created the Recruitment

09:58 - 43.454 and Retention Office within the Commission.

09:58 - 47.725 The goal of the Recruitment and Retention Office is to support the needs

09:58 - 53.530 in the Commonwealth for recruiting and retaining firefighters.

09:58 - 54.775 Right.

09:58 - 58.068 We are not a marketing agency that's going to come out

09:58 - 01.238 and do recruiting at the local level.

09:59 - 05.442 We don't have enough staff to support 2000 fire departments at that level.

09:59 - 09.914 We currently are collecting best practices and we were

09:59 - 15.595 we will consult with the local fire departments on setting up programs

09:59 - 18.622 to do better with recruitment and retention.

09:59 - 21.401 Right now, from my perspective,

09:59 - 24.662 traveling the Commonwealth, talking to the fire departments,

09:59 - 28.775 we do not have a huge pool

09:59 - 31.802 of people waiting to join the fire service.

09:59 - 33.981 All right.

09:59 - 37.651 So we're going to start to flip the emphasis within the commission

09:59 - 42.613 from recruitment to hanging on to the people we already have

09:59 - 46.050 that are trained and functioning as firefighters.

09:59 - 47.261 Right.

09:59 - 50.397 And then where we lose the young adults

09:59 - 54.725 because they're busy having families once the kids grow up.

09:59 - 57.995 How do we get those people back?

09:59 - 59.205 Okay.

09:59 - 02.232 Those are going to become our two target areas.

10:00 - 06.280 Really?

10:00 - 09.049 That just says the same thing.

10:00 - 10.717 School program.

10:00 - 11.118 Right.

10:00 - 15.822 We're very active with the school, the high schools, trying to get the

10:00 - 20.517 training programs updated in the schools so that when a high school student

10:00 - 24.822 graduates from a public safety training, education program,

10:00 - 28.401 they're certified as a Pennsylvania firefighter.

10:00 - 31.061 As soon as they turn 18, they're available to go to work.

10:00 - 33.174 Right.

10:00 - 36.910 We're up to what Tracey, 2838

10:00 - 40.170 school programs are now running our training curriculum.

10:00 - 44.117 What were they when we started?

10:00 - 46.686 It was like 20.

10:00 - 49.713 So right.

10:00 - 54.027 Community risk reduction

10:00 - 57.321 is, another piece of what we're looking at.

10:00 - 59.166 Right.

10:00 - 02.192 The bad news that I deliver today,

10:01 - 04.771 we will probably break

10:01 - 07.907 200 civilian fire deaths this calendar year

10:01 - 11.201 for the first time in the history of the Commonwealth's record keeping.

10:01 - 15.348 All right.

10:01 - 17.083 I know fire commission.

10:01 - 19.119 Everybody wants to talk about fire service.

10:01 - 23.447 Civilian fire deaths are not a fire service issue per se.

10:01 - 26.960 It's a fire safety issue.

10:01 - 29.953 Right? We used to call it fire prevention.

10:01 - 33.057 We started calling it community risk reduction. Why?

10:01 - 38.238 Broader approach.

10:01 - 40.073 Right.

10:01 - 40.741 But we will.

10:01 - 43.910 We're on track right now that if the

10:01 - 47.104 the trend sustains itself for the second half of the year,

10:01 - 49.616 Pennsylvania will be number one

10:01 - 53.010 and civilian fire deaths for about the 10th year in a row.

10:01 - 57.281 And we will have the highest number of civilian fire deaths we've ever had.

10:01 - 59.492 All right.

10:01 - 02.395 The new part of the trend,

10:02 - 05.422 they're not dying in ones and twos.

10:02 - 09.526 They're dying in fives and sixes at a time.

10:02 - 11.138 Okay.

10:02 - 13.239 What's the most common building that we see?

10:02 - 16.366 Civilian fire deaths in single family dwellings.

10:02 - 21.405 What's the only construction type that is not required to have sprinklers?

10:02 - 24.317 Single family dwellings.

10:02 - 25.518 Coincidence?

10:02 - 27.821 Question mark.

10:02 - 29.789 Right.

10:02 - 32.950 Is that something that can be controlled at the municipal level?

10:02 - 36.153 Most definitely.

10:02 - 37.064 Okay.

10:02 - 40.090 The other part of community risk reduction is education.

10:02 - 43.560 We're running the best practices of community risk reduction course

10:02 - 45.839 across the Commonwealth.

10:02 - 49.633 We invite municipal officials to attend those classes

10:02 - 53.036 alongside their fire service counterparts.

10:02 - 57.417 Because to make community risk reduction works, it takes a partnership

10:02 - 00.878 between the municipal officials and the fire department.

10:03 - 03.389 The fire department can't do it by itself.

10:03 - 05.716 And the municipality can't do it by itself.

10:03 - 08.629 Right.

10:03 - 11.297 And then lastly, we're in the process of converting

10:03 - 14.591 to a new incident reporting system across the Commonwealth.

10:03 - 17.737 The federal government changed the data standard,

10:03 - 20.406 which required a software update.

10:03 - 24.635 And on top of that, we got we got a two for one whammy with this.

10:03 - 29.439 We also got whacked with our our software contract expiring last July.

10:03 - 32.418 So in addition to moving to a new data collect data

10:03 - 35.445 standard, we're also changing software vendors.

10:03 - 38.749 Yeah.

10:03 - 41.628 Right.

10:03 - 43.663 It's okay.

10:03 - 44.898 Training and certification.

10:03 - 50.093 The other half of my that that's the Harrisburg office or those program areas.

10:03 - 51.838 The other program areas.

10:03 - 54.865 The State Fire Academy at Lewistown, PA.

10:03 - 56.943 Harvey Boyer is the director.

10:03 - 02.673 At the academy, we oversee the fire training system in the Commonwealth.

10:04 - 04.551 We don't run it.

10:04 - 06.286 We accredit instructors.

10:04 - 08.388 We accredit programs.

10:04 - 13.617 It is up to the local entities to decide how to deliver the training.

10:04 - 19.156 Right now, the training centers are organized mostly on a county basis.

