from senior prospective we have to special guest with us today the candice for the state senate for the thirty seventh district which includes peter's turn to mr grech site and mr tim murphy i want to thank both of you for taking time from your busy schedule to be with us today good to be here so do you mind if i call you by your first names ok greg how about if i start with you would you please to give  a little information about yourself for armand i grew up in greensburg pennsylvania i was one of seven children and my family taught me that if you work hard and are honest believe in god you can make anything happen that you want and you can be anything you want to be i have always had a desire to do public service and did that prior to getting involved in politics i graduated from st vincent college in one nine hundred seventy seven i majored in accounting and i came to pittsburgh for my first job i worked here for the largest c p a firm in the world at the time then went on to law school and i paid my way both through law school and through college and i'm very very proud of that because i think that that shows that hard work ethic that i was taught as a child and i am very proud of my education both as a c p a and also a tax attorney i worked in the private sector arm up for thirteen years before i ran for before i won my state house in one thousand nine hundred i have been in the state legislature for the last six years i represent the areas right now mount lebanon scott township green free hydel bar and baldwin township and during my six year career in the state house i have crafted a record of somebody who is very as our legislator somebody who's very hard working our and somebody who is fiscally conservative and i have voted against the largest tax increase that ever was brought up for a vote in harrisburg  nineteen ninety one i have since voted for tax reductions most notably in one thousand nine hundred five two hundred eighty three million dollars of tax reduction i have been a proponent for senior citizens issues which i know we'll talk about in a little bit but things like the elimination of the widow's tax the elimination of the two percent tax on annuities tax reform issues i have been a leader in my six year career in the state house and  thank you for having this forum this evening and look forward to answering your questions later on in case tom are tim tim thank you also i'm a for him here my background is really very different from anyone in the states and of pennsylvania i come from a family of eleven children have a wife nan and my daughter been with a public school in upper st clair and what i come from is i have a bachelor's degree and master's degree in it and a doctoral degree as a psychologist i work at mercy hospital there on the staff and have formerly been with children's hospital women's hospital and also with university of pittsburgh school of medicine faculty from that i started my own practice as well so i actually have employees them out of i create them and i'm very proud of what we've done over the years and my staff has really been a service to people that's where my career has been in the sector that of what i have really crafted my whole life towards has been helping people and what i see happening here is not only from the things that happen to my daughter to my family to children i know but the many families that i have served over the years in their knees it's pennsylvania's really lacking in how it handles family now there's a lot of wonderful things about pennsylvania and we have many reasons to be optimistic but we have many reasons to be concerned too we have reasons to be concerned the pennsylvania ranks near dead last in the nation and the nation with where we stand with jobs because typically what happens to our youth is they grow up and they go away they leave college or after high school they leave this state that pennsylvania's continue this downslide since the steel mills of close it really hasn't recovered it hasn't thought of a new way now let that then means this is as we lose our you population is great now we have as you know it's pennsylvania the second oldest state in the nation allegheny county the second oldest county in the nation in terms of percentage of senior citizens and they cannot continue to have the weight of government on their back in terms of the weight of taxes but it's this to news our kids leave some stay the senior stay and the burden remains there and what that does and that means the taxes seem to go up all the time in this state they go up in terms of hitting businesses harder and harder businesses leave they don't save jobs go with that and this is dwindling it's almost as if this boat is sinking and i and someone's drilling holes in the boat in an attempt to let water out but it's having the opposite effect now we look at some of the things that continue to move on here we have a in allegheny county this one percent sales tax which is the highest in the state in terms of county the allegheny county and philadelphia that's something that has been a great going actually for peters township because people come here and other places to shop we have huge property taxes we have huge taxes from our schools the cost of education in this country has quadrupled in the last twenty years and in pennsylvania we now rank fifth in the nation with our cost of educating each pupil but we rank near last in this forty fifth in the nation with their s a t s scores and even even if you just take the states the top fifteen states in population in terms of how many students actually take the s a t s we rank less no i'm not willing to be satisfied with that i'm not willing to be satisfied with second best on anything i want to students get the best education i