CENTRE COUNTY — Local lawmakers joined business leaders for a fireside chat at the Chamber of Business and Industry Centre County’s Legislative Breakfast on Thursday, March 20, discussing state and federal policies that impact the region. The event was part of CBICC’s Voice of Business series.
CBICC president and CEO Greg Scott sat with U.S. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, State Sen. Chris Dush, State Rep. Kerry Benninghoff and State Rep. Paul Takac with time for each legislator to open with their own remarks before diving into some questions presented by Scott.
Here are some of the highlights the lawmakers discussed at the Legislative Breakfast:
SCI ROCKVIEW AND QUEHANNA BOOT CAMP
Attendees received a fact sheet at breakfast going over some of the essential information surrounding the potential closure of SCI Rockview including 54 open positions at SCI Benner, the 24 home counties of SCI Rockview employees and the six local contracts at stake.
“First of all, of course, everybody’s aware about SCI Rockview, the pending closure,” Dush said in his opening remarks. “It’s not a totally done deal yet, but Rockview right now has 658 employees. They’re being offered positions at other SCIs within a 67-mile radius.”
It was recommended to close two state prisons and two community corrections centers in the state budget proposal for the 2025-26 fiscal year, which was followed by the PA Department of Corrections recommending the facility in Centre County and the Quehanna Boot Camp in Clearfield County to be the ones to close.
According to Dush, he’s requested an estimated cost per inmate at both SCI Rockview and the Quehanna Boot Camp noting “they have a hard time hiring people down there. They have to pay the employees a whole lot more.”
“There’s also the possibility because it’s [SCI Rockview] built right next to a casino, there’s actually some serious interest in acquiring that property,” the state senator continued. “So we could probably get more money out of that than we would out of anything else that we have in the inventory.”
Benninghoff also commented on the potential closure of the two facilities, noting a lack of information the legislators have had to work off.
“My frustration is more about the procedures, the policy and the lack of transparency,” he remarked.
“If the building is that decrepit and by disclaimer, I had been in there multiple times as a coroner, why not contact the local legislative delegation and say ‘hey, we’ve got some problems over here.’ This is what we have done but frankly it’s going to cost us a lot of money to keep this going.
“We felt kind of handicapped not having that knowledge. Most of us heard that something might happen to the budget, I talked to Banner Township they got notification an hour before it was made public. That’s no way to do public policy. That said, I am continuing to have different meetings with people.”
Takac has been holding listening sessions throughout the region to garner community input on the potential closure, and shared similar sentiments to Benninghoff when asked about the possibility at the breakfast.
“There’s going to be a whole series of them. I can tell you that we’ve received hundreds of calls, letters from inmates, from people in the community. It’s just been an outpouring of interest,” he explained. “What’s really interesting is that this decision was made based on some factors that are, frankly, quite hidden.”
CENTRE COUNTY GROWTH AND TOURISM
Appointed to the state’s Rural Population Revitalization Commission, a brand-new entity created by the legislature last year, growth and tourism in Centre County was an important topic for Takac.“We have these tremendous assets, and we need to figure out a way to invest in letting people know about them. Because what happens is they come here, they see it and many of them want to move here,” Takac explained. “Which is another problem. But we have to do a better job of marketing. Governor Shapiro has proposed Pennsylvania Assets Initiative to try and showcase not only to attract and retain businesses but to attract and retain visitors to our area.”
Furthermore, Takac discussed agritourism and how it could grow in Centre County and how it intersects with his position on the state’s Agriculture Committee.
“Agritourism is a huge opportunity. People want to come, they want to stay and hopefully they want to spend some money. It could be a huge economic driver. Back to the rural population question. Those can be key things that drive local economies.”
When it comes to housing issues in Centre County, Dush claimed there are a lot of things they won’t be able to take care of due to issues with the budget.
“The biggest thing that I see is starting to get the Department of Environmental Protection and regulatory agencies out of the way so that businesses can thrive here in Pennsylvania so that people who are looking to build affordable housing have the ability to come in, get it done the way it’s done in other states,” he continued. “We just need to get the government out of the way. And folks, we need our young people to have more babies.”
TRANSPORTATION
As transportation chairman, Benninghoff discussed the most on transportation initiatives that impact the county. Some of the items he discussed included progress on the I-99/I-80 high speed corridor, updates on Route 322, the airport and more.
“Well, some of you know my brother’s a magician. If I was a magician, I’d do it,” Benninghoff laughed when discussing the road projects. “Most of you would ask to get the roads fixed overnight. Nobody wants to be inconvenienced.”
While the projects are making progress, Benninghoff recognized the frustration of the pace for some residents.
Benninghoff also discussed a meeting in June with municipalities and leaders to talk about airport development opportunities.
“I’m going to do my best to insert myself on that because whether we like it or not, change continues and how we transport people and goods is going to continue,” he said. “It’s not just roads and highways, but railways and in the air.”
AGRICULTURE
One thing most Pennsylvania lawmakers can agree on is how vital agriculture is to the state. Thompson serves as the Republican leader of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture and at the breakfast he highlighted the strong prospect of passing a bipartisan farm bill.
“We built a farm bill from the outside in. We had lots of listening sessions here in Centre County. All 18 of my counties represent a third of the land mass of Pennsylvania,” he exclaimed. “It’s important. It’s food security, it’s economic security. It’s just so much that it’s good for the nation. It’s the essential, essential industry”
For Takac, ag has been something he’s passionate about since he took office, he said.
“I’m very proud of the fact that we passed the first of its kind in the nation ag innovation bill in the last term and we’re going to continue to focus on that,” he said.
Takac emphasized the economic impact of the agricultural industry, adding his commentary on the federal government’s actions with tariffs.
“It’s a tremendous economic driver. $132 billion a year in our economy. Frankly, I think it’s kind of strange that we’re talking about crippling much of our agricultural economy by these tariff wars back and forth,” he noted. “We have $53 billion in exports, $14 billion every year to Canada. Why are we talking about tariffs that are going to impact on our farmers? We need to be making sure that we’re investing in our farmers.”
FROM WASHINGTON
Thompson provided a few more updates from Washington including his support of the initiatives of “Trump 47,” education projects, budget reconciliation, tariffs and more.
Tariffs have been a hot-button topic for legislators and constituents alike with Thompson explaining “President Trump used tariffs as a tool, not an end policy. Best prediction of future performance, past performance. We saw a dramatic expansion of trade with that type of approach under what I call ‘Trump 45,’ the first time he was in office.”
“The president’s been effectively using it as a tool, looking at initially the 25% tariffs threat on Canada and Mexico, which wasn’t a trade war, it was about the drug war,” he continued.
Thompson, a senior member of the House Education and Labor Committee, also highlighted some of the education issues he’s been working on.
“I’ll continue to lead on career technical education,” he exclaimed. “The law that was implemented last day of July 2018, … was a pretty cool experience actually. What was more cool than that was visiting these programs and finding today they were underutilized for so long in the past.”