10:04 - 21.168 Although we do

10:04 - 24.971 have some community colleges that are functioning

10:04 - 28.532 as ETAs as well as a couple fire departments themselves.

10:04 - 30.343 Okay.

10:04 - 33.746 So the big thing that you have to understand is remember when I opened this

10:04 - 36.840 with the fire commissioner has no regulatory authority.

10:04 - 40.587 One of the big things we hear back from

10:04 - 42.889 the fire service is we need a training standard.

10:04 - 45.291 We need a training standard.

10:04 - 47.460 I don't disagree, but

10:04 - 50.487 I don't have the authority to set a training standard.

10:04 - 55.034 That is up to you, as the local municipal official, to determine

10:04 - 00.139 what the expectation of service level is from your fire department.

10:05 - 02.609 Right now.

10:05 - 05.545 Right.

10:05 - 06.746 So they're right.

10:05 - 09.682 We do fire rescue training through resident Cat,

10:05 - 11.251 what we call academy on the road.

10:05 - 15.321 We will take our resident instructors and send them into the field

10:05 - 16.513 for some programs.

10:05 - 18.225 Right.

10:05 - 21.418 We're doing about 1.2 million

10:05 - 26.857 personnel hours of training in the whole training system across the Commonwealth.

10:05 - 30.861 One of the numbers that's not on this slide.

10:05 - 36.075 The data we have, we're bringing about between 4 and 6000

10:05 - 41.204 new fire fighters into the system every year, which reinforces my statement.

10:05 - 44.508 I don't think we have a recruitment problem.

10:05 - 47.687 Okay.

10:05 - 51.181 If you take 6000 divided by 2000 and fire departments.

10:05 - 54.560 Right, we're bringing new people in.

10:05 - 55.928 Where are they going?

10:05 - 58.955 That's the next gap we got to close.

10:05 - 02.592 All right.

10:06 - 06.339 That talks about that academy on the road.

10:06 - 09.108 This is one of our most popular programs

10:06 - 12.102 from the state where we take training into the field.

10:06 - 17.684 We have, a fire behavior lab, which is the class is called flash over

10:06 - 22.145 recognition to teach firefighters how to recognize changing fire conditions.

10:06 - 26.416 And then we just rolled out a new live fire training trailer

10:06 - 31.664 so that we can take live fire training into the regions of Pennsylvania

10:06 - 35.192 that don't have reasonable travel distance to a training center.

10:06 - 37.093 All right.

10:06 - 38.339 So if your

10:06 - 41.341 fire department's telling you you need to invest $12 million

10:06 - 45.502 in a training center, ask if they've scheduled our trailer yet.

10:06 - 53.543 Yeah.

10:06 - 57.291 All right,

10:06 - 00.927 so this is where this is where the rubber meets the road.

10:07 - 03.629 Which is why I brought the staff. Right?

10:07 - 06.990 You know, we kind of walk up to the microphone.

10:07 - 10.770 We'll try and recognize everybody and turn and see

10:07 - 12.438 what kind of questions we can answer here.

10:07 - 15.432 This morning.

10:07 - 21.647 Morning.

10:07 - 24.517 Wayne kinder, Richland town.

10:07 - 25.486 Borough.

10:07 - 27.920 I want to thank you for personally coming

10:07 - 31.391 to my borough and talking with my fire company and local fire companies.

10:07 - 33.192 And the same for you, captain.

10:07 - 36.887 Coming, Captain Tracy, for coming out.

10:07 - 44.337 Okay, so for a couple of years, I've been trying to figure out why it is

10:07 - 47.707 that there seems to be a decrease in the number of the firefighters

10:07 - 48.731 or the interest,

10:07 - 51.711 some of it's lack of exposure.

10:07 - 55.739 There's so much, the legacy there.

10:07 - 59.242 2 or 3 generations holding it aloft, holding it afloat.

10:08 - 03.723 What I hear

10:08 - 06.559 in the quiet of a back room in privacy

10:08 - 09.553 is this attitude.

10:08 - 12.823 It's attitude and ego.

10:08 - 15.568 It's the leadership.

10:08 - 18.595 It's a tough thing to change as a culture.

10:08 - 21.441 I see you doing it.

10:08 - 22.309 But let me know.

10:08 - 24.811 How's that going?

10:08 - 27.838 So I just realized I

10:08 - 29.916 again, you work with people every day.

10:08 - 31.818 You take them for granted, unfortunately.

10:08 - 32.952 So we'll run.

10:08 - 35.979 Run the that the target list here.

10:08 - 39.392 First I'm here is Harvey Bowyer. He is the.

10:08 - 42.328 He's a deputy fire commissioner's his official title.

10:08 - 44.597 He is the director of the state fire academy.

10:08 - 45.432 Okay.

10:08 - 47.934 Next to him is Tracy Young, Bruin guard.

10:08 - 50.961 She's the program manager for the recruitment and retention.

10:08 - 54.898 And I'm going to have you address that specific question.

10:08 - 58.878 Next to Tracy is Evelyn Manford.

10:08 - 02.205 She is the program manager for the loan and grant programs.

10:09 - 07.010 And then on the far end down there is Christine with us.

10:09 - 10.890 She is the community risk reduction program manager.

10:09 - 14.451 So we we've got everybody represented this morning.

10:09 - 17.164 Okay.

10:09 - 18.798 So, Tracy, do you want to address

10:09 - 21.958 what we're trying to do to change that culture of leadership?

10:09 - 22.835 Sure.

10:09 - 23.737 So mayor thanks.

10:09 - 26.072 And it was awesome the opportunity to come and talk

10:09 - 29.675 with you and the fire department and other students that were there.

10:09 - 33.813 And so it's not about really we've changed our thought

10:09 - 36.840 process of changing the culture to creating a new culture.

10:09 - 40.620 And we understand the leadership culture, and that's very hard to change.

10:09 - 44.891 So what we've had success in several fire departments in the coming month is

10:09 - 48.361 how do they create that new culture with some of the younger generation

10:09 - 49.129 moving forward?

10:09 - 53.823 And we've captured those best practices to really get down to the individual level.

