2 weeks Ago By Maddie Seiler The Sentinel
Budget. Business. Education.
These fell among the topics of conversation Tuesday morning during the Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce’s Sunrise with our State Representatives breakfast at the Carlisle Country Club in Middlesex Township. The event featured a panel discussion with Democrat Nate Davidson of the 103rd District and Republicans Barb Gleim of the 199th District and Thomas Kutz of the 87th District. Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce board member Sam Glesner moderated the discussion in front of chamber members and local business and nonprofit representatives.
The Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce held a Sunrise with our State Representatives breakfast at the Carlisle Country Club in Middlesex Township Tuesday morning. The discussion began with a look at the state’s proposed 2025-26 budget , which requests $51.5 billion for the fiscal year beginning July 1, the Associated Press reported in February .
Gleim cited overspending as her biggest concern, saying the state isn’t bringing in the revenue needed to match expenditures. She said she believes the budget needs to be trimmed. Kutz agreed, claiming Gov.
Josh Shapiro is largely focused on keeping the state in a good financial position through 2028. “We have to call a spade a spade,” he said. “The governor is going to run for president.
He needs priorities that he can say he got across the finish line before he runs for president. Unfortunately for taxpayers of Pennsylvania, that means we are playing with Pennsylvania tax dollars to help fund a 2028 presidential primary campaign, and that’s not sustainable.” Davidson pointed out that a structural deficit is not a new concept, adding that a proposed budget is just that: a proposal.
He said the state Senate, House of Representatives and governor will negotiate to strike a deal. While Davidson believes this year’s budget will look similar to recent years, he’s concerned about what’s to come. “We are facing catastrophic cuts in federal funding coming from Washington,” he said.
“We are already experiencing the economic uncertainty and the chaos that has been introduced to our national and global economies. We’re still at the tip of the iceberg. Much more of this is going to come.
” Pennsylvania Rep. Nate Davidson speaks during the Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce's Sunrise with our State Representatives breakfast at the Carlisle Country Club in Middlesex Township Tuesday morning. Representatives also addressed how the state can attract and keep businesses.
Davidson pointed to recent efforts to lower corporate net income taxes and create an overall friendlier tax environment for the business community. “Thomas and I are working together on a bill for home buyer tax credit rebate [or] something like that to get housing more affordable,” he said. “So if we do get a business to come here and set up a new headquarters in Pittsburgh or Altoona or wherever, we also have an incentive for their employees to move here.
” Kutz emphasized the importance of improving the tax environment for both large and small businesses He and Gleim also highlighted the reduction of regulations to make it easier to build. Kutz said red tape slows Pennsylvania’s ability to compete with surrounding states for business. “It is very arduous situation we have here in Central Pennsylvania to actually start a building project or a housing project for that matter,” Gleim said.
“There’s just too many regulations, and as much as the governor says that he is fixing DEP and their permitting process, it’s just not happening, and it’s not happening fast enough.” Pennsylvania Rep. Barb Gleim, right, speaks during a panel discussion at the Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce's Sunrise with our State Representatives breakfast at the Carlisle Country Club in Middlesex Township Tuesday morning.
As the conversation shifted to workforce development and retention, Davidson noted a bipartisan effort to invest in career and technology education. Kutz said this involves recognizing where the economy is going and identifying what the high-demand jobs will be for the next 20 years. He and Gleim talked about continuing to incentivize trade schools and private sector pipelines.
“I think we’ve done, personally, a really good job of that in our area,” Gleim said. “I am on the advisory board at the vo-tech, and just ..
. going out into the different vo-techs and CTEs (Career and Technical Education), and also meeting with Shippensburg University and making sure that the classes that are being offered are the ones that are going to flow into our region.” As for retention, Kutz said people who might receive tuition assistance if they stay for five years could buy a home and establish roots in that time.
That could make them less inclined to move elsewhere after that five-year period. Davidson agreed, also noting the impact of child care on the workforce. “It’s like a hydra, it’s got multiple heads here,” he said.
“You’ve got the affordability for child care, for the parents, which is, it’s the second mortgage, right? It’s the wages for the child care employees, right? But those two are tied together ...
you raise the wages, rates go up.” Davidson said child care accessibility can also affect the workforce, with a “real supply problem” that could prompt one parent to leave the workforce temporarily or permanently. State representatives also addressed public education and related funding Tuesday morning, each highlighting the diverse range of schools in their districts.
Davidson said last year, the state debuted a new equity plan designed to assist the lowest funded schools. “That will get baked into the cake for their formula going forward,” he said. “So we need to continue that effort.
” Kutz said the new formula doesn’t account for growth, especially considering that Cumberland County is one of the fastest growing counties in the state. “So here’s the quandary of being a rep for multiple districts, every district is different,” he said. “I think that’s why we favor local control over a lot of these things.
