Kanjo: Public angry with government

SCRANTON – U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski warned of a grim future for the nation unless elected officials earn the trust of their constituents by dealing with the issues of immigration, the widening gap between rich and poor and the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges.

Speaking at an economic summit at the University of Scranton on Tuesday sponsored by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, Kanjorski said the problems are not unsolvable and pointed to the revitalization of Scranton, a city once on the “precipice of failure.”

The Nanticoke Democrat, his party’s second-most senior member on the House of Representatives financial services committee, said he experienced firsthand the growing anger of the public during two town meetings in Dunmore and Throop, Lackawanna County, during the past few weeks. He described the municipalities as working class, Democratic communities and pressing issues are pensions, the war in Iraq, health care and distrust of the legislators and president.

“I’m in fear for the survival of the republic,” he said. “People want to get their deer rifles out and go to the barricades.”

The legislators can prevent downfall by devising a fair revenue system that covers the legitimate expenses of the government. “If we don’t do it, we’ll never get control of our expenses,” he said.

The collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis is the most recent example of the need to invest in the country’s infrastructure. Legislators passed a bill last week providing $250 million for the reconstruction of the bridge over the Mississippi River, but the funding initially started at $100 million and ballooned higher with the state’s request for emergency aid.

“They discovered they were going to get all the money from the federal government and they were taking all they could get,” he said. In essence they took the opportunity “to screw us,” he said of the funding grab.

He criticized the “oligarchy” of Mexico for creating conditions to force its people to cross the border into the United States for a better life and also spread the blame to businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

“We’ve created economic servitude in the United States,” Kanjorski said. “We don’t call them slaves any more but that’s what they are to us.”

A self-described “strong border person,” the congressman said closing the border would “have a hell of a jolt” on the nation’s economy because it would eliminate the labor source for low-paying and menial jobs taken by the illegal immigrants.

As dire as the problems are, they can be solved through programs provided by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, one of 12 wholesale banks nationwide that provide low-cost funding to 8,100 members for housing and credit needs in their communities. They also can be solved through the efforts of economic development agencies and through partnerships between the agencies, private developers, lenders and local, state and federal governments, Kanjorski said. Such efforts have given Scranton the “beginning look of prosperity,” he said.

Similar efforts are under way in Wilkes-Barre and one of them is the rehabilitation of Coal Street Park into a regional sports and medical complex, said Brian Hudson Sr., executive director of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. Hudson was a member of a panel discussion at the summit of challenges and plans for Northeastern Pennsylvania.

The project still under consideration would be undertaken by the city of Wilkes-Barre and cost between $14 million and $15 million. The agency would provide bridge funding for the project through its $60 million New Market Tax Credit program. The statewide program designates 60 percent of the funds for major urban areas and the remainder between smaller urban and rural areas. It provides funding for business expansion projects, mixed-use developments, affordable housing and community facilities.

Jerry Lynott, a Times Leader business writer, can be contacted at 570-829-7237.

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