want to have an opportunity for jobs i want to have opportunities to have strong families here and that is why someone with my background who has spent my entire career in health care and in creating jobs and helping families is doing that it's an extremely important speech and it's extremely important how we select someone and what sort of thing that person is going to bring to pennsylvania i will be the only person the state senate who has any health care background we have no representation there now and it's extremely important that we look at what our families need now and what i families need in the future and that's stronger families and that is more jobs and that is quality health care and that is better schools and those are the reasons that i am running and those are the reasons that's quite frankly taking all this time way from my family is really a pretty big strain on any family to run for office but you know my daughter my wife are hanging in there and we're doing the best we can and will continue to do this because we believe in pennsylvania and i'm sure read dress first what is your opinion of doing away with or lowering senior citizens property tax tim what i think the probably texas she was a very very important multiple ways we have a system here in the state which is really arcane at best and there was legislation put together by senator melissa hart senate bill two and that's progressing and i don't know if it's going to be passed this year but it has a couple of fundamental issues that are very important one is allowing the burden to be removed from total property tax and there are some benefits to have some property tax because that provide stability but it also does not provide the base in terms of the income tax and property tax that a change would be and what i would support is to allow communities to have that say so allow communities to devise their own plan rather than having harrisburg telling every community how to do it but that's not a very very important part of this legislation that is to allow voters to have voted referendums on these issues and i know this is where my point and i differ because he voted to allow it out of committee without a vote referendum on there and i did i would disagree with that entirely we have been pounded pounded by increased property taxes by increase school taxes i want the best schools as i said i've got a daughter in public school and i and i'm not going to stop until i see the best schools but we cannot keep writing the blank check on this issue and that is what has happened in pennsylvania people want to build new buildings fine but what happens here too is with the teacher strikes with the ministry of salaries over eighty percent of the cost of education in this state goes to salaries and this is an upward spiral in a downward spiraling economy in pennsylvania we can't afford to do that and that's why i believe voter referendum three very important i believe that voters are intelligent enough and believing enough you know our youth and our communities to support some of these initiatives and some of the states that have voted referendums like ohio with up to seventy percent will support these things but we cannot take away that power from citizens i believe very strongly and that's one of things  believe we've got to have back you know our property tax and income tax for citizens greg erma rather than just talk about property tax reform i have actually voted for property tax reform and it's simple list for is the shifting of funding for public education from property taxes to income taxes and that's what we are working on in harrisburg i have because of my background as a c p a and a tax attorney i have been appointed to a four member committee to study this issue i supported and i voted for property tax reform to relieve the ordinance burden of property taxes from senior citizens taking that burden off of the homeowner and putting it on income i voted for that two years ago and i have been a leader in harrisburg on that issue and i've also been a leader back home arma i do support property tax reform i also board allowing school districts the option of the side hiding how much of an income tax they want to raise and how much they want to reduce the property taxes that should be up to the local officials the local community to decide the referendum issue that i support is a referendum issue that will say to the community you decide whether you want to move from property taxes to a mix of income and property taxes if you don't want to do that then you don't have to but if you do then we will allow you to make that decision on a referendum what i do not agree with it's i do not want to turn pennsylvania into a california where every issue the cons that somebody wants to put on the ballot they can put on the ballot i happen to have faith in the public i happen to have faith in the constituents and peirce township that they are electing people that reflect their values that have a concern for their family that have a concern for their wages and their hard earned money i have faith in the public that they will elect officials both his school board and to the municipal government here in peter's township that they will make the right decisions so i do support property tax reform i have been a leader in getting property tax reform through the state legislature as i said i voted for it two years ago i'm on a committee that's looking at it right now we are going to vote that issue this year in the state house i also have been a leader in pennsylvania in western pennsylvania specifically to put the five percent cap on assessments for local property tax increases a couple of years ago you may have remembered that there was an outcry from constituents in my district