Commitment to Working Together for

“A County Government that Works for All of Us”

• Work continuously with state and federal legislative delegations to prioritize economic development and infrastructure projects/funding and resources to Indiana County.

 

• Work in collaboration with County Directors and Elected Officials and their personnel for fair and equitable compensation while delivering quality services to Indiana County tax paying residents.

 

• Work with Municipal Leaders, Townships and Boroughs, Auditors, Tax Collectors, and School Boards to partner on major resources and infrastructure needs in order to help our Indiana County citizens and their families to be competitive and lead healthy quality lives no matter where they choose to live (rural or urban environments).

 

• Work alongside our police, fire, emergency services workers, 911 dispatch and Emergency Management Agency, along Human Services, Indiana County Community Action program homeless shelter and food bank, Veterans Affairs, non-profit agencies, various Boards and Authorities such as Hospital, Behavioral Health, Jail, Airport, Transportation and charities throughout the County to keep citizens safe, healthy, and services to some of our most vulnerable populations with disabilities, the aging and families with food insecurities.

 

Continuous Economic and Workforce Development

 “One Cannot Work Without the Other”

 

• Economic Development begins with “pad ready sites” that begins with basic infrastructure like clean drinking water and sewage in order to begin to be a basic attraction to where businesses want to locate to do business.

 

• BROADBAND, also now a basic infrastructure need in order to compete and be attractive to locate a business

 

• Continued lobbying with our state legislature to make Pennsylvania a climate where businesses want to locate. i.e., by accelerating reduction of the Corporate Net Income Tax rate and reducing regulatory burdens that drive up costs of doing business, i.e., starting with permitting processes from state agencies where businesses don’t have to wait months-to-years to start projects.

 

• Attractive Business Climate for location such as amenities, culture/things to do, quality of life such as parks and recreation, schools, low cost of living, access to major roads and transportation, low taxes and emergency services and safe to live and raise a family.

 

• The #1 reason for locating a business today is an available workforce. Qualified, ready to work whether it is to start up a business, maintain and sustain. Decisions of people of every demographic have changed about work today and need new solutions going forward.

 Fiscal Discipline:

• Plugged an unprecedented deficit of $18M in the first year in office and during a pandemic.

 

• Every year after positioned the County to not have an increase in taxes.

 

• Eliminated the County’s Per Capita Tax.

 

• Refinanced the County’s Debt from $60M walking into office to $47M current. That is more than a $13M reduction and over years will save the County millions of dollars in interest payments.

 

• Started quarterly meetings with our County Directors and Elected Officials to streamline and restructure operations, centralize and align processes where it makes sense, incorporate technologies/resources for efficiency and increase productivity without decreasing quality of services.

 

• Started budget hearings and more frequent meetings with all Department Directors and Elected Officials to monitor yearly budgets expenditures and revenues to get ahead of issues as they were happening instead of after the fact.

 

 

Ongoing Priorities and Much Work to be Done Ahead…

• BROADBAND INVESTMENT until we get everyone in the County connected. Achieving broadband across Indiana County would mean every resident would have the ability to adequately, safely and affordably access the internet, regardless of income, geographic location or circumstances. 

 

• WORKFORCE STRATEGIES to fill every vacancy and need of business and industry.

 

• MENTAL HEALTH gaps across the board in our adult, children and jails/courts systems. The lack of funding and attention to increasing mental health needs as a system have caused gaps in our society and services system. These gaps cause individuals to wind up
  in places they don’t belong and place an undue burden on those entities such as the hospital emergency room and county jails. Achieving this would mean anyone would be able to access appropriate mental health treatment and services where they are without undue burden or safety concerns of others.

 

• AMBULANCE; FIRE; POLICE AND 9-1-1/EMERGENCY SERVICES SYSTEMS including communications infrastructure - continuous education of our residents and visitors to not only have a 911 communications connection to an operator/dispatcher, but the
  services of an ambulance, a fire fighter and/or police that will respond to situations, regardless of geographic location or time of day.

 

• INVESTMENT IN INFRASTRUCUTRE WHILE PRACTICING FISCAL DISCIPLINE continued commitment to working together and investing in County priorities for future growth and economic development.