LYNDORA — State Rep. Brian Ellis, R-11th, is disappointed in the Commonwealth Court ruling that struck down part of Act 13, which involves regulating Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling.

But he expects the state Supreme Court to overturn the lower court’s ruling.

As legislators prepare for the next session of the General Assembly, which convenes Monday, Ellis said he they will wait for the state Supreme Court’s ruling on Act 13, which he expects by the end of the year, before any other action is taken on this issue.

Ellis, who was a lead author of Act 13, said he was “extremely disappointed” that the section of the law that deals with municipal zoning laws was ruled unconstitutional by a Commonwealth Court judge, while the rest of the law was upheld.

“The municipalities only have the power to pass zoning ordinances because the Legislature gave them the power to do so,” Ellis said in an interview Thursday.

He said municipalities do not have the power to regulate natural gas because that power is with the state.

If the Supreme Court, which will hear the state’s appeal on Oct. 17, should uphold the Commonwealth Court ruling, it would allow each municipality to make its own laws, he said.

“Townships could decide to ban guns, allow gay marriage, enact new taxes,” he said. “There will be people who will press the issue for the municipalities to make their own rules.”

Ellis said many people think Act 13 was “to be the be all, end all when it comes to gas drilling, but we didn’t touch on air quality and water quality because the research just wasn’t there yet. We are still working on all this. All we did was to enhance the existing 1984 law.”

In talking about other legislative issues, Ellis said transportation funding and public employee pensions are two issues he expects to be dealt with in 2013 by the Legislature.

But he said the House is in a tough position regarding transportation funding because state Rep. Richard Geist, who was chairman of the Transportation Committee, will no longer be in office, and he is the House’s expert regarding transportation.

“So now we have to find out who is going to be the chairman and that person will have to become the expert,” Ellis said.

He expects Gov. Tom Corbett will have to raise fees, such as car registration fees and possibly fees on oil, to generate additional revenue for transportation.

These fee recommendations were made by a committee that Corbett established just after entering office. Those recommendations are almost two years old.

As for public employee pensions, Ellis said the problem is that there are fewer people paying into the pension fund with more people eligible to withdraw the money.

“We will have to move away from the pension system, but what do we do instead is the question we haven’t answered,” he said.

Ellis pointed out that what changes are made will apply only to new state employees, not to those with established pension funds.

One thing he’d like to see changed is the option state retirees have to withdraw their entire pension on the day of their retirement.

“We have to stop that,’ he said.

Ellis also said the House and Senate are looking at education reform for charter and cyber charter schools. Currently, when students enroll with a cyber school instead of a regular school district, those districts loose state money because the state educational funds go with the student to pay the cyber school.

Ellis said he wants to change the distribution of student funding from the state when it comes to cyber schools so that the school districts are not hurt financially so much.

Ellis also said the accreditation of cyber schools must be looked at and new rules set in place.

“How much experience do you need to have to open, run or teach at a cyber school? Who gets to set up a curriculum? Those kinds of things have to be addressed.” he said.