10:09 - 56.502 It does takes myself and my team to come out to really see

10:09 - 00.564 what is happening in your local level, to to work with them on developing plans.

10:10 - 08.314 You. Morning, Commissioner.

10:10 - 12.285 I have, two questions related to training and one about civilian fire.

10:10 - 16.279 Does, Senator Ferry had the LTA funding bill?

10:10 - 22.152 Did that get anywhere or is it still in committee right now?

10:10 - 23.596 So all right.

10:10 - 27.290 So we did provide feedback to that bill.

10:10 - 31.361 And what I don't remember the bill number, Bill, if you remember it,

10:10 - 32.538 I do it myself.

10:10 - 33.606 Ferry and Miller.

10:10 - 38.945 Senator ferry, as Senator Miller proposed funding, not the whole MTA system.

10:10 - 41.972 The community college portion of the ETA system,

10:10 - 46.142 with about a $12 million total funding per year.

10:10 - 50.647 We're never not going to support additional funding for training,

10:10 - 55.828 but we pushed back and reminded them that they're only funding

10:10 - 59.356 about 50% of the ETAs across the Commonwealth.

10:10 - 03.169 And honestly, Bill, I think that's why it's hung up there trying to look at how

10:11 - 06.329 they do a more holistic approach to funding fire training.

10:11 - 07.207 Okay.

10:11 - 10.309 And I would appreciate that because a lot of the training

10:11 - 12.945 is done outside of the community college system. Yes.

10:11 - 17.374 Second one related to training funding, the training center, capital grants.

10:11 - 21.878 I was disappointed the first round that a lot of them went to

10:11 - 24.090 or some of that money went to

10:11 - 27.884 facilities that aren't training centers, but actually

10:11 - 32.531 the individual fire departments that don't have a training center.

10:11 - 34.233 And I realized they could build one.

10:11 - 38.061 But there are training centers that are already existed,

10:11 - 41.107 that did not get funding.

10:11 - 44.567 Is there a way to correct that, legislative change?

10:11 - 45.612 Okay.

10:11 - 47.880 So I will let you know because we found

10:11 - 51.474 some other language issues and both of those grant

10:11 - 55.412 those those capital grant programs that need updated.

10:11 - 00.250 I will let you know when that initiative starts and then you can tag on.

10:12 - 01.728 Okay. Thank you.

10:12 - 04.730 Because we we only can do what the legislation

10:12 - 07.800 specifically authorizes us to do. Okay.

10:12 - 11.428 So if it doesn't restricted to existing training centers,

10:12 - 14.431 anybody that's building a training center is eligible.

10:12 - 16.709 And then it goes straight by

10:12 - 19.803 how their project application scores.

10:12 - 21.748 Okay.

10:12 - 25.751 And finally I would love to put sprinklers in the single family dwellings.

10:12 - 30.289 But I believe the legislature ties the hands of the municipalities

10:12 - 32.291 that we can't modify the building code to do that.

10:12 - 35.194 Is that correct? Pretty much so.

10:12 - 40.066 So if we want to save lives, we've got the firefighters

10:12 - 43.736 who have no funding have to outspend the building industry.

10:12 - 45.071 That has a lot.

10:12 - 48.098 I know you can't answer that.

10:12 - 50.210 Yeah.

10:12 - 52.111 I'm not going to step over into labor

10:12 - 56.139 and industries wheelhouse, but there are issues, right?

10:12 - 59.709 With advancing the sprinkler initiative.

10:13 - 04.080 We'll leave it at that.

10:13 - 07.226 The gentleman that.

10:13 - 09.929 Hi. I'm, Chris from Blakely Borough in Lackawanna County.

10:13 - 13.332 So I was watching your presentation.

10:13 - 15.735 You're talking about the 2% loans.

10:13 - 18.938 So both companies in my town, one

10:13 - 25.945 just purchased an engine for $800,000, and our ladder company

10:13 - 28.972 is getting a new ladder truck for 1.4 million

10:13 - 32.318 and up to $600,000.

10:13 - 35.554 I don't know where that number is coming from, because the engine

10:13 - 40.650 was capped at 323 and the ladder, I forget for 60 something.

10:13 - 44.663 So two years ago the caps were raised

10:13 - 47.690 and then they were put on a sliding scale index.

10:13 - 49.869 Is it GDP?

10:13 - 53.863 Every the CPI, CPI, consumer price index.

10:13 - 56.833 So the caps are going to change now twice a year.

10:13 - 58.844 All right.

10:13 - 03.149 There's a Senator Muth has introduced a co-sponsor memo.

10:14 - 06.619 It hasn't made it to a bill yet to, to raise

10:14 - 09.612 those caps on the loan program.

10:14 - 14.384 But the way we're burning through the funding in the program,

10:14 - 17.630 we're in the process of having an actuarial study

10:14 - 21.400 done on the liquidity of the fund in the future.

10:14 - 23.936 Should we raise those caps

10:14 - 26.105 so the loan program

10:14 - 30.266 does not receive any annual funding from the Commonwealth?

10:14 - 32.678 It is a self-sustaining program.

10:14 - 36.482 So the loans that we make the fund is replenished

10:14 - 41.711 strictly by the principal and interest coming back on those loans.

10:14 - 42.656 All right.

10:14 - 46.616 So we have to do a study to see how much of an increase we can actually absorb.

10:14 - 49.719 Okay. So my next question

10:14 - 54.300 it ties into that is so the

10:14 - 57.327 fire relief fund that all of our towns get

10:14 - 01.307 you have

10:15 - 04.601 a thousand different regulations on what they could spend that

10:15 - 06.478 they can't use that money towards an apparatus,

10:15 - 09.505 but they can use it on the hose or they can use it a it.

10:15 - 13.409 If our towns are having trouble paying for this apparatus,

10:15 - 15.387 why are you putting so many?

10:15 - 18.548 Or why are there so many limitations on what they can use it?

10:15 - 22.294 Why can't we use that $33,000,

10:15 - 26.522 which is nothing towards that truck.