where the allegheny county commissioners wanted to increase assessments i thought to put in and have passed by the house and the senate and fortunately governor toted but it was there an issue where we put a five percent cap on pretty tacky assessment because i understand because of my background as a c p a and a tax attorney and somebody who owns a home i understand that you just cannot continue to leave assessments got one checked and that's what i have been doing in the last few years in the state when i have to pay attention it's very very important distinction between my opponent and i here and that is that i believe the citizens are smart enough to vote on some of these issues not just to break up whether it is property or income tax but also whether or not those things should be there yes we should vote in school board so what happens in pennsylvania is again i point to the cost of education here is incredibly high and because i am so dearly concerned of what happens to my child and other children that we cannot just continue to write the blank check i believe citizens should have some say so when i walk the streets of the series i walk in places like jefferson and i see to lower the property taxes good for them i know i support them my opponent did it but what is so very very important here is to allow citizens to have some say so we cannot continue to have this spiral unchecked of cost vote on any any any tax increase any additional building whether it's an addition or a new building i don't support that i have faith in people out there in peter's township and in western pennsylvania that they elect people to the school board that are going to make those decisions decisions i also supported and allowed the county commissioners to lower the allegheny county taxes by twenty percent again i went to bat for the taxpayers in this area to allow the county commissioners when there was an issue with the whether they had the legal authority to do it i went to bat for our constituents to allow the county commissioners to lower taxes by twenty percent and i don't i need to correct my opponent here because i'm not trenton this into california he's misquoting something are and that is the issue there is that it said that there had to be a referendum if there was going to be be a building project that cost over one hundred fifty percent of the school districts annual budget that was a difference there which means there's a lot of room but it was anything i mean going to be let me finish re acting let me finish that quickly i want to initially some people let me finish the issue was that there is indeed some room for school districts to work there and yes we do elect people to do that but i also know that there's other referendums for sales taxes and we have in allegheny county a huge sales tax there and i know that was also an issue that should voters be allowed to say something about their sales tax no he said no i believe yes that doesn't believe it doesn't mean every issue goes up for referendum but i think that there are some things that the voters in pennsylvania need to have some control over again to say yes we have the intelligence to do something about our state the loaded state that has the biggest legislature in the nation cannot continue to act this way we have to have some s therefore many senior citizens cannot qualify for the program what can be done about this for what i have sponsored i have sponsored legislation to increase those income limits and my legislation the legislation i'm supporting would increase the limits by two thousand dollars so you would take the thirteen thousand increase at the fifteen thousand for a single person and take it from sixteen thousand two hundred dollars to eighteen thousand two hundred dollars for a married couple because i have heard from many people who are on pace that we simply they are losing their benefits because their so security is increasing and for no fault of their own they are losing the medical benefits that pace offers also it's important to understand that there we need a program a safety net beyond that new fifteen thousand dollar limit and the eighteen thousand two hundred dollars limit we need a program where we can put a sliding scale in so that somebody can make additional money beyond that and still have part of a co pay so even if they move beyond the new limits they don't lose everything they should be required to pay more but they're not going to lose everything and are met this issue is something that's not new to the legislature and one of the first bills that i voted on back in one thousand nine hundred one we had the save the lottery in pennsylvania we are the only state in the nation arm of the only state that provides one hundred percent of the lottery proceeds to senior citizens in this commonwealth i am very very proud of that i also was proud of the fact that i was part of the solution when we ran into a program back in one thousand nine hundred one regarding this issue is a similar program are watery was maturing we were not getting additional money coming in people were getting older more people were taking advantage of the lottery system which we want  to do but it was going bankrupt we had to come in as a legislature and rescue the lottery we put in some very commonsense proposals to do that and the lottery has been fine since then we now need to take care of people who because of social security increases are losing benefits under the pace program right now we need to provide additional income limits to those people so that they do not lose those benefits i am sponsoring legislation to do that right now i'm going to ask one of my concerns there's another concern that goes with that too or i'm a that certain we do need to raise the