 Hello everyone welcome to Governor Wolf's second Facebook Town Hall. We thank you so much for joining us here this evening Thank you governor for being here. Thank you Megan. It's good to be back. Good to be back In the midst of budget season yesterday was June 1st And just tell us real quick. Why are you sitting down with us tonight to answer these questions? Because this is important I actually you're right. I mean June is the month when you really get into high gear on the budget and yesterday The dance started and and and I think We're all gonna work really hard to get to an on-time budget, but again My focus is on making sure that we end up with a budget that does what I think it ought to do for Pennsylvania I don't just want a budget on time. I want one that actually moves Pennsylvania forward makes us better That's why I was elected. It's why I ran and I think that's what most people here want All right a lot of feedback after the first town hall We did people really seem to like it so we're here doing it again. Just a couple of Reminders we took questions over Facebook the governor's Facebook page over the last day or so We're gonna be reading a lot of those questions today as many as we can get to and we encourage you to continue submitting questions And we'll get to as many of those as we can as well I'll try to keep my answers as short as possible so we get to as many as possible All right. All right. Well the first comes from Heidi in Erie She says hello governor as the spouse of an ALS Lou Gehrig's disease patient I'm also very interested in the legalization of medical marijuana and PA and I'd like to know in your opinion What can we expect on that front in the near future? Well, as you know, Megan the the medical marijuana bill recently passed the Senate And it had the support of a broad array of conservative and liberal senators who want to do What I want to do which is to allow doctors to prescribe the treatment they think is appropriate for the patient's need So it went through the Senate. It's now in the house. I hosted a panel discussion on legalizing medical marijuana with both senator fulmer and senator leech there and I think we had a good conversation that that We brought dot medical professionals doctors Into the conversation but also people who are suffering from diseases that could be treated by medical marijuana If the doctors had the right to prescribe that in Pennsylvania So I think there's a lot of support for it. I think people are moving. I support the bill. It has come through the Senate And I think we'll now see what happens in the house. Okay? All right, let's talk about pre-k. It's a big topic right now, Pennsylvania partnerships for children Only one in six of PA's three and four year olds have access to publicly funded high quality pre-k Despite its proven benefits to students and communities. Why aren't we investing more in a program? We know has a significant return on investment. Yeah, we should invest more in my budget Proposes that we spend more. I just was over at the camp hill state correctional institution the prison with a group of Republican district attorneys And all of us were in strong agreement that this is an investment We need to make and the backdrop of the prison was just to make the point that if we don't invest Relatively smaller amounts in early childhood education. We're going to be investing a lot more in the in the long run So it's a smart investments. Why businesses it has brought together Law enforcement officers has brought together conservatives and liberals republicans and Democrats I think this is something whose time has come my budget proposes that we do more in early childhood education I think there's broad support for it. I'm gonna move on a basic education funding another big priority Charlene from Cresco says in your budget some areas are getting so much help with their education spending And then some areas are getting so little how did you come up with those numbers? And why isn't the goal all school districts paying the same amount per student? Yeah, that's a that's a really interesting question I think the we're trying to be fair and I know fair is in the eye of the beholder But but in fairness in terms of funding for education I've gone back to an earlier fair funding formula There's a fair funding formula commission right now that should present its findings sometime in June But all of us are trying to do the same thing What is fair and it turns out that the challenges might be greater in one school district than in another and so having just a level per pupil spending or allocation might not be Adequate if you have a lot of teachers of English as a second language in one school district and none in another That's school district with a lot of English language learners will need maybe more per pupil than the one that doesn't so we need to be censored to that The fair funding formulas that other states I think we're one of three states without a fair funding formula that other states have used Addressed those issues. I think the fair funding formula bipartisan commission that's going to report in a few weeks We'll also look at that and and we'll address I think the the issue that we're talking about here and that is come up with something that says You know, what is it that's going to give your child in that school district a really good educational outcome? Let's make sure we invest that testing Don would like to know will you support getting rid of the keystone exam? Which you know high school graduates need to now graduate requirement Well, we're looking a couple things first of all We're looking right now to be more flexible in the on the keystone exams because people are right now coming up against the Deadline so I know the Department of Education and the Legislature both parties that people are looking at how we can Be flexible at this point. We need an accountability system No question about it and a test of some sort is probably part of that But but I want to figure out and I think the Department of Education and teachers want to understand how we can Get a better measurement of how we're doing in terms of teaching for life You know, what happens to our children when they leave our school system? Do they have a good career? Do they have good career