It’s been more than three decades since Herman Bauer first campaigned for the state House.

The Franklin Township Republican first ran for a seat as a 28-year-old in 1982 in Allegheny County.

“I only lost by about 900 votes in a heavily Democratic district,” he said. “The unemployment rate hit 10 percent in October that year or else I would have won.”

Bauer has continued to stay involved with local government, serving as an auditor for many of the municipalities he lived in.

“I always thought of it as a sense of duty,” he said.

Bauer moved to Butler County 20 years ago to work at Armco. He now is a controller for Caldon Ultrasonics.

In November he was elected to his second term as a Franklin Township supervisor. He is chairman.

Here are Bauer’s opinions on several issues:

Natural gas drillingBauer is an advocate for natural gas drilling.“I think we need to work closely with the corporations,” he said.He is against adding more regulations to the industry.“I’m against anything but the impact fees we have in place,” he said. “It’s a new industry, and we need to let it grow.”Bauer favors allowing the state to regulate gas drilling laws instead of leaving it up to local municipalities.“I think it is best to be done at the state level,” he said. “They have the expertise and resources to do it.”Bauer also said he supported requiring drilling companies to disclose the chemicals used in the fracking process.

Education Bauer is content with the amount of state spending for education.“We spend more money now on education than ever before,” he said. “It all comes down to what we’re spending it on.”Bauer said the biggest issue facing education is that it needs to be localized.“The state gets trapped in all these programs from D.C.,” he said. “They toss us a bone, and we lose control of the curricula. Local people are the best judges of how kids should be educated.”Bauer also said education unions have received raises that are too generous, especially compared to those in the private sector.

Pension reformBauer said the state needs to take immediate action to fix its pension system.“It’s our biggest budget issue,” he said.Bauer said the state needs to put new employees into a 401k system to lessen the future burden of pensions.“We could begin today,” he said. “It’s going to take 20 years to fix the problem, but we need to start now.”Bauer said other states, including New Jersey, have fixed pension issues similar to those Pennsylvania is facing.“We just need people in office who are interested in doing it,” he said.

Tax reform Bauer favors tax reform that would lower or eliminate property taxes while raising income and sales taxes.“This would really benefit the elderly,” he said. “Real estate is really becoming a burden for them.”Bauer said he believes the popular tax reform plan now would raise state sales taxes by 1 percent.

DrugsBauer said drug addiction is a major problem.He would favor increasing regulations on monitoring prescription pain medication because it is associated with heroin use.Bauer also favors drug testing welfare recipients, and that he would never vote to legalize marijuana

AgricultureHe is a strong advocate for any bill that would help farmers, including legislation that would help preserve farmland.“It’s our number one industry in the state,” he said. “Any program that would help preserve that industry, you can’t help but be for it.”