limits and adjust because incomes of have gone up somewhat but still people still often live in poverty i know that from the many families  that i know and work with one of the things we need to do to make sure we're in the costs and that is deal with the cost of medication generic drugs obviously cost a lot less than brand names and make sure the legislation also will pay for those generic drugs over brand names except for those cases in which there is clear scientific evidence the brand name really has some different effects i believe very strongly that physicians who know medicine should be the ones writing the prescriptions and many of them know that they'll check off that place that there can be a generic substitution but there are those cases of some medications where that there may be some difference and we need to make sure we protect patient care first there is i know my aunt has that watch there because she has family in this with her doctor prescribes and everything you know and not everybody can have the generic right sometimes there are minor fluctuations in some of the active medication levels in some pills and when i asked be very careful about that i was control and we do allow that right now are my somebody wants to pay a higher co pay for brand name drugs they are entitled to do that and i again i support and think that's very important you know your health is very important critically and i came my last question is sort of a personal one the senior citizens there's hundreds of senior citizen centers and satellite centers and pennsylvania all want some of that certainly what i would like to do is help in many of these things are best from a grassroots level get some state funds that they can be helpful in some levels but there are so many wonderful things that have happened in senior centers around the i know you're looking for these i know you've got some people working diligently on these to to have a permanent location and certainly many communities have done that some of have a building in those ends up being pretty expensive and you end up being your own landlord and having to take care of all those costs some have in churches or schools or or parts of schools are no longer used and certainly would be willing to work with you very strongly and consistently on that that has been an area of interest of mine for years obviously working with families from whether it has been directing a program for senior citizens myself in years ago employment program the many families i work with and i know that when you have the grassroots efforts to make things happen that's what works and what i would use my leadership is to make sure that we use all possible means within the community and from state funds which is really your money taxpayers money to come back and help with it greg are my eyes i have good news for you the good news is that there is money available and i would like to work with you in the residence of pierce township in order to secure that money the blueprint for getting money for a senior center is follows the department of aging must first be contacted they often provide seed money for senior centers in different municipalities next aright you must contact the county commissioners here in washington county and again i would like to work with you in that endeavor and third you must contact the southwest area agency on aging and that's located where this district is located in my nason those people are the ones who have to you approval for a senior citizen centers so it's a very precise chain of command that one has to look at and go out and do the grassroots person to person effort necessary to get the funds but the department of aging in harrisburg is the first step and the panic commissioners here in washington county and also the southwest area agency on aging is an agency that must be contacted and again i would like to work with you and the residents of the wisdom that they bring to our community and to have a place for them together i'm i've also been to a number of senior centers in my capacity as state representative and i i have been there to read to seniors i have been there to the play different games and puzzles and so forth with the seniors and i have seen firsthand in my district how important it is to have senior centers for people who do not want to go into a nursing home who can you know survive outside of a nursing home and want to stay in their home i think it's extremely important to do that and i've seen that firsthand in the many senior centers that i have visited and the summary of our talks here now so it seems you want to go first sir big line too and i thank you for this one because it is very important because there's really a difference here in this election they say they say you should believe politics half of what's to see and nothing that you hear and so i preceded form to let people know where i really stand and in this it's important to stand where i come from again this is what will be the senate's only health care provider i haven't done the things i have done because i've been looking for a photo opportunity because it's been the nice thing to do to the vocation that i have chosen has been to help people and that has included such experiences as working at mercy hospital and dealing with premature infants and holding babies in my hand the size of my hand trembling from cocaine withdrawal born to a teenage mom on welfare who doesn't even come back then the child has to travel through the child welfare system over the years and maybe never gets adopted because it's so difficult to adopt in this state and for many cases families let's say this will let these kids linger on and i couldn't sit back and watch that anymore and because i know what's happening in health