PENN TWP — State lawmakers representing the county on Friday discussed their priorities and initiatives at the Butler County Chamber of Commerce’s annual legislative breakfast.

Sens. Scott Hutchinson, R-21st, and Elder Vogel, R-47th, and Reps. Aaron Bernstine, R-10th, Tim Bonner, R-8th, and Marci Mustello, R-11th, attended the event.

Reducing the state’s corporate net income tax would help businesses compete against out-of-state businesses, Hutchinson said.

Pennsylvania has the highest tax rate in the country that causes “sticker shock” when businesses consider opening here, he said. The tax is 9.99%.

A “critical mass” of legislators and Gov. Tom Wolf support lowering the rate, and a gradual reduction will hopefully begin this year, Hutchinson said. He said he would like to see the tax eventually lowered to the middle of rates of other states.

Accelerating the permitting process for natural gas wells and pipelines while maintaining safety would improve energy independence, he said.

“We can be a powerhouse in so many ways with the energy under our feet,” Hutchinson said.

He said he is fighting against Wolf’s efforts to enroll the state in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which would impose an extra tax on power plants. The initiative would result in higher energy costs for residents and businesses.

The regulation would require fossil fuel burning plants to pay a price for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit and would reduce the amount of emissions plants produce.

Vogel highlighted several bills he supports, including one on telemedicine that the Senate approved last year and is currently before the House of Representatives. He said he’s been trying get the bill passed for a number of years and Wolf vetoed it last year.

The current version of the bill, which Vogel sponsored, would require health insurance companies to provide coverage.

A work zone safety bill he introduced establishes penalties against drivers who ignore flaggers or speed through work zones on local roads. Vogel said the bill is similar to a work zone safety law for interstate highways.

Vogel called for more funding for the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program, saying there are only 49 of those nurses, who are specially trained to examine female victims of sexual assault, for the 276 hospitals in the state.

To qualify, a nurse has to be a registered nurse for at least two years and pass a four or five year test, he said. The program needs more funding and awareness, he said.

Bernstine said he supports reducing the corporate net income tax, accelerating the rate at which business can claim asset depreciation, streamlining the gas well permitting process and trade schools.

Bonner said he supports a bill limiting locations for landfills and another bill that allows people to record phone calls they receive from telemarketers.

The landfill bill would prohibit a landfill from opening within three miles of a community with a population of 1,000 people per square mile, he said.

The telemarketing bill aims to help prevent some of the $40 million a year that people lose to phone scammers, he said.

As the current law stands, telemarketers can record people they call. “We can’t record them,” Bonner said.

Mustello said she hopes a bill recently approved by the agriculture committee that would allow whole milk to be served to students in school comes up for vote before the full House next week.

Current federal rules allow only skim milk in lunch programs that receive federal funding.

She said she introduced a bill that would allow small breweries to expand and receive discounts at state liquor stores.

Mustello said she is working with the Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School in an effort to offer Future Farmers of America agriculture education programs at the school. Moniteau School District is the only district in the county with an FFA program, she said. A program at vo-tech would be open to all students in the county, she added.

Responding to a question from the audience, Hutchinson said the federal government has allocated $100 million to each state to improve rural access to the internet, and the state has formed the bipartisan commission, the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority, to determine how the money should be used and distributed.

The authority has decided to make funding “technology neutral,” meaning funding won’t be limited to certain types of internet service connections, which vary across the state.

Answering another question, Hutchinson said it is up to the Department of Transportation to come up with a way to find $800 million in matching funds for the billions of dollars the state is eligible to receive for infrastructure improvements from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Money the state currently obtains for road improvements from the gasoline tax decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic because people drove less often, and people who have electric vehicles don’t pay the tax, he said.

He said using the federal money is preferable to previous efforts to charge tolls on bridges.

Mustello said the House is working on legislation that would expand training for driving fire trucks. She said all training currently takes place at the State Fire Academy in Lewistown.