Both have said they’re disgusted with Harrisburg. Both advocate for a smaller government and more controlled state spending. Both graduated from Bald Eagle Area High School.
Both have run for state office before — and lost.
But Ron Reese and Joyce Haas, the Republican candidates this spring for the state House seat in the 77th District, said they differ substantially in their respective life stories.
Haas, of Patton Township, is vice-chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, a former high school and university-level teacher who has worked with the United Way, the American Diabetes Association and the Special Olympics, among other groups.
Reese, of Worth Township, is a dairy farmer, the chairman of the township Planning Commission and a former township supervisor. He also has led the Centre County Farm Bureau and is active in the Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania.
In an interview with StateCollege.com, Reese cast himself as more of a grassroots candidate whose interests are invested not in party politics, but in public service.
‘When government grows, individual liberties contract. It’s a pretty simple equation,’ Reese said. He said an out-of-control state budget, including the spiraling costs of the state pension system, was pivotal in his decision to run this year.
Reese last ran for the 77th District House seat in 2006, when he lost in the GOP primary to Barbara Spencer. State Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Rush Township, went on to win that race in the November general election.
Haas or Reese — whoever wins the GOP primary on Tuesday — is likely to face the incumbent Conklin in the November general election this year. The 77th District includes much of State College, Philipsburg and Port Matilda boroughs and Ferguson, Halfmoon, Huston, Patton, Taylor and Worth townships.
Haas, who last ran for a state House seat in 1986 but has remained active in the party, said she is running again because she is ‘very upset, almost angry and disgusted’ over state spending and taxation.
‘I have worked with many candidates over the years,’ Haas said. ‘I have expected them to make changes that have not been made (in state government), and so I am running myself.’
She said Pennsylvania should promote job creation by cutting its Capital Stock and Franchise Tax and its Capital Net Income Tax, which target businesses. ‘Pennsylvania has some of the very highest (rates) in what we require businesses to operate here,’ Haas said. ‘We have not been a business-friendly state; we have chased businesses out of the state.’
Her other positions include these:
- Development of the Marcellus Shale natural-gas wells should be viewed as a long-term source of jobs, Haas said. She is against an extraction tax on the gas wells, saying that such a levy may encourage energy companies to drill in other states. Keeping environmentally friendly well development in Pennsylvania will have an economic impact for more than 50 years, she said. In lieu of a natural-gas tax, she said, governments should require energy companies to assume responsibility for any development impacts on roads or other public infrastructure.
- Reducing expenses to ensure the state can handle its pension obligations will require multiple approaches, Haas said. For one thing, she said, labor costs for major public construction projects — such as new schools — could be cut by one third if the prevailing wage were adjusted. She said the prevailing wage right now is based on standards in the Philadelphia area. In central Pennsylvania, she said, that ought to be reduced to reflect actual average wages in this part of the state. Another income-generating possibility is the sale of the state liquor system to a private operator, Haas said.
- She said the state pension system needs to be reformed so that it operates more like a 401(k) system, with state workers taking more responsibility for their retirement-fund performance.
As an official with the state Republican party, Haas said, she knows ‘the current leaders in Harrisburg so that they have respect for me as a leader within the party. I will be able to, from the very beginning, be on an eye-to-eye level, to look them in the eye and let them know what the needs are here, what the people in the Centre Region and in Philipsburg need. I can represent those needs well to be effective in government.’
Reese, meanwhile, also has put an emphasis on cutting state expenses, noting that Harrisburg has grown its costs at more than three times the rate of inflation in recent years. In the past decade, he said, state spending has increased 50 percent.
‘We have assigned that debt to young people,’ Reese said at a recent forum at State College Area High School.
Among his positions:
- The state should take an aggressive stand in eliminating welfare fraud and replace the current, full-time Legislature with a part-time body, Reese said. ‘There’s this assumption that these people in Harrisburg know more than other citizens,’ he said. ‘I’ve met them. They don’t.’
- On education, Reese favors merit pay for teachers and a stop to unfunded state mandates. He said he also supports voucher systems in which students and their families can choose what schools — charter or public — they should attend. In many communities, Reese said, ‘the public school is the one chance for young people to escape poverty. … It should be about the students.’
- Reese sees the Marcellus Shale natural-gas discovery as a unique opportunity. ‘It can be utilized with relatively little risk to the environment,’ he said. He said gas wells should be encouraged in Pennsylvania and will bring ‘quality jobs’ to the state. Any tax on the gas would probably be passed on to natural-gas consumers, he said, and could deliver needed funding for highways and bridges in the state.
- The state needs to consider loosening some mandatory sentencing in drug cases, Reese said, to give judges more leeway in punishing offenders. ‘We can’t afford’ to continue filling prisons with relatively minor drug-law offenders, he said. Haas has voiced a similar position.
Reese, in asking for voters’ consideration, underscored his experience in Worth Township, including his past advocacy for private-property rights.
‘My experience as a businessman, my experience raising kids and cows and crops are things I can bring to the Legislature,’ Reese said. ‘I think I bring a unique perspective.’
Earlier coverage: State House Candidates Haas, Reese Urge Penn State ReformsState House Candidates Differ Over Term Limits, Government Reform
Related coverage: View a C-NET recording of a May 5 candidates forum hosted by the League of Women Voters.
