Margie Brown

LOCK HAVEN — Margie Brown is the democratic candidate for the 25th Senatoral District seat in Pennsylvania.

Brown has worked as a public school teacher, communications instructor at the University of Pittsburgh’s Bradford campus, a broadcast journalist and a city council woman.

She recently sat down with the Express to answer questions about issues residents of Clinton County and the district face and her solutions to the issues. Her responses follow:

One of the leading local issues today is the integration of Lock Haven University with Bloomsburg and Mansfield Universities that could result in up to 100 faculty and staff reductions along with program reductions. Have you taken a position on the integration and what are your views on the issue?

That’s a multi-faceted issue. I understand the idea of consolidation when it comes to business practices… I approve some forms of integration that make sense in order to help maintain services. However, this is a huge blow to our rural areas.

We need more not less in terms of access to education. So without knowing what the end game is here and the overall plan it feels like a negative at this point.

I see a lot happening across the board with universities hiring fewer tenured faculty members, hiring more adjunct professors. Adjunct professors are just paid by contract, per course, per semester and it’s not usually a living wage. Most don’t get healthcare. So these are not jobs that will sustain communities. We need more full time faculty in order to maintain those levels.

In addition we need more educational opportunities, not less. We need more work force training, more degree programs, more professional training.

I feel overall it could be a negative, however I look at the university system in New York state and they’ve done very well with integrating everything under one system. So there is a possibility that this could become a positive thing but again that long term plan has not been shared.

Do support more funding for Lock Haven University which saw increased enrollment this fall and our state run schools in general?

Obviously. With increased enrollment obviously that shows that there is a lot of opportunity there for expansion. It’s something to invest in. If I didn’t already believe there should be more funding for our educational systems over all — that includes grade schools — then that would be different. But I actually believe the levels of state funding which have decreased over the years need to be restored.

Have you talked to any LHU officials to ask what the college’s needs are?

No, I have not yet.

Do you support competitive state grants to organizations and intisitutions for betterment projects as a means for providing tax payers with a return on their state tax dollars?

Absolutely, our rural areas are shrinking and again and we do have some interest in people moving back but we need all of the opportunities and that’s going to mean that we need that return on our tax dollars that we have spent, and our investments over time — for generations often — in our rural areas.

We need to improve our infrastructor, it has been neglected, and the level of state funding has decreased over time across the board.

Clinton County is seeing stagnant and in some cases decreasing populations. What would you do to attract more people here especially now amid this “work from home” trend?

It’s the same across the board. People cannot choose to live in places where they cannot receive healthcare. Especially when there are so many people that have pre-existing conditions. Not meaning that they’re unable to work, they absolutely are able to work but they have to be able to access rural healthcare.

We absolutely, positively need broadband everywhere and cellular access. I used to take it for granted that everyone had high speed internet because I did. But just a mile or two out of town from where I used to live my daughter located there and she could not get – she tried — but she could not get high speed internet. And for a lot of people even if they have internet and it functions well… if their kids are home — like during the pandemic shutdown — and are trying to do their school work, they’re often taking up some of that band and people cannot work at the same time their kids are doing school work.

If you locate here and are working remotely which… a lot of younger people have told me they could do… they go to college, they come back and they say “I can’t find a place to live that is affordable and I can’t drive anywhere and do the things I need to do for work without losing my cellular connection.”

Lastly of course they absolutely need the internet where they live. A lot of the 21st century jobs are connected and we need that connection in order to keep people here who are interested in being here.

One of the most compelling attributes of our area is the wealth of natural resources and beauty. What would you do to encourage economic growth while protecting the environment for future generations?

The PA Wilds is absolutely an important program. When I was a child we would travel all over the place to national parks and then come home and see things that we didn’t see while we were out there somewhere else.

I think that improving that connectivity with the parks both in promoting the toursim and also in making it more accessible to the public is really important.

I know that we need access for all terrain vehicles. This is something that is very important to businesses throughout our area and we have enough forested areas where we can have both just walking trails and also all terrain vehicle trails which are absolutely necessary for some people. They can’t really experience the wilderness without some motorized vehicle.

In addition I am in favor of legalizing marijuana. It has a been a boon to Colorado and other areas that have leaglized it. Actually that would help tax payers a great deal, it brings money back into our rural areas.

In the age of Amazon, not only is Main Street suffering throughout our rural towns, but now too our malls are closing. As local commerce struggles, what steps would you take to bring life back to our empty storefronts?

There are some things at the federal level I can’t effect. I really think anti-trust laws should be enforced. It has been unfair competition. These are monopolies, and they’re like mega-monopolies.

Of course when Walmart moves in other stores close. Well those were good paying jobs… they increased not just our real estate tax base but also permenant jobs for families which is another problem we have in rural areas. If we don’t consider everybody an essential worker in our community then we’re going to lose people who actually will buy homes here. That’s really important.

Beyond the anti-trusts law which I don’t have any influence over as a state legislator, I really think that just helping to promote our rural areas with the PA Wilds would be a huge step in the right direction.

I believe there should be an earned income tax credit as we can’t effect things on a higher level. That would be something that would be helpful to rural communities. And that would definitely be helpful to people that own small businesses.