options? Do they go to a university and do well? Those are the kinds of things I think we need to know our parents satisfied with the education their children are getting Those are the kinds of things that are employers Seeing good results when they hire people coming out of Pennsylvania school systems Those are the kinds of accountability metrics that I'm trying to focus on And I think take us away from the single-minded focus on the tests like the keystone test Let's move on to Medicaid Bob from Mertstown would like to say please bring us up to date on Medicaid expansion Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, Medicaid expansion is in full force. I came into office and immediately started to implement the expansion of Medicaid According to the terms of the Affordable Care Act We've made some good progress The goal is to make sure that no one who is signed up for any program is left behind and that we end up with 34,500,000 additional Pennsylvanians getting access to health care that they didn't have before We should have the full expansion complete by early fall this year. Okay Todd from Pitston says everyone talks about helping the middle class Are you here to also help the low-income and the disabled? Yeah, well, that's a great question We need to make sure and I keep talking about a level playing field Pennsylvania all of us as Pennsylvanians Are going to be in a better place. We're going to have a stronger economy stronger communities If if everybody has a Shot at a good life I think the goal for all of us is to have a great private sector job a sustained family sustaining job and if we Accomplish that That would be a great social policy. So how do we do this in a population that is diverse It comes from different backgrounds at different starting points. I think That's one of the things that that is really important to me that we create this level playing field Regardless of what your disability is regardless of where you start or your parents start life in terms of the income scale That you have an opportunity to make a real contribution to the welfare and benefit in the economy that all of us Work in all right. I'm going to read this one in full Cindy from Bethlehem says governor Wolf I am 65 and patiently awaiting the tax relief that you outlined for seniors in PA When do you think any kind of budget will get passed if something isn't done with the taxes? Well, we have to move to a state that does take care of its seniors with taxes going up as I'm typing this question It is impossible for seniors on a limited budget to stay in PA It amazes me that the school districts are still going to raise taxes this year. We need your help, please. Yes I Understand the sensitivity to this. This is really an important issue. I ran on this and frankly Here in Harrisburg, there are a lot of people both parties in the house and the Senate Who care about this this issue? We we really need to do something about our Property taxes we need to Produce some relief. I think we should all be heartened. I mean you're asking me to predict I don't know where it's going to end up. I know what I'm proposing I'm proposing something that will actually give you real relief for the first time in my lifetime And I'm also heartened by the fact that that in the house Republican controlled house Just a few weeks ago A bill passed also with substantive property tax relief now that bill and my bill are different in terms of how the relief is applied and we have a lot of conversation discussions to Insue but We're all on the same page and thinking that this is this is important So I'm I'm pretty optimistic that we're going to get to the point where you don't have to think about leaving Pennsylvania Gloria says many of us worked for you and voted for you based on your promise to restore state funding for public schools What options will you have if the GOP controlled assembly refuses to pass a budget that increases education funding? Yeah, I That's a good question. I we really need to increase our investment in education and I think I'm assuming that that everybody who ran for public office last year heard the same thing I did and that is this is an investment. We need to make it's it's in our enlightened But in our self-interest to have good schools and we can't have good schools You can't just throw money at any problem, but but you can have good schools if you keep taking money away from My proposal is to raise the state share of funding for public education from where it is now in the 30% range 35% I think to 50% and to increase Education funding to restore the cuts that the last administration made And and I want to do that as quickly as I possibly can We need to make sure that every child in our schools today has a good education. So they have a good future All right, Nicholas asks what are you going to do to grow jobs and spur growth in economically distressed parts of Pennsylvania? well, all Pennsylvania needs to to Benefit from from a good economic development program, and I think there are a couple things we can do Broadly to show that Pennsylvania is a place to do business. I build a business here actually twice We have a great workforce. We have a great location. We have so many Natural attributes that we can we can brag about I want to build on those things So I want to reduce the corporate net income tax by 50% I want to eliminate the capital stock and franchise tax things that that I think will make the case to the business world Wherever they are to entrepreneurs in Pennsylvania and outside of Pennsylvania that we are open for business I also of course want to make sure that everybody pays their taxes. So I want to have Combined reporting so that we eliminate the Delaware loophole. I Also want to increase at the investment in education to make sure that we're investing in community colleges Trade schools places that actually provide the skills that our industry needs to develop And I also want to do economic development projects in places that we should target for economic development where it's not taking place right now There are a lot of opportunities. I am bullish on Pennsylvania and I think with a few I think I think intelligent investments We can make Pennsylvania a real economic dynamo All right Well Sean from Shaver town follows up and says