Latest / Meet the Candidate - Pittsburgh & Western Pennsylvania / Mike Crossey for Pennsylvania House District 46 (D)

Transcript

Mike Crossey for Pennsylvania House District 46 (D) · Meet the Candidate - Pittsburgh & Western Pennsylvania

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And welcome in. This is Meet the Candidate, designed to
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  Speaker 1: give you an opportunity to hear directly from the people
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: asking for your vote. No endorsements, no debate, just a
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  Speaker 1: conversation about the candidate, the issues, and where they stand,
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  Speaker 1: so you can make up your own mind. Today, we're
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  Speaker 1: talking with Mike Crossy, the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania's 46th
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  Speaker 1: House District. Mike is challenging the incumbent state representative, for
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  Speaker 1: his seat in Harrisburg. Mike, thank you, and welcome to
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Meet the Candidate.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
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  Speaker 1: So tell us a little bit about your background.
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  Speaker 2: I started off as a school teacher. I taught school
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  Speaker 2: for 34 years, mostly students that had some form of disability.
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  Speaker 2: It might have been a learning disability. It might have
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: been social-emotional problems. It might have been behavior problems. But
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  Speaker 2: that was the bulk of my career. I did teach
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  Speaker 2: government and economics for a little bit, but... The bulk
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  Speaker 2: of my career was with teaching students who just needed
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  Speaker 2: a little bit of extra support to survive the system.
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  Speaker 2: Sometimes we even created a program for students who had
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  Speaker 2: trouble being in school. We created an after-school program for
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  Speaker 2: those students. Very interesting approach. The school district was excellent
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  Speaker 2: to work with. So I taught school for 34 years,
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  Speaker 2: and then I was lucky. I got elected to be
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  Speaker 2: the vice president and then president of the Pennsylvania State
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  Speaker 2: Education Association. So I went to Harrisburg, and I worked
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  Speaker 2: for eight years. It was a position that had term limits,
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  Speaker 2: so I knew I was only in for eight years.
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  Speaker 2: And term limits is something I believe in. But at
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  Speaker 2: the same time, it was a fantastic job. I drove
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  Speaker 2: around the state, and I got to speak to parent groups.
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  Speaker 2: I got to speak to legislators, school boards, union leaders.
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  Speaker 2: And I spent a lot of time in the legislature.
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  Speaker 2: Not as a legislator, but I spent time in the
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  Speaker 2: legislature working trying to help write legislation that just made
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  Speaker 2: sense for school districts, lobbying for more money for schools,
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  Speaker 2: especially special ed and vocational programs. So I spent a
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  Speaker 2: lot of time doing that. When those eight years were over, again,
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  Speaker 2: it was wonderful. I enjoyed that process. When I left there,
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  Speaker 2: I went into the financial world. I did insurance, a
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  Speaker 2: lot of retirement planning, financial planning with families. Did that
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  Speaker 2: up until a couple of years ago. Currently, I serve
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  Speaker 2: part-time as a business broker, very part-time now with this
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  Speaker 2: campaign because I'm pretty much campaigning full-time right now. But
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  Speaker 2: a business broker, I help people buy or sell their businesses.
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  Speaker 1: So let me ask you, how does your resume make
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  Speaker 1: you a better candidate?
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  Speaker 2: I think it does very much because the same approach
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  Speaker 2: I took to teaching was that you analyze what was
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  Speaker 2: troubling you let's say, each child, and you worked with
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  Speaker 2: them to help them be better. So I always say
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  Speaker 2: it's not about giving a handout. It's about giving a
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  Speaker 2: hand up. You know, I didn't give my students answers,
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  Speaker 2: but I taught them how to find the answers. And
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  Speaker 2: that's a lot of what I do. I do that now.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I work with two large nonprofits. I'm an
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  Speaker 2: officer in the Lions Clubs. I was a state officer.
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  Speaker 2: Now I'm just a local Local member, we raise money
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  Speaker 2: every year for childhood cancer and childhood diabetes. I'm state
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  Speaker 2: president of the Pennsylvania Alliance for Retired Americans. And I
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  Speaker 2: drive around the state now teaching people about Social Security,
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  Speaker 2: teaching people how to keep Social Security, especially with this
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  Speaker 2: administration and all their cutbacks. So we do that with this.
