Corbett Runs on Record of Reform

Corbett runs on record of reform

By Kevin Zwick

Wayne Independent

Honesdale, Pa. —

Editor’s Note: This is a continuing series on candidates running for office in the November general election.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett was elected as the state’s Attorney General in 2004 and re-elected in 2008.

Corbett was an Allegheny County prosecutor before being appointed to the post of assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

He then went into a private practice for several years until he was appointed as the U.S. Attorney by President George H.W. Bush.

In 1995, Gov. Tom Ridge appointed Corbett to fill the vacancy in the Attorney General’s Office to complete the term.

He went back into private practice until he was elected to state Attorney General in 2004.

Corbett’s plan for economic development revolves around creating family-sustaining jobs that can compete in the global marketplace through innovation, improved job creation and 21st century workforce training.

To do so, Corbett said he will partner with the private industry, and also build bipartisan, strategic policies.

By cutting regulatory barriers that he says are crushing job growth and sending entrepreneurs to other states, Corbett says he will expand opportunities for new industry sectors to move into the state.

One way of elevate innovation in the state would be to build a Broadband infrastructure, which would bring in new applications and services in the areas of energy, health care, research & development, scientific development, education and industrial management.

Corbett also would promote innovation through collaboration and growth capital.

He would start the program by developing a private-public partnership among Pennsylvania’s universities and representatives of the Governor’s Office, Department of Community and Economic Development and the Department of Education to utilize the innovation discovered at colleges and universities.

Corbett would also implement sustainability through a Green Infrastructure.

He would encourage investment and innovation in low carbon infrastructure, such as smart grids, natural gas, renewable, nuclear and biomass. He would also promote “smart cities” and “smart towns” with an emphasis on brownfield redevelopment, mixed-use neighborhoods, walkability, and other infrastructure investments.

For job creation, Corbett would reform the job creation tax climate in the state, which he called one of the most oppressive in the country.

He also calls for regulatory reform, including eliminating the permit backlogs, saying the he will reinstitute the “money back guarantee” program at the Department of Environmental Protection and other agencies to ensure permits are reviewed in a timely manner.

Corbett says to develop a world class workforce, he will implement a system which will strengthen regional workforce development initiatives, align education and training with marketplace demands, and retaining and recruiting college graduates back to the state.

He would also simplify the tax code and compliance process to ease the burden on employers.

He would also repeal the Inheritance Tax by phasing it out over a 15-year period.

On energy issues, Corbett said he would get the DEP “back to basics,” by eliminating the permit backlog, ensure timely permit reviews, allow retired DEP senior managers to voluntarily mentor future DEP mangers, and would set up an “expert” loan program, which would allow individuals with expertise in pre-identitified specialties to lend their skills to DEP for a specified period of  time.

Corbett does not support a severance tax on natural gas extraction in the early stages of development in the state. He said the tax would reduce capital investments and hurt potential new job growth. However, Corbett would support dedicating a portion of the royalty fees to communities that are being impacted by drilling.

Corbett said he would mandate the FRAC chemical disclosure, expand pre-drilling water testing, increases mandatory protections for water supplies and support DEP regulatory changes to protect water supplies.

He would also create the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale Commission, a bipartisan commission tasked with identifying legislative, regulatory and other initiatives to address environmental concerns and resource development measures and propose community outreach, education programs and technical assistance measures.

He would also promote the use of renewable, alternative and clean energy.

As a way to reform government, Corbett would call for a 10 percent reduction in government administration operations in all branches of government. But, to make up for lost staff, he said the government must continue keeping up with technology upgrades, centralizing communications between agencies and lowering overall administrative costs.

Corbett also proposed 100 percent transparency throughout state government.

He also would reduce the size of the state automotive fleet by 20 percent, which would save a proposed $140 million over the next 10 years.

Peformance-based budgets would also be enacted on all state agencies to determine the level of funding each receives.