Liz’s Priorities

Access & affordability. No person should have to forgo medical treatment – or vital insurance coverage – so that they can afford to live. We must remain committed to fighting to protect and expand access to affordable, quality, and comprehensive healthcare in Pennsylvania. We must work to lower prescription drug costs, protect our seniors’ access to Medicare, defend the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and preserve the protection that stops insurance companies from denying coverage for preexisting conditions.

Reproductive freedom. Abortion is essential (sometimes life-saving) healthcare. Banning abortion outright in this commonwealth – as gubernatorial candidate Senator Doug Mastriano has proposed – will endanger women. We, as a country, already have the highest rate of maternal death of any developed country. With attacks on abortion access at both the state and federal level, we must elect leaders who will defend women’s rights to safe reproductive healthcare.

Limiting access to safe and legal abortion does not decrease the number of abortions, but it will decrease access to safe abortion care. If we as a commonwealth truly seek to reduce abortion rates, we must enact policies that support women having, and families raising, children. Pregnancy and childbirth are far more expensive here than other developed countries. We must enact policies to better support growing families: comprehensive coverage for pregnancy and post-natal care, paid parental leave, paid sick leave, affordable and accessible childcare, universal preschool, well-funded pre-K programs, and expanding WIC and food stamp to cover essentials like diapers, bottles, and over-the-counter medications for children. More from Liz on abortion.

Fair funding. Pennsylvania has historically had one of the largest disparities in education funding in the U.S. The difference in per student funding between our wealthiest and poorest schools is extreme, and our commonwealth has had one of the lowest proportions of state level education funding in the country. Currently, PA schools get around 58% of public education funding from local property taxes, 34% from the state, and just over 3% from the federal government. Only 14% of our basic education funding is distributed using the fair funding formula, meaning 58% of all students and 80% of all students of color attend a school that is not receiving its fair share and 164 of our school districts are collectively shortchanged $1.2B each year. In the 61st, both Wissahickon and North Penn School Districts receive less than their fair share of state funds.

Equitably and adequately funding our schools and providing relief to overburdened local taxpayers requires a comprehensive solution that takes into account the impact of decades of funding inequities which persist both across the commonwealth and in our local community. Our children’s education is quite literally an investment in our economic future. Properly funding our schools is not only the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do. More from Liz on education funding.

Charter school reform. Over 400 of the 500 school districts in Pennsylvania – including Wissahickon and North Penn – have adopted resolutions requesting the General Assembly reform the charter school funding system. Cyber charter schools get essentially the same amount of taxpayer funds per student as brick and mortar schools, despite costing thousands less to operate. We need charter school accountability reform, to ensure taxpayer funds are properly allocated to our schools and to protect taxpayers. Low graduation rates and high failure rates mean we need better systems to hold cyber charters accountable. The system we have now is untenable. More from Liz on charter school reform.

Gun violence. Gun deaths are now the leading cause of death for children in America. In our country, 1.7 million children live in a home with at least one loaded, unlocked firearm. Despite the dangers associated with firearms that are not properly stored, 54% of firearm owners admitted that they do not safely store all their firearms and no safe storage laws currently exist in Pennsylvania.

Mass shootings are a singularly American problem, but when ranked with other countries of similar economic growth, the U.S. “does not have a significantly higher proportion of people with mental health conditions...but does have exponentially higher rates of gun ownership and gun violence.” While mental health treatment and access are woefully underfunded, especially with respect to access to school counselors, alleging that better access to mental health treatment alone will stop gun violence is a red herring often repeated by those – including our leaders in the Judiciary Committee – who refuse to take legislative steps to curb gun violence. For the safety of our children, our families, our communities, we must do better. More from Liz on gun reform.

Opioid epidemic. Nationally, 250,000 children lose a parent to the opioid epidemic every year. Unless we improve how we handle this crisis, more families will lose loved ones to this deadly illness. As of 2019, an estimated 316,000 Pennsylvanians suffered from a drug-related substance abuse disorder. From 2012 to 2020, an estimated 33,553 people died from drug overdoses in Pennsylvania. Opioid addiction spares no subsection of our society and it affects everything from healthcare access and our economy, to the hearts and minds of thousands of families across the commonwealth. More from Liz on the opioid epidemic.

COVID-19. As a commonwealth, we have worked incredibly hard to protect our most vulnerable citizens from COVID-19, and to do so meant enormous economic and societal sacrifices. Until our youngest and most vulnerable can be vaccinated – for the sake of their health, the safety of our healthcare & front-line workers, and our economic stability – we must ensure that we are doing everything in our power to keep them safe. Masking, vaccinations, and following the advice of public health officials and infectious disease experts will be imperative to finally reaching the end of this pandemic.

Job creation. Job creation and access to fair, strong wages must become a top priority in Harrisburg. Grappling with the changing economy, workers are seeking job training to compete in the workforce. Wracked with student debt, recent graduates are looking for jobs that pay strong wages. We must make strategic investments in our workforce and focus on creating and retaining high-quality, well-paying jobs. Families need and deserve access to good, safe jobs and living wages in order to survive. While the majority party left small businesses and workers behind in the 2021 budget, I am committed to investing in our working families, supporting our unions, our worker training programs, and working to establish Pennsylvania as a leader in the national economy.

