In local visit, Onorato backs drilling tax, strong DEP

By Bill O'Boyle boboyle@timesleader.comStaff Writer

WILKES-BARRE – Of the 100 or so people who were in the room Wednesday, Dan Onorato was certain to have at least two votes – Bill Ziegler, Onorato’s father-in-law, and Dr. William Ziegler, the candidate’s brother-in-law.

Onorato, 49, the Democratic candidate for governor, addressed the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business & Industry at its “Meet the Candidate” luncheon at the Westmoreland Club.

“I think he’s terrific,” Ziegler said of his son-in-law. Onorato is married to the former Shelly Ziegler of Fairview Township. “He’s knowledgeable and he deals in facts, not promises. He’s done the job.”

Unlike Corbett, Onorato said, he favors enacting a severance tax on Marcellus Shale drilling. He would use the revenue to fully fund the state and restore all cuts made in the department.

“Two years ago, nobody was talking about Marcellus Shale, and now the industry presents us with our biggest potential for jobs,” he said. “But there are a lot of risks and we must be sure everything is done right. We can’t have drilling in every county in the state without a fully funded DEP.”

Onorato said Penn State recently released a study that predicted Marcellus Shale will produce more than 80,000 new jobs in the state.

“And we want Pennsylvanians hired for those jobs,” he said. “We don’t want to see a lot of license plates from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. How do we assure that the jobs come here? We control the permits for the drilling – that gives us leverage.”

Onorato said he will find a way to ensure roads and bridges are repaired and maintained. He said the first step is to start operating with what we have in revenue.

He also favors consolidation of municipal services, having dealt with the problem in Allegheny County. He said when he became county executive eight years ago there were 119 chiefs of police. He said municipalities began consolidating police forces.

“Consolidation is a must,” Onorato said. “I know our state police are being used to cover for municipalities. … The state police can’t become the municipal police department of Pennsylvania.”

Onorato said the state is facing a budget crisis and the next governor needs to understand the problem and know how to make the state live within its means.

“I am the only candidate who has experience balancing budgets without raising property taxes and who has made the tough decisions to cut costs,” Onorato said. “Tom Corbett has asked for more money from the taxpayers every year.”

Onorato said he’s the candidate who has a record of fiscal discipline. He said while balancing the budget for the state’s second-largest county for six years in a row, he has never increased property taxes.

Instead, he said, he has made government live within its means. Under Onorato, the county’s General Fund budget has gone up an average of just 1.7 percent per year – less than the rate of inflation. His office’s budget has not increased at all since 2004.

He said he cut the number of county row offices from 10 to four, made other cuts that saved taxpayers $31 million per year, and he cut the number of take-home cars in county agencies under his control by 10 percent.

A life-long Pennsylvanian, Onorato was raised in Pittsburgh’s North Side. He graduated college from Penn State and received his law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.