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What Difference Does it Make?
Commentary by Tony Crocamo,
Supervisor in West Hempfield Township
What
difference does it make to elect Democratic candidates to municipal
office? Citizens who vote in municipal elections want their taxes to
be low, the snow removed, potholes filled and their schools,
neighborhoods and homes to be safe. These are not Democratic nor
Republican issues. The issues that divide and define the parties
rarely occur at the local level.
So if
those issues seldom occur at the local level, what difference does it
make to elect Democratic candidates to municipal office? As a
supervisor in West Hempfield Township I know it makes a difference
because every so often, those issues that separate us do come up.
A while
back, my township was considering a donation to the local volunteer
fire & rescue department. The Republican members of the board wanted to
donate the money for purchase of the land and not for construction of
the building. Why? As a governmental agency, if we donated to the
building construction, the prevailing wage law would kick in and the
construction workers would have to be paid the equivalent of union
wages.
My fellow
supervisors, Republicans all, considered this an unnecessary expense,
a waste of money, something that would just increase the cost of the
building.
I favored
contributing to the building in order to trigger the prevailing wage
requirements, saying that the money would be going to working men and
women who are raising their families in PA and who pay PA taxes.
Besides, the Republican Party had been sounding the alarm about the
danger of undocumented workers. Undocumented workers work for much
less than union wages and tend to depress wages in the construction
industry. Naturally, those low-cost undocumented workers don’t get
hired for union wages. The prevailing wage law is one of the tools in
the toolbox to make sure good jobs that cannot be outsourced went to
American workers.
I knew
this topic was going to come up and I consulted with John Pittenger a
month or so before the meeting to ask if I should bother to have the
argument with my fellow supervisors. After all, the result of the vote
was obviously going to be 4 to 1.
“Always
have the argument, always make your point,” said John. “Your
constituents have a right to be heard.”
Without
elected Democratic officials, the more than 100,000 Democrats in
Lancaster County can’t be heard, that’s one small difference electing
Democratic officials makes in Lancaster County.
Comment on this
Commentary - Comments should be directed to Ken Ralph, Editor of
LCDC Media at his
email address. Comments
will be posted here.
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Jerry Policoff writes:
I agree with
you Supervisor Crocamo. One of the key purposes of government
should be to enhance the health and welfare of its citizens.
That means providing living wages and financial security. The
thought that some elected officials would seek loopholes to
depress the wages of their constituents is personally repulsive
to me. Good for you for standing up to them, and thank you for
bringing this to our attention. |
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Ginny
DiIllio writes:
Excellent points, Tony. We
have to remember that without our voices there would be no
democracy in Lancaster County, and we may be the only ones to
speak out against the very kinds of abuses that you listed.
Republicans are the first to give lip service to supporting
American companies and American workers, but when it comes down
to the nitty gritty, they don’t have the courage to do the right
thing. Lancaster Democrats have to be the voice of the people
even if we don’t think we will prevail this time. Thank you for
speaking out and for inspiring all of us to do the same. |
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Tony Crocamo
The opinions expressed here are those of
Mr. Crocamo alone and are not the official position of the
Lancaster
County Democratic Committee. |