What other local issues are near and dear to you?

Healthcare is a big one, broadband is another. Just having lived mostly my entire life in this area — and I realize that when I talk about Clinton County I kind fo talk about the entire district — but it really is so similar. We had all of these wonderful things in our rural communities. I’ll go back 50 years ago.

Our way of life is worth preserving and there is no reason that we can’t have the same levels of funding and the same quality of life that we did 50 years ago. I mean it’s ridiculous, we’ve gone backwards. We should move forward in terms of education, in terms healthcare, in terms of connectivity. These are all things that are entirely possible just based on history.

Do you practice safety protocols to protect others and yourself from COVID?

Absolutely. I think it’s extremely important. I believe in science.

I realize it’s difficult to find the information these days because there’s so much coming at people in different directions. Sometimes from sources that used to be trustworthy and no longer are.

I try to share that information with people but everybody has their own prism. Wearing a mask absolutely does help to mitigate the spread of COVID. We’re going to see this continue to increase in the rural areas. To some degree because this has become politicised and there are people that actually don’t believe in the threat of COVID. They don’t believe that it’s worse than the flu. Somehow the reality isn’t connecting here. And we are not going to achieve herd immunity by just exposing everyone. This is not that kind of virus. I try to share that information.

What are your views on Gov. Wolf’s restrictions on businesses and organizations to slow the spread of COVID?

I think that he has done a really good job of making sure that we do not have the levels of infection and fatality that other places have. That’s the bottom line.

We were a little frustrated in the rural areas because of specific questions that we had for what we could tell people in our communities about reopening. I know it’s impossible to demand a timeline but we just couldn’t get the communication that we needed … not that he wasn’t commnicating with the public. It’s just that in our area specifically, where I live right now in Elk County, we just didn’t have that kind of infection rate. Those are criticisms that come from my community so I’m sharing that.

The other is that Walmart and Lowes and the other big box stores that we talked about earlier were favored over small businesses in terms of being allowed to open when they did.

Do you agree or disagree with your opponent regarding his vote to impeach the governor? Please explain why.

First of all, I took the time and researched what powers the governor had versus what powers the legislature had and the governor did have the power to do what he needed to do to keep everyone in the state safe.

Again, as things were not fully known at the time it was important that he do what he did. It was interesting, that action came as we were already reopening so it seemed like a bit of grandstanding to me.

I remember very clearly that we were within a week or two of being in the reopening stages when this all occured. So it was already planned, it was already moving forward.

I think there are a lot of things that could be done by the legislature that waste taxpayer’s time and money. People don’t necessarily think that time the legislature spends as being money, but it is, and the actions that are taken. It was a lot of grandstanding.

Do you support mail-in ballots for those who fear COVID and prefer not to vote in person?

Absolutely and I believe it is safe to mail your ballot in.

I went to the elections office yesterday, requested my ballot and filled it out there and put it in the election box there.

I will note that it was a very safe and easy process to go to the elections office, just as it would be to cast my vote via mail.

One of the concerns about going to the polls right now isn’t just what if on that day people are allowed to vote without a mask on. I think that potentially exposes people that are vunerable. So I would definitely recommend either going to the elections office or voting by mail.

Pennsylvania, like most states, is facing a massive budget deficit due to the economic and job downturn caused by COVID. How will or would you approach voting on new or increased funding streams to balance the budget, as required in Pennsylvania?

In times of war, we look for bonds to help the public pitch in and invest in our futures and I think that would be important.

I think I mentioned earlier that I believe in earned income tax credit which I realize is not a revenue stream. But that would help with our rural economies. I am really focused on our rural economies because this entire district, which is a huge swath of northwestern and northcentral Pennsylvania, is entirely rural.

Beyond that I did mention that I was in favor of legalizing marijuana. I believe that would bring a lot of people to this state in general but to the rural areas specifically. Especially right now where people are looking to get outdoors and do things more and we have every wonder of nature here and all of the beauty.

I know that people are coming already. They’re already here. It would just really increase our position for the future.

In closing, why should people vote for you?

So many reasons. I was born and rasied in this area and we’ve chosen to live in this area. We lived for a short time outside of Pennsylvania and we wanted to come back.

Everything that anyone could ever want is here. I shouldn’t say that everything is just the way it should be. We absolutely need broadband expansion. We absolutely need access to healthcare. But I think those things are coming. I feel very positively about that and I will vote for those things, I will fight for those things.

I believe in science and I beleive in scientific solutions to problems. So in areas where we disagree about what is needed to protect the environment for instance, I believe in scientific solutions for those issues.

I believe in improving our economy and I believe that everyone should have a voice. Unfortunately I feel that our seat has been sold to the highest bidder and that it has been for a very, very long time because this district is considered to be a sure thing. One party has it. They sometimes don’t even compete in primary elections and so we don’t really get a choice in who gets elected.

Right now this seat has already been sold to charter schools as far as I’m concerned. Because I am an underdog, I would expect 30 percent of the vote. I’m hoping to have more in the year 2020 with the effort I’ve put in and with the way the tide is turning at the moment.

But hundreds of thousands of dollars from a charter school lobby means that we are not represented. I’m here to try and represent people. I’m here to drive competition for this seat.