R. Lee James set for 2nd term
Lawyer. Journalist. Used car salesman. Politician.
Some professions more than others seem to be the target of jokes and derision.
But freshman state Rep. R. Lee James doesn’t care.
“I love my job,” he says. “I really do.”
And being the only candidate on the ballot Nov. 4 for his 64th District seat, the 65-year-old James of Oil City is assured another two years in office.
The 64th District covers all of Venango County as well as Allegheny, Parker, Venango and Washington townships and Bruin, Cherry Valley and Eau Claire in Butler County.
He is finishing his first term after spending 40 years as a financial consultant and a commercial banker.
Among his committee assignments in Harrisburg are commerce, finance, local government and veterans affairs and emergency preparedness.
On public school funding, James said he believes the $5.5 billion earmarked in this year’s state budget on basic education is fiscally responsible.
State lawmakers, he says, have to deal with a key budgetary principle: if you increase spending in one place, you have to cut it somewhere else.
“We have to live within our means,” he said.
Raising taxes, he stressed, is out of the question. Instead, he supports a budget blueprint that would slow expenditure growth from 2 percent per year to from 1 percent to 1.5 percent.
James, meanwhile, opposes the House version of a bill that would reform school funding by scrapping property tax funding for school districts.
Under the proposal, two-thirds of education funding would come from an increase in the state sales tax, from 6 percent to 7 percent.
The remaining one-third would be made up by an increase in the state’s personal income tax rate, from 3.07 percent to 4.34 percent.
He said he supports overhauling the state’s public pension systems because the commonwealth’s unfunded pension liability — for state employees and teachers — is $50 billion, and growing.