care and know the kind of things that are happening with insurance companies and doctors and agreements to give doctors a gag order so doctors can't describe some of things going on where the in cash incentives are now for doctors to not treat him to not refer or doctors are constantly given computer printouts of whether or not they met quota and calling people customers now instead of patients i couldn't sit back and watch that anymore and knowing the kind of things that happen with jobs in our state and watching people in my office of the people i've tried to help get jobs and gotten them employment but still seeing families break up in this because we couldn't get jobs because we have economy here that keeps looking for places to tax because we haven't really welcomed up yet the idea of the mills are gone and we cannot continue to handle things in the same way the last thing the state needs is to continue with stack tax and spend method and that really is a big difference between us not only the issue of referendums but really some of the issues too with sales tax i know my opponent proposed reducing business taxes i like to reduce business taxes too but that's really a fundamental difference in how that is done i propose creating incentives for businesses to hire again with lower taxes for each job they create indexed towards the wages that they pay so the better wages and the more jobs the better off it is for them my opponent has proposed such things as increasing personal income taxes increasing is another proposal he's voted for to increase taxes by removing deductions and pension plans i don't agree with those things people in this state have been bled to death with taxes all we need to do is something visionary and bold and say what can we do to make pennsylvania better for families what we do to make pennsylvania better to get jobs or to have better schools to have health care that focus on health care again and i'm running for this race because i really feel passionate about what's going to families and i know my experience as someone who is ran a business as someone who served in this community in many capacities here where there's been a boer's of this grassroots things in the y m c a or senior citizen plans or head start or red cross to work with all these organizations i know what it takes from the people level and i know the total this is taking on families and i know we cannot continue the same path of seeing that this isn't just a matter of rhetoric differences this is really a matter of reality and one of the things that i was really puzzled by is i was preparing for this too with which great fight of my debating the one who calls himself a fiscal conservative or the one who is consistently propose to do with deal with raising taxes and talk about tax issues this is a people business this isn't about money this isn't about here this is about what the people in this state need and that's why i'm running for the pennsylvania state senate today and that's why i went on november fifth greg i would just like to say that there are real differences between my opponent and i and i think that that has come to light here today i want to continue to use my education background as a c p a and a tax attorney in the state senate i will be the only c p a in the state senate no matter how you  the legislature in the business of government things come down for dollars and cents and things that we do are bout writing laws and i have that background to understand that i have thirteen years experience in the private sector as a c p a and as a tax attorney i understand what it takes to run a business i understand what we need to do in pennsylvania to bring bread businesses here and that's what i've done i am very concerned about the economy in western pennsylvania that is why i voted against the largest tax increase in one thousand nine hundred one levied in pennsylvania that is why i voted for a two hundred  eighty three million dollars tax reduction last year that's why i voted for property tax reform in pennsylvania that's why i voted for an elimination of the widow's tax in pennsylvania on senior citizens who spouses died that's why boated for elimination of the annuities the two percent annuities tax my opponent wants to cast me as somebody other than what i am i mean i received the endorsement of the chamber of commerce in pennsylvania he did not i received that was a good deal dangerous harmer's endorsement i received the endorsement of the national federation of independent businesses which is the small business agency those people know as well as anybody who the true fiscal conservative is i am very proud of my record i am also very proud the fact that i have voted to eliminate teacher strikes in pennsylvania that i have voted to give local school boards control sabbaticals and piping up a sabbatical buying wood in the state legislature and a very very proud of my record is somebody who is hands on and i would say to anybody that your this program to not listen to my opponent and  if you have questions about whether what i'm saying you can believe because of what's going on here which is absolutely terrible and i'm not going to run a negative campaign but ask somebody in my current legislative district ask somebody in mount lebanon that you know where scott township or green free or heidelberg or baldwin township i think those people that i have represented for the last six years will be able to tell you more than anybody what i'm all about and i am one hardworking legislator who believes in hands on and again  and cooperation i would like to i'd also like to remind everyone to vote this november fifth there are lots of issues that will concern people ages please note this is our mcgregor from senior perspective