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  Speaker 2: We protect voting rights. I've been involved in four different
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  Speaker 2: lawsuits to protect voting rights here in Pennsylvania. I'm currently
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  Speaker 2: involved in a lawsuit with the Department of Justice because
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  Speaker 2: of their overreach trying to get personal data on every
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  Speaker 2: voter here in Pennsylvania. I'm one of the ones that
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  Speaker 2: has an intervening lawsuit against the Department of Justice to
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  Speaker 2: stop that. We want to make sure that our voting rights,
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  Speaker 2: our privacies are protected. We also have a program that
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  Speaker 2: we've developed that we call Stop the Scam. The number
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  Speaker 2: one crime against most seniors is financial crime. Pennsylvania, over
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  Speaker 2: $ 400 million has been taken by scammers right here in Pennsylvania.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, I didn't realize that.
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  Speaker 2: And it's a major crime. And it is legislation that
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  Speaker 2: I will write when I get in to protect seniors
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  Speaker 2: from those financial scams and turn that money back over
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  Speaker 2: into senior programs to protect and promote seniors.
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  Speaker 1: You've called affordability one of the biggest issues facing Pennsylvania families.
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  Speaker 1: What can Harrisburg realistically do to bring down the cost
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  Speaker 1: of living?
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  Speaker 2: I think we can do several things. First of all,
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  Speaker 2: we need to control some of these big corporations. I've
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  Speaker 2: just recently read that utility companies have increased their rates
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  Speaker 2: 20% just to prepare for the data center issue. Well,
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  Speaker 2: it's not the cost that they've already had. They're just
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  Speaker 2: jacking up prices in case they need the extra money.
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  Speaker 2: That's wrong. You know, we need to rein in those
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  Speaker 2: utility companies, make sure that the money they're spending and
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  Speaker 2: taking out of each one of our paychecks, but in
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  Speaker 2: my case, my checkbook, it's an automatic payment. We need
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  Speaker 2: to make sure that those payments are legit and used
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  Speaker 2: for what they're actually spending, and they don't have a
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  Speaker 2: free rein to just take money out of everybody's checkbook.
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  Speaker 1: You spent a long time as a public school teacher
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  Speaker 1: and later president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. What
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  Speaker 1: do you think Harrisburg gets right and wrong when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to public education?
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  Speaker 2: One of the things that Harrisburg doesn't get right, though
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  Speaker 2: Josh Shapiro is doing a really good job of trying
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  Speaker 2: to solve this problem, and it's a problem that affects
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  Speaker 2: the affordability of each one of us that owns a
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  Speaker 2: home or even rents. One of the problems we've had
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  Speaker 2: is our Pennsylvania public education funding system has actually been
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  Speaker 2: ruled unconstitutional. Because we do not contribute enough money to
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  Speaker 2: our local school districts from the state level. Governor Shapiro
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  Speaker 2: is working on that problem. But at the same time,
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  Speaker 2: in most states in the country, the average state funding
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  Speaker 2: per school district runs close to 50%. Here in Pennsylvania,
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  Speaker 2: it's 37%. That amount of money that the state is
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  Speaker 2: not paying, it's shifted down to local taxpayers through property taxes.
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  Speaker 2: The number one thing I hear on the phone or
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  Speaker 2: when I'm talking to people is my property taxes are
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  Speaker 2: too high.
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  Speaker 1: They're right. It is.
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  Speaker 2: And it's that high because the state is not paying
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  Speaker 2: its fair share. Politicians have this really good thing. They say,
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  Speaker 2: we cut taxes or we didn't raise taxes. They didn't
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  Speaker 2: raise taxes themselves, but they forced the locals to raise taxes.
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  Speaker 2: And that's a shift down to the burden that we
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  Speaker 2: need to take back to the state level and One
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  Speaker 2: of my programs and one of my ideas is statewide
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  Speaker 2: here in Pennsylvania, we have charter and cyber charter schools.
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  Speaker 2: They traditionally, there's a few good ones. I'll give them that.
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  Speaker 2: There's a few good ones. But the waste and fraud
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  Speaker 2: in charter and especially cyber charter schools is outrageous. Pennsylvania
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  Speaker 2: Policy Center says that fraud amounts up to $ 1. 4 billion
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  Speaker 2: a year. Here in the district I'm running in, we
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  Speaker 2: have four major school districts. We've got Cannonsburg, South Fayette,
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  Speaker 2: Fort Cherry, and Churchers-Houston. Those school districts alone pay over
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  Speaker 2: $ 5 million every single year of our property taxes into
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  Speaker 2: cyber and charter schools. If we make the charter schools,
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  Speaker 2: cyber and regular charter schools, just play by the same rules,
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  Speaker 2: just play by the same rules that all public schools
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  Speaker 2: have to pay. For example, no advertising. Why are they
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  Speaker 2: spending money on advertising? If we just make them play
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  Speaker 2: by the same rules, we can pull back into Pennsylvania's
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  Speaker 2: tax revenue system $ 1. 4 billion. That's $ 1. 4 billion that could
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  Speaker 2: come back to our local taxpayers. If there's a program,
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  Speaker 2: let's say there's a mental health program or bullying program
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  Speaker 2: or something that a school district needs to create, We
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  Speaker 2: could use that money for that. Or, my goodness, maybe
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  Speaker 2: we could actually use that to lower property taxes. So
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  Speaker 2: there's lots of abuses out there, many of them by
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  Speaker 2: major corporations, and we need to rein that in and
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  Speaker 2: bring that back.