At the same time we have state support that’s needed. We want to make sure that state support is fairly spread around, and I think that’s a conversation in Harrisburg.” Davidson also addressed a need for charter school reform, saying cyber charter schools specifically are “draining money” out of public schools.
He said the governor has proposed caps on the annual payment per student in regular and special education. As with the state’s annual budget, Davidson also expressed concerns about the affect of federal changes to education. “If these federal cuts are as real as they sound, in particular in the special education space, which is the most expensive space in our education, we could see dramatic cuts, and I don’t know where we’re going to find the revenue to plug that hole,” he said.
“If school districts are already raising to the (Act 1) Index [and] state revenues are maxed out in terms of what we can spend, how are we going to fill that hole? I don’t know the answer that question.” Gleim argued federal funding wouldn’t be lost but rather distributed to the states in the form of block grants. She recalled when public education used to be handled by the state, and argued that the shift from federal to state control would return functions to the way they once were.
Gleim also spoke of incentivizing STEM positions and reducing the time and cost to become an educator to address a teacher shortage. Additionally, she highlighted a need to ensure that increased funding to public schools is having the desired effect on student outcomes. One solution could be Gleim’s bill on cell phones, designed to assist with classroom discipline.
“I am hearing from teachers from all over saying that their number one issue in their classroom is discipline,” she said. “Alright, we need to put the cell phones down during class time. We need to have the kids start listening to the teacher in the classroom.
If the kid is not listening to the teacher, that kid needs to leave that classroom and go down to the principal’s office, just like they used to.” Tuesday’s panel concluded with a look at how the representatives intend to stoke the economy for future generations. Gleim suggested raising the limit for prevailing wage.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor , this is the “average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a specific occupation in the area of intended employment.
” Kutz highlighted efforts to bring more businesses into the state by cutting red tape and working on fiscal responsibility. “The budget piece is so important because how a state manages its finances directly impacts how businesses want to come in and directly impacts how residents want to come in as well,” he said. Davidson discussed planning efforts, saying Gov.
Shapiro wrote a statewide economic development plan that can be implemented in the coming years. At the local level, he mentioned a need for similar planning in Harrisburg, a portion of which falls within his district. This could address issues like crime and financial hardship.
“If we don’t have a successful plan to resuscitate the downtown, for lack of a better words ...
if we don’t have plans to do that, and we’re not all sitting around the table working in the same direction, we’re going to have even worse problems down the road,” Davidson said. As the discussion wrapped up, representatives encouraged open communication with constituents. “We obviously have different perspectives up here from many of you in the audience,” Kutz said.
“I’m sure there are some head shakes in both directions to some of the things we’ve said, but the important thing is that we’re all willing to sit down and have those honest conversations together, because that’s the only way we can actually be productive.” Swarner Mansion is located at 801 S. Hanover St.
in Carlisle and currently houses the Carlisle Chamber of Commerce. The Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce held a State of Carlisle: Tackling the Housing Crisis breakfast at Comfort Suites Downtown Tuesday morning. A panel discussion featured, from left, Safe Harbour President and CEO Scott Shewell, Housing and Redevelopment Authorities of Cumberland County Executive Director Mary Kuna and United Way of Carlisle & Cumberland County Executive Director Cate Mellen, who addressed local housing challenges, statistics and solutions.
The Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce held a State of Carlisle: Tackling the Housing Crisis breakfast at Comfort Suites Downtown Tuesday morning. Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Nicole Deary speaks during the organization's State of Carlisle: Tackling the Housing Crisis event at Comfort Suites Downtown Tuesday morning. Cumberland County Director of Planning Kirk Stoner moderates a panel discussion during the Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce's State of Carlisle: Tackling the Housing Crisis event at Comfort Suites Downtown Tuesday morning.
United Way of Carlisle & Cumberland County Executive Director Cate Mellen participates in a panel discussion during Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce's State of Carlisle: Tackling the Housing Crisis event at Comfort Suites Downtown Tuesday morning. Housing and Redevelopment Authorities of Cumberland County Executive Director Mary Kuna, center, participates in a panel discussion during Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce's State of Carlisle: Tackling the Housing Crisis event at Comfort Suites Downtown Tuesday morning. Safe Harbour President and CEO Scott Shewell participates in a panel discussion during Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce's State of Carlisle: Tackling the Housing Crisis event at Comfort Suites Downtown Tuesday morning.
Maddie Seiler is a news reporter for The Sentinel and cumberlink.com covering Carlisle and Newville. You can contact her at mseiler@cumberlink.
com and follow her on Twitter at: @byMaddieSei Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. News Reporter {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items..