10:15 - 30.936 So let me let me take a step back to the recommendations that were submitted

10:15 - 34.964 by the Commission through the Fire Advisory Board in December of 23.

10:15 - 39.168 We're going to try and address a little bit of exactly what you're talking about.

10:15 - 45.041 We the program has outlived the usefulness of the list of eligible expenses.

10:15 - 45.685 All right.

10:15 - 49.955 What was recommended in that report is that if it's for opt,

10:15 - 51.624 if it is for the provision of fire

10:15 - 55.184 protection to the community, it becomes an eligible expense.

10:15 - 00.156 Right now, they can spend relief money on apparatus.

10:16 - 04.060 Right now that is an eligible expense.

10:16 - 04.905 Okay.

10:16 - 10.199 I don't know that they can spend 100% of a $1.4 million ladder truck out of relief.

10:16 - 13.369 Probably would depend on how much money is in their relief account.

10:16 - 17.507 Okay, so we are working towards exactly what you're saying.

10:16 - 23.613 How do we make that money more useful at the local level?

10:16 - 24.190 All right.

10:16 - 27.393 But again, remember when relief was created, it was very

10:16 - 30.420 there was a very narrow vision for use,

10:16 - 33.690 which was provide relief for members

10:16 - 36.759 that were injured or made ill.

10:16 - 40.763 And then they can pay a death benefit if they wish as well, out of relief.

10:16 - 43.933 Okay, so we've gradually expanded it

10:16 - 47.136 over the years, but I think we now need to just say, look,

10:16 - 51.374 if it's for running the fire company in the field on the street,

10:16 - 54.944 not for their club, not for their social hall.

10:16 - 56.222 Right.

10:16 - 57.890 But if it's for providing fire

10:16 - 00.917 protection services, it should be an eligible expense.

10:17 - 05.164 The second part of that that those recommendations that applies

10:17 - 10.860 to your question, we're recommending that instead of getting 9% of the 2% tax,

10:17 - 12.372 we get

10:17 - 16.866 22% of the 2% tax, then we should.

10:17 - 20.913 So right now we do have relief associations in rural Pennsylvania

10:17 - 23.940 that get less than $1,000 of relief money a year.

10:17 - 27.319 That would allow us to set a floor

10:17 - 30.613 across all 2000 fire departments of a minimum

10:17 - 33.950 distribution of $10,000,

10:17 - 38.063 and then they would still get the allotment based on population

10:17 - 41.591 and property value on top of that floor of $10,000.

10:17 - 43.369 Okay. Great.

10:17 - 45.871 Thank you.

10:17 - 47.573 Your next,

10:17 - 48.007 Good morning.

10:17 - 48.875 Thank you for being here.

10:17 - 51.744 Joe Manning, salary borough, Washington County.

10:17 - 55.571 My question sort of, goes along with the gentleman who spoke earlier.

10:17 - 59.575 This is pretty grim statistic, knowing that Pennsylvania leads the nation

10:18 - 03.579 in the number of civilian deaths per year, and we're about to,

10:18 - 06.558 break a record this year.

10:18 - 09.228 Tagging on to what the gentleman said earlier, are

10:18 - 14.857 there are lobbying efforts underway to, regulate, single egress construction.

10:18 - 17.536 And so the single stair issue.

10:18 - 18.737 Yes. Yeah.

10:18 - 23.375 So the, the all of the fire service organizations.

10:18 - 24.967 So I mean, go back

10:18 - 28.547 the governor's office has not

10:18 - 32.075 taken a position specific to support or oppose.

10:18 - 36.889 We're still waiting for the argument to come to fruition.

10:18 - 37.923 Okay.

10:18 - 42.795 Because, you have some fire protection engineers

10:18 - 45.988 that are pushing for this change to support development,

10:18 - 51.861 and it's more directed at development in the urban areas where your, your, land

10:18 - 55.298 lot sizes are not big enough to support

10:18 - 58.868 small multifamily dwellings with two axes.

10:18 - 59.779 Okay.

10:18 - 03.973 There are cities in the United States that have had single egress

10:19 - 07.286 building codes for 2030 years,

10:19 - 10.313 with no significant change

10:19 - 13.158 in injuries and deaths in those type of occupancies.

10:19 - 14.060 Okay.

10:19 - 17.086 But yeah, so we're going to we're going to study the data.

10:19 - 21.433 Now I will tell you 100% of the fire service organization.

10:19 - 26.028 So the fire marshals, the fire chiefs, the firefighters, the fire union

10:19 - 30.266 have all dug in that this is absolutely not going to pass.

10:19 - 31.077 Okay.

10:19 - 36.539 So there is a very firm resistance to that change from the American Fire Service.

10:19 - 38.273 Okay.

10:19 - 39.252 Thank you.

10:19 - 40.686 Yeah.

10:19 - 44.456 The I think it's important to note since since you took us back to us.

10:19 - 44.691 Right.

10:19 - 49.128 We could talk about 200 civilian fire deaths even if we put sprinklers

10:19 - 52.955 back in the residential code for single family dwellings today,

10:19 - 57.426 it's going to take two generations for us to see the impact of that change.

10:19 - 03.408 Because those 200 civilian fire deaths are typically not in buildings

10:20 - 06.435 built after the 90s.

10:20 - 10.540 They're all in old construction.

10:20 - 14.653 So unless we would go retroactive and if you think we have a tough fight

10:20 - 15.588 trying to get sprinklers

10:20 - 19.782 put into the building codes moving forward, try and go backwards.

10:20 - 24.463 Okay. Hi.

10:20 - 26.031 Good morning, Jessica Pointer.

10:20 - 28.734 Lansdowne Borough in Delaware County.

10:20 - 31.370 We have been dealing with a lot of challenges

10:20 - 35.198 in covering the cost for our EMS services and obviously everyone.

10:20 - 38.544 But the biggest challenges that we're having is with the insurance

10:20 - 43.606 providers, the Capitated cause, the direct payments to the fire department.

10:20 - 45.117 I know Representative

10:20 - 49.221 Lisa Borowski and Senator Tim Kearney are working on those bills.

10:20 - 52.691 Can you tell me a little bit about the barriers that we're dealing

10:20 - 53.892 with with that?