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  Speaker 1: You spent a big part of your life as a
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  Speaker 1: career advocating for organized labor, and you support increasing Pennsylvania's
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  Speaker 1: minimum wage. What should that minimum wage be and why?
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  Speaker 2: I think the minimum wage should be at least $ 15
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  Speaker 2: an hour, and I think it should be indexed to inflation.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe we index the same way we indexed Social Security
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  Speaker 2: goes up a little bit each year based on the
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  Speaker 2: cost of living. People today cannot, just absolutely cannot afford
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  Speaker 2: to live on less than $ 15 an hour. I think
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  Speaker 2: it's absolutely criminal. We are the Lowest state of all
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  Speaker 2: the states around us, every single state around us has
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  Speaker 2: a higher minimum wage than we do. I think it
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  Speaker 2: ought to be immediately $ 15 an hour, and I think
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  Speaker 2: we ought to index it to inflation so that it's
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  Speaker 2: just a continuous increase.
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  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania is a major energy-producing state, but families are also
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  Speaker 1: concerned about what they're paying for as far as electricity
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  Speaker 1: and utilities. What should Harrisburg be doing to keep energy affordable?
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  Speaker 2: I think a couple of things. One, we need to,
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  Speaker 2: as I mentioned, rein in the utility companies. We also
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  Speaker 2: need to make sure that what's happening in the energy
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  Speaker 2: world makes sense to Pennsylvania. We have a couple of things, like,
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  Speaker 2: for example, I'm working with a company called Union Energy.
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  Speaker 2: It's a program. created by the AFL-CIO. It involves not
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  Speaker 2: just unions, but it involves the environmental community and involves
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  Speaker 2: the faith community. We're working for, one example is we
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  Speaker 2: are working to bring money in, and the governor put,
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  Speaker 2: I think it was $ 19 million this year into the
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  Speaker 2: budget for this program. But we're working to create union
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  Speaker 2: jobs in such a way as, I'll give the first
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  Speaker 2: example I always use is Union Energy wants to go
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  Speaker 2: in and cap all these uncapped wells. Right here in
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  Speaker 2: western Pennsylvania, we have 28,000 identified wells that are leaking
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  Speaker 2: methane into the air, that are leaking toxic acids into
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  Speaker 2: our streams and into our farmlands. We need to cap
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  Speaker 2: and close those wells. We can do that. The mine
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  Speaker 2: workers have already created an apprenticeship program to train people
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  Speaker 2: to do that. I think those kind of things, I
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  Speaker 2: think the state can put more money into that program,
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  Speaker 2: but I also think we can get grants and foundations
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  Speaker 2: to kick in because it's a program that creates good-paying
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  Speaker 2: union jobs, and it's a program that protects our environment
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  Speaker 2: at the same time. I think if we do those
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  Speaker 2: kind of things and we expand out our energy sources,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we're the second largest producer of solar, not solar, of,
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  Speaker 2: you know, fossil fuels. But we need to expand into solar.
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  Speaker 2: We need to expand into wind. We need to expand
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  Speaker 2: into geothermal. Those are all programs that we could expand,
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  Speaker 2: create jobs, and help the environment at all at the
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  Speaker 2: same time. So it's a matter of, It's not us
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  Speaker 2: versus them. It's how do we work together to get
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  Speaker 2: these kind of things done. One other example in my
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  Speaker 2: program to create infrastructure climate jobs is in Pennsylvania, we've
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  Speaker 2: got something like 78,000 dams across our streams and creeks
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  Speaker 2: and rivers and stuff. Most of those dams are about
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  Speaker 2: 70-some years old. The structural engineers say they should be
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  Speaker 2: refurbished and rebuilt after about 50 years. So we need
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  Speaker 2: major work on our Pennsylvania infrastructure. I think we turn around,
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  Speaker 2: we use some of the money that we can bring in,
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  Speaker 2: and I can tell you where the money should come from.
