HARRISBURG BREAKTHROUGH? State Rep. John Taylor Says Maybe

by Tony West

A political whirlwind unleashed by the weird general election of November 2014 may just lay the groundwork for a transformative year in Pennsylvania, starting right now.

State Rep. John Taylor predicts big decisions on Capitol Hill this year.

“2015 could be one of the most-interesting years in the last 20 on Capitol Hill” – that’s the insight of State Rep. John Taylor (R-Northeast), who is in the top rank of Philadelphia’s elected leaders, punching way above his weight. That’s because he is the only popularly elected, working-class, rust-belt, inner-city Republican to hold state office in Pennsylvania – and one of few nationwide.

Three-quarters of the General Assembly have been in office for four years or less, Taylor noted at a press meeting in his Bridesburg office. Likewise new is Gov. Tom Wolf, who just proposed a budget that many call audacious. At the same time, the legislature steered to the right, setting up what Taylor called “two immoveable forces on their way to an intersection.”

Wolf’s boldest proposal – reducing property taxes through a combination of other tax hikes and fees – Taylor said may not be bold enough. Pressure exists on the Republican side of the aisle, particularly among Midstate legislators, to do away with school property taxes altogether. This idea is popular enough in his caucus, Taylor thinks, that it might encourage Republicans to come to grips with substantial extensions of sales and income taxes as well as higher levies on Marcellus Shale gas.

A measure introduced by State Sen. David Argall (R-Schuylkill), SB 76, would do just that by upping the Personal Income Tax to 4.34% and retaining coverage of telecommunications under the Sales & Use Tax. Eliminating school property taxes would increase home values across the state by 10%, estimates Argall. And property-owners everywhere, especially retirees, would find a tax cut sweet music – not least in Philadelphia, where Mayor Michael Nutter has just asked for a 9.34% bump in the property tax to balance the School District’s budget.

Since statewide Republicans will exert an ironclad grip on the General Assembly for the next seven years, thanks mostly to sharp redistricting  after the 2010 census, nothing that matters to Philadelphia in the next two years – despite the upset election of a Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf – will come to much if John Taylor doesn’t push it like an ox.

Which he can do – in 1984 he replaced a retiring Democratic incumbent in Kensington, buoyed perhaps by a wave of Reaganism; but he clung on through the Clinton and Bush years, even as inner cities turned bluer.

Taylor is nothing if not persistent. His reputation for unpretentious honesty and dogged hard work has earned him bipartisan trust. And now his city needs him more than ever.

Officially, Taylor will be Majority Chair of the Pennsylvania House Transportation Committee – a public space where real money is spent. Commonwealth-funded road and mass-transit projects all go through this committee. Many Pennsylvania Republicans are from rural districts where public transit is all but unknown. That Taylor has been trusted by fellow Republicans to manage this pot of money by his colleagues is a hard-earned testimonial to a Philadelphian in Harrisburg.

Taylor is open to changes in natural-gas taxation but warns that his colleagues from the Shale Patch must be assured their home municipalities will not lose their revenues from impact fees. He does not want to see overall gas production inhibited either. “I foresee that Philadelphia can become an energy hub if we develop this industry correctly,” Taylor insisted.

Pensions are another long-standing problem that may be ripe for historic reform, Taylor said. The Commonwealth’s chronic underfunding of its State Employees Retirement System and Public School Employees’ Retirement System is worsening and may lead to a costly credit downgrade in the near future. Taylor doesn’t have an answer to this dilemma – “There are five different versions of a solution on the table, all proposed by smart people; but somebody’s got to be wrong,” he noted – but he believes the will may be present now to take decisive action at last.

As a former chair of the Liquor Control Committee, Taylor is skeptical of Wolf’s notion that aggressive new marketing can vastly increase Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board revenues. Taylor in the past has taken a centrist approach to the debate over state-store reform or privatization.

Taylor’s new assignment to chair the Transportation Committee puts him in the fortunate position of presiding over the fruits of a major success of the last Governor, Tom Corbett, who pushed through an increase in the gasoline t-word… (um, let’s call it a “fee”), leaving the Commonwealth to poised to ramp up handsomely its investment in roads as well as mass transit.

His chairmanship is good news for SEPTA riders. Rural Republican legislators often show little interest in public transit, Taylor observed. “They tell me, ‘My constituents don’t use it.’ Well, 10,000 of mine do.” Taylor’s cooperation with his colleagues’ pet road projects will win him valuable chits when it comes to funding SEPTA, which he said is now on an operationally sound footing.

A major experiment in highway-maintenance privatization, Act 88, was hailed by Taylor. One company will repair 558 bridges within a three-year span, to be paid off by the State over a 20-year span. Economies of scale will reduce the costs of this project by 20% over what PennDOT would have to pay if it did the work itself. Bridges are a big deal in Philadelphia, Taylor pointed out; I-95 is “mostly bridges in the city,” he said.

Stiffer DUI laws are advancing, Taylor said. First-time offenders may face an ignition interlock device, possibly with state-of-the-art ankle bracelets that detect blood-alcohol levels. Look also for work-zone speed cameras on the model of red-light cameras. These are already deployed in Maryland. If installed here, they could prompt a jolting change in Keystone State motoring habits.  And Taylor predicted that cash tollbooths on the Turnpike will be completely phased out by 2016, replaced with universal E-ZPass.

Other urban projects Taylor is interested in are a mandatory minimum two-year sentence for criminal use of an unlicensed gun; forbidding cash payments for scrap metal to quell stripping vandals; and improvements in the conservatorship law to make it easier for community groups to salvage blighted properties.

Taylor’s efforts to forge an urban Republican agenda will be aided by the fact he has a new Philadelphia colleague in his caucus, Martina White, who just won a special election in the 170^th Legislative Dist. in the Far Northeast. Taylor praised White’s “awesome work ethic and intelligence.” In her midwinter campaign, he noted, she had contacted the average household in her district 1.35 times; that means she met some people at their doors more than once.

The House of Representatives has changed greatly during the course of Taylor’s career. “The leaders used to work together to get the job done, then they would tell the Members how to vote. Now the leaders don’t even like each other and the Members won’t listen,” he sighed. Taylor seeks to moderate the “diffuse conservative philosophy of the Republican Caucus with commonsense, practical innovations that bring all sides together.

This year, that involves bringing together the Governor and the General Assembly. That won’t be quick or easy, Taylor predicted.

“We won’t deal with his budget,” Taylor said. “We’ll write our own budget. He’ll veto it. Then we’ll see what happens.”

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