as a recent graduate with a degree in political science What does a proposed budget in your mind allow for in terms of greater Commonwealth employment furthermore on the whole? Oops, I'm gonna stop there Commonwealth employment. We caught Sean off First of all, let me compliment you on your political science degree. That's what I have. I think We as I said in answer to the last question what we need is to to and what I want is to make Pennsylvania a Magnet for entrepreneurs who are going to create jobs in Pennsylvania I want to make Pennsylvania the kind of place that someone who wants to pursue a career or create jobs Stays in Pennsylvania that this is a land of opportunity And I think you do that with with a couple things investing in education is one making sure our institutions of higher education K through 12 early childhood do everything they they can do to prepare people for the the jobs that are out there and they Could be out there But also create a climate by reducing the corporate net income tax by 50 not one five at five zero percent eliminating the capital stock and franchise tax making this a place that is definitely open for business and and so You know, they we are creating right here in Pennsylvania the kinds of jobs that the good political science graduates can get All right, let's move on to Transportation infrastructure John from North Wales asks will your budget have increased funding for infrastructure repairs? Yeah, actually and and as much as I'd like to take full credit for this I think I have to give credit to to the legislature and even the governor from Prior governor for passing and enacting act 89 Pennsylvania should have an additional one billion dollars this year to address the issues of the bridges that are Substandard potholes in the roads even some new roads, so Infrastructure is really important in any economy. It's really important in the Keystone State Transportation is very important. I think we have over 40,000 miles of state roads state highways in Pennsylvania that we have to maintain and upgrade and so Transportation is important. We have the funding. I I want to continue to invest in Transportation and with the new secretary of transportation Leslie Richards She and I both have a real Focus on making sure that we do a good job here Here's what we've heard about in the news a lot lately severance tax CJ would like to say hello, Mr. Governor Can you address the worry of energy companies and Republicans about the severance tax on the gas industry? These are there are claims about millions of dollars in investment lost as well as lost jobs Can you please explain to them where these tax dollars will go to and if you have one the plan to not let The job and investment loss happen at least to their predictions. Yeah, I that's a great question and someone who build a business again twice I am the last person who who wants to to drive any business away from Pennsylvania, especially the gas industry This is this is I think if we do this right from an environmental point of view and and an economic a jobs point of This could be a game changer for Pennsylvania. My severance tax is designed to be a modest tax It's in the middle of the pack. It's not the highest by any stretch of the imagination It's not the lowest, but It's meant to be competitive with with other states and it's meant to be there So we can we can actually fund some of the public goods the gas industry actually needs gas industry needs people who have the skills to to work in the gas fields we need Ways and and funds to educate our citizens to give them those those skills I think we also need to to make the case to places that don't necessarily have the gas but could be home to pipelines that they have a Stake of vested interest in making this industry successful as well. So I think what I'm proposing Well, not only not cross jobs, but actually should lead to making the industry even stronger in Pennsylvania and Connecting Pennsylvanians to this industry in a way that it's not connected right now I'm gonna read this one in full to It's regarding pensions Thomas from central city says what is your plan to fix the pension system? Do you plan to keep it as is as a teacher? I have concerns with the Republicans proposal I make significantly less money than others with my level of education and have a second job to make ends meet I am willing to sacrifice some now knowing that one day. I will be able to retire with a decent pension Yeah, I think in retirement security is really important. It's important to me And it's important to all Pennsylvanians if we want to attract good people to public service including to our schools We also have to be concerned about the the burden that we impose on the taxpayer because One of the reasons we have a pension issue right now Is because the employer the state has not been paying into the plan as much as it should have while the employees were very faithfully Contributing money to their their own plan So we need to to come up with a solution that recognizes that we need to be fair to the employees we also need to be fair to the taxpayer and find a way to Address the pension unfunded liability in a way that's it's okay with the taxpayer my proposal saves us ten billion dollars over a period of time 1.5 billion over the next five years And and allows us to continue a pension Plan that actually has been in place since I guess 2010 so I Look forward to I'm sure we'll have robust discussions because as pointed out the Senate has actually Come up with their own plan And we'll have to work out those those differences, but I think we've got to have retirement security We've got to make sure that Pennsylvania has public sector employees Who really want to work here and get compensated for the work that they do for us? Michael from Belfont says Governor Wolf PA used to be one of the best states for attracting Outside investors for solar energy product projects. Do you think under your leadership? We will once again be one of the best states for solar? Yeah, I think all alternative energy sources wind solar We we were a leader and I think we can be that again Pennsylvania is in a good place to take advantage of the new technologies that are out there in my budget I'm proposing a six hundred and seventy five billion dollar