10:20 - 58.130 Also this me versus them with the fire companies,

10:20 - 01.200 something with Mayor Wayne mentioned, they don't like

10:21 - 04.994 to share their financial status with the municipalities.

10:21 - 07.306 It's like this hidden secret.

10:21 - 12.568 But in order for us to help them, we need to know the financial situation.

10:21 - 16.072 So can you tell me what you're doing to change that culture?

10:21 - 19.985 Let me deal with the EMS billing first.

10:21 - 20.220 Right.

10:21 - 23.746 So first off, I have to give you the official disclaimer

10:21 - 27.392 that EMS is not my responsibility as fire commissioner.

10:21 - 27.994 All right?

10:21 - 32.088 Now, that doesn't mean that I'm not in support of

10:21 - 35.734 changing how EMS billing works in Pennsylvania,

10:21 - 39.762 because somewhere around 25% of the fire companies

10:21 - 45.101 still run ambulances out of the firehouse, what we call Firebase DMs.

10:21 - 45.777 Right?

10:21 - 46.312 So there is

10:21 - 50.273 a reason for me to be in the conversation, but it's not my primary mission.

10:21 - 51.384 Okay.

10:21 - 54.410 And yes, there are efforts afoot

10:21 - 57.980 to adjust the reimbursement rates to,

10:21 - 02.494 you know, find a way to have the fire companies directly receive payment

10:22 - 05.597 for service instead of the health insurance pays

10:22 - 09.058 the patient, and then the patient never pays the fire company bill.

10:22 - 10.837 So there are

10:22 - 13.863 both of those are being actively worked on.

10:22 - 18.267 Unfortunately, I'll be honest, the insurance lobby

10:22 - 22.004 is the biggest lobbyist organization on the Capitol Hill.

10:22 - 23.815 Okay?

10:22 - 25.517 And we all know what the goal.

10:22 - 28.086 And I'll insult some insurance person in here.

10:22 - 31.380 But we know what the goal of the insurance agency is, right?

10:22 - 33.358 Right. Okay.

10:22 - 39.088 The second part about the showing of the books and every amount,

10:22 - 42.558 unfortunately, I don't understand what the resistance would be.

10:22 - 46.772 I know if if I was back in the days when I was an officer in the volunteer

10:22 - 48.206 fire service,

10:22 - 51.576 if the municipality was handing me $100,000 a year,

10:22 - 54.112 said, hey, can we see what you're doing with the money?

10:22 - 55.681 I would gladly show them.

10:22 - 59.575 So I, I find this whole reluctance to share

10:23 - 02.788 very difficult to understand.

10:23 - 07.016 Tracey, can you touch on what we're doing to try and help overcome some of that?

10:23 - 07.994 Sure.

10:23 - 12.698 So again, coming to the most local level for us to assist

10:23 - 16.826 in those, conversations and facilitated conversations,

10:23 - 19.938 I will tell you, since this program started and we're

10:23 - 23.842 now into our fifth year, it's been positive in those conversations.

10:23 - 27.979 We have, but it's education to the fire service

10:23 - 31.750 of why it's necessary and also municipal leaders.

10:23 - 35.311 So like this is our, I think second year formerly we've been here

10:23 - 38.690 and there's a handful of you in here that I have had the pleasure of working

10:23 - 41.684 with over the last couple of years on things.

10:23 - 44.296 And I think we're going down a positive path.

10:23 - 48.767 So it's, it's again, it's education and understanding the why behind it,

10:23 - 52.637 but it's also getting everybody to the table early on before we have

10:23 - 56.799 those conversations that I need $1.5 million for a piece of apparatus,

10:23 - 00.136 or I need to replace this or whatever they're asking for.

10:24 - 03.782 And the other thing is understanding the budget cycles, at the fire

10:24 - 05.851 service has to understand your budget cycle

10:24 - 07.619 and when they need to come and talk to those.

10:24 - 09.321 So that's kind of what we've been doing.

10:24 - 11.289 And there's been really positive change.

10:24 - 12.924 And having those conversations.

10:24 - 15.861 So I'm inviting you to Lansdowne Borough.

10:24 - 16.885 There's a

10:24 - 20.222 will be there.

10:24 - 23.835 Thank you.

10:24 - 25.837 Thank you and thank you for taking the time

10:24 - 29.474 to speak to us about the this important, issue.

10:24 - 32.978 And I think most of us here can recognize, and you recognize as well

10:24 - 36.181 the crisis that we're in in Pennsylvania with the fire departments.

10:24 - 39.208 My name is Benjamin Hoover, council member from Lansdowne Borough.

10:24 - 42.654 Specifically, my question, is going to EMS as well,

10:24 - 46.258 that probably about four years ago, our fire company came to us.

10:24 - 50.028 The relationship that they had with the local hospital that, paid

10:24 - 53.832 90% of the EMS costs, where they were shifting it

10:24 - 58.727 and to put the 90% burden on to us, on to the fire company and on to the borough.

10:24 - 02.274 On that point, I would say that our fire company is very proactive

10:25 - 06.235 in reaching out and, to a, different ambulance service,

10:25 - 10.916 to work, in the meantime, I think I think folks know, who are from Delaware.

10:25 - 15.678 County, where around the hospital system collapsed entirely, and we have very few,

10:25 - 20.716 actual EMS, emergency rooms to go to at this point.

10:25 - 24.496 So the question comes back to the question

10:25 - 28.099 that my council president alluded to has to do with the financing.

10:25 - 33.638 We went from paying nothing for EMS service, to then, taking on that cost,

10:25 - 37.542 which now is started off, is about a half million dollar expense

10:25 - 41.513 to our budget that wasn't there before, where the EMS service was covering,

10:25 - 44.916 pretty much all the expenses of the fire company at this point.

10:25 - 48.286 Now we're taking on not only the expenses of the EMS service,

10:25 - 51.456 but also the fire company, which is a huge burden on,

10:25 - 54.483 the our taxpayers, our residents in the community.

10:25 - 55.961 So two questions.