Childcare. Many parents, especially mothers, have been forced out of the labor market because of expensive or inaccessible childcare. We must work to ensure that parents who want to work and raise children are able to do so. Our economy benefits when we all participate and the majority party’s refusal to take on this issue continues to negatively impact our families and our economy. I have worked toward - and will continue to fight for - a system which truly supports children and growing families.

Tax reform. For too long, working families and small businesses have struggled while large corporations and wealthy special interests remain unburdened by increasing taxes. In last year’s budget, we failed to allocate dollars to small businesses to help them get back on their feet after the pandemic. This year, we continue to force them to cover the costs of large companies who are not paying their fair share.

In order to help promote business growth here at home and incentivize corporations to make their home in Pennsylvania, we need to make the system fairer. We have the tools to do so, but far too many leaders seem too beholden to large corporate interests to prioritize small businesses over special interests. We must work to close the loopholes and restructure our tax code to reflect a more equitable distribution of wealth in our commonwealth. More from Liz on losing corporate tax loopholes.

Infrastructure. Between limited rural broadband access, crumbling roads and bridges, and schools coping with lead and asbestos, infrastructure needs across the commonwealth are vast. These much-needed projects are a long-term investment in our economy and are capable of significantly expanding our job market.

Living wages. Thirty states have a higher minimum wage than Pennsylvania. In the past 13 years Pennsylvania’s minimum wage has not increased. Over the past decade, while the cost of living has increased significantly, the purchasing power of our minimum wage has dropped by nearly 17%. Increasing the minimum wage to $12 an hour would directly benefit more than 13% of Pennsylvania’s workforce. A higher minimum wage stimulates the local economy and reduces reliance on social safety nets. More from Liz on minimum wage.

Equal pay. Women are still fighting to receive equal pay for equal work in Pennsylvania. Raising the minimum wage helps close the pay gap, as women, and people of color, will gain significantly stronger financial stability with increased minimum wage. Six in ten workers who would get a pay boost are women, representing nearly 24% of all women in our commonwealth.

LGBTQIA+ rights. All people deserve to feel safe and secure within their community. It has been 65 years since our law protecting people from discrimination has been updated – and discrimination by sexual orientation is still not included. We must finally pass the PA Fairness Act to protect all Pennsylvanians regardless of age, ancestry, color, disability, gender identity and expression, national origin, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.

Ninety-four percent of LGBTQ+ children feel that the current political debates are negatively impacting their mental health, and for a population of children who have high rates of suicidality (86%) and a high suicide attempt rate (56%), trans children are at particular risk. We must push back against all efforts to marginalize our LGBTQ+ friends, family, and neighbors, and actively work to protect our most vulnerable children.

Voting rights. Those dedicated to good governance should never seek to limit voting access. Every legally allowed voter should be able and allowed to vote. We constantly see attempts in our legislature to disenfranchise voters. We must always question any attempts to limit voters' voices. Gerrymandering, voter-roll purging, re-registration requirements, and barriers to voting all serve to disenfranchise voters. The right to vote is the keystone of our democracy, and it must be protected. We must ensure every vote in the commonwealth is counted and that every legal voter in our commonwealth has equal access to the ballot box. More from Liz on voting rights.

Criminal justice reform. Our criminal justice system should protect the innocent, keep our communities safe and make rehabilitation the goal so people who have made mistakes and served their time can return to the workforce. We need to invest in appropriate, cost-effective strategies for decreasing recidivism, reform the cash bail system to, end discriminatory sentencing practices, and modernize our criminal justice system with a commitment to restorative justice.

Disability rights. People with disabilities constitute the largest minority group in the nation. Many live with significant obstacles to mobility, cognition, hearing, vision, independent living, and self-care. Roadblocks to jobs, education, social opportunities, and housing for persons with disabilities persist. There is a significant relationship between disability and poverty. We must adequately fund the public resources necessary to support individuals who live with a disability.

Every year, we are breaking records for rising heat and extreme weather – affecting our farms and our communities facing the costs of flooding, droughts, and violent storms. We must recognize that climate change is real and focus on the data-driven legislative action we can take to curb its effects with urgency. We must invest in cleaner renewable energy (and the high-paying jobs that come with it), stand up against the special interests who would abuse our resources for profit, properly fund our Department of Environmental Protection, and refocus on preserving our public lands. Pennsylvania’s Constitution guarantees the protection of our public natural resources for us and for generations to come, yet our commonwealth is the 5th largest carbon polluter in the country and certain lawmakers seek to give more power to the oil and gas industries. We must take action to live up to the promises of our constitution and build a healthier future for our children. More from Liz on clean energy.

We must do more to push back against Harrisburg's long-standing culture of corruption and ensure the people of our commonwealth are our legislators’ top priority. Far too often, political expediency trumps difficult political decisions that could improve our lives and the lives of our loved ones. We have all witnessed the consequences of electing politicians who focus solely on preserving their jobs and protecting special interests, while allowing their constituents’ needs to go unmet. Pennsylvania’s need for campaign finance reform and independent redistricting are more apparent than ever. Public officials should hold no more than one government job. State legislators should not continue to take advantage of long-standing perks like unnecessary per diems. We need better rules to ensure our government is working well for us.