bill for economic development a big chunk of that I think almost two hundred million dollars is for programs to Sustain support and courage Alternative energy sources. I have a very conservative Republican uncle who put solar panels on his roof because there was a Federal and I think a state tax credit back in the Rendell years the in that tax credit was there to make up the difference between what? Was economically viable I mean the the return he would ordinarily get without that tax and and and the cost of of doing Traditional energy We need to do those continue those tax credits although the gap between what's economical and the current pricing has narrowed over the last four or five years I still think we need some some help there. I think we have a very bright future We can create good jobs of really strong economy with alternative energy and we can have a clean source of Energy so I'm I'm bullish on that. I'm big on that and my budget proposals actually take us forward Onto Pennsylvania liquor Brian asks what is the outlook to modernize the LCB? I think we need to modernize the liquor control board I think we need to improve the customer experience and there's some things we can do immediately we can we can add more Sunday sales We can make better prices. We can have a better selection of broader selection with the biggest purchaser of distilled spirits Or one of the biggest in the in the world Pennsylvania's I think we ought to allow direct shipments or encourage direct shipments from Wineries around the country into Pennsylvania I think the things we can do to make that customer experience better and and those are the things that That I see that should be encompassed in any modernization scheme All right, let's Take this question from Francois in Pittsburgh. He says mr. Wolf. Thank you for listening to people through the Facebook town hall meeting I would like to know how you address the fracking issue in your budget Thanks. Thank you very much Francois. That's a great question. I This is something that that I believe We ought to Do correctly, but we ought to do it I think we should encourage the growth of a gas industry that could be a real game changer for our economy We cannot we simply cannot do this at the expense of our environment We've got to have both good jobs a strong economy a strong environment and so what I'm proposing to do is is Encourage the industry to develop responsibly. I have Imposed I'm proposing a severance tax that would bring hundreds of millions of dollars into the state that would address the needs of local Areas that now get benefit from the impact fee Would have about ten million dollars that would add people to oversee the industry at the Department of Environmental Protection And by the way not only oversee the industry In But enforce the regulations in a more timely manner so the permits and things like that can get done quicker I want to put some of that money into building a bridge to a sustainable energy future to economic development That was the six hundred and seventy five million dollar bond issue. I was talking about But most of it hundreds of millions of dollars the remainder of the severance tax proceeds would go to support education Josh from Timaqua asks do you believe PA is close to a non-discrimination bill for the LGP? LGBT community Also happy LGBT pride month. Thank you very much. I think the Judge Jones the federal district Judge from the Middle District in May of last year Struck down Pennsylvania's Prohibition against gay marriage and so gay marriage is now legal in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, we don't have a non-discrimination bill I support strongly the efforts of people like representative Sims And others to bring Pennsylvania into the 21st century with a good strong Non-discrimination bill I think I Believe that would be a good thing for all of us. This is Pennsylvania. We were founded by William Penn on the Basis of welcoming everybody that would be great for our economy And I think a non-discrimination is something that could be good for for all of us and Terry from Carlisle She asks about prison reform She says that she believes too many people are incarcerated for non-violent drug crimes That should get some sort of exception to the rule and it would sure help prison overcrowding Yeah, we do have a strong prison pipeline that that forces us to spend too much money on Incarcerating too many people. That's that's a problem in many states. I think Pennsylvania is is One of the states that has a problem with that. We need to invest more in in education I think we need to stop putting so many people in prison for especially non-violent crimes We break up too many families We destroy too many lives We take too many people out of reasonable employment my company I used to give a second chance and I had a lot of good employees who made a mistake early stage of their life committed a non-violent crime later on Giving them a second chance. It turned out to be really good good employees. I think we can do a better job of Investing in early childhood education and education so that people don't make those stupid mistakes as frequently I think we can do a better job of saying, you know There is a difference between a violent and a non-violent crime and we should should recognize petty crimes for what they are and not Not sock someone with a permanent record that there's going to be a disgrace for the rest of his or her life And I think that way we can actually Reduce the expenditures we're making at the state a big part of which has to be has to do with our corrections It's the investment on the the back of front and instead of the back end, right? That's right well investment in education, but again also I think decriminalization of a Number of crimes, you know, turning them into misdemeanors that are now crimes would actually have a lot I think a salutary effect in terms of the employability of people and keeping them from going to prison in the first place And we just got this one in from Marcella in Harrisburg. This goes back to education So she says what accountability measures do you have in place for the money going to school districts? It's a really great question. We need accountability because we've got to make sure that The investment taxpayers are