10:25 - 00.499 One, does the grant, that you offered that has to do with fire EMS.

10:26 - 05.670 Can we use that for the expenses like general expenses towards the EMS and fire?

10:26 - 09.732 If we apply for that, can we direct it straight towards that expense?

10:26 - 11.893 However you want to take that one.

10:26 - 16.448 So the.

10:26 - 20.151 EMS grant, our annual grant that Tom spoke on, where the EMS

10:26 - 23.245 companies are getting 15,000, if they apply for it,

10:26 - 28.083 they the 15,000 can't be used for operational expenses.

10:26 - 30.729 So, you know, your electric bill and things like that.

10:26 - 34.256 No, but but any type of equipment that you need to purchase,

10:26 - 40.505 apparatus upgrades, you know, the fuel for the ambulances, you can use this

10:26 - 45.176 grant money for that at the, you know, yearly inspection of the apparatus.

10:26 - 47.712 You can use this grant for those types of things.

10:26 - 48.813 Okay. Thank you.

10:26 - 52.617 The second question then, since that grant, does that go towards it?

10:26 - 56.221 Is there a movement on in Harrisburg to recognize this crisis

10:26 - 57.889 throughout the state and that, like this is

10:26 - 00.592 this burden is really affecting all of our residents?

10:27 - 04.696 Not only do they not have, emergency rooms to go to, not only do

10:27 - 07.832 they not have EMS services, but they also are then,

10:27 - 09.167 asked to put a bill in which

10:27 - 10.702 they might not actually have an ambulance

10:27 - 13.729 to take them to an emergency room when they have a crisis.

10:27 - 17.309 So I, I, I can tell you as a cabinet

10:27 - 20.636 official, the crisis is recognized in Harrisburg,

10:27 - 25.774 but where it breaks down is the fact that we're at home rule Commonwealth,

10:27 - 28.219 which squarely places the

10:27 - 32.081 responsibility for that service on the local municipal entity.

10:27 - 36.962 Right now, I, I don't I don't want to speak for the governor's

10:27 - 40.832 policy staff, but I don't think the state would be

10:27 - 45.728 opposed to a discussion about how do we reallocate some of those costs.

10:27 - 48.373 But then you're going to get into a discussion, okay.

10:27 - 50.542 How much should the state pay?

10:27 - 53.011 How much should the county entity pay?

10:27 - 56.038 How much should the local municipality pay?

10:27 - 00.285 I can see your perspective that it's unfair

10:28 - 04.356 for the municipality to bear 100% of that cost.

10:28 - 05.091 Okay.

10:28 - 08.083 And I can tell you the conversations are occurring,

10:28 - 11.429 whether in the current political environment,

10:28 - 14.857 they will ever result in activity anytime soon.

10:28 - 17.168 I can't answer that question.

10:28 - 17.570 Okay.

10:28 - 21.373 You need to work with your local, General Assembly members to

10:28 - 22.798 see what you can get started.

10:28 - 24.909 Okay.

10:28 - 25.177 Yeah.

10:28 - 28.203 Thank you for your time.

10:28 - 30.615 Hello.

10:28 - 33.642 Anne Leffler from Jefferson Borough, York County.

10:28 - 38.881 In recent years, the state legislature

10:28 - 42.927 asked the local boroughs and townships

10:28 - 45.954 and whatever to help

10:28 - 49.000 with, recruitment

10:28 - 54.396 by reducing the firemen's taxes, property taxes.

10:28 - 59.535 So York County agreed to be a part of that, and so did our borough.

10:29 - 06.217 So it's not a huge amount of money, but it is money

10:29 - 09.244 that we were asked to contribute so that we could

10:29 - 13.124 get more people into our fire hall

10:29 - 16.151 and into our onto our trucks and whatnot.

10:29 - 21.156 I'm curious as to how well that's working.

10:29 - 26.905 Has anybody studied whether this idea of lowering property

10:29 - 29.998 tax has gotten us any more firemen?

10:29 - 35.513 So first off, thank you for your support of the fire department's number one.

10:29 - 39.708 It's really important, you know, that that happens.

10:29 - 43.722 The view from the commission, the

10:29 - 47.649 the tax incentives that you all were authorized to enact

10:29 - 51.196 or more of a retention

10:29 - 53.198 thing than a recruitment thing.

10:29 - 56.201 Tracy, can you address the specifics

10:29 - 59.228 of how effective it's been?

10:30 - 01.040 Sure.

10:30 - 06.010 So that program is, again, as we call it, it's it's a helping aid.

10:30 - 07.212 It doesn't work everywhere.

10:30 - 10.982 And yes, York County is actually a model that's been used as a best practice

10:30 - 12.050 across the rest of the state.

10:30 - 15.353 When we've talk with fire service and we talk with municipal leaders

10:30 - 17.989 about the benefits of those, it doesn't work everywhere.

10:30 - 22.327 So, we are in the infancy stage of that.

10:30 - 25.930 So in 22, when this program started, it was up to the commission

10:30 - 28.800 to figure out how to track that. So there is a tracking mechanism.

10:30 - 32.837 We do publish a quarterly report on our website that shows

10:30 - 38.076 every municipality, school district, or county that does support those types.

10:30 - 42.781 It gives the number of responders that are receiving that both for fire and EMS.

10:30 - 44.315 That is a responsibility.

10:30 - 46.084 The numbers are not large.

10:30 - 48.019 But again, it's it doesn't work everywhere.

10:30 - 50.145 It's a tool that can be used in your own company.

10:30 - 53.691 And again this is an observation

10:30 - 57.896 kind of quantitative not qualitative or qualitative, not quantitative.

10:30 - 59.864 It's not based on data.

10:30 - 03.959 Part of the transition that's going on in the Pennsylvania Fire Service.

10:31 - 07.863 When you look at property tax as an incentive, a smaller

10:31 - 11.967 and smaller number of our firefighters are now property owners,

10:31 - 15.713 especially in the younger ages, that are more likely

10:31 - 18.740 to be super active with the fire service.

10:31 - 21.786 They don't they don't own property.

10:31 - 22.987 They rent.

10:31 - 23.856 Okay.