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  Speaker 2: We should break some of that money, take those dams,
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  Speaker 2: rebuild them, refurbish them, do what we need to do.
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  Speaker 2: But the ones that are large enough, we also turn
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  Speaker 2: those into hydroelectric dams. so that we're capturing the power
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  Speaker 2: of that water and using that as another energy source
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  Speaker 2: to lower utility bills for families.
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  Speaker 1: You've been a teacher. I don't mean to rehash your resume,
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  Speaker 1: but a union leader and a commissioner, member of the
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  Speaker 1: Allegheny County Council. Is there one particular issue that made
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  Speaker 1: you run for an elected office?
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  Speaker 2: There is. It's a feeling that I have. It's more
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: of a feeling than it is an issue. It's when
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  Speaker 2: I taught school, I felt like my job was to
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  Speaker 2: make a difference in children's lives. The children that sat
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  Speaker 2: in front of me, I thought we should make a
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: difference in their lives. And I had a thing on
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  Speaker 2: my wall that said, every child every day. And my
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: mantra there was, how do I do something every single
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  Speaker 2: day so that every child that I work with goes
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  Speaker 2: home a little bit better? Either they learned something new
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  Speaker 2: or they felt a little better about themselves or something
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  Speaker 2: like that. When I became my local union president, my
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  Speaker 2: job was, I believed, in that role to make a
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  Speaker 2: difference in those families' lives. Whether it was to make
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  Speaker 2: their job a little bit more safe, whether it was
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  Speaker 2: to make sure they had adequate health care, make sure
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  Speaker 2: they had adequate pay. And so it was how to
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  Speaker 2: make a difference. When I went to work in Harrisburg
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  Speaker 2: for those eight years, my job was to work with
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  Speaker 2: the legislature and travel around the state and give talks
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  Speaker 2: about how do we make public education better for everybody?
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  Speaker 2: How do we make a difference for everybody? And when
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  Speaker 2: I looked at what's going on in Harrisburg and, my gosh, Washington, D.C.
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  Speaker 2: right now, it's a disaster. It's nasty. people would rather
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: call each other names than solve a problem. And I
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: think we need to get away from that. We need
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: to go back to just plain common sense and speaking
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: with each other. And if somebody disagrees with you, don't
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: call them a name. Ask them, explain that position to
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  Speaker 2: me and come to a solution that works for everybody.
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  Speaker 2: I'm just sick and tired of the nastiness of I
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: think that with my background, with my skill set, with
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: working with children and students for all those years, and
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  Speaker 2: now working as president of the Pennsylvania Alliance for Retired
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: Americans and working with a lot of seniors nowadays, I
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: think I have the ability to build those relationships that
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: when possible, we work across party lines. I haven't called
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: my opponent in this race one nasty thing, and I
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: don't intend to. But I think we can work together
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  Speaker 2: to build a better Pennsylvania.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Well, is there one particular issue that you think that
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Republicans and Democrats can come together and solve some issues?
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  Speaker 2: I think the affordability issue is a really big one.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: I think that, you know, we need to put it
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: on the table. You know, we need to make sure that,
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: and I think one particular issue is I think we
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: should pass term limits in the state legislature. We should
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: reduce the size of the legislature. I think, and there's
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: a way to do that. I mean, right now, I
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: understand the reality. Nobody's going to vote themselves out of
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: a job. But I think, you know, some people laugh
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: when I kind of say that, but I think if
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: we put a bill on the floor and put a
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: discharge position in so that leadership couldn't block it, there's
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  Speaker 2: enough people in the legislature that would say, let's say
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: you write the bill, say, starting in 2030, right? legislators,
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: senators can't serve more than two terms. A lot of
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: the people in leadership right now will have retired by then, think, ah,
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: this doesn't affect me. Let's do something that's common sense.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: How can we write a bill that will get passed?
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  Speaker 2: And I think we can do those kind of things.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Mike, you get the last word. What do you want
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: voters in the 46th district to know about you or
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: about your philosophy before we wrap up?
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: I think what I want people to know for me is, one,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know all the answers. I've written lots of things.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: I've probably written 15 to 20 bills already that I
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: will introduce if somebody else doesn't. But I think I
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: want people to know that I will always, one, be accessible.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: My cell phone number is on everything I send out.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: My email is on everything that I send out. One,
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: I will be always accessible to them. Two, My job
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: is to make their life better. That's what I hope
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: to do. So I will always listen. I will always
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: try my best to work with people to do what's
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: right for Pennsylvania and the people that I represent.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Mike, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much and
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: good luck.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you.