making Well over 20 billion dollars in our schools But the taxpayer feels comfortable that that investment makes sense. I don't know anybody who thinks of investment real investment in education Is is not the right thing to do. I think everybody believes that's a smart thing to do But they want to make sure I think this is reasonable to make sure that that investment is done wisely So the accountability I think we need and I talked about that earlier I want to get away from an accountability that's just focused on one thing like a high stakes test Testing obviously has importance. We have to know whether you're learning fractions in the fifth grade Fourth grade or whenever they learn fractions these days, but we also want to know whether schools are preparing our graduates for for life In the workplace for life and family those those kinds of things So we need an accountability system to show all of us who are taxpayers That what goes on inside the schools is really as good as I think it is Robbie asks are you going to raise the minimum wage and how much? Well, I would like to in my budget proposal. I propose raising the minimum wage of ten dollars and ten cents I think it's at seven dollars and twenty five cents an hour right now That would take us up to just around twenty one twenty two thousand dollars a year and for a family of four That's that's just around the the poverty limit where we are seven dollars and twenty five cents is actually in the poverty Level and if you're a family of four, you know, that's I think just wrong We should not have a system anywhere Where the a family of somebody working in a full-time job with a family for is in poverty We just can't have that when I went back to my business. It was flat on its back. I actually Raised the compensation the wages of my hourly workers by a lot and I did it not because I was trying to make some Theoretical point, but because I knew it would would turn my workers into even better workers They're already very good, but it connected us with the with the company. They were more productive And and I think that same thing is true in the economy if we raise the minimum wage By this modest amount that I'm talking about we'll make a real difference in the lives of people who are Making seven dollars and twenty five cents an hour and I think it'll make a real difference in the economy of Pennsylvania Charlie from Pittsburgh says why don't you support House bill Senate bill 76 to eliminate the school property tax? Yeah, that's a good question. I I think and a lot of obviously conversation about that here in Harrisburg I think that the the really interesting thing about House bill seven and Senate bill 76 is that by moving the property tax to zero you you create Sort of an implicit guarantee that you're not going to have an increase in property taxes. I mean it's it's there I however think that that there ought to be some local Contribution to education and so I want to go to state funding at 50% not a hundred percent Which is a big drop in the in the property tax for the According to my distribution or even the Republican distribution I think we all are sensitive to the issue of Making sure that this does not end up coming back as a tax increase for the school district three four or five years down the road This has to be for dollar for dollar tax relief And I think House bill 76 was very clear on that and appealed to a lot of people because of that I think we can do that make sure that that this is real tax relief But also make sure that there is local input into the school system Which is what my bill my proposal would accomplish So we can have both of those things And let's see here last question is from Brian in if I butcher this I'm I apologize one more store Sounds good to me. I know you're busy. He says but when you get a chance, can you legalize marijuana? Please thanks. Thank you for the question. I I have Proposed and support the legalization of medical marijuana. I support the decriminalization of recreational marijuana I think we ought to look and see I mean, I think Louie Brandeis Justice Brandeis talked about States as being the laboratories of democracy. We have a chance to see how legalizations working Two states are working through that right now Colorado and Washington And I think Pennsylvania would be wise to to sit back and see how that how that goes in those those two states All right, and I guess that's gonna wrap up our Facebook town hall I guess I just want to give you a chance to kind of tell our viewers on Facebook You know what you expect to see over the next several weeks here as we Head into to budget negotiations. Well, I I think we expect to see a lot of fun and And Dramatics we're we're coming to this I'm coming to this budget With a different intent than I think people have had over the last four or five years the status quo is no longer Acceptable, I think I was elected because voters of Pennsylvania said we don't want to do what we were doing before We need to move Pennsylvania for we need a budget that isn't smoke and mirrors. We need something that's not just the status quo We need something where we're addressing the issue of underfunding of schools We need to address the issue of the structural budget deficit We need to have a severance tax We need to to have a fair way to raise taxes and we need property tax relief So all those things together my budget is is trying to move Those things forward and I think Whenever you're bringing the idea of real Innovation to to to the four. I think we can have a better state as a result of this I think you're gonna get some some good conversations. I'm looking forward to some maybe a few fireworks but mostly good conversations vigorous conversations over the next 30 days and I hope we bring I Not hope I know we will bring a budget that actually has substance to it And we'll do something really good for Pennsylvania. Well, we certainly appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to answer these questions I know our viewers do on Facebook as well So all I can say is keep interacting because we like to read what you have to say. No, this is this is great And thank you all for participating. This is I appreciate your your interest in what goes on here in Harrisburg Thank you. Thank you governor. Thanks a lot