10:31 - 27.549 One of the things that we've been engaged in conversations with

10:31 - 32.864 at the, at the governor's office is, is it time to look at an income

10:31 - 37.025 tax exemption or rebate refund?

10:31 - 37.903 Right.

10:31 - 40.772 That would apply equally across all members

10:31 - 44.166 of the fire service rather than just property owners.

10:31 - 45.177 Okay.

10:31 - 48.303 Well, in your county, it's either or.

10:31 - 48.781 Yeah.

10:31 - 54.676 I mean, we do have a are covering that I would recommend to others

10:31 - 58.623 that they enact this.

10:31 - 03.051 Personally we don't have a lot of firefighters from our borough.

10:32 - 06.421 Our borough is so small, but we

10:32 - 11.693 so we can't help those who are in the surrounding area.

10:32 - 15.631 But we can help the ones who live in our borough

10:32 - 20.402 and the ones we talk to very much, appreciate that system.

10:32 - 24.006 Know how it works across the state.

10:32 - 27.075 I don't know, but nobody likes property tax.

10:32 - 30.245 But it does mean that our borough is now

10:32 - 33.282 contributing more for that.

10:32 - 34.993 Yeah, because you know,

10:32 - 37.729 if you lose tax revenue you have to make that up somewhere.

10:32 - 39.063 Right. Understood.

10:32 - 42.090 Thank you very much.

10:32 - 44.469 Amanda Hammack Morton Barrow,

10:32 - 47.763 Delaware County good news is I don't have a question today.

10:32 - 51.042 Probably because I ask you guys a million

10:32 - 54.903 and a half questions through emails, phone conversations.

10:32 - 57.482 And that's the point I kind of want to make more

10:32 - 00.809 so to the body than to necessarily you guys.

10:33 - 05.280 You are probably one of the most underrated and under

10:33 - 08.517 talked about resource for a borough.

10:33 - 11.763 Then I have seen in my first four years

10:33 - 15.257 of serving as mayor and now my time serving as a council member.

10:33 - 19.895 And I say that to the point that Jessica Pointer made earlier.

10:33 - 22.407 Talk about the finances and how does that work?

10:33 - 27.011 And the conversations are messy and, you know, to, the mayor's point earlier,

10:33 - 30.682 because I think it was him and I last year that kind of had this conversation.

10:33 - 34.419 How do we build for being a borough municipal leaders

10:33 - 37.746 that come and go with legacy members and firehouses?

10:33 - 39.857 And how do we bridge those gaps?

10:33 - 44.653 I know you guys have been an absolute goldmine of information

10:33 - 46.998 for resources

10:33 - 50.192 that we can provide them, but also support, at least

10:33 - 54.930 in my experience, for when we have to have the hard conversations

10:33 - 57.008 and we have to have the conversations that,

10:33 - 00.878 yes, the Borough code does allow us to write ordinances that define

10:34 - 05.450 how the tax dollars are being paid, that we then move into absolute key.

10:34 - 10.621 To your point, Tracy, is the educational portion to the fire,

10:34 - 14.549 because most of our companies are volunteer fire companies, right.

10:34 - 19.530 It's not necessarily in there that they understand the areas in which

10:34 - 23.291 we can maneuver and which has, you know, authority and so forth and so on.

10:34 - 28.239 So I am here to say thank you from me personally.

10:34 - 32.210 I think we have quite a few of our Morton Council members in here as well.

10:34 - 33.112 In our mayor.

10:34 - 34.912 We are, because we're in the thick of it.

10:34 - 40.008 As you guys know right now, your support, your education on your end

10:34 - 43.054 has been priceless.

10:34 - 44.088 And I just want to make sure

10:34 - 47.225 that everyone in this room knows, sorry, you're all going to get emails and calls

10:34 - 50.652 now that even the questions that they're going to leave today

10:34 - 53.031 and they're going to go, hey, they're going to come back.

10:34 - 55.900 So, you know, you got to tell the governor you need more funding.

10:34 - 58.503 I mean, I don't know if that's on TV and people.

10:34 - 59.304 Right, right.

10:34 - 02.106 So you can have so you can have more staff to handle.

10:35 - 03.708 But I am absolute serious.

10:35 - 06.001 There is so, so much of a wealth of information.

10:35 - 08.479 We only know what we know.

10:35 - 11.449 And I don't run into buildings that are on fire.

10:35 - 16.687 I know that you guys have served in all of those roles, and so to from me

10:35 - 21.049 to you guys definitely reach out, find out more from them

10:35 - 26.364 because they have been absolute key in what we are doing at home.

10:35 - 28.266 So I just wanted to say thank you.

10:35 - 31.293 Thank you.

10:35 - 36.408 Thank you.

10:35 - 39.434 Jordan Darby board, Delaware County.

10:35 - 42.947 For first, I just wanted to thank you guys for hosting this.

10:35 - 45.183 This is very, informative.

10:35 - 49.945 I'm in my first year in elected office, so certainly learning a lot from here.

10:35 - 53.391 So thank you guys for this very informative session.

10:35 - 56.651 And I will be in touch to apparently, you guys are very helpful.

10:35 - 58.796 We need that.

10:35 - 59.331 We need them.

10:35 - 01.866 Government is usually very slow, but I'm glad to hear.

10:36 - 04.893 And I'm encouraged by how how effective you guys are.

10:36 - 08.263 I recently had conversations with my, fire chief,

10:36 - 13.068 and, very tragic day, where we had a fire

10:36 - 16.638 and our local department weren't able to respond.

10:36 - 22.653 We just didn't have people on staff, as, my other colleagues

10:36 - 24.956 from Delco mentioned, you know, we're mostly volunteer,

10:36 - 28.183 as is pretty much majority of the places in the state.

10:36 - 29.828 So a lot of

10:36 - 33.631 the a lot of the guys in there are not really incentivized as much.

10:36 - 37.559 So, I'm, I'm a little curious on, you know, how else

10:36 - 41.196 are we going to try to encourage especially young people,

10:36 - 44.442 to join the service that's so vital to our community?

10:36 - 46.911 But, important point I wanted to focus on.

