Joe Pittman, the Republican candidate for the 41st Senate District, said supporting economic growth by expanding utility infrastructure would help the region and state prosper.

Pittman is running against Democrat Susan Boser in the upcoming special election being held during the May 21 primary to replace former Sen. Don White, who retired in March with two years left in his term due to health issues.

Joe Pittman worked as the chief of staff for White since he took office in 2001. The father of four graduated from Penn State University in 1998.

The district includes eastern Butler County, Armstrong and Indiana counties, and part of Westmoreland County, Both Pittman and Boser are from Indiana County.

“Anytime you have growth and development you are naturally creating more tax revenue,” Pittman said. “When you generate tax revenue through growth it helps lessen the burden on everybody. To me economic growth answers a lot of the critical issues we face in the state, not just this region but the entire commonwealth.”

Pittman said he supports developing natural gas, water and sewer infrastructure in the Route 28 corridor in Armstrong County and expanding high-speed broadband Internet service in rural areas.

“Access to water and utilities is limited. Broadband in rural areas is a big issue. Rural areas don't have access to natural gas. We have all this gas under our feet and people in rural areas don't have access to it,” Pittman said. “We must expand that infrastructure.”

He said development along the Route 228 corridor in Butler County is encouraging and he wants to be part of the county commissioner's efforts to continue that development.

“There's a lot of infrastructure in that area. We need good infrastructure to attract development,” Pittman said.

School funding

Pittman understands that creating a funding formula that is fair to all 500 school districts in the state is difficult, but said giving districts flexibility in how they spend subsidies would help relieve budget pressures.

“Districts with growing student populations want more money. In the 41st the population is declining, but they still want the money they're receiving and they want more. It's a problem. It causes a lot of consternation,” Pittman said. “Every district is different. It's hard to make a formula that treats 500 school districts fairly.”

He said the legislature should reconsider limitations on how districts spend subsidies for basic education, special education, transportation and food service.

“We should give school districts more flexibility for the money they do receive. There are limitations on how they can spend those subsidies,” Pittman said. “That whole process and approach, and how they are calculated needs to be looked at.”

He added that he is opposed to standardized testing.

“Get it out of the districts and allow teachers to focus on teaching,” Pittman said.

In addition, he said the legislature should come up with a way to provide property tax relief for homeowners.

Natural gas impact fee

Pittman said he supports the existing impact fee the state imposes on gas wells and is opposed to adding or replacing it with a severance tax based on the amount of gas extracted. Most of the revenue from per-well impact fees are distributed to counties and municipalities where drilling occurs. Butler County and its municipalities have benefited from the fee that he calls a tax.

“I know Butler County has been a beneficiary of that. Municipalities also,” Pittman said. “That tax is in place and it's being used quite effectively. I don't support a severance tax.”

Agriculture

Pittman pointed out that a recently enacted law eliminated the inheritance tax of family-owned farms, but argued that dairy farmers need more help.

“The dairy industry is obviously struggling right now. We have to give dairy farmers new markets and ways to promote products,” he said.

He said more should be done to encourage students to drink 2 percent milk now that schools are allowed to serve it in addition to skim milk.

Hunting, fishing

Pittman said he would have to see assurances that the Pennsylvania Game Commission is making as much money as it can responsibly make from natural gas leases and sales of timber and coal from state game lands before he would consider supporting a hunting license fee increase.

“The game commission owns a lot of property. I'm not convinced they're using that property in the best way possible to generate revenue off that land,” Pittman said. “Obviously it must be done properly. I need to be convinced they are doing that before talking license fee increase.”

He said gas rights can be leased and the gas can be extracted without drilling on the game lands. The fish and boat commission used to get royalties from dredging in the Allegheny River, but has stopped issuing dredging permits, he said. The commission would have to reconsider that position before Pittman said he would consider increasing the fishing license fee.