10:36 - 51.373 So regarding just not just the recruitment and retention, is,

10:36 - 57.121 basically the retention as far as our mental health, as it relates

10:36 - 00.415 to mental health specifically because I know some of our, our,

10:37 - 05.563 our firefighters have dealt with those, and I just the, the service,

10:37 - 09.991 I mean, the session prior to this one, I know, chairman,

10:37 - 13.962 you mentioned House Bill 2394, which I just looked up,

10:37 - 18.300 courtesy of, my colleague, Mayor Adam of Spring, City of Borrow,

10:37 - 22.013 which is currently in a veteran and foreign affairs and emergency

10:37 - 26.841 preparedness committee, directly to benefit our, firefighters.

10:37 - 30.478 I want to know if you guys have anything else, in play or emotion.

10:37 - 34.082 For, for our first responders.

10:37 - 37.562 So the point I'd need,

10:37 - 40.565 like, a two hour session just to go over the legislation

10:37 - 44.769 that is active pending about to be introduced.

10:37 - 47.862 That applies to the fire service. Okay.

10:37 - 50.141 On the health and wellness, right?

10:37 - 54.512 We we got PTSD across the finish line last year.

10:37 - 56.747 And I know this might not be popular in this group,

10:37 - 01.052 but it's extremely important to the fire service where PTSD is now

10:38 - 05.347 recognized as an illness under the workers comp eligibility laws.

10:38 - 09.084 We have significant momentum forward,

10:38 - 12.663 and I don't remember what that bill number specifically applies to.

10:38 - 14.599 I'm terrible with the bill numbers, but,

10:38 - 16.534 I think that was the one to make sure you,

10:38 - 18.936 all the firefighters are screened for cancer. Yeah.

10:38 - 23.198 So cancer screening has significant forward momentum right now.

10:38 - 23.709 Right.

10:38 - 26.544 The what's

10:38 - 31.182 and they want to propose a pot of money when they implement

10:38 - 35.143 the legislation that will offset the costs of those screening.

10:38 - 38.322 So they're trying to identify a funding source.

10:38 - 41.459 The state is just like every other government

10:38 - 44.486 entity we're running a deficit spending budget.

10:38 - 48.232 You know, I think right now, the proposed budget for the next budget

10:38 - 51.926 cycle is showing a $4.1 billion deficit.

10:38 - 57.299 So finding money for new programs is getting tougher and tougher every year.

10:38 - 02.537 But we're going to continue to fight the fight and try and, you know, advance

10:39 - 06.708 in particular, the health and wellness stuff is very, very important to me.

10:39 - 11.889 Personally, you know, I was brought up as a leader that you always took

10:39 - 16.751 care of your people, first and then everything else is second.

10:39 - 19.864 So, I would like, you know,

10:39 - 23.725 when I look back on my legacy as fire commissioner, did I advance?

10:39 - 27.271 The wellness of the firefighter would be one of the primary questions

10:39 - 29.473 I want to answer. Okay.

10:39 - 30.409 Thank you for that.

10:39 - 31.475 And if there's any if there

10:39 - 35.713 if you have any recommendation on how we as a local elected official can support

10:39 - 39.183 those bills you're proposing outside of just talking to our legislators?

10:39 - 41.986 Oh, I'm sure I, I don't want to speak for everybody,

10:39 - 45.046 but I'm sure we'll all be, excited to support that.

10:39 - 49.460 So if you have any recommendations for the the best, the best recommendation

10:39 - 54.498 I have today, go on our website, sign up for our monthly newsletter,

10:39 - 58.069 where we're, we're now doing a much better job than we've ever done,

10:39 - 02.540 pushing information out into the field, especially one of the key

10:40 - 06.434 things that I've been pushing for is those legislative updates.

10:40 - 09.647 What's pending, what's moving,

10:40 - 13.408 what just came out of committee, you know, what did the governor signed into law?

10:40 - 14.286 Right.

10:40 - 17.154 Because unless you know where to look for it,

10:40 - 19.824 it's very difficult to keep track of.

10:40 - 22.426 Okay. Thank you. Tracy, you want to add one.

10:40 - 22.661 Yeah.

10:40 - 26.130 So I just want to let you know from the recruitment retention standpoint,

10:40 - 29.300 health and wellness is a big initiative we've been working on for the last year

10:40 - 29.701 and a half.

10:40 - 33.671 And we've partnered with a lot of professional agencies,

10:40 - 37.408 in mental health, in cancer, general health and wellness.

10:40 - 38.210 Most recently,

10:40 - 42.613 we partnered with the Firefighter Cancer Survivor network, which this past weekend

10:40 - 46.150 we just did a session on that to train some of our instructors on that.

10:40 - 50.421 So we are able to go out and deliver awareness about health and wellness.

10:40 - 53.448 And how do they prevent, how do they take care of themselves

10:40 - 54.525 and these different aspects?

10:40 - 57.194 Same thing is happening in the mental health area,

10:40 - 01.132 and I'll let you all know that we have traveled to every county except for two.

10:41 - 05.727 We're on our last two, and have presented this information to the fire service

10:41 - 10.999 in your county of what programs and services are offered out of SFC?

10:41 - 15.112 We do have 12 recruitment retention intervention toolkits that are coming.

10:41 - 18.616 A lot of the the topics that you guys are speaking of today.

10:41 - 19.817 So please reach out.

10:41 - 22.510 Know those resources are available for us to help,

10:41 - 27.024 but all right, unfortunately, this is like the Oscars.

10:41 - 31.128 The red light has gone on and the walk of music, you all can't hear it.

10:41 - 33.998 But I can, is playing.

10:41 - 36.967 So, you know, we're not in a hurry to get out of here.

10:41 - 40.662 So if we didn't get to your question, those of you that were standing in line,

10:41 - 44.432 you know, catch us in the hallway afterwards, I think you'll find,

10:41 - 47.945 just as Amanda said, the staff is very responsive.

10:41 - 49.947 So I appreciate your attention today.

10:41 - 52.349 Thank you very much.

10:41 - 00.373 We get you. And.